Is it possible to start up ED without Oculus also starting?

[NeilF]

I think I may have covered this before, but can't recall the answer...

I typically do not run ED in VR, yet, when I launch ED (in regular monitor mode), the Oculus launcher is seemingly fired off by ED. And of course if you close it, ED closes too.

Is there a simple/friendly way around this?

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

You have several options...

Set the Windows service called Oculus VR Runtime Service to Manual startup. You will then need to manually start it (duh!) before you want to play in the Rift.

I use EDProfiler to run a custom file (script) to stop/start the service as necessary when I switch between 2D and VR.

Use Oculus Tray Tool to start/stop the service as needed (probably the most user-friendly method).

I also have two shortcuts on the taskbar* pointing to a batch file that stops/starts the service (*you could also have the shortcut on the desktop, it's a bit easier to do).

 

[NeilF]

Thanks...

So if I do that (Set the Windows service called Oculus VR Runtime Service to Manual startup) that would mean if I then did want to use VR, I'd have to manually start it. ie: Simply running Oculus would do that?

Yeh, I think this is where I got to last time when discussing this... and I decided the easiest solution was just to leave it be and for Oculus to needlessly start up?

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

So if I do that (Set the Windows service called Oculus VR Runtime Service to Manual startup) that would mean if I then did want to use VR, I'd have to manually start it. ie: Simply running Oculus would do that?

You will have to manually start the Oculus service and then run the Oculus app (the app will not start the service). If you want the simplest solution just use Oculus Tray Tool, leave it running in the taskbar - you can just right-click on the icon to start/stop/restart the service.

 

[The Lawful]

There's a launcher option "/novr" that switches off VR altogether, possibly that solves it without messing with Services. I created a copy of the launcher link on the desktop and added that switch to the command line, so I can boot Elite with or without VR. Can't tell if Oculus still starts up when specifying that option, but I guess not, can't verify right now, though.

O7,
[noob]

 

[Alec Turner]

I spent a lot of time on this and there's a few things that I now do. The first, as MAIN SEQUENCE has said, is to set the OVRService to manual startup. In addition what I then have are two shortcuts on my desktop, one labelled "Start Oculus" and the other labelled "Stop Oculus". The "target" properties of these shortcuts are 'net start OVRservice' and 'net stop OVRService' respectively. So, when I boot my PC, by default Oculus is basically Off. If I'm going to run ED in VR (or any other VR game for that matter) I simply double-click my "Start Oculus" shortcut first. When I've finished with the Oculus I just double-click the "Stop Oculus" shortcut.

This has benefits outside of ED. With OVRService running, there's a chance that the proximity sensor inside the headset can be activated accidentally (e.g. I keep my headset in a dust free fleece bag which tends to trigger it). If this happens then your headset will power on without you realising (and this is why you might find that your headset is quite hot when you pick it up even tho you haven't been using it). It's reasonable to assume that this might also reduce the lifespan of the headset.

There's also a secondary problem when you do this. If you run your normal desktop ED launcher with Oculus Off (even if you've used EDProfiler to switch to a non-VR profile), you may find that SteamVR then starts up and steals the focus (requiring you to then kill it again). To prevent this I also have two ED shortcuts. One runs the launcher in the normal way, the other has a "/novr" option appended to the normal EDLaunch.exe command (which you'll find in the "Target" property of the ED desktop shortcut). Use the "/novr" shortcut to start ED when you're not using VR and the SteamVR problem goes away.

 

[Alec Turner]

You will have to manually start the Oculus service and then run the Oculus app (the app will not start the service). If you want the simplest solution just use Oculus Tray Tool, leave it running in the taskbar - you can just right-click on the icon to start/stop/restart the service.

I don't know if Tray Tool does this (it seems pretty good but I already had my solution by the time I heard of it) but in fact my Start/Stop shortcuts mentioned above do a little bit more than I said. They actually point to DOS batch files which run both the 'net start/stop' commands AND use a neat little utility called 'nircmd' to switch my audio to the correct output channel.

So my start_oculus.bat file does ..

@echo off
net start OVRService
"D:\Program Files\Nircmd\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Headphones" 1

.. and my stop_oculus.bat file does ''

@echo off
net stop OVRService
"D:\Program Files\Nircmd\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Speakers" 1

You can get nircmd from here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I wrote this script to toggle the OVR service using powershell.
Saved as Toggle_VR.ps1

$Service = "OVRService"

$OVR_service_status = (Get-Service OVRService).Status
if ($OVR_service_status -eq 'stopped'){
    Start-Service $Service
    Write-Host "started service"
}
else{
    stop-service $Service
    Write-host "$Service stopped"
}
Start-Sleep 5

Stored in a my documents folder I named powershell scripts.
Then a shortcut on my desktop where the Target field is:
Adjust the document path as needed.

%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command "& 'D:\Documents\Powershell scripts\Toggle_VR.ps1' "

The "Start in" is:

%windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

This shortcut works like a straight toggle, I just double click the same desktop icon to enable\disable the service.

As for audio, I simply just use my regular wireless logitech cans since it seems my rift's microphone is a tad wonky.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

There's a launcher option "/novr" that switches off VR altogether, possibly that solves it without messing with Services. I created a copy of the launcher link on the desktop and added that switch to the command line, so I can boot Elite with or without VR. Can't tell if Oculus still starts up when specifying that option, but I guess not, can't verify right now, though.

O7,
[noob]

Ah yes I keep forgetting about this method. Just tested it, it works (Oculus app did not start even if service is running).

 

[NeilF]

I don't know if Tray Tool does this (it seems pretty good but I already had my solution by the time I heard of it) but in fact my Start/Stop shortcuts mentioned above do a little bit more than I said. They actually point to DOS batch files which run both the 'net start/stop' commands AND use a neat little utility called 'nircmd' to switch my audio to the correct output channel.

So my start_oculus.bat file does ..

@echo off
net start OVRService
"D:\Program Files\Nircmd\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Headphones" 1

.. and my stop_oculus.bat file does ''

@echo off
net stop OVRService
"D:\Program Files\Nircmd\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Speakers" 1

You can get nircmd from here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Yeh, the oculus tray tool will handle the default speakers for you. ie: Swapping them to the OR and then back to what ever you like (eg: standard speaks).

 

[Viajero]

Sorry for necroing this thread but I think it is relevant for my query.

I have recently switched from the Rift to the HP Reverb. I play Elite now directly through SteamVR and do not need Oculus Home at all for it anymore but it keeps popping up.

I was wondering if simply disabling the setting that “enable applications that haven’t been reviewed by Oculus” would work?

The rest of options you have discussed seem really intrusive no?

 

[James Spartan]

Why don't you just uninstall Oculus as you don't need it anymore ?

 

[Viajero]

Why don't you just uninstall Oculus as you don't need it anymore ?

Heh, fair comment. I still want to keep Oculus Home for exclusive Oculus games.

 

[James Spartan]

Then, if you define elitedangerous64.exe in Windows 7 compatibility mode it could maybe do the trick

 

[Alec Turner]

Sorry for necroing this thread but I think it is relevant for my query.

I have recently switched from the Rift to the HP Reverb. I play Elite now directly through SteamVR and do not need Oculus Home at all for it anymore but it keeps popping up.

I was wondering if simply disabling the setting that “enable applications that haven’t been reviewed by Oculus” would work?

The rest of options you have discussed seem really intrusive no?

Not sure if this has changed with recent Oculus updates but what I used to do was stop the Oculus Runtime service (in Windows services) ... and also set its startup to manual so it doesn't restart on reboot. If you ever need Oculus again you can just restart it. I have desktop shortcuts to do this.

STOP: net stop OVRService
START: net start OVRService