I have been trying to position my character correctly along the z axis and for that I am trying to figure out what the correct dimensions of my Capsule Component should be and how should I position my Player Start.
From reading the existing threads, I have realised that since the Capsule Component is a root element in the Character Blueprint, I can’t move it. Hence, I have ensured that my Skeletal Mesh is centred with the Capsule Component.
In the above image, you can see that even though the
Capsule Component passes through the “Floor” of the Viewport, I have moved my mesh down to align with it.
Now, my plan was to set the Capsule Half Height to be the same as the amount the mesh was moved down. This made sense to me as the mesh is supposed to be 180 cm tall and I have moved the mesh down by half of that. But changing the Capsule Half Height or Capsule Radius has no effect on the dimensions of the “capsule” of PlayerStart in my Level.
The size of the
PlayerStart not changing is making it difficult for me to place the
PlayerStart properly to ensure that the character mesh is placed just right.
Running the game shows my character mesh so my GameMode blueprint is probably setup correct.
Am I doing something wrong here? Is the Capsule in the Level different from the Capsule in the Character Blueprint? Or am I looking at this the wrong way?
You’re looking at it way too intensely.
Just put the player start where you want the character to spawn.
Why do you want your character to spawn with the legs in the floor?
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I don’t want to do that. The screenshot just shows the default location of the PlayerStart. I want to move it up by exactly the amount that is required to ensure that the player skeletalmesh doesn’t conflict with the floor mesh.
Maybe I am looking at this too intensely. My problem is essentially that the capsule dimensions of the PlayerStart capsule is not the same as the capsule dimensions in my player blueprint. This is making it difficult for me to position the PlayerStart capsule in my scene based on the capsule and mesh in my blueprint. Yes, I know that I given the dimensions, I can calculate but it’s just not sitting right with me. Since I am learning, I don’t want to miss something important.
You can place the player start at the same location as your player, and just scale it to have the same proportions as your player. Then it’s going to work.
The reason why it’s not really worth the worry, is that the character placement is approximate anyway. Haven’t you ever noticed that ‘drop’ as your character sort of falls into the level? So as long as you put the start in roughly the right place, you’ll be fine.
You’re right about not missing something important. From my work with the engine so far ( and probably any other package this complex ) is, don’t get hung up on stuff. Just find a way forward. If you want a hermetically sealed ‘super solution’ to everything, you will always be hitting brick walls, and will not get to where you want to go 
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I will take your advice on that then. I guess working on CADs for most of my career has wired me into working with tight tolerances lol.
Thanks for responding and advising. Cheers!
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the center of the capsule is its base or pivot for sizing just move the player start capsule up out of the ground and it will stay there, scaling the character capsule with the mesh is a separate matter.
Nice necro.
In my honest opinion setting a lower tolerance would prevent possible issue if done right.
The problem with that is that most of you won’t do it right by choiche.
You just throw stuff in and pretend for it to work.
Doesn’t work like that.
To Use low tolerance and exact placement, first of all instead of a player start you can place and posses the actual charater/actor.
That eliminates any equivocation.
Second, you should lock everything in place until everything is loaded in.
That’s really the part you’ll wholly ingnore because it would require you to create the proper c++ functions to get some kind of a call back message on when that occurs.
So what you could do instead, assuming you aren’t a total lazy hack…
Is to figure out what best works for your project locally.
Say you decide there will always be a floor under the player… you can stop simulation and movement until a line trace returns true for the floor.
Say you want to allow for differently sized characters to spawn at the exact location but not “fall” down, you could run a capsule collision sweep, find the floor height, and spawn in at the correct position.
Why do i seem pi**ed?
Because its 2024 and there’s still games out there that are released with characters getting stuck into meshes when they spawn in, ffs… DO better folks!..
