If you're trying to build a VR game, you've probably realized that a standard roblox vr physics script is way harder to get right than it looks. Most people jump into VR development thinking they can just map a couple of parts to the player's hands and call it a day. Then, they actually put the headset on and realize their hands are clipping through tables, jittering like crazy, or—worse—causing the entire character to launch into the stratosphere because of a weird collision glitch.
The reality is that Roblox wasn't originally built with VR as a primary focus. While the support has improved a ton over the last few years, the default way Roblox handles movement (which is mostly CFrame-based) doesn't play nice with a world that's supposed to be tactile and physical. If you want your game to feel like Half-Life: Alyx or Boneworks rather than a clunky tech demo, you have to move away from simple "teleporting" parts and start thinking about how physics constraints actually work.
Why CFrame is your enemy in VR
When you first start out, the instinct is to use a RenderStepped loop to set the CFrame of a hand model to the CFrame of the VR controller. It's simple, it's direct, and it's also the quickest way to ruin the immersion. When you "force" a part to a position using CFrame, you're essentially teleporting it every frame. This means it doesn't have velocity, it doesn't have momentum, and it will ignore just about every obstacle in its path.
If you try to "touch" a wall with a CFrame-based hand, your hand just goes through the wall. If you try to push a button, you might just phase right through it. This is why a proper roblox vr physics script needs to rely on forces rather than hard-coded positioning. You want the hand to try to reach the controller's position using physics, so that if it hits something, it actually stops.
Using AlignPosition and AlignOrientation
The "secret sauce" for most high-quality Roblox VR setups is using physics constraints like AlignPosition and AlignOrientation. Instead of telling the hand exactly where to be, you're telling the physics engine, "Hey, I want this hand to get to this spot, but use force to do it."
By setting these up, you create a sort of "invisible rubber band" between the player's real-life hand and the in-game hand. You can tune the Responsiveness and MaxForce so the hand feels snappy but still reacts to the world. If you push your hand against a virtual brick wall, the AlignPosition will try to move the hand forward, but the wall's collision will stop it. This creates that essential feeling of "solidity" that makes VR feel real. It also prevents that annoying jitter you get when two objects are trying to occupy the same space at the same time.
The nightmare of network ownership
You can have the most beautiful, math-heavy roblox vr physics script in the world, but if you don't handle network ownership correctly, it's going to feel like garbage for the player. In Roblox, the server usually likes to have the final say on where things are. But in VR, any delay between your hand moving and the server acknowledging that movement creates a massive "lag" feeling that can actually make people motion sick.
You absolutely have to set the network ownership of the VR hands (and the rest of the character rig) to the local player. This tells the server, "Look, this player is the boss of these specific parts; just trust whatever they say." When the player has local ownership, the physics calculations happen on their machine instantly. There's no waiting for a round-trip to a server in another country just to see your own hand move.
Handling objects you pick up
This gets even trickier when the player picks something up. If you grab a physics-enabled crate, you should ideally shift the network ownership of that crate to the player who grabbed it. If you don't, the crate will stutter as the player's client and the server argue about where it's located. It's one of those small details that separates a "built-in-a-weekend" project from something that actually feels professional.
Collision filtering is your best friend
One of the funniest (and most frustrating) bugs in VR scripting is when your own hands collide with your own head or torso. Since your VR hands are constantly being pushed toward your real-life positions, if they clip into your character's hitbox, the physics engine tries to resolve that collision by shoving the parts away. This usually results in the player spinning wildly or flying across the map at Mach 5.
To fix this, you need to use CollisionGroups. You should put your VR hand parts and your character's body parts into a group where they simply cannot collide with each other. This allows your hands to pass through your "virtual chest" without causing a physics explosion, while still allowing those same hands to knock over a cup of coffee or swing a sword at an enemy.
Making interactions feel "heavy"
A common complaint in Roblox VR is that everything feels like it's made of Styrofoam. If you pick up a giant hammer, it shouldn't move exactly as fast as your real hand—it's a hammer, it's supposed to be heavy. You can actually simulate this weight by dynamically changing the Responsiveness of your AlignPosition based on the mass of the object you're holding.
If you're holding a small key, keep the responsiveness high. If you're dragging a heavy crate, lower that responsiveness. This creates a "drag" effect where the in-game hand trails slightly behind your real hand. It sounds counterintuitive, but that tiny bit of lag actually tricks the brain into perceiving weight. It's a subtle touch, but it adds a huge amount of polish to any roblox vr physics script.
The struggle with Inverse Kinematics (IK)
Floating hands are fine for some games, but most modern VR titles try to show the full arm. This is where Inverse Kinematics comes in. Mapping an arm is basically a math problem: if the hand is at point A and the shoulder is at point B, where should the elbow be?
Roblox has a built-in IKControl instance now, which has made this a thousand times easier than it used to be. You can point the IK controller at your VR hand parts, and the engine will do its best to bend the arm naturally. However, it still requires a lot of tweaking. You'll find that elbows often bend in ways humans shouldn't move, or the shoulders look like they're being dislocated. Usually, adding a "pole" or a hint for the elbow's direction helps keep things looking human.
Testing and iteration
I can't stress this enough: you have to test in the headset constantly. You can't write a roblox vr physics script just by looking at the code and testing with a mouse and keyboard emulator. There are so many tiny variables—like the way a player rotates their wrist or how fast they flick their arm—that you just won't catch unless you're physically in the space.
Sometimes, a value that looks perfect on paper feels terrible in practice. Maybe the hands feel too "floaty," or maybe they're so rigid that they vibrate when they touch a surface. Finding that sweet spot between physics accuracy and player comfort is a balancing act that takes hours of tweaking. But once you get it right, and you can reach out and smoothly slide a drawer open or high-five another player, it's incredibly rewarding.
Developing for VR on Roblox is still a bit like the Wild West, but that's also what makes it fun. You're solving problems that don't have a single "correct" answer yet, and every improvement you make to your physics logic brings your game one step closer to feeling like a real, living world. Keep messing with those constraints, keep an eye on your network ownership, and don't be afraid to let the physics engine do the heavy lifting.