View spatial nodes in viewport

MadMinstrel

Another simple question.

I was making a camera setup and thought to myself, gee, this would be a whole lot easier if I could see what I'm doing.

How do I view the Spatial nodes (and maybe the parenting between them) in the viewport?

They remain invisible even when set to visible, no matter what I do. Is this a bug?

TwistedTwigleg

I'm confused, Spatial nodes are not supposed to be visible, since there is nothing to render within a Spatial node.

The Position3D node draws a little gizmo that is only visible in the editor, even when not selected. Maybe that will help? I generally use Position3D nodes when I want to see the position in 3D space, but I don't need something more complicated like a MeshInstance. The only thing to note with Position3D nodes is that they will not show up while the game is running, the Position3D gizmo only renders in the Godot editor.

There are nodes that extend Spatial that have visible elements, like MeshInstance nodes and CSG nodes. The reason these nodes have a visible property is because child nodes are effected by the parent node's visiblity. For example, if you have a Spatial node with a Meshinstance node as a child, changing the visibility on the Spatial node will effect the MeshInstance child node.

Hopefully this helps!

MadMinstrel

They're not supposed to be visible in the game, but I don't see why they wouldn't be displayed in the editor where you have to manipulate them, and sometimes make complex setups with them. You'll find these transform-only objects in almost any 3d software, and never have I seen one that doesn't display some kind of clickable gizmo for them.

It sounds like the Position3D nodes are exactly what I needed, thank you :)

TwistedTwigleg

@MadMinstrel said: They're not supposed to be visible in the game, but I don't see why they wouldn't be displayed in the editor where you have to manipulate them, and sometimes make complex setups with them. You'll find these transform-only objects in almost any 3d software, and never have I seen one that doesn't display some kind of clickable gizmo for them.

There are gizmos available when a node is selected that allow for manipulation of the transform, but they have to be selected first. I think Spatial nodes have a small AABB box that can be selected in the editor, however there isn't any visual so you just have to know there the node roughly is when clicking to select it (though I don't 100% know for sure, I generally just select the node I want/need from the scene tree list in the editor)

It sounds like the Position3D nodes are exactly what I needed, thank you :)

Happy to help!