When you set a bone's X scale to -1, the bone's local X axis flips to point in the opposite direction. This is actually the intended behavior - it's not a rotation, but rather a reflection of the bone's coordinate system.
Understanding what's happening:
When scale changes from positive to negative, the bone flips to point in the opposite direction. This is because you're essentially flipping the bone over its Y axis. The attachment follows this transformation, which may not give you the result you expect depending on your bone's orientation and setup.
Why your attachment appears rotated:
The 180-degree appearance happens because the bone's X axis is now pointing in the opposite direction. If your bone was originally pointing to the right (0 degrees rotation), after applying -1 X scale, its local X axis points left, making attachments appear rotated.
Possible solutions:
Check the Reflection inheritance: Make sure the bone has the Reflection inheritance enabled (it should be checked by default). When Reflection is unchecked, the negative scale will not cause the bone to flip properly, which can cause unexpected behavior.
Adjust your bone's initial rotation: Instead of trying to reset the rotation to 0 after applying negative scale, try rotating the bone 180 degrees while keeping the positive scale. This might give you the horizontal flip you're looking for without the coordinate system issues.
Use a different approach: Rather than using negative scale on individual bones, consider:
- Using different skins with pre-flipped attachments
- Adjusting the attachment's placement/rotation relative to the bone
- Restructuring your bone hierarchy to achieve the flip you need
Could you share more details about your skeleton setup? Specifically, what is the bone's parent, what rotation does the bone have, and is there anything special about the inheritance settings? This would help identify the exact cause of the issue.
