Reference

Component settings

Every property on the Footstep Component.

Grouped the way they appear in the details panel.

Database

Setting	Default	What it does
Databases	empty	Searched in order until one matches
Use Project Default Databases	on	Also search the project settings ones, after these
Preload Assets On Begin Play	on	Loads everything in the background at start. Leave this on.
Preload State Filter	empty	Only preload one branch of states
Allow Synchronous Database Load	on	Lets a database load block if a footstep needs one that is not in memory. Databases are tiny, and this is what stops the first footstep being dropped.

State

Setting	Default	What it does
Current State	empty	Replicated. Set it with Set Footstep State.
Query Owner For State	on	Ask the owner through the interface first

Detection

Setting	Default	What it does
Surface Source	Line Trace From Foot	How the surface is found. See Surfaces.
Use Project Default Trace Settings	on	Take the channel and distances from the project settings
Trace Channel	Visibility	Add your own channel if footsteps should ignore some geometry
Trace Distance	60	How far below the foot to reach
Trace Start Offset	20	How far above to start, so a foot slightly sunk into the floor still hits it
Trace Complex	on	Needed for per face physical materials and landscape layers
Target Mesh	empty	Leave empty and it works it out itself

Playback

Setting	Default	What it does
Auto Play Sound	on	Play the picked sound
Auto Spawn Effect	on	Spawn the particle. Cascade only.
Auto Spawn Decal	on	Spawn the decal
Use Project Default Max Audible Distance	on	Take the distance from the project settings
Max Audible Distance	5000	Footsteps further from every local view are not played. 0 turns culling off.
Use Project Default Debounce	on	Take the debounce window from the project settings
Min Time Between Footsteps	0.08	Shortest gap between two steps from the same foot
Attach Sound To Mesh	off	Follow the character instead of playing at a fixed point. For fast movers.

INFO: Min Time Between Footsteps is tracked per foot, so it never swallows a real left then right step. It exists to stop the double footstep you get when two animations that both carry a notify blend into each other.

Network

Covered in Multiplayer.

Debug

Setting	Default	What it does
Draw Debug	off	Draw the trace and print what was resolved, for this component only

The console command FootstepSystem.Debug 1 does the same for every component at once, which is usually quicker.

Project settings

Project Settings > Plugins > Footstep System holds the defaults every Use Project Default switch above reads from, plus the default databases and the tags the animation modifier starts with.