Steam/Oculus Home installation questions

[Romeo Alpha]

So from reading here and there I think I've learned it's not the greatest idea to install and use ED from the Oculus Store if you have it on Steam, which I do. Well, before reading the warnings I did it and everything seems to be running a little haywire now.

What's the best way to fix it? Uninstalling both and reinstalling the Steam version and just using that. Once I get everything situated again what is the best way to switch between VR and 2D without losing the respective settings?

Thanks for the help.

PS ... VR is amazing Now I just need to get it running the right way again!

 

[vanfanel]

I think just having one installation (steam/home) will get rid of your problems.

Now this is just my experience and may not apply to you but I just use oculus home for Elite. You can launch it in 2D as well from home (right click->Start in Desktop Mode) I and a few others noticed decreased performance when running from steam. I don't know why but I noticed I kept triggering ASW (45fps) in certain areas. Once I switched over to home the drops went away in the same areas. Perhaps it was just a coincidence but I've seen others report similar things. That said this was a long time ago and others have had no problems with the steam version. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Romeo Alpha]

I think just having one installation (steam/home) will get rid of your problems.

Now this is just my experience and may not apply to you but I just use oculus home for Elite. You can launch it in 2D as well from home (right click->Start in Desktop Mode) I and a few others noticed decreased performance when running from steam. I don't know why but I noticed I kept triggering ASW (45fps) in certain areas. Once I switched over to home the drops went away in the same areas. Perhaps it was just a coincidence but I've seen others report similar things. That said this was a long time ago and others have had no problems with the steam version. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for the reply. I did notice with Steam I would get areas of 45 fps which I thought was odd. Maybe I'll try the Oculus version. I didn't realize you could launch a the 2D version from Home. Do your graphics setting remain separate when you launch VR vs 2D?

 

[vanfanel]

Actually, for multiple configurations this is probably your best tool: http://www.drkaii.com/tools/edprofiler/

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

So from reading here and there I think I've learned it's not the greatest idea to install and use ED from the Oculus Store if you have it on Steam, which I do. Well, before reading the warnings I did it and everything seems to be running a little haywire now.

What's the best way to fix it? Uninstalling both and reinstalling the Steam version and just using that. Once I get everything situated again what is the best way to switch between VR and 2D without losing the respective settings?

Thanks for the help.

PS ... VR is amazing Now I just need to get it running the right way again!

I would personally uninstall both, and install the standalone version from frontier.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

There is no more reason to use steam than there is anything else.
Use the method of launching that is easiest for you.

I had been using just the standalone launcher, but for the last few months that seemed to cause random graphic settings resets and launching from within oculus has been more reliable.

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

I would personally uninstall both, and install the standalone version from frontier.

Same here.

 

[dape]

I would personally uninstall both, and install the standalone version from frontier.

This

 

[Alec Turner]

Actually, for multiple configurations this is probably your best tool: http://www.drkaii.com/tools/edprofiler/

I would personally uninstall both, and install the standalone version from frontier.

Another vote for both of these. EDProfiler is perfect for maintaining both a VR configuration and a non-VR configuration (with different graphics settings, control bindings, HUD colours, etc). And as for the installation, Steam and Oculus Home are just different launch platforms really, the underlying game is the same. By installing the desktop shortcut version from Frontier you're getting the purest version of the game (i.e. not wrapped up in any extraneous layers of software from either Oculus or Steam). That said, if you originally bought from Steam then I don't know how easy it is to get a simple desktop installation without paying again (it must be possible, I'm just not 100% sure how). The other thing to say about not using Steam or Oculus versions of the game is that they deprive Frontier of a little bit of revenue ... for no good reason really. That said, in your case it's too late since both Steam and Oculus will have already taken their cut. Never mind.

Hope you get this sorted soon, ED in VR is AWESOME!

 

[mp4x]

Another vote for both of these. EDProfiler is perfect for maintaining both a VR configuration and a non-VR configuration (with different graphics settings, control bindings, HUD colours, etc). And as for the installation, Steam and Oculus Home are just different launch platforms really, the underlying game is the same. By installing the desktop shortcut version from Frontier you're getting the purest version of the game (i.e. not wrapped up in any extraneous layers of software from either Oculus or Steam). That said, if you originally bought from Steam then I don't know how easy it is to get a simple desktop installation without paying again (it must be possible, I'm just not 100% sure how). The other thing to say about not using Steam or Oculus versions of the game is that they deprive Frontier of a little bit of revenue ... for no good reason really. That said, in your case it's too late since both Steam and Oculus will have already taken their cut. Never mind.

Hope you get this sorted soon, ED in VR is AWESOME!

A quick way to tell if you can download it is to login to you FD account @ https://www.frontierstore.net/downloadable/customer/products/
You'll see something like:

I mainly run through the Steam version, but also Oculus and sometimes direct from the launcher. I use ED profiler and launching the game is a few clicks EDProfiler > Display Option > Launch. Like the others have said, it's a neat tool.

Visual aids because I'm feeling screenshotty

 

[mp4x]

Also, if you exit Steam and just launch the EDLaunch.exe from the Steam library location (for me it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\EDLaunch.exe - which is launched from EDProfiler) and not from within the Steam application library, what you're doing is loading the Frontier client. If you notice, even the 'Steam' logo is removed from the bottom right of the FD Launcher screen.

There is no reason to download it again, just exit Steam if you like and run the game directly

 

[Para Handy]

Also, if you exit Steam and just launch the EDLaunch.exe from the Steam library location (for me it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\EDLaunch.exe - which is launched from EDProfiler) and not from within the Steam application library, what you're doing is loading the Frontier client. If you notice, even the 'Steam' logo is removed from the bottom right of the FD Launcher screen.

There is no reason to download it again, just exit Steam if you like and run the game directly

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


[up]

 

[Romeo Alpha]

Thanks for all the replies. Its starting to make sense. I don't have an option to download from Frontier since I originally bought from Steam. I do know that if I use the ED desktop icon to launch the game Steam doesn't open and I go directly to the game launcher. So it seems this is the method I should use.

So to make sure I have this right:

-Use desktop shortcut/icon the launch the game

-Use ED Profiler to manage 2D and VR settings (is it as simple as picking which profile you want to use and then hitting 'apply' and 'launch' at the bottom?)

And lastly, how do you switch between VR and 2D in game or does it launch the corect version based on the profile you set from ED Profiler?

i appreciate all the help. I've been out of PC gaming for a long time and it's just slightly overwhelming LOL. Came out of retirement to play ELite in VR. It's all slowly coming back. I had the VR part running perfectly for a day until all my settings got messed up because I cloudnt figure out how to switch between 2D and VR.

 

[Alec Turner]

And lastly, how do you switch between VR and 2D in game or does it launch the corect version based on the profile you set from ED Profiler?

^^^ this

Essentially the VR/3D setting you see in EDProfiler determines whether you're going to start a VR Elite or a 2D Elite.

Note 1: You may have to tick the "enable unknown sources" thing in the Oculus settings to allow VR Elite to start the Oculus software (which will also launch Oculus Home).

Note 2: In fact, when you select your 2D profile in EDProfiler and launch Elite it will still start up Oculus Home even tho it doesn't really need to (I think the way this works is that the Oculus software sees that a bit of software that's "capable" of supporting VR has been launched (irrespective of the VR/3D graphics settings) and starts itself up just in case). If you want to prevent this then you can stop the Windows service that's called "OVRService". I actually have two desktop shortcuts, one called "Stop Oculus" (which is a shortcut to 'net stop OVRService') and one called "Start Oculus" (which is a shortcut to 'net start OVRService'). I've change OVRService in Windows services to be "manual" rather than "automatic" startup and I basically use those two shortcuts to decide for myself when I'm going to be using the Rift and when I'm not.

Note 3: (sorry, this is starting to sound WAY more complicated than I intended it to be) What I'm currently finding is that, with the OVRService stopped, when I launch my 2D Elite, SteamVR spots that Oculus software hasn't caught the ball and decides it's going to have a go instead. SteamVR pops up, then realises it can't access the headset (because I've explicitly stopped its software) and then complains (stealing the focus away from my fullscreen ED window).

Sheesh! Software eh?

 

[Romeo Alpha]

Thanks, everyone, for all the tips. I think I have everything running perfectly now. By not starting VR through Steam my performance and FPS have significantly improved. I'm a happy camper again.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I haven't needed to use it, but I believe the oculus tray tool also has the feature to disable the running oculus service.
Then again, installing a piece of software to just do what a few commands would seem a bit odd to me.

 

[Alec Turner]

I haven't needed to use it, but I believe the oculus tray tool also has the feature to disable the running oculus service.
Then again, installing a piece of software to just do what a few commands would seem a bit odd to me.

Same here and I resolved my Inatek USB overload issues by re-plugging into different ports, it's a nice bit of software for those that want it tho.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Been googling a bit around this.

Woke at 5 am and nothing better to do.
So watching arrow and googling stuff on the phone.

Although all these usb 3.0 expansion cards tout full 5Gbps bandwidth on any port.
But unless other wise specified the port we plug these cards into are only pci express 1x.
With a bandwidth rated at 250MBps. That's 2Gbps not even half of the rated spec.

If so chances are an expansion board is even more susceptible to flooding than the on-board ports.

I for instance has odd behaviour with my card (not inateck). The oculus cameras doesn't really like it so I have those on the main board.
But the real funny thing was when I had my camera on an extension cord it would work on the card.
It would disconnect randomly but worked.

In fact I sorted my issue by moving my pc, getting a 10m DP cable and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Contemplating on testing this by moving the usb card from it's normal 1x slot into the unused full size slot.