Getting a possible parentwithout getting an error

Hi,

I want to camera pick a animated entity. I have recursed the mesh and set the pickmode on all the peices.

Problem is, i need to find a way of returning the top of the tree and returning the master parent for the picked entity. I kinda assumed (foolishly) that the getparent() command would return a zero if no parent was available but it generates a entity not found.

Anyone know of another command or (must be very fast) routine for finding the master mesh of a hireachy (without recursing every child of every single mesh in ram to see if its there?

This is what i wanted to do:

Function GetTopOfTree(child)
	parent=child
	Repeat
		par=GetParent(child)
		If par parent=par
	Until not par
	Return parent
End Function

A non-recursive way would be to store the master mesh in every child meshes entityname ...

nameentity( child , mastermesh )

Then straight away you know the master by ...

mastermesh = entityname( child )


Obviously this would be screwed if you already used the entityname for something else.

Stevie

You keep on finding the parent of the entity passed to the function...Do it like this:

Function GetTopOfTree(child)
	
	parent = child
	
	par = GetParent(child)
	While par
		parent = par
		par = GetParent(parent)
	Wend
	
	Return parent
	
End Function

When did getparent() become a command?

not sure, version1.9 i think

Fredborg, hats off 2 u! That seems to work.

silly me