Error w- Witcher 1, both Oculus and SteamVR

[jjensson]

I tried to run The Witcher Enhanced Edition (GOG version), but i get the following error:

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Oculus runtime init failed. vorpX will not work correctly.
Try to restart the Oculus Software or your PC.

Switching vorpX to SteamVR mode may help in some cases.

Oculus runtime error:
Couldn’t connect to the OVR Service. (-3003)
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I tried the suggestion and switched to Steam VR, and got the following error:

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The OpenVR (SteamVR) runtime does not seem to be installed.
This is a severe problem. Please reinstall SteamVR.
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The game starts with the VorpX logo in it, but it doesn’t respond to shortcuts, and i even saw a message saying that the framerate i 0 fps (can’t remember exactly).

I can’t for the life of me figure out what the problem is. I reinstalled the Oculus software, i rebooted, i changed the USB port. Made sure OculusClient is running, made sure SteamVR was running. No luck at all.

I read other people are using Rift S with no problems, so there’s gotta be a problem on my end. Maybe i’m missing something. Maybe it’s related to my other issue i posted about (the spinning view of the Desktop Viewer and some games).

[jjensson]

I figured out what the problem is. The above problem only occurs if i try to run this combo on a non-admin Windows 10 account.

As soon as i switch to an admin account, the problem is gone. I finally managed to try out Witcher 1! Didn’t test with SteamVR, but it’s probably the same.

I don’t know why this happens, but i think it shouldn’t. I wonder if i’m the only one who uses a non-default (non-admin) account in Win10, so i’m the first to notice? My Windows install and those accounts are fresh, so we are not talking about a corrupted system here.

Any thoughts, Ralf? And maybe the possibility for a fix? For now i’m glad that i can switch the account and still play, but it’s not the cleanest solution. :)

[Ralf]

When you start a game that requires admin rights (like The Witcher) from a restricted account, it is executed on your admin account, which probably is the reason why it can’t connect to the Oculus runtime. You’d have to contact Oculus support about that, but likely they won’t care since no native app/game requires admin rights.

BTW: Running vorpX as admin in your scenario is also less than ideal. Like many other apps/games vorpX stores a few things in a user specific folder (e.g. background images for cinema mode). Since running an app with admin rights on a restricted account always implies running it with a different user account, you have two different user folders and probably will wonder later why things behave differently when you run vorpX as admin/non-admin.

None of the above is a vorpX issue, just ‘perfectly normal’ side effects of running programs that require admin rights from a restricted account.

Bottom line: don’t use a restricted account on a home PC, doubly so if you want to use older games/apps that require admin rights. Doesn’t really have any security advantages since UAC was introduced in Windows Vista, but causes a lot of small and sometimes larger hiccups. Restricted accounts only really make sense if as an admin you want to limit another user’s access to the system. For an account you are using yourself restricted rights don’t make much sense these days.

[jjensson]

Yes, security concerns were the main reason for using a restricted account. Especially after hearing people often saying “don’t ever use an admin account with Windows”. But i could never find good info about this.

I guess it’s time to go back to my normal account. :)

[Ralf]

That was true in the past on Windows XP, but since User Account Control (the nag screens when you want to do something that requires admin rights) has been introduced with Vista it’s pretty much pointless in regard to security concerns. A normal account doesn’t really have more rights than a restricted account unless you confirm the UAC dialog when it pops up.

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