10-10-2023 08:03 PM - last edited on 08-07-2024 11:03 AM by NolaBaby
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.
Solved! Go to Solution.
10-13-2023 07:13 AM
There is enough lighting in the room. I am attaching these guys to the beat saber handles.
10-13-2023 07:18 AM
I would guess it's the beat saber handles where your issue lies.
The new tracking algorithm uses hand tracking as well as traditional controller IR tracking. The Quest will be confused by the position of your hands compared to the location of the controllers. This may be up to the team at beat saber to create an option for folks using accessories, a bit like the option for the golf clubs with Walkabout and Golf +
See if removing the handles fixes your problems
10-14-2023 08:36 PM - edited 10-14-2023 08:42 PM
Those who announces that "there is no issue" could be someone that never hardly use VR for sports/music related games, maybe just try a "NORMAL" difficulty in Beat Saber then says "there is no tracking issues".
Quest 3 controller tracking is the worst ever in Oculus/Meta's history, I used to be able to complete Beat Saber 9+ difficulty customized maps with a Quest 2, but not be able to complete any built-in songs with EX+ difficulty with Quest 3. Whenever the controller is rotating fast, it tries to slow it down (maybe because it is trained with assumptions that "user never moves controller fast") and get missing notes. Whenever the tracker is out of visible range it will randomly stop tracking, even there are two cameras downside that supposed to still track the controllers. And it's very hard to cut the notes from top to down, because controller will lost tracking above head. Maybe meta just give up existing gamers and turns the direction to fully supporting business users (who of course won't choose a MR device that not clear to read words in real world like Quest 3).
It's ridiculous that Oculus/Meta made the controller tracking worse and worse in the past few years. The best one is the controller come with OG Oculus CV1. Second best one is the Touch controller come with Rift S/Quest 1. Quest 2 controller is slightly worse than Rift S controller. And the worst one is from Quest 3, and worse than all above OG controllers. I don't know how Meta made this to happen, but it looks not like a technical issue, but a business decision. In the beginning Oculus tries to attract gamers, then after Meta take over, it tries to force gamers quit and force the team to focus on business users.
10-15-2023 01:11 AM
Having similar issues with ibCricket. really bad tracking during fast movement
10-16-2023 10:25 AM
Nah...I use the Quest 3 controllers without attachments other than a rubber cover for hand straps, and tracking is absolute crap with Beat Saber. The only thing I've found on line is take out the old batteries for 10 minutes and replace with new ones. After spending $650 on a 512GB headset, I'm really, really disappointed with tracking. Visuals with the 3 are great! Much better than the 2. But this only means that I can see how often it said I missed. I really hope Meta comes up with a fix soonest.
10-18-2023 06:54 AM
From what I experienced it seems controller tracking is perfect only when:
1. the controller is not on "power saving mode" which has lower response rate;
2. the controller is within the "display area" where the controller is in the virtual environment that user can actually see.
The power saving mode seems triggers randomly when the controller is not in "display area" and motion is slow. There is about half second delay when the controller move out from power saving mode. This behavior makes it hard to find out the tracking problem also, because when tracking become bad the controller is usually not within display area so user won't see.
This is just my guessing, I actually also face similar issue with Quest 2 controller earlier this year, but Quest 3's problem is more serious than Quest 2. I think the devs are trying to maximize the battery life but ignore how terrible the tracking is for fast motion game players.
10-19-2023 08:22 AM
Same issue here! The tracking is terrible and makes one of the best games (IB Cricket) very unplayable
10-19-2023 11:36 AM
Hand tracking is THE worst! Everything I do on VR is exercise-related and involves targets (Beat Saber, Audio Trip, Synth Riders, BodyCombat). So I've been really disappointed. Quest could SOLVE all of this by making the Q2 controllers cross-compatible, but they definitely need to address this issue... maybe it wasn't such a good idea to remove the tracking rings. I had no problems with the old controllers. Ugh.
10-19-2023 11:39 AM
I forgot Supernatural... totally doesn't matter, but it's my favorite. I'm such a bad "athlete" lol
10-19-2023 05:32 PM
The Quest 3 controller tracking in Supernatural (flow, hard, ~30min) is awful for me as well. Anytime the controllers go outside the viewing area, they start freaking out. Moving back to Quest 2 until this is fixed. The graphics are way better on Q3, but obviously that doesn't matter if I'm not being tracked correctly.
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