VirtuaTilt Wiki › Meta Quest: Cabinet Buttons or Flippers Not Recognized When the Game Starts
You paired the cabinet, the game launched, and nothing on the VirtuaTilt does anything. Almost always the game is still listening to the Meta Quest hand controllers, not the cabinet. At the game's main menu you have to hand control over, and the gesture depends on the title.
Press the A button on the VirtuaTilt — not on the Quest controllers. That single button is all these two games need. The cabinet's buttons, flippers and plunger then respond.
Pinball FX VR is the only title that works differently. Hold the two Quest controllers vertically aligned against the left and right flipper buttons on the VirtuaTilt — this alignment is required — then press both flipper buttons on the VirtuaTilt together to activate XAM. FX VR / Meta Quest: XA = compatibility-device name; XAM = compatibility mode. These abbreviations refer only to this game.
If pressing the VirtuaTilt flipper buttons does not register, pull both Meta controller triggers instead, with the controllers still aligned. Only the trigger-pull is a backup — the alignment is always required.
Repeat it on every table. XAM applies to the current table only, so each time you switch tables in-game you must align and activate again. This catches people out: the cabinet worked a minute ago, so the natural conclusion is that something broke.
If activation will not take — even though the Quest still shows the "XA" Bluetooth device as connected — toggle Bluetooth off then back on in the Quest settings and repeat the alignment. That clears a stuck session.
XAM is for Pinball FX VR only. It is not used by Star Wars Pinball VR or Pinball VR Classics, which need the A button described above.
Over USB, load VTConfig-USB-FXVR-Analog and set Pinball FX VR to Normal mode. There is nothing to activate, and the nudge is analog. Choose the table and use the menus with the Quest controllers. The plunger does not track your pull: launch the ball with the Yellow button or a full pull of the plunger. Over Bluetooth, Pinball FX VR uses the XA profile (FXVR_XAM) and the gesture.
None of this is a VirtuaTilt fault. It is how these games treat any external controller.
Related: Meta Quest VR games — starting and feedback devices, and Bluetooth pairing problems if the cabinet is not connecting in the first place.
The interactive VirtuaTilt wiki adds a 3D model, a theme gallery and a built-in AI assistant — open the wiki.
Last updated: 2026-10-28
VirtuaTilt is designed and manufactured by 3DPTronics — see the Wireless VirtuaTilt controller. Diagnose your own cabinet with the free VirtuaTilt extension for Claude.