The types in DigitalRune Physics are of little help here. We currently only support rigid body physics. Deformable bodies are not supported.
When I need to model a pipe in a 3D modelling tool, I do the following: I define the cross-section of the pipe, e.g. a circle, and then extrude the circle long the path. In a game would do the same:
- Create the vertices that define the cross-section of the pipe.
- Copy the vertices and each time move cross-section further along the spline curve.
- Then connect the cross-section using triangles.
Alternatively you could use "mesh skinning" to render an animated pipe:
- Model a straight pipe in a 3D modelling tool. Make sure that it is sufficiently subdivided.
- Assign a skeleton consisting of several bones.
- Then load the skinned mesh using DigitalRune Animation. (Have a look at the character animation samples.)
- Manually adjust the bones, so that they follow the spline curve. (Or, you could use one of our IK solvers to automatically connect one end to a target position. However, IK results sometimes be unpredictable.)
Search for "spline IK" in Google. This should yield some images that demonstrate what I mean.
Now, I don't exactly know what you are trying to achieve in your game, so the solutions above might be total overkill. A simpler solution would be to model all required segments of a pipe in a 3D modeling tool and at runtime just load and combine models as needed.