Is it possible to have a procedural shader with a spiral function to shade a rope?

Not quite there but using the DCG Anything Grows plugin may be a solution.

I hope Mark or Eric will reply to this one. A VERY good question to put on the forum.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2419498

I recall seeing this asked several years ago. there was an answer given. lemme see if I can find it ...... yeah, here's the second one. http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=201589 however, they aren't showing any renders to prove it works like a real rope, in which each of the three sub-ropes further comprises small strings or threads.

The subtle difference is that I was not thinking of modelling the rope. It's already complex enough because it's having to bend. So I thought it would be better as a shader. I've tried some experiments using the "Caution" shader but it's not joining up properly, I might be able to fix that in the UV editor but it was getting late when I was looking at this yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaClm5vv4vw

Hi Andy, While I personally try to use procedural shaders as much as possible, a tiling texture map is actually a better solution for this. The T-maps simply play better with the spline objects UV space than procedurals do. Note: you can increase the tiling to greater than the slider allows by simply clicking on the tiling numbers and entering a value. Mark

I had used a texture map initially, based on a segment of the picture first posted. But the blue was too pale and thats how I got thinking about other techniques, I also experimented with ripples and a parametric mapping to rotate them 45°.

I think my problem is actually because the rope is a vector object and there are some splits in the sides which means that the UV mapping does not work too well, I should have 1 rectangle and 2 circles but I've got 4 rectangles.

So thanks for the words of experience, I'll switch back to a black and white texture map as a mixer for the colours I want and as you've done I'll also put it in the bump channel.

I thought I'd try it.

I used the Veloute 2 Tools plugin.

Shonner

Nice, I think if you add a strand (like a hair trans map) with sss it would be very close.

I added alpha and translucency.  And turned off antisotropic.