ent_boneparent, ent

ent_bonehandle(ENTITY,STRING name,var index)

ent_boneparent(ENTITY,STRING name,var index)

Finds the handle and optionally the name of a bone (ent_bonehandle, A7.81) or of the 'parent' bone to which a bone with the given index number is attached (ent_boneparent, A7.10).

Parameters:

ENTITY*	Entity pointer
name	Name of the bone (STRING* or char), either input to or output from the function, or NULL*.
index	Index number of the bone, or 0 when STRING* contains the bone name or handle.

Returns:

Handle of the bone resp. bone parent (0 if the bone has no parent).

Modifies:

name (set to the name of the bone resp. parent bone when both name and index are nonzero) .

Remarks:

Entity scene and bone names must consist of at least 3 characters.
If name and index are both given, index is used to find the bone and name is set to the name of the bone resp. of the parent bone.
The index number is the number of a bone within the skeleton , starting with 1. By calling the ent_boneparent function in a loop over the index number from 1 to ent_bones(), the structure of the whole skeleton can be determined.
A bone handle is a long variable that contains the number of the bone, starting with 1. All bone functions also accept a handle instead of a name; using handles is faster. An index number can be converted to a bone handle by casting it to long, f.i. long handle = (long)index. A bone handle can be converted to an index number by casting it to var, f.i. var index = (var)handle.

Speed:

Fast

Example (lite-C):

// return the handle of the first child bone of a bone with a given index
long ent_bonechild(ENTITY* ent,var index)
{
  var i;
  for (i=1; i<=ent_bones(ent); i++)
    if (index == ent_boneparent(ent,NULL,i))
      return (long)i;
  return 0; // no child found
}

// get the name of the parent bone when a child index is given.
STRING* parent_name = "";
ent_setboneparent(ent,parent_name,child_index); // retrieve the parant name from the child index.

// get the name of the parent bone when a child name is given.
STRING* child_name = "foot_left";
long handle = ent_setboneparent(ent,child_name,0); // return a handle to the parent bone
ent_setbonehandle(ent,parent_name,(var)handle); // retrieve the parant name from the parent handle.

ent_bonehandle(ENTITY*,STRING* name,var index)

ent_boneparent(ENTITY*,STRING* name,var index)