Best way to model rope?

#1 Low polygon textured cylinder one wood think most models the texture makes it look right.

#2 Another way might be the same method used in Tribes 2 for the "ELF Gun effect" only with a rope texture instead of electric. It might work, not sure how it's done. A plus to this is the rope would bend realistically, I remember how it didn't have any jagged edges you'd expect to see using a 3d mesh. it bent smoothly, it would be awesome if someone were to program it to bend around edges and corners and stuff. You might get some neat rope effects with that

#3 Ummm... I know someone is going to die of a heart attack after hearing this, but I've never played tribes, tribes 2, or tribes vengeance. Come to think of it, I have never even seen someone play any of them. So, I am going to have to ask someone to explain to me how the effect worked.

#4 Ah, ah, ah, , helphhhhh...

I would try searching on the internet for rope tutorials and see if there is a method suited to low poly meshes. My first thought is some kind of billboard because when you look at a rope all you see is a kind of striped/twisted texture. Not sure how to construct it though. Does the rope need to change, bend? Another idea is to make it out of two polygons with rope textures in a crossed configuration. Kind of like a laser blast.

#5 Stick with a 3 or 4 sided cylinder with a simple rope texture on it.

#6 Most of the ones I've seen in commercial games are 3 sided cylinders with a texture.

#7 Ok, thanks everyone, I guess a low-poly cylinder is the way to go, as that is how the "making of Gothic 2" said to do it. I just wish there was an easy way to do it in code, maybe something that would generate a rope between 2 nodes... that would be great.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions

#8 There is a way of doing that, as demonstrated by games like half life 2. I would bet that few people who read the art forums actually know how to do that, though. I sure don't.

#9 I payed attention in Fable and it looks like it was maybe five sides with a rope texture on it. You could draw a rope in code by defining an object that stretches between two nodes, but it would need to be a new C++ object with OpenGL code. The code could dual for use as a grappling rope or something if it can bend. Again, this would be a code effort.

#10 Right. I think the best way to do this might be to actually write a python script for blender that will generate a rope between 2 nodes. That way, the rope will export with the model, and I will not have to deal with writing a c++ class for it, or any of the server/client stuff (I doubt I am experienced enough to do it anyway).
Since I am going to be using alot of rope in some of my models, I think writing the script might be worthwhile.

Thanks again everyone