Rope

A Rope emitter makes a chain of segments from the emitter Part to an end that is fixed, free or thrown. The rope sags under its own Gravity, sways in Wind, and follows its ends when they move. It can be paid out when it is made, and reeled in or dropped when it ends.

Exercise 14 makes a Rope emitter for the first time.

What it makes possible:

A power cable or a chain between two props. Pin Mode BothEnds, Mode Animate, Loop on, Slack 1.3, Wind 2, 5.
A grappling line. Pin Mode Launch, End Anchor set to the grapple point, Launch Speed 80, Slack 1.05, Death Mode Retract. The line shoots out, attaches, hangs between the two, and reels back.
A thrown line that goes slack. Pin Mode Launch, no End Anchor, Rope Length 30. The end flies out and stops when the line is paid out. The rope then sags from that point.
A whip crack. Pin Mode StartOnly, a Taper graph from 1 to 0.15, Bend Stiffness 0.2, Lifetime 0.6, and a sharp spike in a Displacement graph with Motion Target Start.
Tentacles. Pin Mode StartOnly, Gravity 0, 10, 0, Bend Stiffness 0.6, a Turbulence above 0 with Motion Target Start, Rotation Y 0, 360 with its Even dot on, Emit 6.
A rope that snaps. Death Mode Release. Both ends let go and the rope falls.
A glowing cable. A Light emitter with Emit 1 inside the Rope RenderTemplate.

At a glance


Made from	A Part or a MeshPart, with Transform as Rope
One particle is	One rope
Emit count starts at	1
Modes	Emit and Animate
Sections	Emission, Appearance, Spawn, Motion, Rope, Events, Advanced
Not present	Link, the On Hit event and the Hit Filter row. A rope collides with nothing.

An Emit count of 3 means three ropes, not three segments. The number of segments is its own row. A rope counts as one particle toward the particle counter and the Particle Cap, however many segments it has.

A rope is a temporary group of parts. It is not solid. Characters walk through it, and it pushes nothing.

Motion, Events and Advanced start collapsed.

Where a rope starts and ends

The start of a rope is the emitter Part. The rope reads the Part’s place all the time, so the start goes with the Part when it moves.

The end depends on Spawn ▸ Pin Mode: fixed to the End Anchor, free, or thrown.

Case	The rope starts
The emitter stands by itself	At the emitter Part, and follows it.
The emitter is nested in another emitter	At the parent particle, and rides it.
The emitter is fired by another emitter’s event	At the spot of the event, and stays there.
The emitter Part is removed while a rope is alive	At the last place the Part had.

Transform as Rope

Select a Part. Press ▾ beside Transform, then Transform as Rope.

Any Part or MeshPart that is not yet an emitter can be used. It may hold a SpecialMesh, Decals, Textures or a SurfaceAppearance.

Thing	After the transform
The Part	It turns fully transparent. It marks the start of the rope.
`RenderTemplate`	A hidden copy of the Part. Every segment of every rope is a duplicate of it.
A SpecialMesh, Decal, Texture or SurfaceAppearance in the Part	It is kept in the `RenderTemplate`, so every segment shows it.
A SpecialMesh, Decal or Texture on the Part itself	It is removed from the Part.
An Attachment or an emitter already transformed, inside the Part	It is kept in the `RenderTemplate`.
Any other child of the Part	It is not kept in the `RenderTemplate`.
Thickness row	It takes the smaller of the Part’s X and Y size, and at least 0.05 studs.
Color and Transparency rows	They take the Part’s colour and transparency.
Material	It stays on the `RenderTemplate`. The Material row edits it.
HUD ▸ Emit box	It reads 1.

The Part’s Size is not kept as a row. The length of a segment comes from the rope. Its width comes from Thickness.

Because the Emit count starts at 1, the Emit button makes one rope straight after the transform.

The Explorer shows four things inside the emitter: PartIcleProperties, RenderTemplate, EmitParent and Target. EmitParent holds the Emit Into row. Target holds the End Anchor row.

To change the look later, edit the RenderTemplate in Studio, or use the Appearance rows.

Emission

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Mode	List	`Emit`		`Emit` makes a new rope at every emit. `Animate` plays one rope in place.
Loop	Switch	Off		Animate mode only. Repeats the cycle until switched off.
Enabled	Switch	Off		Emit mode only. Makes ropes at the Rate until switched off.
Rate	Number	1	Ropes per second	How many ropes are made each second while Enabled is on, or during a Duration. Hidden in Animate mode.
Lifetime	Two numbers	2	Seconds	How long one rope lasts. Each rope picks a value between the two.
Grow In	Number	0	Share of the life, 0 to 0.9	The rope is paid out to its full length over this share of its life.
Death Mode	List	`None`		How the rope ends: `None`, `Retract` or `Release`.
Death Window	Number	0.2	Share of the life, 0.05 to 0.9	How long the ending takes.
Linger	Number	0	Seconds	After its Lifetime the whole rope stays frozen in its last frame for this long.
Timescale	Graph	1		The speed of the rope’s own clock.

The Emit, Delay and Duration boxes on the HUD fire a Rope emitter as they fire any other. After the Delay, the Emit count of ropes is made at once. With a Duration above 0, the emitter then runs at its Rate for that long. The rows shared with other emitters are described on Emission and the HUD.

Grow In

With Grow In above 0, the rope starts with almost no length. It is paid out to its full length over that share of its life.

Grow In 0.25 with Lifetime 2 pays the rope out over the first 0.5 seconds. A value above 0.9 counts as 0.9.

Death Mode and Death Window

Death Mode	How the rope ends
`None`	The rope disappears at the end of its Lifetime. Fade it with a Transparency graph for a softer end.
`Retract`	Over the Death Window the rope shortens steadily to almost nothing. It reels in toward its fixed end or ends.
`Release`	When the Death Window begins, every fixed end is let go at once. The rope falls freely under its Gravity for the rest of its life.

Death Window 0.2 with Lifetime 2 is the last 0.4 seconds. A value outside 0.05 to 0.9 is brought inside that range. The row shows in every Death Mode, None included.

Grow In and Retract change the length of the rope. They do not move its ends. On a rope with a free end, the rope grows out of its start and reels back into it.

Emit mode and Animate mode

	Emit mode	Animate mode
What exists	A new rope at every emit. Several can be alive at once.	One rope for the emitter.
Fired again while a rope is alive	Another rope is added.	The press is ignored until the rope ends.
End of a cycle without Loop	The rope is removed after its Linger.	The rope holds its last frame for the Linger, then is removed.
Loop on	Not used.	The same rope lives on from cycle to cycle.
Emit count	Used.	Not used.
Even dots	Used.	Not used. The axis picks at random.
Pool	Used if on.	Not used.

A permanent rope

In Emit mode a rope lasts for its Lifetime and is gone. For a cable or a chain that stays, set Mode to Animate and switch Loop on.

The rope keeps its pose from one cycle to the next. It does not jump at the start of a cycle.
Every row is read again at the start of each cycle. An edit shows then.
If the number of segments or the length of the rope has changed, the rope is made afresh at that cycle.
That happens after an edit to Segments, Rope Length or Slack. It also happens when a two-number Rope Length picks a new value.
With Rope Length at 0, it happens when an end has moved since the last cycle.
A Launch rope that has attached stays attached from cycle to cycle.

Timescale on a rope

Timescale	What you see
Above or below `1`	The rope swings faster or slower. Slow motion is smooth.
`0`	The rope freezes.
Below `0`	The rope keeps swinging forward. Only its ends and its appearance graphs run backwards.

A rope reacts to its ends rewinding, but it does not retrace its own swing. With a Timescale below 0:

The Motion rows move the end backwards: Speed, Displacement and Turbulence.
A thrown end flies backwards, until the moment it attached. An end that has attached stays attached.
The Color, Transparency and Thickness graphs play backwards.

Appearance

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Material	List	The Part’s material		The material of every segment. A change shows from the next rope.
Color	Colour	The Part’s colour		The colour of the whole rope over its life.
Brightness	Graph	1		Multiplies the colour, over the rope’s life. It is not a light.
Transparency	Graph	The Part’s transparency	0 to 1	Fades the whole rope over its life.
Thickness	Graph	The smaller of the Part’s X and Y size	Studs	The width of the rope over its life.
Taper	Graph	1		The width along the rope, as a multiple of Thickness.

Material writes straight to the RenderTemplate. The row shows the material the RenderTemplate has now.

Color also tints a Decal or a Texture on the segments, and Transparency fades it.

Brightness multiplies each part of the colour, and no part can go above full. On a white rope a value above 1 changes nothing. A value below 1 darkens the rope.

Thickness is measured in studs. A segment is as wide as it is tall. A rope is never thinner than 0.05 studs.

Taper is a graph along the rope, not over its life. The left end of the graph is the start of the rope and the right end is its tip. A graph from 1 to 0.2 gives a whip that thins toward its tip. Taper is read once when the rope is made, and again at each cycle of a loop.

Mesh or texture on a rope

Each segment is a duplicate of the RenderTemplate, stretched to the length of the segment.

The long axis of a segment is the Part’s Z axis. Its width and height are Thickness times Taper.
A MeshPart, or a Part with a SpecialMesh, gives a rope of mesh links.
A Decal or a Texture on the RenderTemplate repeats on every segment. Every segment shows the same image. An image is not spread along the whole rope.
A segment is stretched to the real gap between its two ends. A rope pulled longer than its length shows stretched segments, not gaps.

Spawn

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Pin Mode	List	`BothEnds`		Which ends are fixed: `BothEnds`, `StartOnly` or `Launch`.
End Anchor	Instance, picked with `*`	None		The object the far end is fixed to, or thrown at. Shown in `BothEnds` and `Launch`.
Spawn Target	List	`Start`		Which end the Position offset moves: `Start` or `End`.
Pos. Mode	List	`Local`		The axes the Position offset is measured along.
Position	Two numbers for each of X, Y, Z	0	Studs	Moves the end chosen in Spawn Target. Each rope picks its own offset.
Pos. Cycle	Two numbers	0	Ropes	The length of one even sweep of Position.
Rot Order	List	`Global`		The order in which the three Rotation angles are combined.
Rotation	Two numbers for each of X, Y, Z	0	Degrees	A rotation picked for each rope. It turns the aim of the rope.
Rot. Cycle	Two numbers	0	Ropes	The length of one even sweep of Rotation.

Position, Rotation, the Even dots, the Cycle rows, Rot Order and axis linking work as on a Part emitter. They are described on Spawn.

End Anchor accepts a Part, a MeshPart, an Attachment, a Model, a Bone or the Camera. The picking box has a Clear button.

Spawn Target Start moves the start of the rope away from the emitter Part. End moves the fixed far end of a BothEnds rope. A StartOnly rope has no fixed far end for End to move.

Pos. Mode Local measures the offset along the axes of the chosen end, turned by the Rotation. Global measures it along the axes of the world.

Rotation turns the aim: Motion ▸ Direction and Motion ▸ Motion Direction. It also turns the axes of a Local Position offset. It does not rotate the rope itself.

In a burst, each rope takes its own step of an Even axis. Rotation Y 0, 360 with its Even dot on, Pin Mode StartOnly and Emit 8 gives eight ropes thrown out in eight directions.

Pin Mode

BothEnds. The start is fixed to the emitter and the end is fixed to the End Anchor. Both are followed all the time. Move either object and the rope is dragged along and swings. The rope is made as a line between the two, with a belly that matches its extra length.

If the End Anchor is removed while a rope is alive, the end is let go where it was. The rope then swings from its start.

StartOnly. Only the start is fixed. The rope is made fully stretched out along Motion ▸ Direction, tilted by SpreadAngle. It then swings down under its Gravity. This is the mode for a whip, a tentacle or a hanging vine.

Launch. The far end is thrown.

	With an End Anchor	Without an End Anchor
The throw	The end flies an arc that arrives exactly at the End Anchor.	The end is thrown along Motion ▸ Direction, tilted by SpreadAngle, at the Launch Speed.
The flight	It takes the distance divided by the Launch Speed. The rope’s Gravity bends the arc.	The end falls under the rope’s Gravity until the rope is fully paid out.
After the flight	The end attaches to the End Anchor and follows it from then on.	The end stops and stays fixed at that point in the world. The start can then swing from it.

With the End Anchor 20 studs away and Launch Speed 40, the end attaches after 0.5 seconds.
The place of the End Anchor is read when the rope is made. If the End Anchor moves during the flight, the end catches up with it on arrival.
The aim is fixed when the rope is made. Turning the emitter afterwards does not aim a thrown rope again.
Once attached, the end stays attached for the life of that rope.
Without an End Anchor, set Rope Length. At 0 the rope is only 10 times Slack long, which is 12 studs at the starting values.

Motion

Three rows aim the rope: Direction, SpreadAngle and Launch Speed. The other rows move one end of the rope over its life, and the rest of the rope follows. The graphs and boxes of Speed, Acceleration, Drag, Displacement and Turbulence work as on a Part emitter. They are described on Motion.

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Motion Target	List	`Start`		Which end the Speed, Acceleration, Displacement and Turbulence rows move: `Start` or `End`.
Direction	List	`Front`		The aim, as a face of the emitter. Shown in `StartOnly` and `Launch`.
SpreadAngle	Two numbers, `x, y`	`0, 0`	Degrees	A random tilt of the aim for each rope. Shown in `StartOnly` and `Launch`.
Motion Direction	List	`Front`		The axis that Speed moves the end along.
Launch Speed	Two numbers	40	Studs per second	The speed of the thrown end. Shown in `Launch`. A value below 1 counts as 1.
Speed	Graph	0	Studs per second	Moves the end along Motion Direction over the rope’s life.
Acceleration	Three numbers, `x, y, z`	`0, 0, 0`	Studs per second per second	A drift of the end that grows steadily, along the axes of the world.
Drag	Number	0		Slows the Speed as the rope ages.
Displacement Mode	List	`Global`		The axes used by Displacement and Turbulence.
Displacement	Graph for each of X, Y, Z	0	Studs	An offset of the end over the rope’s life.
Turbulence	Graph	0	Studs	A random wander of the end.
Turb. Frequency	Number	1		How fast the wander changes.

Which end the rows move

Motion Target	The rows move	Works in
`Start`	The start of the rope.	Every Pin Mode.
`End`	The fixed far end.	`BothEnds` with an End Anchor, and `Launch`.

With Motion Target End and Pin Mode StartOnly, the rows do nothing. There is no fixed far end to move.

Direction and Motion Direction

Direction is the aim. A StartOnly rope is stretched out along it when it is made. A Launch rope with no End Anchor is thrown along it. Direction is read on the emitter’s axes, turned by Spawn ▸ Rotation.

Motion Direction is the axis for Speed. It is separate from Direction. SpreadAngle tilts each of the two by an amount of its own.

Displacement

A Displacement graph moves an end out and back without moving the emitter. A quick spike on the start cracks a whip. A slow wave on an end waves the rope.

On a rope, Displacement Mode Local and RigidLocal are the same. Both use the rotation of the start of the rope.

Rope

Row	Kind	Starts at	Unit	What it does
Segments	Two numbers	12	Count	How many pieces the rope has, from 2 to 48. More pieces give a smoother line and cost more.
Rope Length	Two numbers	0	Studs	The full length of the rope. At 0 or less the length is worked out from the gap between the ends.
Slack	Number	1.2	Multiple of the gap	Used when Rope Length is 0. The rope is this many times as long as the gap.
Stiffness	Number	4	1 to 10	How firmly the rope keeps its length. A higher value costs more.
Bend Stiffness	Number	0	0 to 1	How much the rope resists bending.
Damping	Number	0.03	0 to 0.5	How quickly a swing dies down.
Gravity	Three numbers, `x, y, z`	`0, -40, 0`		The pull on the rope, along the axes of the world.
Wind	Two numbers	0	Studs per second per second	The strength of a sideways gust that ripples along the rope. At 0 there is no wind.
Wind Freq.	Number	2		How fast the gusts change.

Segments, Rope Length and Wind are picked for each rope. A rope is built for the larger number of the Segments row.

Rope Length and Slack

With Rope Length at 0, the plugin works the length out. It is the distance from the start to the End Anchor, times Slack. With no End Anchor it is 10 times Slack.

Gap between the ends	Rope Length	Slack	Length of the rope
20 studs	0	`1`	20 studs. The rope is taut.
20 studs	0	`1.2`	24 studs, in 12 segments of 2 studs. A gentle belly.
20 studs	0	`1.5`	30 studs. A deep loop.
No End Anchor	0	`1.2`	12 studs.
Any	`30`	Any	30 studs. Slack is not used.

A Slack below 1 counts as 1.

Stiffness, Bend Stiffness and Damping

Row	Low	High
Stiffness	The rope is stretchy and bouncy.	The rope holds its length.
Bend Stiffness	At 0, a floppy chain.	Toward 1, a line that resists bending: a cable, a tentacle, an antenna.
Damping	At 0, the rope swings for a long time.	The rope settles fast and feels heavy.

Stiffness is rounded to a whole number. Each of the three is held inside the range in the table above.

Gravity and Wind

Gravity starts at 0, -40, 0. That is far weaker than Roblox’s own gravity of 196.2. Point it sideways or upward for tendrils that float. Gravity also bends the arc of a Launch throw.

Wind blows level with the ground, never up or down. Wind 2, 5 gives each rope a strength of its own between 2 and 5.

Events

A Rope emitter has three event blocks: On Emit, On Death and On Destruction. There is no On Hit block and no Hit Filter row. A rope collides with nothing. Events are described in full on Events.

A target fired by one of the three events with Mode AtPosition appears at the start of the rope. It does not appear along the rope or at its far end.
In an event script, payload.SetColor and payload.SetTransparency act on every segment of the rope.

Another emitter’s event can fire a Rope emitter. Pick it in the event’s Emit row. Its Emit count of 1 means it fires with no more setup.

The start of the rope is fixed at the spot of the event for the rope’s whole life. It does not follow anything.
Mode AtPosition uses that spot with the Rope emitter’s own rotation.
Mode AtCFrame uses that spot, turned the way the event’s particle was turned.
The Position and Rotation rows still apply on top.

Advanced

Row	Kind	Starts at	What it does
Anim. Steps	Number	100	How many times the appearance graphs are read over one Lifetime.
Emit Into	Instance, picked with `*`	None	Where the parts of a rope are placed in the Explorer.
Preload Texture	Switch	Off	Keeps every texture the emitter uses loaded, so the first rope does not show blank textures.
Pool	Switch	Off	Reuses finished ropes in place of making new ones.

Anim. Steps acts on Color, Brightness, Transparency and Thickness. The swing of the rope does not use it. The swing is worked out every frame. A value of 0 or less counts as 100.

Emit Into does not change where a rope appears.

Nesting

Nesting is described in full on Nesting.

What is put where	Result
A transformed emitter inside the Rope `RenderTemplate`	It fires once for each rope, at the start of the rope. It does not fire once for each segment.
A Light emitter inside the Rope `RenderTemplate`	Every segment of the rope carries the light, so the whole rope glows.
A stock ParticleEmitter, Trail or Beam inside the `RenderTemplate`	Every segment has one of its own, because every segment is a duplicate of the `RenderTemplate`.
A Rope emitter inside the `RenderTemplate` of a Part, Attachment or Model emitter	The rope starts at the parent particle and rides it.

The nested emitter’s own Emit, Delay and Duration decide what it does for each rope.
With Mode Animate and Loop on, nested emitters fire again at every cycle.
All the lights on a rope follow the Light emitter’s graphs and are removed with it.
A stock ParticleEmitter in the Part is not carried over by the transform. Put it into the RenderTemplate afterwards.
A stock Trail or Beam in the RenderTemplate runs only with a Duration above 0. See Editing stock ParticleEmitters, Trails and Beams.

With the tools

Tool	Effect on a Rope emitter
Size	Multiplies the Thickness, Speed, Displacement and Turbulence graphs. Multiplies Rope Length, Wind, Launch Speed, Position, Gravity and Acceleration.
Time	Multiplies Rate, Wind Freq., Turb. Frequency, Drag, Launch Speed and the Speed graph. Divides Lifetime. Multiplies Gravity and Acceleration by the square of the factor.

Size does not change Slack or Taper, which are multipliers. It does not change Stiffness, Bend Stiffness, Damping or Segments.

Time does not change Damping or Stiffness. It does not change Grow In or Death Window. They are shares of the life, so they follow Lifetime. Time divides the Delay and Duration on the HUD, as for every emitter.

The tools are described on Size and Time.

Motion Preview does not draw a Rope emitter.

Limits

A rope has at most 48 segments. Stiffness runs from 1 to 10.
A rope does not collide with anything. It passes through parts, terrain and the floor.
A rope has no On Hit event.
A Timescale below 0 does not rewind the swing.
With Rope Length at 0 and no End Anchor, the rope is short: 10 times Slack, in studs.
Every segment shows the same image. An image cannot run along the whole rope.
There is no Link. The rope follows the emitter Part and the End Anchor.
An edit acts on ropes made after it. An Animate loop takes the edit at its next cycle.
Pool starts off, and is used only when switched on.
At a very low frame rate the rope slows down.
If the emitter is moved a very long way in one step, the rope is carried along whole. It does not whip across the map.

A rope costs for as long as it is alive. It never comes to rest for free, as a burst of Rocks does. What makes a Rope emitter cost more:

Setting	Why
Segments	More pieces to move every frame.
Stiffness	More work for each piece.
Rate times Lifetime	More ropes alive at once.
A nested Light	One light for every segment.