Unity Layers and Tags updated 12 June 2018

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

I'm going to paste this here as I've not seen this info in one place, having grabbed it from various tutorials and posts.

These are just the KSP specific tags , are there any more we should know about??

Unity Layers

Layer 1 TransparentFX

Layer 2 Ignore Raycast

Layer 4 Water

Layer 5 UI

Layer 8 PartsList_Icons

Layer 9 Atmosphere

Layer 10 Scaled Scenery       Notes on lights. If the  lights of your craft  illuminate a planet surface  while you are orbiting. They need to be set to ignore this layer (see this post) thanks to @Nils277 for the discovery (it's bugged a particular project of mine forever)

Layer 11 UI_Culled     UIDialog

Layer 12 UI_Main       UIVectors

Layer 13 UI_Mask

Layer 14 Screens

Layer 15 Local SceneryLayer 16 Kerbals ( used for anything you want visible in IVA views)

 

Layer 17 Editor_UI   EVA

Layer 18 SkySphere

Layer 19 Disconnected Parts        PhysicalObjects

Layer 20 Internal Space ( used to prevent IVA camera views being blocked by props or hull parts also used when creating internal props)

Layer 21 Part Triggers ( used for hatches and ladders and in conjunction with box colliders " is Trigger " check box)

Layer 22 KerbalInstructors

Layer 23  AeroFXIgnore  (prevents parts from showing aero effects)

Layer 24 MapFX

Layer 25 EzGui_UI    UIAdditional

Layer 26 WheelCollidersIgnore ( used to prevent weird interactions between wheel colliders and node colliders, wheel colliders pass through any collider set to this layer, be warned it also makes things invisible )

 

Layer 27 wheelColliders ( the layer for wheel colliders )

 Layer 28 TerrainColliders

Layer 29: DragRender

Layer 30: SurfaceFX

Layer 31: Vectors

 

TAGS

Ladder ( used for ladders )

Airlock ( used for hatches/doors )

Icon_Hidden ( used to hide item from editor view, engine shrouds use this )

Icon_Only    ( is useful if you want objects to only appear inside of the thumbnail, like decorative protective intake covers and remove-before-flight tags. Also handy for indicating different sized but similar looking parts ( thanks Ven ) )

NoAttach (prevents surface attach to the collision mesh in Editor. so you can have a part with areas that are not surface attachable while other areas are. set in same way as previous tags)

Drag_Hidden  (Prevents things like turbo fan blades being included or added to drag calculations)

 

If a layer doesn't exist in the drop down menu, then you have to add it and give it a name.

Objects are visible in game when on layers 0 (Default), 15 (Local Scenery) and 19 (Disconnected Parts), and can also be visible on the camera plane on layers 12 (UI_Main) and 13 (UI_Mask). Only layer 0 displays mach and re-entry effects, so placing an object on layer 15 will disable these effects for that object.

For more Info

New KSP internal camera info retrieved and supplied by @Shadowmage  layer-related info on KSPs various cameras (and some near/far clip data)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9y3r5vr6h85ruj7/cameraData.xlsx?dl=0

 

Updated info courtesy of @Li0n, thanks

 

EDIT 12/06/18

It came to pass that we were trying to make something happen, to do so  we wanted to  look for a specific game object or group of object , rather than reading every one.  SO as a test we created a dummy tag and a plugin to recognize if it was loaded in game.  The answer is no.  Unity Tags and layers are baked into the base game, so the list above is the list,  no adding or creating at run time.

https://answers.unity.com/questions/33597/is-it-possible-to-create-a-tag-programmatically.html

https://forum.unity.com/threads/why-am-i-getting-tag-not-defined-on-this-code.395891/

Edited June 11, 2018 by SpannerMonkey(smce)
Extra tag and layer info 120618

[blizzy78]

You could use LayerMask.LayerToName() to get the names of all layers. Of course that doesn't mean that a layer is actually used by KSP.

[CaptainKipard]

How do you move objects between layers?

[nli2work]

select the object and use the layer drop down to change. will give you popup confirming the change to just the selected object or selected object and all it's children.

All IVA props must be on Internal Space layer 20 as well.

Edited September 10, 2014 by nli2work

[CaptainKipard]

OK I should add that if a layer doesn't exist in the drop down menu, then you have to add it and give it a name.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Yes , unfortunately every time, although I tend to just add them all to the inspector right at the start of a project as I never know if i'll need another pod or wheel, saves a lot of messing around and in game misfires because something is still on default layer.

[nli2work]

layers and tags are per project. you could create a base project with the proper basic setup with layers and tages, then copy/paste/rename it each time you want a new KSP project. I don't think Unity has provisions for default startup projects like Max does.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

I don't think Unity has provisions for default startup projects like Max does.

It'd make life so much easier if it did though, somebody write something immediately!

[nli2work]

new tag found by lo-fi

NoAttach - prevents surface attach to the collision mesh in Editor. so you can have a part with areas that are not surface attachable while other areas are.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Cheers nli2work, added to op

[GagaX]

Icon Hidden tag MUST have underscore, otherwise part will not  load.

So, it's:

Icon_Hidden

[Ven]

It's an odd little tag, but 'Icon_Only' is useful if you want objects to only appear inside of the thumbnail, like decorative protective intake covers and remove-before-flight tags.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Updated Op with this new info, cheers gents

On 02/01/2016 at 3:35 AM, Ven said:

It's an odd little tag, but 'Icon_Only' is useful if you want objects to only appear inside of the thumbnail, like decorative protective intake covers and remove-before-flight tags.

 

On 01/01/2016 at 4:30 PM, GagaX said:

Icon Hidden tag MUST have underscore, otherwise part will not  load.

So, it's:

Icon_Hidden

 

[hoojiwana]

Does anyone know if the Icon_Only tag is used for generating drag cubes? Gonna ping @NathanKell because he's awesome and likely knows.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

15 minutes ago, hoojiwana said:

Does anyone know if the Icon_Only tag is used for generating drag cubes? Gonna ping @NathanKell because he's awesome and likely knows.

Thats a good question, could be rather annoying if it does, in all likelihood it would make that tag obsolete.

[NathanKell]

@hoojiwana things tagged with that are stripped before the part is compiled and therefore not used when creating drag cubes.

[NecroBones]

1 hour ago, NathanKell said:

@hoojiwana things tagged with that are stripped before the part is compiled and therefore not used when creating drag cubes.

That's awesome. Now I'm tempted to add some visual aids to make similar-looking parts more distinct in the menus. Cool.

 

[hoojiwana]

Thanks @NathanKell!

29 minutes ago, NecroBones said:

That's awesome. Now I'm tempted to add some visual aids to make similar-looking parts more distinct in the menus. Cool.

That's exactly the thing I was wondering about doing, it works okay! Not perfect but so much easier to see at a glance what something might be. Here's a quick change I made to my three heat shields that otherwise look identical:

Edited February 9, 2016 by hoojiwana

[NecroBones]

1 hour ago, hoojiwana said:

Thanks @NathanKell!

That's exactly the thing I was wondering about doing, it works okay! Not perfect but so much easier to see at a glance what something might be. Here's a quick change I made to my three heat shields that otherwise look identical:

Yeah, that's what came to mind for me in this discussion as well... some size-factor numbers etc. Very cool!

[Porkjet]

Another useful Tag is "Drag_Hidden". Anything with that will not affect the drag cubes. It's used on the fan blades of the large turbofan.

[NecroBones]

4 hours ago, Porkjet said:

Another useful Tag is "Drag_Hidden". Anything with that will not affect the drag cubes. It's used on the fan blades of the large turbofan.

Awesome! That could be really useful. Thanks,

 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Added new info to OP cheers Porkjet

[Stone Blue]

Anyone come across any new stuff to add, with KSP 1.1?

[EmbersArc]

From the 1.1.3 changelog:

Quote

• Added AeroFXIgnore layer so some parts (Gigantor e.g.) can have parts of their model ignored by AeroFX. Fixes an issue with odd Aero FX streamers.

Layer 23 is AeroFXIgnore

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

On 07/07/2016 at 8:39 PM, svendii said:

From the 1.1.3 changelog:

Layer 23 is AeroFXIgnore

Cheers added to OP