Feature to choose attachments at mouse position

[NathanSweet]

This would list all attachments under the mouse, choosing one selects it.

In very dense projects it can be hard to hit a particular attachment. The tree can always be used, but doesn't have the same spatial context as the viewport. Overlapping items in the viewport can be in different parts of the tree.

[NathanSweet]

+1 https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/30136

Translation:

“Is this an actual workflow difficulty, or just familiarity with popup behavior from other software?” — this is absolutely a very common real-world pain point we encounter when working on highly complex projects, not merely a matter of user habit.

The pain point and the limitations of the current hierarchy tree

When working with skeletons that contain large numbers of overlapping attachments, multiple outfit variations, and complex shadow layers, clicking in the viewport is often blocked by upper/lower attachments or transparent attachments. While the hierarchy tree can serve as a workaround, it has clear limitations in actual production use:

It requires me to already know the exact name of the target layer beforehand, which is often difficult to determine intuitively within complex stacked structures. The workflow is extremely cumbersome and heavily disrupts productivity.

For example, when “hair,” “facial accessories,” and “shadow” layers are blocking the “eyes,” I currently have to manually locate each obstructing layer one by one in the huge hierarchy tree and disable their “visible/selectable” checkboxes. After editing the eyes, I then have to painfully search through the hierarchy tree again to re-enable all of them.

When a character contains many costume variations and layer differences, this repeated process of hunting down layers and toggling them on/off becomes incredibly time-consuming and frustrating.

Suggestions for a solution

Popup list of all layers under the cursor

As Nate mentioned, a Photoshop-style “list everything under the cursor” selection popup would absolutely be the most direct and ideal solution to this problem if the team is willing to consider implementing it in the future.

However, considering Erika’s design philosophy of minimizing right-click menu complexity, I’d like to propose another alternative that may fit Spine’s existing philosophy better.

“Visible Pixel” shortcut selection + integration with Animation Sliders

I suggest adding a pixel-based selection modifier key (for example, holding Alt + Click) along with a corresponding selection mode toggle button.

In this mode, Spine would only recognize the topmost layer whose pixel under the cursor has an opacity greater than 0, directly ignoring and penetrating fully transparent regions.

If combined with Spine’s new Animation Sliders feature, this could create an excellent workflow synergy:

The user could simply create a helper animation that sets the opacity of obstructing elements (such as hair or foreground cloth) to 0, then blend that helper animation into the Setup Mode viewport using Animation Sliders.

At that point, because the obstructing elements become fully transparent, the user could use Alt + Click — or switch to the pixel selection mode (ignoring 0% opacity pixels, or selecting the foremost layer with the highest visible pixel opacity under the cursor) — to directly and accurately select the “eyes” underneath for editing.

After finishing the edit, the user would only need to reset the slider or delete the helper animation.

This workflow completely eliminates the need to constantly toggle layers on and off in the hierarchy tree. It avoids adding complicated UI overhead while solving complex character layer-selection issues in an elegant and highly efficient way.