Unexplained Collision Inaccuracy between Server & Client?

Without going into too much detail, I have some code that runs both Client and Server side to check whether a location is valid for spawning an object.

This is the general flow of it:

  1. Client takes aim and figures out where to ‘spawn’ the two objects.
  2. OIf the client deems those locations as ‘safe’, it sends two FVectors to the Server (objects are spheres, orientation doesn’t matter). For debugging’s sake, I’m not using any net-optimized vectors or anything.
  3. Server runs the same ‘Safety Check’ code on those two vectors and if safe, spawns the two objects. If not, it tells the client that it’s safety check failed.

Here’s the problem - the client succeeds these checks for safe collision when it’s supposed to / as expected, but the Server inexplicably fails around ~50% of the time. I’ve tried this in a simple test level and I’m having zero luck. Both Client and Server run identical code. I am NOT testing against any dynamic objects, but against static level geometry that is identical on Server and Client side.

Simply put, overlap detection between two static objects with identical transforms seems to inexplicably fail on a Server for no reason as far as I can tell.

Here is the code. It’s very similar to what happens in LevelActor.cpp for spawning an object. The only place this can fail is the If/Else statement. Why would this fail on the Server more than the remote client, PhysX errors or something deeper?



bool UECGame_QuantumTunnel::GetSafeSpawnLocation(const FVector& InAimLocation, FVector& OutSafeLocation)
{
	// We want to do a spherical trace outwards, and work out where to place the sphere given intersecting geometry
	const FVector DesiredSpawnLocation = InAimLocation;
	OutSafeLocation = DesiredSpawnLocation;

	TArray<FOverlapResult> Overlaps;
	const ECollisionChannel BlockingChannel = ECC_Portal;
	const FCollisionShape CollisionShape = FCollisionShape::MakeSphere(CachedPortalRadius + QuantumTunnelConfig.PortalPlaceSafeZone);
	const FCollisionQueryParams QParams = FCollisionQueryParams(NAME_SafeQuantumPlacement, false);

	// Test all channels, we have to filter out ourselves (or make a new collision channel)
	const bool bFoundBlock = GetWorld()->OverlapMultiByObjectType(Overlaps, DesiredSpawnLocation, FQuat::Identity, FCollisionObjectQueryParams(FCollisionObjectQueryParams::InitType::AllObjects), CollisionShape, QParams);
	if (bFoundBlock)
	{
		FVector ProposedAdjustment = FVector::ZeroVector;
		FMTDResult MTDResult;
		uint32 NumBlockingHits = 0;
		for (int32 HitIdx = 0; HitIdx < Overlaps.Num(); HitIdx++)
		{
			UPrimitiveComponent* OverlapComponent = Overlaps[HitIdx].GetComponent();
			if (OverlapComponent && OverlapComponent->GetCollisionResponseToChannel(BlockingChannel) == ECR_Block)
			{
				NumBlockingHits++;
				const bool bSuccess = OverlapComponent->ComputePenetration(MTDResult, CollisionShape, DesiredSpawnLocation, FQuat::Identity);
				if (bSuccess)
				{
					ProposedAdjustment += MTDResult.Direction * MTDResult.Distance;
				}
				else
				{
					UE_LOG(LogECPortal, Warning, TEXT("Quantum Tunnel invalid adjusted collision for %s. Dist: %f"), *GetNameSafe(OverlapComponent), MTDResult.Distance);
					return false;
				}
			}
		}

		if (NumBlockingHits == 0 || ProposedAdjustment.IsZero())
		{
			return true;
		}
		else
		{
			OutSafeLocation += ProposedAdjustment;
			return true;
		}
	}
	else
	{
		return true;
	}


There are more pieces to this puzzle yet. So I have two test maps, one had a BSP-To-Static-Mesh base and was using Complex Collision as Simple. The other map is the VR Template that Epic Provides (which doesn’t have that setting, but does have 13+ collision primitives)

Both of these meshes seem to be related to the frequency of this problem. Is it possible that objects with multiple bodies are somehow the cause of this? Still doesn’t explain why it only happens on a remote connection.

I have a similiar issue. In my case i would like to have an overlap response between an collision box and the landscape. I works perfectly on the client but i also try to call the same function from the server wich always fails for some reason. Everything is set to overlap and fully replicated. Did you find any fixes for this?

EDIT: Nevermind in my case the collsionbox was slightly above the landscape due to a wrong calculation on my side. The collsion works perfectly fine now!