The scale of my character is causing glitches with cloth simulation, is there a way to change the scale permanently without remaking the model?

Short version:

This setting, is there a way to make it the permanent new scale for the skeletal mesh?

350318-import-settings-uniform-scale.png

So that it doesn’t cause this to happen to the root?

Long Version:

So I tried to add cloth simulations to a custom character model in Unreal, but I couldn’t get it to work right at first. The collision detection was just terrible and it didn’t look right at all. I take a closer look at the collision capsules and realize that their radius is much smaller than in Unreal’s example content. I know that Unreal engine’s physics don’t work well when things are small.

When I first imported the character they were too small, it had just been made that way. So I imported it with uniform scaling. The problem is that when you import with uniform scaling it doesn’t actually apply that scaling to the whole skeleton. It seemingly just adds some scaling to the root so the model is still technically small, and gets handled that way by the physics engine, which leads to glitchy behavior. The collision capsules, for instance, have a really small radius because they are being scaled up by the skeleton’s root.

Is there a way for me to actually apply the scaling when I import?

I have done a quick test where I remade the model itself with a larger scale, this confirmed that the scaling is causing the physics glitches. The problem is that remaking the model entirely would take a long time and I need the weight painting to exactly match the current version, for reasons. Does anybody know of a good way to fix the model in Unreal or otherwise?

Update: So, I ended up just remaking my model to fix the issue. It turned out to not be so bad because I found a tool in Maya called copy skin weights.

Still, I consider it a glitch that importing with a uniform scale causes issues with the physics engine. I haven’t checked if it has been fixed in future versions but I hope so.