Hand tracking guide: setup, gestures and troubleshooting
Hand Fighter reads your hand about thirty times a second and turns its shape into fighting moves. When the camera sees your hand clearly, the controls feel instant. When it doesn't, punches come out late or not at all. This guide covers the setup that works, what each gesture needs to look like, and how to fix the problems people run into most.
1. Set up the camera
- Light from the front, not behind you. A window or lamp behind you turns your hand into a dark silhouette. Face the light instead.
- Arm's length from the camera. Your whole hand, fingers spread, should take up roughly a fifth of the picture. Too close and fingers leave the frame; too far and the tracker can't tell a fist from a palm.
- Plain background helps. A wall behind you is better than a busy bookshelf or another person moving around.
- Phone: hold it sideways. The game is designed for landscape. Prop the phone against something so it stays still and both hands are free.
- One hand per player. In two-player mode the left half of the camera controls player one and the right half controls player two. Keep your hand on your side.
2. The five gestures
| Gesture | What the camera needs to see | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ✋ Open palm | All five fingers spread, palm facing the camera. Tilt your hand left or right to move. | Move |
| ☝️ Raised hand | Lift your open hand above the middle of the picture. | Jump |
| ✊ Fist | Fingers fully curled. A half-closed hand reads as "open" and does nothing. | Punch |
| ✌️ Two fingers | Index and middle finger up, the rest curled. | Kick |
| 🤟 Three fingers | Index, middle and ring finger up, thumb and little finger down. | Block |
Make each gesture deliberately and hold it for a fraction of a second. Flicking between shapes too fast is the most common reason a move "doesn't register": the tracker sees a blur of half-shapes and ignores them. A clear fist followed by a clear open palm is the rhythm of a good punch combo.
3. Fixing common problems
"The camera never turns on"
Your browser asks for camera permission the first time you start a match. If you dismissed it, click the camera icon in the address bar (desktop) or open the site settings (phone) and allow the camera, then start the fight again. Safari on iPhone needs iOS 14.3 or newer. If another app or tab is already using the camera, close it first.
"It works but my fighter reacts late"
Late reactions usually mean the phone or laptop is struggling to run the tracker. Close other tabs, plug in a laptop that is on battery, and lower the screen brightness if the device is hot. On older phones, switch to the on-screen touch buttons: tap the hand icon in the match screen to turn tracking off, and the buttons appear.
"Punches come out as kicks" (or the other way round)
Your fingers are probably not fully separated. Spread the two fingers for a kick into a clear V, and keep the thumb tucked. For a punch, curl the thumb over the fingers so the outline is a round ball.
"The game moves my fighter when I'm not doing anything"
An open hand that drifts left or right counts as movement. Keep the hand upright and centred when you don't want to move, or close it into a fist between actions.
4. Keyboard and touch backups
Hand tracking is optional. Player one can always use A/D to move, W to jump, S to block, F to punch and G to kick. Player two uses the arrow keys with K to punch and L to kick. On phones, touch buttons appear automatically whenever tracking is off.