🧩 Parent & Child Hierarchy

The hierarchy system allows an object to act as a parent of others, so when the parent moves or rotates, all its children follow it. This is extremely useful for UI organization, modular objects, or building more complex structures such as a player with a weapon, a spaceship with lights, or an enemy with multiple components.

Besides the basic setParent() and getParent() functions, the engine provides additional utilities for hierarchical management: getAllChildren(), detachAllChildren() and destroyAllChildren().

🛠️ Using the Hierarchy from the Editor

The easiest and most visual way to create parent–child relationships is by using the Hierarchy panel inside the Editor.

📌 Creating a Child by Dragging

• In the Hierarchy panel, select the object you want to turn into a child.
• Drag it on top of the object you want to use as the parent.
• Release it. It will appear indented under the parent, indicating the hierarchy.

❌ Detaching a Child (Removing the Parent)

When an object has a parent, the Inspector shows the parent's name with a small X icon next to it.

• Click the X to detach the object from its parent.
• The object becomes a root-level item again in the Hierarchy.

📘 1. setParent(child, parent)

Assigns a child object to a parent. Automatically calculates localX, localY and localRotation to preserve its current visual position and orientation.

Syntax

setParent(child, parent)

Parameters

• child — Object or name of the object to become the child.
• parent — Object or name of the new parent. If null, the child is detached.

Example

// Make the arm a child of the body
const arm = getObjectByName("Arm");
const body = getObjectByName("Body");
setParent(arm, body);

// Detach the arm
setParent(arm, null);

📗 2. getParent(child)

Returns the parent of an object, or null if none exists.

const parent = getParent(child);

Example

function Update(o, dt) {
  const parent = getParent(o);
  if (parent) {
    console.log(o.name + " belongs to " + parent.name);
  }
}

📙 3. getAllChildren(obj, recursive)

Returns all direct children, or if recursive is true, all descendants in the hierarchy.

const all = getAllChildren("Parent", true);

📒 4. detachAllChildren(obj)

Detaches all children of an object (same as setParent(child, null) for each).

detachAllChildren("EnemyBoss");

📕 5. destroyAllChildren(obj)

Removes all children and descendants recursively.

destroyAllChildren("EnemyBoss");

📐 Rotation & Position Inheritance

When a parent rotates, all its children rotate around the parent’s center, keeping their relative angle and distance.

Useful Functions

• setRotation(obj, angle)
• getRotation(obj)
• rotateObject(obj, delta)

Example

const player = getObjectByName("Player");
const weapon = getObjectByName("Weapon");
setParent(weapon, player);
rotateObject(player, 30);