Unreal Engine 5.6 Tutorial: How to Make Your Character Swim & Dive Underwater

1. Open Your Project

• Use a Third Person template or your custom character blueprint.

2. Add a Water Volume

• In the Place Actors panel, search for Water Body → Ocean/Lake/Pond or use Physics Volume.
• Place it where you want your water.
• Make sure Collision → Generate Overlap Events is enabled.

3. Enable Swimming in Character Movement

• Open your Character Blueprint.
• Select Character Movement → in Movement Mode, make sure Swimming is available.

4. Detect When Character Enters Water

• In the Character Blueprint, use the OnActorBeginOverlap event with the Water Volume.
• When the character enters water:
  • Set Movement Mode → Swimming

5. Detect When Character Exits Water

• Use OnActorEndOverlap with the Water Volume.
• When exiting water:
  • Set Movement Mode → Walking

6. Create Diving Mechanic

• In the Character Blueprint, add an Input Action for diving (e.g., Shift or Space).
• When pressed while swimming:
  • Adjust swim speed and gravity scale for underwater movement.
  • Optionally, adjust the camera to tilt downward slightly.

7. Smooth Transition Between Swimming and Diving

• Blend between swimming and diving speeds using Lerp nodes in Blueprint.
• Make sure animations match swimming vs diving if you have swim animations.

8. Test Your System

• Play the level:
  • Walk into water → character starts swimming
  • Press dive key → character dives smoothly
  • Exit water → character returns to walking

9. Optional Enhancements

• Add buoyancy effects
• Use Post Process effects underwater for realism
• Add underwater sounds and particles