Ideas on how to add an attached rope

[chicagobob123]

I was wondering if anyone has dealt with this? I have part of a crane that is connected with cables. I point to them with blue hand drawn arrows. They are black lines that go up and down. 

The part pointed to by the yellow arrow is the part that moves up and down. 

OK so how do you shorten and lengthen that pretend cable? Is there some sort of rubber band thing?

Or maybe a tube I can constantly change the end point ?

If I create each of the four cables with this

TraceRibbon=BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTube("TraceLine",TracePath,1.0,12,null,0,scene,true, BABYLON.Mesh.BILLBOARDMODE_ALL);

and alter the end point of the TracePath  and call 

TraceRibbon=BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTube(null,TracePath,1.0,null,null,null,null,null,null,TraceRibbon); 

is that going to hurt performance? I need to do it to about 200 vehicles. 

 

[Wingnut]

Hiya CB!  Good to see you again.

Could you use a basic textured cylinder, with its pivot point set to one end... and then use a Y-scaling to make the ropes longer/shorter?

https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#12CCCN#1

Pretty good performance on this method, I think.  Party on!

Update:  Version #2... better texture management. 

[gryff]

@chicagobob123 : agree with @Wingnut about a possible way to go

Here is my example made and animated in Blender a couple of hours ago - but by the time I get around to posting it - Wingy has beaten me to it

Anyway for posterity: The Lift

Uses the same technique - scaling the rope about the pivot point/origin which is set at the top of the rope pieces. In my case the ropes are just stretched cubes. The little white cube is the target for the arcRotate camera exported from Blender.

cheers gryff

[chicagobob123]

Thanks so much for the idea. It's great