Why does my Unreal vehicle jitter at high speed?

Physics ticks 30Hz; vehicle traveling 100m/s moves 3.3m per tick — large enough for tunneling and constraint solver instability. Enable Substepping for finer steps in vehicle physics.

What's a good substep config?

Max Substeps 6, Max Substep Delta Time 0.0166. Vehicle solver runs at 60Hz effective. Cost: ~2x physics CPU; gain: stable handling.

Chaos vehicle vs PhysX?

UE5 uses Chaos. PhysXVehicle is legacy. Both honor substepping. Chaos has its own Project Settings → Chaos Vehicle Plugin Settings.

Fix: Unreal Vehicle Jitters At High Speed

Quick answer: Project Settings → Physics → Substepping. Max Substeps 6, Max Substep Delta 0.0166.

Sports car at 200 km/h jitters and bounces erratically. Default 30Hz physics can't keep up.

The Fix

Project Settings → Physics:
  Substepping:                 true
  Max Substep Delta Time:      0.0166     // 60Hz
  Max Substeps:                6

ChaosVehicle:
  Substep Vehicle Physics:     true      // per-vehicle override

Substepping divides each game tick into smaller physics steps. Vehicles benefit hugely from finer integration.

Verifying

Drive at high speed: smooth handling, no jitter. CPU profile: physics cost ~1.5-2x. Acceptable for vehicle gameplay.

“Substep on. Vehicle smooth.”

Related Issues

For Cloth simulate, see cloth. For Water buoyancy, see water buoyancy.

Substep on. Smooth high-speed.