The Javadoc for Spatial.setCullHint() says
“You must set this AFTER attaching to a parent or it will be reset with the parent’s cullMode value.”
Is this true? I can certainly see how the effective culling status of a Spatial getCullHint() might be affected by reparenting, but I’d be very surprised if the local culling status getLocalCullHint() were affected.
That’s just wrong actually.
Attaching to a parent has an effect on the child cull mode only if the value is inherited.
otherwise the child cull value is taken into account.
getLocalCullHint retuns the cullhint set on the child spatial
getCullHint returns the computed cullhint that is actually used for rendering.
This needs some cleanup. Thanks for the proof reading 
Maybe it’s that setting it after attaching it to the parent makes sure that the cull hint cascades up? I’m just guessing as I’ve never looked into how CullHint.Never is handled. This could be related to some sky culling issues from another thread.
The key question is whether the order of operations matters. In other words, is
child.setCullHint(foo);
parent.attachChild(child);
equivalent to
parent.attachChild(child);
child.setCullHint(foo);
The documentation implies that these are not equivalent. My understanding of the design – and my testing experience so far – suggests that they are equivalent.
@sgold said: The key question is whether the order of operations matters. In other words, ischild.setCullHint(foo);
parent.attachChild(child);equivalent to
parent.attachChild(child);
child.setCullHint(foo);The documentation implies that these are not equivalent. My understanding of the design – and my testing experience so far – suggests that they are equivalent.
Though if they are different it could explain why setting cull hint to never in SkyFactory was not working for you… only when you set it after.
I’ve created a patch for the JavaDoc which I hope will clear up any confusion:
How do I get this applied to the SVN repository?
It has been applied.
https://code.google.com/p/jmonkeyengine/source/detail?r=10824
Thank you @Momoko_Fan.