Issues with build preview replication

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

I want to have Models appear where the player is hovering with their mouse, a preview for when you’re building like I have seen for a lot of games.
I’m encountering 3 main issues:

  • Replication doesn’t really work (the reason why I am posting this)
    • Probably related to the first one, other Parts welded to the Part I am moving don’t move with it
  • Gravity keeps affecting it, even when I’m setting it every frame

I have tried quite a lot of approaches, I initially simply did everything on the client (cloned from ReplicatedStorage into workspace, set Position from client), however welded Parts didn’t work, which I assumed was because of Replication. Then, I did the same thing except cloned from the Server and sent over the Position so the server can set it, the latency was not fun and I changed it. Now I have essentially my first implementation, except I’m spawning and setting Network Ownership of the part to the client on the server. It didn’t really help much, and now the parts are also affected by very buggy gravity.

My giver script:

local clone = Preview:Clone()
clone.Parent = player.Character
clone:SetNetworkOwner(player)

My client script (using RunContext Client)

local Players = game:GetService("Players")
local UserInputServce = game:GetService("UserInputService")
local RunService = game:GetService("RunService")

local preview = script.Parent
if not preview:IsDescendantOf(workspace) then
	return
end

local character = preview.Parent
if not character then
	return
end

local player = Players:GetPlayerFromCharacter(character)
if (not player) or player ~= Players.LocalPlayer then
	return
end

local camera = workspace.CurrentCamera
local params = RaycastParams.new()
params.FilterDescendantsInstances = { character }
params.FilterType = Enum.RaycastFilterType.Exclude 

local mouse = player:GetMouse()
mouse.Button1Up:Connect(function()
	preview:Destroy()
end)

local lastPos = Vector3.zero
RunService.PreSimulation:Connect(function()
	local mousePos = UserInputServce:GetMouseLocation()
	local unitRay = camera:ScreenPointToRay(mousePos.X, mousePos.Y)
	local result = workspace:Raycast(unitRay.Origin, unitRay.Direction * 500, params)

	if result then
		preview.Position = result.Position
	else
		preview.Position = Vector3.zero -- because of gravity
	end
end)

If there is a way for welds (or a similar way to group parts together) to work clientside without it replicating I’ll take it, replication is not really important to me. Also the raycast hit positions are slightly offset from where the mouse actually is, which is not that big of a deal but still annoying.
Any help would be appreciated.

#2

Did you try to anchor them (or are they already anchored?)

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#3

I tried both anchored and unanchored, anchoring removed gravity but did not fix my main issue of Welds not working. I read that Welds only worked for unanchored Parts so I unanchored them for now.

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