I was wondering if I have a node w/ 10 children, how can I disable/halt traversal certain children? Do I actually have to remove the children from the parent node? Or do should I create a switchnode that uses a bitset?
First,…you are writing in the wrong forum! There is a general-forum in troubleshooting as well…(tricky I know 
)
Are you using jME2, if yes:
To your question: I would say removing the node from the scenegraph is always the safest method. You can also
set a node to be always culled so it (ant its children) is not rendered anymore. But that have some sideeffects (e.g.
the node is still "visible" for collision-tests)you can achieve this with something like this:
node.setCullHint(CullHint.Always);
Sorry, I scrolled a little too low and posted to the wrong "general". :| Thanks.