Hi there, I have a water body on my island but no matter what I do I can’t seem to be able to swim in it. It is the ocean that was included in my island and somewhere down the line it got bugged. I’ve tried messing with the collision extents but nothing seems to help.
Hello @TheFirst1DoneYT ,Welcome to the forums!
To make players able to swim, you’ll need to use the Water Device. You can also add a Skydive Volume, which can be used to control the swimming speed and movement behavior while the player is in the water.
Water Device
Skydive Volume Device
I’m also leaving you this video that shows how to combine both devices!
Hope it helps!
This is a fairly common issue with the Water Plugin (especially Ocean Water Bodies that get modified over time). Even if the visual water looks fine, the collision volume used for swimming detection can break.Main Fixes to Try:
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Set Proper Collision on the Water Body
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Select your Water Body Ocean actor.
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In the Details panel, go to Collision.
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Set Collision Presets to Custom.
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Then set the Collision Response for WaterBodyCollision to Overlap (or make sure the preset “WaterBodyCollision” appears and is enabled).
Many people miss this step — the engine needs the WaterBodyCollision channel specifically for swimming detection.
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Increase Collision Extents
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Still on the Water Body Ocean, look for Collision Extents (or Box Extent under the Water Body section).
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Make them significantly larger than the visible water area (especially in X/Y). This creates the trigger volume the player needs to enter for swimming to activate.
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Check the Water Zone Actor
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When you place a Water Body Ocean, it usually creates a Water Zone actor as well.
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Select the Water Zone and greatly increase its Far Distance Mesh Extents / Collision Extents so it fully covers your playable ocean area.
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Other Quick Checks
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Make sure your character has a proper Buoyancy Component + On Entered Water / On Exited Water event handling (or uses the Swimming movement mode).
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Try deleting the current Water Body Ocean and placing a fresh one from the Place Actors panel (sometimes the actor gets corrupted).
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If your island/landscape was moved a lot, try moving the Water Body closer to world origin (0,0,0) — large world offsets can cause water issues.
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Could you tell us:
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Which Unreal version you’re using?
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Are you using the default Third Person character or a custom one?
Let us know what happens after trying the WaterBodyCollision preset + larger extents. That combination fixes it for most people.Good luck!