---
title: "Set up a Vicon Origin actor"
canonical: "https://help.vicon.com/space/Unreal5Plugin113/1152057379/Set%20up%20a%20Vicon%20Origin%20actor"
format: markdown
---
This page covers how to set up a Vicon Origin actor in UE5.

A Vicon Origin actor is an empty actor in a scene. Use this empty actor as a parent actor to which you add child actors. Doing this ensures all streamed data is aligned correctly. 

> ℹ️ **Note**  
> ℹ️ If you’re using the Mocap Manager workflow, you don’t need to set up a Vicon Origin actor for aligning the data.

## Prerequisites

The following steps assume you have set up Live Link. If you have not done this, first complete the steps in [Connect to Vicon Datastream using Live Link](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Unreal5Plugin113/pages/1152057350).

> Macro (anchor)



## Add an empty actor

1. In UE5, open the scene in which you want to create an empty actor.
2. In the scene, click **Quick Add** > **Basic** > **Actor**.
3. Provide a name for the empty actor (for example, `Vicon Origin`).

When you add child actors to the Vicon Origin actor (and subsequently props and meshes) they will all be aligned correctly.

## Add child actors to your Vicon Origin actor

You can now use the Vicon Origin actor that you created in [Add an empty actor](#AddEmptyActor) as a parent for all other actors that are driven by the Vicon motion capture data stream through Live Link. These other actors must be child actors of the parent actor.

**To create another actor:**

1. Click **Quick Add** > **Basic** > **Actor**.
2. Go to the **Outliner** panel.
3. Find the actor you just created, then drag and drop this actor beneath the Vicon Origin actor to create this parent/child link.

![image](media://5a1a0cec-e36a-4f73-ae0a-b8bb9b24ec96)

These two actors are now linked so you can easily align the streamed data.

The following image shows the Vicon Origin actor with two character skeletal meshes and two props attached. Each prop is added as a child of an empty actor, which allows for easier adjustment of the prop mesh positioning.

![image](media://8d26a966-69c6-4252-b5c3-851c77408d4b)

> ⚠️ **Important**  
> ⚠️ When you attach either prop meshes or character meshes to the Vicon Origin actor, make sure their **position and rotation values are set to (0, 0, 0)** after establishing the parent-child relationship. This ensures that all streamed data aligns correctly.

If the streamed data appears misaligned either positionally or rotationally, adjust the position or rotation of the Vicon Origin actor or each Actor itself to correct it.