Idea: add 'ropes'

[D00Med]

It would be useful if textured ropes/cables/cords could be created connecting 'position A' to 'position B' (or perhaps 'object A' to 'object B'), similar to how they do in a certain other game. The effect would stay in place if either object moved, for example: a leash between a mob and a player.

[tobyplowy]

This is a nice feature for ropes and for a fishing line :)

Also @Wuzzy2 will need this for his subgame

[C1ffisme]

Would this be displayed in the world, on the player's GUI, or both? (Actually, now that I think about it, displaying from two locations in the world would probably save time.)

Also, I feel like pointing out that this could make a Minetest version of Immersive Engineering a reality.

(The Curse page doesn't have any screenshots, You might have to look somewhere else to find those.)

[Desour]

(Laser beams would also need this.)

[raymoo]

Related? #3693

[raymoo]

Also I think Immersive Engineering should already be possible, since (as far as I can tell) the cables don't move around. You could draw a rope as an entity and rotate it so that its endpoints are at the cable attachments.

[C1ffisme]

@raymoo You might have to figure out how to draw the rope as an entity in the first place, though. Especially with different lengths, which means less or more bend in the cable.

[raymoo]

The screenshots I've seen of IE suggest that they ignore that and just scale the cables so that the ends are in the right place. This does have the side effect of causing more rope = less bend, but this doesn't require a specific feature and might be unrealistic for linger lengths. Anyway making such accurate ropes isn't necessary to create a mod that largely feels like IE. Bendy ropes is not that important for the mod, and I wouldn't consider it a deal breaker if I was writing an IE-like.

More important is being able to make multi-node machines, which I feel is possible to do already in modspace.

[bendeutsch]

(Laser beams would also need this.)

And bolts of lightning. Just add a "jaggedy" draw type !-)

[nerzhul]

i think it's more a minetest_game issue than minetest no, @paramat ?

[rubenwardy]

No, this is an engine issue. It's about the ability to draw cables without relying on hacks

[tobyplowy]

@rubenwardy correct

[raymoo]

There's also no hack that will constrain a rope to be drawn between two entities if the entities move, on the client side (though there may be soon with CSM)

[D00Med]

Using an entity isn't particularly good, because they can be cleared and have a lot of un-necessary properties.

[nerzhul]

CSM is for modding, i don't think a rope is a client side mod, it's just a visual client side

[raymoo]

I mean that you could hack in a rope with visual prediction using client side entities

[paramat]

Yes i misunderstood at first, this is for dynamic ropes strung between moving objects, like a player having an animal on a leash.

[D00Med]

Yes, I will try to make it more clear

[tobyplowy]

is this going to be added?
its needed for farlands

[LunaSquee]

I would also really love this feature

[Ferk]

It's not very clear how this would work, though.
Is it really just a visual effect? What happens when the 2 objects get further apart?

Would both objects be forced to stay within distance?

• If they don't... does the rope simply expand infinitely or after a threshold it would just disappear removing the effect as if it was broken?
• If they do.. if one of them remains still, would it block the other one from moving or would it be dragged over? can any of them drag the other or is it asymmetrical?

This might be more complex than it seems.

[D00Med]

I think there's probably a way to get rope tension working. This is my suggestion:
When ropes are first placed, they have a little slack, so that the objects they are attached to can move a bit, but when the rope pulls perfectly straight, the rope no longer extends and whatever object it is attached to can no longer move away. Maybe then it's movement could be changed so that it moves around in a circle until something else changes it's velocity or acceleration.

I think attaching the ropes would be quite complex too.
There would have to be a way to store the locations the end points were attached too, but also entities or wielded items if they were attached too.

[paramat]

1 year bump for core dev opinons.

[Ezhh]

I'd love to see this added.

[rubenwardy]

Duplicate of #10593 (which has a bounty)