What is a 'Root Node'

[Wing Nut]

I think what's confusing me is this:

First, how do you do the process of creating a dummy part?

and

What is the difference between have a plane (or triangle) as a dummy part and having the actual fuselage as one?  No matter how many polys they have, or how big they are (Horton Hears a Polygon?) a part is just a part...

Kevin

[Fr. Bill]

[quote]So I actually name the part 'Dummy' then?

[Felix/FFDS]

A dummy part is merely an anchor, like Fr. Bill says.

Think of it as the tab divider in a school kid's binder - you don't want a "regular"  page to be the divider between subjects.

[Wing Nut]

Is this what we're talking about?  It's not the concept that's throwing me here, it's the methodology...

[Fr. Bill]

Yep! That's the "Dummy" object...

...however (I can hear you groaning!), I tend to avoid using them for the most part because...

...in an FS9 compiled model, animations are stripped out of the export stream if any have been applied to a true "Dummy" object.

Rather than run the risk of such occurring, it is my practice to use only a pseudo-dummy object that I create myself.

That pseudo-dummy object being a single, tiny, square polygon who's face is downward, so it won't ever be seen.

[Wing Nut]

So what makes that more suitable to be a dummy than the fuselage?  :-/

[Fr. Bill]

[quote]So what makes that more suitable to be a dummy than the fuselage?

[Wing Nut]

I think...   8-)

You know, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy...

[Fr. Bill]

[color=#000000]Remember that I used the emphatic word "must" regarding the x,y,z origin of the root node's axis...

There are some who might quibble and say that this "ain't true 'cause I don't do that and I see the a/c in the sim..."

However, those who might say that don't understand that the sim assumes that the model's origin point in 3d space is 0,0,0 and the entire flight design envelope (FDE) is predicated on this being true.

All points in the FDE (flight controls, lights, et cetera) are relative to the relationship of the model's origin (centerpoint) with the sim's world space.