Nav Mesh problems 41.00 update

Summary

Did the new 41.00 update make any changes to nav mesh and NPC navigatable functions in the API?

After the most recent update none of my custom NPC guards can reach the desired navigation points I have set them to navigate towards, this did not happen before the update. All my waypoints are now unreachable.

I have turned on the nav mesh in debug mode and the patrolling area of the NPC is still all green like before and should be navigatable still.

Please select what you are reporting on:

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

What Type of Bug are you experiencing?

AI

Steps to Reproduce

Set custom npc to navigate towards a target (creative prop in my case) and make them navigate towards it with NavigateTo, but the npc won’t move becuase target is unreachable.

Expected Result

NPC should navigate towards waypoint / target

Observed Result

NPC doesnt navigate towards waypoint / target

Platform(s)

PC

I have been working on resolving the issue for several hours now but no success, here are some more details on the problem:

After the 41.00 update, custom NPC behaviors using the npc_actions_component no longer work. Specifically, NavigateTo always returns Invalid, meaning the nav system cannot locate the NPC on the nav mesh at all. The exact same map and code worked perfectly before 41.00.

After extensive debugging I confirmed that the action queue itself is functional and no built-in AI is interfering. The issue seems to be that 41.00 changed how the nav mesh is generated for UEFN projects, reducing coverage for surfaces that were previously included automatically, but I’m not sure. NPCs that used to spawn on valid nav mesh positions are now spawning off the nav mesh entirely, which causes every navigation call to fail immediately

We have the same issue since 41.00 update

I’m not sure what it is either, I think you’re probably correct, but I too have found navigation failing much more often now. Something in path finding or nav mesh has changed. I’m guessing it has something to do with them implementing scene graph more.

Or sidekick stuff^^

I can confirm that. This is a game-breaking issue, and so far we haven’t been able to find a solution for it.

hope they fix it as soon as possible, it is currently ruining my main gameplay mechanic of my entire game and makes it unplayable.

I found this setting (se image) in world settings and wondering if it has something to do with it? I have tried with it on and off, nothing solves the issue.

Epic please revert or change this ASAP

Interesting, going to test this

I have spent the past 8 hours trying to solve the issue thinking I could solve it on my own but I think it’s a fault on epics side on the new update. Hopefully they see this and fix it soon!

One of my custom NPCs “sort of” works and is able to navigate towards ONE of its targets, but chooses a weird path towards it that it didn’t use before update. The remaining NPCs do not navigate at all what so ever. In debug mode with nav view turned on, everything is green, indicating it should be ok, but it is not.

Exactly the same issue here. Some NPCs work, but they occasionally choose very strange paths, while others get completely stuck. It seems almost random. During testing, you can also observe lag spikes after a few minutes, which appear to be caused by NPCs constantly trying to reach the player but failing for some reason.

None of this was happening before 41.00.

Yes, Exactly this!
I also experienced major lag spikes and my entire game will start going crazy as well, likely connected.

Made a post about it on X @BrxceWayneUEFN , please repost it or upvote this forum so we can get this fixed asap.

Are you doing it within an npc behaviour or through the actions component? Does it work in edit sessions?

I have a map using custom NPCs and they navigate fine, it’s not published though

I’m using a blank behaviour and doing navigateto on LUF vector3s through the component if that helps?

Hi, thanks for the reply! To answer your questions:

Behavior type: We’re using a custom npc_behavior subclass (not blank), but the behavior itself is fairly minimal at its core, the navigation calls are straightforward.

SceneGraph / actions component: Yes, we get the npc_actions_component via GetEntity[].GetComponent[npc_actions_component], which I believe is the same approach you’re using.

Coordinates: We use creative_prop.GetTransform().Translation for waypoint positions (LUF vectors), same as what you describe.

All of our testing has been done inside the editor (edit sessions), not in a published build. It fails there too. We even do a self-test where the NPC tries to navigate to its own spawn position, and it still returns Invalid immediately. The nav mesh is visually green in the editor debug view, so it appears to be present.

Did your working map use any specific World Settings related to navigation, or do you have “Use Automatic UGC Navigation” enabled in any particular way?

I should clarify — our original code (that worked before 41.00) actually used the navigatable interface from the character directly (Char.GetNavigatable[]), not npc_actions_component. We switched to the component approach during debugging.

During our investigation we tested both interfaces back to back:

  • fort_character.GetNavigatable[] → Nav.NavigateTo() — fails

  • GetEntity[].GetComponent[npc_actions_component] → Actions.NavigateTo() — returns Invalid

Both fail the same way in our edit session. So it doesn’t appear to be an API choice issue — something more fundamental is broken on our end.

New finding: After more testing I can confirm the nav mesh is not completely gone — it appears to be severely reduced in coverage. The NPC can occasionally navigate when I’m standing very close to it (within a tiny radius), but fails for any distance beyond that including patrol waypoints 200+ units away.

Sometimes you can get the NPC “sort of” moving but it is very restricted and does not walk like is is supposed to or did before, almost all vector target locations seem to be unreachable.

The NPC I have built is a guard like npc that patrols between waypoints and will chase the player if in range until the guard looses sight of the player or catches them.

It’s really frustrating since NPC interactions are the core mechanic of my entire game but I can’t seem to find a work around.

Hello,

Have you tried displaying the Navigation Mesh in the editor? Do you see it properly?

Yes, Navmesh shows everything green for me

Everything worked perfectly fine before the 41.00 update

Yes, it is all green just like pre 41.00. Also I haven’t changed anything in the navigatable area or npc behaviour code since. Still it doesn’t work.

Ok thanks for your quick reply.

We are investigating on our side.

At first sight, it looks like a server performance issue. In the past, we had similar problem caused by navigation tiles getting dirtied every frame (ie. by constant moving nav relevant objects) and the server was having hard time to catch up. It might be something else but you could verify if you haven’t moving navigation relevant object in your map that could affect performance.

We are moving objects in the area where the npc is spawned, but these objects have 0 collision (we also tested without these objects) same issue there.