Help Looking for suggestions on a physical-feeling rope extension

[trentthebaker]

Hi!

The approach outlined in that thread is the correct one. Stress forces applied on the rope (such as pulling the rope) create strain (deformation) on the rope, so by measuring strain you're effectively measuring the pulling force acting on the entire rope (modulo material properties such as compliance, that modify the rope's stress/strain curve) which is exactly what you want to do.

For things like fishing rods for example, the thing most people overlook is that the mass of lure weight is *much* larger than the mass of the fishing line, so it can pull and reel it out effortlessly when casting the rod. If you keep the rope's default mass, the rope will be many times heavier than the typical lure weight so it will feel like fishing with a chain.

kind regards,

Hello, thank you for the reply!

The edge case that I've seen for this approach is that if the middle of the rope gets jostled by a rigidbody, then that localized deformation contributes to an error in the overall length, which I have to assume is a force on the end of the rope, even if the rope is relaxed. Right now I'm experimenting with measuring just the distance between the first and second particles on the rope, measuring expected vs. actual, and placing the cursor slightly behind it, and it's looking a little more promising. The math to figure out exactly how much line should be let out to compensate seems a bit complex, but not impossible. I'll keep trying!

Thanks,
Trent