The physics package we’re using has a built-in rope simulation which we used to develop our rope prototypes in Unity. Our goal here is to explore the use of ropes in VR for various interactions, including climbing, swinging, etc.

The first step was to place the ropes in the same scene as the VR player and allow for direct interaction. We wanted to observe how the colliders and particle attachments interact with each other straight out of the package.

In our first prototypes we attached two ropes to an endpoint, using a sphere as a placeholder. These spheres function as a stop-gap, as we have yet to explore direct interaction with rope and the VR hands. Currently, the hands and rope will not collide with each other. In this case, the spheres are linked to the rope, and the hands can grab the spheres to manipulate the ropes. (↓)

Visually, the rope does appear to respond naturally to the movement of the VR player. However, it does not interact well with hands, has large gaps, and has no end-caps to hide the inside of the rope mesh. 

We then hung the ropes with a vertical attachment, almost like a tether-ball, to see how rope interacts with simulated gravity physics. (↓)

As you can see, the rope and ball swing quite naturally, and there is an elastic property to the rope that create interesting movements. Slapping this tether-ball is fun.

We also experimented with different tensions on the rope to see how this behavior felt. We experimented with a few parameters, such as rope thickness, stretchiness, and mass. We also added an invisible collider to the VR hand to simulate a direct interaction with the rope, but this solution did not function very well. (↓)

As you can see, there is a large gap between the grab point on the rope and the hand itself. This is an obvious area for more improvement. More to come!