Steam VR second instance when launching application

[LegendBacon]

Hello everyone,

So I've been developing a VR application for a client over the past few months, and have recently sent them the first ALPHA Build. Since everything works on my different machines, I was hoping they wouldn't encounter issues. But of course they did.

After a little investigation, I found out what is causing the problem on their end: For some reason, Steam VR starts twice when launching my app. The first instance has everything in the green, and is working and ready. The second one however, detects nothing and simply says "Not Ready". And of course, my app gets linked to the wrong instance (If I close the "not ready" instance, my app shuts down as well).

After looking into this further, I realized that their security settings are much higher than mine. Every time they launch my app, Windows Smartscreen pops up and says "Windows protected your PC". It shows my company name as the publisher, and the name of the app. Then, by clicking on "more info" I can access the "Run anyways" button and launch the app. Then, it starts the second instance and nothing works anymore.

I've tried temporarily disabling SmartScreen and enabling "Launching applications and unsafe files" under Internet Options. After doing that it works fine, but obviously I can't ask all my clients to just disable their security settings to run my app.

My guess is that Windows doesn't "trust" my app to access running processes (namely the green "Ready" SteamVR), so by default it starts a second one. But since the first one is already using the hardware, the second one is left with nothing.


Specs & details:
- App is developed with Unity 5.6.2f1,
- Steam VR version is 1504061330,
- Works on my machines with Win 10 and 7 (Home),
- Doesn't work on client's machine with Win 10 (Home),
- I've tried unchecking the "Start SteamVR when an application starts" without success,
- I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling both the app and SteamVR on client's machine.


Does anyone have a better guess, or even a solution to this problem? I've been trying to fix this on my own for way too long.

Best,
LegendBacon

[Programmer Joe]

Hi Mr. Bacon,

Can you provide a SteamVR system report when this happens? You can use Report a Bug in SteamVR to do that.

If SteamVR is already running when you start your app does it start a second process then too?

Is this only happening when launching the app after downloading it from the internet? I'm not sure why an internet option would affect something like this.


Joe

[LegendBacon]

Hi Programmer Joe,

And thank you for the quick reply.

I've got both log files with me, but I'm not sure how to post them. I tried just copying and pasting, but they are way too long and I get an error saying my comment is too long. How can I post log files and screenshots to this forum?


As for your additional questions:

1) If SteamVR is already running when you start your app does it start a second process then too?

=> Yes it does. I've just tested it again to make sure, but apparently it doesn't matter if SteamVR was open or not when I launch the app. If it was, then it opens the second instance. If it wasn't, then it opens both (taking a couple more seconds).
I looked at the Task Manager details when the bug happens, and this is what I saw:

• The "vrcompositor.exe" process is running once.
  
• The "vrdashboard.exe" process is running once.
  
• The "vrserver.exe" process is running once.
  
• The "vrmonitor.exe" process is running twice. The first instance takes 21K of memory, while the second one is only at 9K.

2) Is this only happening when launching the app after downloading it from the internet? I'm not sure why an internet option would affect something like this.

=> I've read somewhere that on Windows 10 Internet Options can also affect local apps regarding the SmartScreen block. I've tested it with both local and downloaded installs, and the bug behaves the same way.



I hope this information can be of use to you.

Best Regards,
LegendBacon

[LegendBacon]

Hello,

For additional info, I've put the log files and screenshots on google drive. You can find them here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bw1paDcmaF31WFZFVkZ5ZERSRWs?usp=sharing

Hopefully they shed some light on the situation.

Best,
LegendBacon

[LegendBacon]

Hello,

I was wrong posting on this forum, as my issue had nothing to do with SteamVR itself.
To anyone facing this problem in the future, it was indeed a Windows security issue.
The solution I found was to make sure to always run my app as an administrator / with elevated rights.

Now because I can't expect my clients to right click -> Run as Administrator every time, I made a mini-launcher that asks for elevated rights, then launches my app. From this point on I stopped having issues. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Best,
LegendBacon