ARVRController in Godot 4: it is XRController3D now
By Eduardo Orellana · Updated
ARVRController is called XRController3D in Godot 4, and it picks its hand with a tracker name, left_hand or right_hand, instead of a controller id. In a Godot 4 project, ARVRController.new() fails to parse with Identifier "ARVRController" not declared in the current scope. Did you mean to use "XRController3D"?.
AppImage, x86_64. Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 39 or newer.
Intel or AMD Chromebook, with Linux turned on.
What Godot is checking
GDScript resolves every name when the script loads. ARVRController is not a class in Godot 4, so the analyzer stops before anything runs, and because the name is in Godot's own table of Godot 3 renames, the message names the replacement.
The converter carries ARVRController to XRController3D. Buttons arrive through the button_pressed and button_released signals with OpenXR action names, and get_float("trigger") or get_vector2("primary") read analog inputs.
Reproduce it
A Godot 3 script that creates a ARVRController in code, in a Godot 4 project.
extends Node
func _ready():
var controller = ARVRController.new()
print(controller)
What Godot 4.7.2 prints
Godot Engine v4.7.2.stable.mono.official.ed1daf0bf - https://godotengine.org
SCRIPT ERROR: Parse Error: Identifier "ARVRController" not declared in the current scope. Did you mean to use "XRController3D"?
at: GDScript::reload (res://answers/arvrcontroller-in-godot-4/repro.gd:4)
ERROR: Failed to load script "res://answers/arvrcontroller-in-godot-4/repro.gd" with error "Parse error".
at: load (modules/gdscript/gdscript_resource_format.cpp:46)Fix it
A right-hand XRController3D listening for buttons.
extends Node3D
func _ready() -> void:
var controller := XRController3D.new()
controller.tracker = &"right_hand"
controller.button_pressed.connect(func(button): print("pressed ", button))
add_child(controller)
print(controller.get_class(), " ", controller.tracker, ", trigger ", controller.get_float("trigger"))
What the fixed script prints
Godot Engine v4.7.2.stable.mono.official.ed1daf0bf - https://godotengine.org
XRController3D right_hand, trigger 0.0Verified on Godot 4.7.2
Both scripts on this page were run headless on Godot 4.7.2 (4.7.2.stable.mono.official.ed1daf0bf) on 18 October 2026, and the output above is what Godot printed, unedited.
Where the check lives in Godot's source: [gdscript_analyzer.cpp line 4687, the message with its hint](https://github.com/godotengine/godot/blob/4.7.2-stable/modules/gdscript/gdscript_analyzer.cpp#L4687), [renames_map_3_to_4.cpp line 1473, ARVRController to XRController3D](https://github.com/godotengine/godot/blob/4.7.2-stable/editor/project_upgrade/renames_map_3_to_4.cpp#L1473), [XRController3D class reference](https://github.com/godotengine/godot/blob/4.7.2-stable/doc/classes/XRController3D.xml).
Questions
- Where do the button names come from?
- The OpenXR action map in Project Settings, which ships with defaults such as trigger_click and ax_button.
- Where does the controller go in the tree?
- Under the XROrigin3D, beside the XRCamera3D.