At 9/21/11 04:02 PM, Splyth wrote:
oh yeah, I remeber those. cept the ones I'm thinking of didn't implement full physics they'd sway and creak when you climbed them. For the life of me though I can't think of the game I played with them.
A rope ladder physics can be calculated with integral calculus. But if you don't know this subject you can use the double pendulum dynamics to perform what you're wanting to achieve. Basically you have a single, immobile fulcrum which holds a weight at a fixed distance. Now, imagine a pendulum on a pendulum. A bit trickier, no? Gravity will always act in the downward position, but the weight is now distributed differently. So, there are two weights; the weight of the ball on the first fulcrum, and the weight of the first fulcrum on the root fulcrum.
It is pendulums on pendulums. Subdivide your line into as many pendulums you need, and fill an array up with velocity/acceleration/physics. For pendulum physics, refer to Wikipedia. Make sure to have a heavier weight for the ball, though; that's really important!