[HELP] XWAU won't load through Steam Library/Steam VR

[Samas990]

[HELP]
Heya folks! I've seen a few topics like my situation, but nothing that addresses this directly. So here is my situation:

Goal: I'd like to play the XWAU in VR with my Oculus Rift-S through SteamVR.

Problem: The game fails to load whenever I try to load it through the Steam Library; therefore, it won't run through SteamVR/the Rift-S.

-It worked BEFORE I loaded the XWAU MegaPatch through Steam library.

-The game DOES RUN if I open it from the SteamAPPs folder through the Alliance Launcher... but then it doesn't appear on the RIFT-S. Just my screens.

-If I edit the VRParams.cfg to SteamVR Mode, it plays in VR dual-screened properly on my monitors (so that works). But it doesn't show in the Oculus Rift-S headset.

My goal is to just get it to work with either SteamVR OR find a workaround to get the Oculus Rift-S see it through other means.

Here's my tech data & crash info:

a) Currently running XWA 2.02 through STEAM
b) Running Windows 10 Pro; Version 20H2
c) I installed the (1) XWVA 2020 Mega Patch followed by the (2) XWAU202 Version 1.1 Patch
d) I ran the Hook Setup Tool as suggested
e) Here is my crash data from Event Viewer:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Description:
Faulting application name: XWingAlliance.exe, version: 2.0.0.2, time stamp: 0x3765a9b7
Faulting module name: gameoverlayrenderer.dll, version: 6.28.18.86, time stamp: 0x5fdfd977
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00074951
Faulting process id: 0x5138
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6fb07a18415ee
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars X-Wing Alliance\XWingAlliance.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\gameoverlayrenderer.dll
Report Id: 38d28154-d608-4867-94e6-0d7ffe7a17e7
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

--Thanks everyone!--

[blue_max]

You don't need to load the game through Steam. What I usually do is run SteamVR first. Just get it to run and leave it there. It should recognize your Rift-S. Once that's working, just run xwingalliance.exe directly from the SteamApps directory (or you can use the launcher as well). You'll have to use either Babu Frik to configure the game to use SteamVR or you can manually edit VRParams.cfg and CockpitLook.cfg to get them both to use SteamVR.

I'm not sure the crash you're reporting is related to xwingalliance.exe. The gameoverlayrenderer is probably a Steam product. You can also try disabling that.

Personally, whenever I want to play in SteamVR mode, I actually use the GoG version of XWA.