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Inspiring
October 11, 2023
Solved

[UNRESOLVED as of May 30, 2024] - Quest 3 Controller Tracking Issues

update May 30, 2024: There have been no updates/improvements to controller tracking since Meta Support marked this as solved! Community consensus seems to be that this issue stems from hardware/software limitations with the controllers, specifically the method of tracking (as a software developer working specifically in the machine learning and computer vision space, I agree that this technology is not particularly robust enough to handle some types of movement). If you play games that require fast hand movements and/or dynamic hand positioning, I would recommend not buying a Quest 3, unfortunately. I've heard some anecdotes regarding improved tracking with the Quest Pro controllers, but the improvements are marginal at best - not worth the additional ~$300 for minimal performance gains IMO. My personal recommendation is to stick to Quest 2. Not to detract from the various improvements that the Quest 3 has brought (e.g., color passthrough w/higher resolution, better hand tracking, higher overall hardware specs compared to Quest 2, etc.), but Quest 2 controller tracking is significantly better than the Quest 3's. Ideally, my hope is that Meta will push an update that allows for pairing Quest 2 controllers with the Quest 3, but as of right now, that's just a pipe dream as Meta has given no indication of making these headsets/controllers backwards compatible. While I'm (naively) hopeful that things will change, realistically speaking, I have 0 expectations and a lot of disappointment.

 

tl;dr: I've had a Quest 2 for almost 3 years. I received my Quest 3 today and was very excited to use it. Controller tracking performance is much worse than the Quest 2, at least in the context of games where you swing your arms as fast as you can. This was not a problem for the Quest 2 (unless controllers were physically damaged, e.g., hitting a wall, dropping them, etc.). Don't buy if you play games like Gorilla Tag, Beat Saber, Synth Riders, or any of the other games mentioned throughout this thread!!!

 

Question:
Are there ways to modify the Quest 3's controller tracking such that fast hand movements won't be affected by the prediction-like behavior where the in-game hand moves farther than you swing? When I perform a baseball throwing movement with my hand/arm, the tracking will not keep up and it ends up losing my hand's position for a fraction of a second, causing my in-game hand to be positioned farther away than my hand actually is (this is not an issue with Quest 2 controller tracking).

 

Details/Context:
I primarily use VR for exercise, and I mostly play Gorilla Tag. Gorilla Tag is a game where you play as the upper half of a gorilla, using your arms as your means of locomotion. Basically, you use your arms as if they were your legs, and you can run, climb trees, wall-run, etc. It's an infection-based tagging game where you join a lobby of up to 9 other people, and the game will randomly select a player to be the first tagger. The tagger(s) will continue tagging until everyone in the lobby has been tagged (infection-style), and then a random player will be selected as first tagger; this pattern just continuously repeats.

While the learning curve is pretty steep to play at a high level, there is a growing community of players who are very competitive (approx. 10-20k players based on the communities I participate in - Competitive Gorilla Tag on Discord and Gorilla Tag Competitive on Discord). As a prominent member of this community, people have been seeking my feedback on whether or not the Quest 3 is worth it. While I feel that a majority of the new features are amazing, I have had issues with the controller tracking.

Gorilla Tag is an active game where you're constantly swinging your arms as fast as you can to travel around the map(s) to avoid being tagged. The primary player base for the game is Quest 2 users. Aside from physical damage, most players have not had any problems with controller tracking on the Quest 2, aside from when the controller goes out of the tracking range of the headset (as expected). 

However, the Quest 3 controllers lose tracking during medium-fast to fast hand movement (medium-fast: like playing catch with a friend; fast: throwing a baseball as hard as you can). The consequence of this in the context of Gorilla Tag is that your in-game arm extends to the game's max arm length frequently, causing your hand to collide with the wall/tree/ground and launch you away from the surface. This is a big issue for games/activities involving fast-paced hand movement as it's not nearly as reliable as the Quest 2 controller tracking performance. 

TheAntiSocializer
Honored Contributor
October 24, 2023

Hey everyone, I've connected with the team and they are actively investigating tracking issues like you've mentioned. We'll be working to improve performance, especially for competitive players in games like Gorilla Tag, Supernatural, IB Cricket, and Eleven Table Tennis. We expect to roll some of these improvements in the upcoming releases.

Sometimes it's okay to be a little Bing Chilling

531 replies

New Participant
December 30, 2023

Asgards Wrath 2 is great......Until Im in the middle of a battle and the tracking goes stupid.  Then I am fighting everyone with one arm.  Pretty disappointing considering all the hype.

New Participant
December 31, 2023

I would like to know if anyone else is having an issue with quest 3 controller tracking in high level ranked beat Saber, it seems like ever since the V60 update, when I swing my wrists up and down really fast the controller seems to completely forget where it's supposed to be and SLOWLY starts floating away from the headset like the tracking depth just stops working entirely until I hold my hand still. This is annoying because the only reason I got a quest three is to play competitive beat Saber and I got top 250 with the headset, but ever since the V60 update i can't get any good scores at all because of this, if it is a bug I'm afraid that it's not going to get fixed because it affects such a small community. 

New Participant
January 1, 2024

I havent played much beat saber last 2 weeks because of wrist injury. And today when I played beat saber essentialy for first time in 2 weeks tracking felt horrible.

Participant
January 2, 2024

In death: unchained with my quest 3 has become almost impossible to play due to glitches while aiming. The bow stays stuck in the air for seconds while you are trying to defend yourself. In addition, aiming is very inaccurate with respect to quest 2 even when the glitch above does not occur. Please fix the problem. I've updated IDU recently but the issue on the controllers is still there

DeeX0
Participant
January 2, 2024

Let's look into a class action for all that have kept their Q3 past their return date. The replacements all experience the same thing. I initially bought 3 Q3(s), I ended up returning 2, the 3rd I couldn't return.

Meta's silence is deafening. 😞

Inspiring
January 2, 2024

I don't think a class action is likely.  The only thing to get them to actually do anything about it is to spread the information as widely as possible, maybe contact some popular tech magazines or popular youtubers to cover the problem.  That guy who does Tuesday newsday has a lot of subscribers (thrillseeker).

Participant
January 3, 2024

I would be happy if I were able to use the Q2 controllers with the Q3.

Q2 controllers are much more accurate and their price is affordable compared to pro controllers. Moreover I have my old Q2 that stays unused to collect dust, so reusing its controllers would be perfect for me

Participant
January 4, 2024

Well, it's still very very early in my testing but I just received my replacement Quest 3 512gb and so far... so good! Played 10 minutes of Supernatural and not a single issue with tracking. I did run into lucky short span of perfection before so it could be sheer luck but ...looking promising!

As well, the coil whine (fan noise) appears to be substantially lower than on my previous unit. Switching between handtracking and controllers still seems to be finicky although I haven't tested this extensively. 

As I mentioned, my tracking issues were mainly on the left side so my situation could be very different than what others are experiencing. I'll  get to spend some hours after work today to really put it through the ringer and report back any other findings.

Inspiring
January 4, 2024

If all turns out to be fixed, could you share the manufacturer date so others can avoid buying products manufactured earlier?  You can probably calculate from the serial number if Meta are happy to share how to find the manufacture date from it.

Participant
January 4, 2024

If anyone can provide a way to calculate manufacturing date based on some info I'll be happy to provide. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible at this time. As a reference, my previous unit was pre-ordered right of Meta store on the announcement day within minutes so extremely early production unit for sure.

As well, just further reiterating that my experience could be different than what others are reporting as issues - I haven't tried Gorilla Tag ever, I am not able to properly play BS Expert+ tracks and can barely win against the crappiest AI at 11 table tennis. 

My issues were mainly observed playing Supernatural 'Flow' (ie BS mode) on high intensity with rapid diagonal/updown movement. I did also observe tracking issues with LesMills bodycombat, again mainly on the left side - punches didn't always connect when deployed in a rapid flury. As well, with minimal testing, Thrill of the fight was also giving me more of an impression than an 'on screen measurable' of tracking issues, again on the left side only. Other games played fine. The common thread was left side and rapid movements. I've listed the extensive troubleshooting I went through prior to replacing the whole Quest 3, including a left controller replacement - without any success.

Inspiring
January 4, 2024

manufacture date should be on the box next to the serial number apparently (if it's the same as the quest 2)

Participant
January 4, 2024

Wow indeed, 11/23 so November. I wonder what date was my previous one unfortunately didn't take a picture of the box. I'm assuming it must have been September? I'd be curious to hear when the launch ones were manufactured 

Up and Coming
January 4, 2024

It would be awesome if TheAntiSocializer could confirm with Meta that changes have been made in more recently produced batches as well. This would be fantastic news, and I'd be happy to let my friends in the VR press know if improvements have been made!

Participant
January 5, 2024

Well 4 hours of Walkabout mini-golf (I had forgotten but had issues as I'm left handed and tracking was jumpy). No more issues and it does look like the transition from controllers to hand tracking is working as intended now VS randomly before. We'll see after a few days of more intense gaming but so far so good. As well and probably unrelated, fan noise is definitely much less of an issue with this one. Curious to hear from the other user who was awaiting a replacement. Maybe I was a very unusual exception. 

New Participant
January 5, 2024

Given that your issues were largely with one side, it sounds like maybe you had a faulty controller, and that the replacement is working as intended.

It’s probably worth differentiating between more global tracking issues and specific cases like this. 

Participant
January 5, 2024

I had the controller replaced a few weeks back and that did not solve anything. Replacing the headset did it this time around.

As well, I have read numerous accounts of people experiencing tracking issues mainly on one side, left being more frequently reported. I agree my situation could be distinct but clearly there are others who ran in this very same scenario and there could be a correlating factor between one side being affected or both impacted by the same issue. No way knowing this since I can't tell what was wrong on a technical level, only that it was headset related, not controller bound. 

Participant
January 5, 2024

My daughter is reporting me that when you play the expert+ level of Beat Saber the tracking of the Q3 controllers becomes glitchy, missing the hand movements.

I had a similar problem with In Death Unchained where the bow stays stuck in the air while aiming and the aim is inaccurate... I have tried also turning on and off the lights of the Christmas tree, but the problem stays that unchanged...

 

Inspiring
January 5, 2024

maybe check the manufacture date (next to the serial number on the box).  Astralmind above was having problems until he got a replacement unit with a manufacture date of 11/23.  If you're is an earlier date, then it may be worth getting it replaced.  It could be an entirely different problem though.

New Participant
January 5, 2024

Hi ,did the feedback resolve your issue, I'm having same challange when playing onward and I'm eyeing in and controller just either moves left or right and loses stability then I need to like shake controllers to realign .I have not had issues with q2 ,but I am running pcvr ,I might try another shooter to see if it's happening thier