Set Up Water Volume Swimming

Updated May 23, 2026

This page only covers placing a swimming volume. It assumes the required prerequisites are already working.

  • Required plugins are enabled and integrated, including the Water plugin.
  • Relevant attributes are configured, such as Oxygen. See Configure Attributes.

Adding the water and physics volume

  1. Use Unreal’s Water plugin.
  2. Drag a water volume into the world.

    • If Unreal shows the edit layer popup, press Complete.

Adding an Unreal Water plugin water volume

  1. Unreal physics volumes are not adaptive yet and are box-shaped, so avoid strong displacement waves or keep them limited.

Water volume with physics volume alignment considerations

  1. Add one or more physics volumes and align them to the water.
  2. Enable the Water Volume checkbox.
  3. Set Fluid Friction to your liking. A value such as 10 can be a starting point.

Physics volume settings with Water Volume enabled and Fluid Friction set

  1. Test swimming in Play mode.
  2. Adjust the water and physics volume setup to your liking.

Testing swimming in the water volume

Tip: use custom paint layers under the water when needed. See Set Up Your Game Environment.