What would it take for non-linear part trees?

[Captain Sierra]

So, it's a commonly known fact that Unity has a fairly picky set of part tree rules:

There must be a single root part, from which everything in the part tree stems from.

Node parts have a certain node(s) they must attach on for it to place properly.

Each part can only have one parent part.

So my question is, what would it take to break these rules?

Unity also cannot render curved, spherical terrain meshes, yet what does KSP have seventeen of? curved terrain meshes. Not being deterred by Unity's ineptitude, There came PQS, which, if I'm understanding things correctly (I remember HarvesteR talking about this in a youtube video somewhere), works around that problem.

Now, I'm no programmer and I'm also not versed in the source code of the game. So, what would it take to write a workaround for Unity's part tree system to create an all around better one?

Also, what defines a better part tree? Obviously double-back support would be one thing. What else would you like to see and how could it be done?

[vexx32]

I've no idea exactly how it could be done, but I do know that such a thing is not really an uncommon problem. As such, I'm sure there're libraries of code that Squad could find and make use of that would work around this problem for them -- if in doubt, look at what someone else did to see how you migt do it. I know that kind of mimicry happens an awful lot in programming xD

[Captain Sierra]

I've no idea exactly how it could be done, but I do know that such a thing is not really an uncommon problem. As such, I'm sure there're libraries of code that Squad could find and make use of that would work around this problem for them -- if in doubt, look at what someone else did to see how you migt do it. I know that kind of mimicry happens an awful lot in programming xD

Comes down to convergent design. By the limitations of the coding language, there can only be so many efficient ways to do something. There are considerably more ways to do it if efficient code is not your goal, but when is that the case?

And why has this not gotten more posts? It seems like the part tree is something most people would like improved.