Is there a way to adjust the navmesh’s “padding” around objects? I’d like the navigation to be closer to the chairs:
Hello there @DigitalSketch!
The space you are seeing around the chairs comes from how the NavMesh is generated. The engine shrinks the walkable area away from any collision using Agent Radius, so capsules don’t clip into objects. From your screenshot, those are most likely default settings, so the resulting space can look a bit wide around small props. This can be adjusted, mainly via Project settings:
-
First of all, go to Edit > Project Settings > Engine > Navigation Mesh > Generation, locate Agent Radius and reduce it (should start at 34). I would keep it close to the capsule radius or your player and/or NPCs, otherwise they will clip through the chairs
-
In that same section, look for Cell Size, and lower it as well (just the Default value, you can leave Low and HIgh untouched). With this, NavMesh will be more precise, following the shape of the object
-
Finally, since the NavMesh is generated from the mesh’s collision, not from its visual geometry, make sure that the object’s collision is not too big from the start. Open the chair’s mesh, enable Show > Simple Collision, and check if the box is bigger than the chair itself. If it is, adjusting or replacing that collision with a tighter one should bring the NavMesh closer.
After these changes, press P in the viewport to check the result. If you still see the same NavMesh, force a refresh by going to Build > Build Paths.
For further details on these settings, please check the related UE doc: