For which hmd? dk2, cv1 or vive?
Not in my experience. If you have SteamVR turned off and boot E: D from the launcher it plays on the monitor. I do that for my exploration account as galaxy map in VR is hard to manipulate. When I want to run VR, I run SteamVR, wait until it says "Ready" then boot the game from the launcher and into the game it goes for Vive.No, you don't. If you have a Vive, you can start start Elite standalone and it will start SteamVR automatically.
Not in my experience. If you have SteamVR turned off and boot E: D from the launcher it plays on the monitor. I do that for my exploration account as galaxy map in VR is hard to manipulate. When I want to run VR, I run SteamVR, wait until it says "Ready" then boot the game from the launcher and into the game it goes for Vive.
Different for for different people I think. I make sure steam VR is not running, then actually exit steam, then start voice attack (required for VR imho), and then finally ED launcher. ED starts up in VR fine. The little steam VR status window never even comes up, but the headset powers up and works fine, at least for me. And when I quit ED the headset shuts down. I have no idea why it doesn't work for some.
Regarding quality differences, you need to try yourself and compare. Some say there is a diff, some say no.i thought there was a huge difference the first time I tried with the launcher outside steam, but later tried steam again and didn't see the big difference I had noticed at first. Regardless, I still run direct without steam.
-David
It has been already stated by FD that Elite REQUIRES steamVR to be able to work with Vive. If you don't open steamVR manually before opening the game (or launch it using steam), Elite itself will start steamVR hidden in background to be able to work with Vive. You can confirm this by looking at the running processes in the advanced view from task manager.
I'm sorry but I don't remember in which post this was explained, and I don't have time right now to thorougly search for it. But you can confirm it by yourself anyway.
The only thing steam does is add the steam overlay, which can be disabled easily in the properties of the game. That may be the difference some people notice.
I can run Elite directly from the launcher without Steam VR running and it will launch in VR mode. Or I can launch Steam VR and then ED and again it will run in VR mode. I find I get stuttering when playing with Steam VR running. So I turn on Steam VR and then switch it off before starting ED. The game runs smoother than and is still in VR mode.