How do I stop Steam (I think) closing my game when I'm not playing in VR

[Dagwit]

I almost always play in VR but I'm doing some data collection at the moment so I'm trying to play flatscreen.

I have a Reverb and so am using WMR and Steam VR. I've noticed that in VR if the game doesn't get any input for ten minutes or so it auto-closes. I'm assuming this has something to do with Steam VR. It does this whether I'm playing my Steam or my non-Steam ED account.

This isn't a huge problem - as long as I'm playing in VR. But when I play my non-Steam account flatscreen - well, first of all, WMR and Steam VR insist on starting even though the non-Steam version of the game is starting in flatscreen mode. Second the game crashes after ten minutes or so. Except I suspect it's not crashing so much as it's being shut down by whatever shuts the game down after ten minutes of inactivity in VR - after all, there's been ten minutes of inactivity in VR.

I've checked the Microsoft VR settings and the settings for Steam and Steam VR, and the only setting I can see that might be relevant is in Startup/Shutdown in Steam VR, 'Exit SteamVR after' - but I have it set to 'Never', so

Does anyone have any idea of what's going on and how to stop it? I'm trying to gather data on the frequency of different types of hotspots in icy rings and it's not going well!

Edit: I tried killing the VR software as soon as it starts - that kills the game. I tried killing all the Steam processes in Task Manager - it made no difference.

 

[aXeL]

ED Profiler might take care of this for you. Personally though, I found ED Profiler a PIA to get working so I just keep a shortcut to device manager on my desktop. A couple of clicks and I disable the headset and then pancake works normally. SteamVR still loads but I can kill it straight away with no impact.

 

[Dagwit]

Solved the immediate problem by downloading the beta for my alt - Steam - account and starting that account using the Steam non-VR option at launch. Once I'm done with my immediate task I'll also check whether running ED in a window rather than borderless as I did with my main account makes a difference, and if I'm still having problems I'll try using device manager as suggested above.

 

[aXeL]

Well done, I didn't think of that. I hope it's a bit less clunky than my approach

 

[nrgbubus]

When i play from monitor i just rename the openvr folder. EDLaunch\Products\elite-dangerous-64\Openvr
and steamvr won't run. If I need to play with my index I just rename again this folder.

 

[BurntJello]

I almost always play in VR but I'm doing some data collection at the moment so I'm trying to play flatscreen.

I have a Reverb and so am using WMR and Steam VR. I've noticed that in VR if the game doesn't get any input for ten minutes or so it auto-closes. I'm assuming this has something to do with Steam VR. It does this whether I'm playing my Steam or my non-Steam ED account.

This isn't a huge problem - as long as I'm playing in VR. But when I play my non-Steam account flatscreen - well, first of all, WMR and Steam VR insist on starting even though the non-Steam version of the game is starting in flatscreen mode. Second the game crashes after ten minutes or so. Except I suspect it's not crashing so much as it's being shut down by whatever shuts the game down after ten minutes of inactivity in VR - after all, there's been ten minutes of inactivity in VR.

I've checked the Microsoft VR settings and the settings for Steam and Steam VR, and the only setting I can see that might be relevant is in Startup/Shutdown in Steam VR, 'Exit SteamVR after' - but I have it set to 'Never', so

Does anyone have any idea of what's going on and how to stop it? I'm trying to gather data on the frequency of different types of hotspots in icy rings and it's not going well!

Edit: I tried killing the VR software as soon as it starts - that kills the game. I tried killing all the Steam processes in Task Manager - it made no difference.

I have never experienced HMD idle time causing SteamVR to close a game. It could be the WMR runtime trying to save power by shutting itself down?

Other solutions I know of:

If the HMD is powered, quitting SteamVR will also quit the game with it.
Solution: Unplug the power from your HMD before starting the game. You can now close SteamVR without the game closing. (this is how it behaves with Vive)

Option 2: Start the launcher with "/novr" parameter.
Downside, you'll have to quit the launcher and re-login to allow VR again.
Note: This is what steam does when launched in "not VR" mode. As such, I never open the launcher from steam. Starting the game from the launcher alone allows you to switch in and out of VR by setting the option in-game (but SteamVR will be running the entire time).

 

[aXeL]

If a WMR headset doesn't detect it's been used for a period, Windows will shut it down. My easy fix was to drop a piece of paper, tissue, crisp packet.. anything really, behind the sensor which sees whether I'm wearing it or not. Headset never turns off.