If you've ever tried making a game where players can walk through walls or ghosts shouldn't bump into each other, this roblox collision groups editor tutorial is exactly what you need. It's one of those tools in Roblox Studio that seems a bit intimidating at first glance, but once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.
Most beginners rely on the CanCollide property. You know the drill: you uncheck that box, and suddenly your part is a ghost. That works fine for a single door, but what if you want a player to walk through a wall while NPCs still get blocked by it? Or what if you want players to pass through each other so they don't get stuck in doorways? That's where the Collision Groups Editor saves the day.
What Exactly Are Collision Groups?
Think of collision groups like exclusive clubs for the parts in your game. Every part belongs to a group. By default, everything is in the "Default" group, and everyone in that group is allowed to bump into everyone else.
When you create a new group, you're basically setting up a new set of rules. You can tell the game, "Hey, members of the 'Players' group should ignore members of the 'OtherPlayers' group, but they should still hit the 'Floor' group." It's much more surgical than just turning collisions on or off for everything.
Getting the Editor Open
Before we dive into the settings, you actually have to find the thing. It's tucked away in a spot that's easy to miss if you aren't looking for it.
- Open up Roblox Studio and load your project.
- Look at the top bar and click on the Model tab.
- Over on the right side of the ribbon, in the Physics section, you'll see a button labeled Collision Groups.
Click that, and a new window will pop up. This is your command center. It might look a little empty at first, but we're about to change that.
Creating Your First Group
In the editor window, you'll see a list of groups. Right now, it's probably just "Default." There's a text box at the top or a button that says + Add Group. Let's say we want to make it so players don't bump into each other.
Type "Players" into that box and hit enter. Boom, you've got a group.
Now, how do you actually put things into that group? You can't just drag and drop them into the window. Instead, you have to select the object in your Workspace (like a part or a character model), and then in the Properties window, look for the property called CollisionGroup. You can type the name of your group right in there.
If you have the Collision Groups Editor open, there's usually a little button next to the group name that says Assign or something similar while you have a part selected. That's a quick way to do it without typing.
The Collision Matrix: Where the Magic Happens
This is the part that usually trips people up. In the editor, you'll see a grid—a matrix. It lists all your groups on both the top and the side. Where the rows and columns meet, there's a checkbox.
- Checked: The groups WILL collide.
- Unchecked: The groups WILL NOT collide.
If you want players to walk through each other, find the row for "Players" and the column for "Players." Uncheck that box. Immediately, any part assigned to the "Players" group will ignore every other part in that same group. It's like they aren't even there. But, since "Players" is still checked against the "Default" group, they'll still stand on the floor and bump into walls.
Scripting Your Groups
Manual assignment is great for static parts like walls or specialized floors, but for players, you're going to need a little bit of Lua. You can't manually assign every player who joins the game in the editor while you're building.
Here's a simple way to do it. You'll want to use a Script in ServerScriptService. When a player's character spawns, you loop through all the parts in their body and set their collision group.
It looks something like this:
```lua local PhysicsService = game:GetService("PhysicsService")
game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player) player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character) for _, part in pairs(character:GetDescendants()) do if part:IsA("BasePart") then part.Collisi end end end) end) ```
By doing this, every time a player spawns, they are automatically tossed into that "Players" group you made in the editor. Since you already unchecked the box in the matrix, they'll now glide right through other players.
Common Scenarios for Collision Groups
Let's look at some real-world examples where this tool makes life a lot easier.
1. High-Speed Projectiles
If you're making a shooter, you don't want your bullets hitting the gun they just came out of. You can put the player in a "Players" group and the bullets in a "Projectiles" group. Tell the "Projectiles" group to ignore the "Players" group. Now your bullets won't accidentally explode in your face because they clipped your own hitbox.
2. Team-Only Doors
You can have a "BlueTeam" group and a "BlueDoor" group. Set it so "BlueTeam" can collide with "BlueDoor" (so they can touch it/detect it), or better yet, make it so they don't collide so they can walk through, while the "RedTeam" does collide and gets blocked.
3. Ghost NPCs
If you have a bunch of pets or NPCs following a player, it can get crowded. Making a "Followers" group that ignores "Players" prevents the NPCs from pushing the player around or tripping them up while they're walking.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Sometimes things don't work quite right. If you've set up your groups but things are still bumping into each other, check these few things:
- Check the Spelling: Group names are case-sensitive. If you named the group "Players" in the editor but typed "players" in your script, it won't work.
- CanCollide must be True: This is a weird one. For collision groups to matter,
CanCollidegenerally needs to be enabled. IfCanCollideis off, the part won't hit anything regardless of its group. Collision groups are a way to filter existing collisions, not a way to force collisions on things that are already non-colliding. - Nested Parts: In characters, remember that accessories (hats, capes) have parts too. If you only set the arms and legs to a group but forget the giant sword on the player's back, that sword will still bump into people. Using
:GetDescendants()in your script is the best way to catch everything.
Performance Benefits
Believe it or not, using the roblox collision groups editor tutorial methods is actually better for your game's performance than using complex scripts to "NoClip" parts. When you use collision groups, the physics engine handles the calculations natively. It simply skips the check for those two groups.
If you were to try and handle this with a Touched event and a script that constantly teleports parts or toggles CanCollide, you'd see your server lag pretty quickly. The built-in editor is optimized, so don't be afraid to use it heavily.
Final Thoughts
The Collision Groups Editor is one of those "level up" tools. Once you move past basic building and start worrying about how the game feels—how players move, how projectiles interact, and how the world responds to different teams—this tool becomes your best friend.
It takes five minutes to set up, but it saves you hours of debugging weird physics glitches where players are getting launched into space because they stepped on a teammate's foot. So, go ahead and open that Model tab, fire up the editor, and start experimenting. It's a game-changer for any serious dev.