We want to experiment with concrete gameplay mechanics to better understand how ropes can be used in VR. As a result, we’re now working on a grappling hook prototype.

Our main goal is to see how ropes will interact and wrap around a beam. We don’t have direct interaction with the rope yet, so we’re currently using a cube as a stop-gap. (↓)

There’s no collision between the ropes right now, so they can phase through each other. The rope thickness also clips through the ground due to thin colliders. In the future, we will ensure that ropes can able to collide with each other and add friction to the beam to prevent the rope’s erratic sliding.

Here, we incorporate hand grabbing mechanics from our previous devlog, and a hook attachment. A weird feedback loop was created from the hook and rope’s desire to move in opposing directions. (↓)

After debugging the feedback loop, we find that the rope does wrap around the beam quite nicely. (↓)

We then begin devising a rope-grapple, hook-throwing interaction. The initial idea is to have the player hold the rope using both hands. In one hand, you should be able to swing the grappling hook to build momentum, before releasing it to hook onto an object. 

To determine the interaction’s feasibility, we must test if we can throw the hook-attached end of the rope while simultaneously holding another part of the rope. We are ultimately successful, but there is some difficulty involved. (↓)

The way in which the object hangs affects the movement of the rope throw, creating a lot of drag that impacts the player’s ability to throw directly from one end of the rope. 

The stability of the ropes wrapping around the beam seems to be much higher, producing a pretty interesting effect. (↓)

We have also implemented self-collision of the rope, so that ropes won‘t phase through each other. It looks a lot more stable! The gap between the rope and the object are still points of contention though. (↓)

More to come!