Blender See-Through Nodes

Contents

Introduction

Ever get frustrated when your IMVU camera gets stuck behind some 3D in-world pillar, or solid wall? Ever wish the wall could just magically disappear when your camera moved behind it, so it wouldn’t obscure your view? Well it can, through the use of See-Through Nodes.

See-Through Nodes are nodes that are Linked to the Root node of a Room or Furniture item which tells the camera not to draw any geometry Weighted to that node when the camera goes behind it.

Example Wall

For example, here is a wall, which I would like to see through, only when looking into the room.

First, create an Armature, and name its bone, “SeeThrough01”. If you want to make another See-Through node, you need to create another armature, and name its bone “SeeThrough02”. This see-through armature and the mesh, should be a child of the root node of a room or furniture project.

Note: Multiple meshes can be linked to a single see-through node, multiple nodes are usually used for different angles.

The “Z” Axis of each bone will need to face into the center of your main model. Your mesh and see-through node should look something like this.

Lastly we need to link the mesh and the See-Through Node.

Select the mesh
Shift-Click and drag it under the Armature which contains the “SeeThrough” named bone

Select the mesh again
Under the “Data” tab, create a Vertex Group named “SeeThrough01”, or “SeeThrough02” and so on for other see-through Nodes

Go into Edit Mode, and select all of the meshes vertices
Click the Assign button in the same “Data” tab
Under the “Modifier” tab, add an “Armature” Modifier
Select your Armature as the object
Select “SeeThrough01” for the Vertex Group. Both the object and vertex group will change based on which see-through node you want to use