how would you texture map a rope? I would like to make a rope for a game object (so it should be fairly low poly). I know how to divide a cylinder into segments (K key with Z key) and form it around a nurbs path.

for my game engine (unity) my textures have to be powers of 2 and square, so 128x128, 1024x1024 etc, so it would not make sense to use a huge texture with just a thin line used. i need to use the same square rope segment texture over and over again on each segment.

I would like to texture map a segment of rope to each segment, I'm still playing with photoshop to produce the perfect tileable, seamless rope fragment texture, but assuming I work that out, do I have to select each segment and use the uv smart project on each one, or is there a quicker way to do the whole lot.
Create a bezier curve in the shape of your rope.
Create a rope segment with some seamless texture.

Make sure that the bezier curve and the rope segment have origin in the same location.
For the rope segment add Array modifier, set length to Fit curve,
select your bezier curve and tick Merge so it won't generate vertices doubles.
Add Curve modifier and select your rope segment.
Now you should have something like this:

Close the ends of the rope model.