I have no idea about how to do this but have you trying baking the first simulation ( the rope)? Maybe create a dummy simulation attach/constraint to your rope simulation then use to box to drive the collision with the cloth I guess there's an easier way tho :/
just start some comps and see how well they work, and adjust times/constraints and how often they are based off how the community does. I'm sure there's lots of students/people working on their portfolios that would be happy to jump on any comp they can find.
Hoping to shortly make a start on something similar myself... Anyway, here's a resource I had bookmarked awhile about an artist currently working for the team behind Railway Trainz Simulator, where he shares a few insights coupled with production asset constraints which may prove useful as well:
that looks nice, but those edges will only look good in offlline. For baking they are too hard , some are even very hard for lifelike edges. Dont forget the scale and how it is viewed and the constraints of realtime of course
something to keep in mind is that substance designer nodes in Unreal 4 are still converted into textures when they get used. So the memory and performance constraints are the same as if you were using pre-generated textures.
Select the most left vertical row of UV's,then In the uv Editor,go Polygons-->Unfold-->Optionbox,then be sure to tick PinUV's(pin selected),and in this case use a vertival constraint,then hit Apply.Have a fiddle with it basically.
Since you're under tight time constraint I'd suggest you to just follow the concept, especially if the assignment focus is on modelling rather than design. You can play around with the design afterwards.
This is how I see it. I'm just debating if I should work on my portfolio and do whatever I want or do what they want but gain experience in a more "professionnal" environment with deadline and constraint.
Try this out. I use edge constraints to collapse those vertices there by the way. You'll be able to control the thickness at either side this way as well. Gives you a much better result than inset
I'm currently looking for stuff to add to my portfolio. Looking for Designing work or 3d modeling/texturing work. Looking for something with not many time constraints. Please let me know if I can help at alangrayhawk@gmail.com