How To Launch Pirated Games For Quest Users Who Use Virtual Desktop
If you have ever downloaded your pcvr games from Rookies pcvr or the ARMGDDN Browser chances are your repacks already came with a shortcut for VD which points to a VD bat. But sometimes you might get a game from elsewhere and not know what to do. I will tell you how to make your own VD.bat and if its too confusing i also wrote a batmaker in batch to make it easier which I will post at the bottom of this rentry. A VD.bat is just a way of launching the games exe against the VD streamer with arguments if needed. It fixes many issues that otherwise might occur and gives better performance. No other way comes close and this way works the same way 100%.
I may be some random guy to you and you may be wondering why you should listen to me. I say don't listen to me, listen to Guy Godin. He is the one who passed us this info years ago. VD doesn't work well with pirated games by design. You used to be able to add pirated games to the launch game menu very easily but when it was moved from itch and sidequest to the oculus store this changed to make oculus happy. This is the method that he came up with as a workaround and over the years with all the changes to the app we have had to change a few things ... for example if you download certain games of ours you will find a more advanced vd.bat from before vdxr existed... it auto switches your openxr runtime for the game and then back after. Some games required a specific runtime or wouldnt work so this was a way to further make game launching easy, flawless, and stress free for the user... but that's neither here nor there.
Instructions On How To Make A VD.bat Manually
NOTE
Important setup step! Open your VD streamer and set the openxr to VDXR to remove steam from the picture and get a huge boost. This also helps to have touch controllers in game as well. AUTO will rarely if ever use VDXR
So for example say the game is Blade & Sorcery my first step would be to look up the game on steamdb
Then you go to the configuration section and this tells me that only SteamVR headsets need an argument for this game. Oculus headsets require none! So if i was on a Vive or Index i would use the arguments but Im on a quest 2 so no arguments needed.
Start off by making the bat file
- To make a bat, open any text editor and the first step is to input the VD streamer path (in quotes in case of spaces in the path). For me and anyone using the default location that is
"C:\Program Files\Virtual Desktop Streamer\VirtualDesktop.Streamer.exe"
- The next step is the games exe. You do not need the full path here so it will just be
"BladeAndSorcery.exe"
NOTE If a game has a shipping exe that is the one you want to use. What is a shipping exe? If a game has a shipping exe it almost always has a regular exe in the main folder there as a decoy. This is not a real exe and all it does is point to the shipping exe. To find the shipping exe look for a folder named after the game, no abbreviations and no _data at the end. So if the game is again blade and sorcery a folder named BladeAndSorcery likely has a shipping exe hidden in its subfolder but if its called BandS or BladeAndSorcery_data then it likely has no shipping exe. Once you find the folder named after the game and then you will need to look a bit, usually it will have a bin or binaries folder inside and then another one named x86x64 or win64 or something like that and then inside that folder you will find the shipping exe. Very often the shipping exe has the word shipping in it... for example BladeAndSorcery-win64-shipping.exe would be a likely name. Blade and Sorcery doesnt HAVE shipping exe but this is just an example. Use the shipping exe if it exists instead of the decoy exe. NOT EVERY GAME HAS A SHIPPING EXE
- Then normally you would put the arguments after the exe on the other side of the quotes, but again I am on a Quest 2 so no need for arguments.
NOTE
If we had a SteamVR headset at this part we would add -vrmode openvr
to the end.
- Now the bat is ready and should look like
- Save and close the text file, changing the extension to .bat instead of .txt and name it whatever you want. I always call it vd.bat but does not need to be called that.
NOTE
To do step 5 you will need "extensions for known file types" on, most people have it on already but if not its easy to do using this tutorial
- Now here is the important bit, you need to put the VD bat near the games exe (the one from step 2)
- Now you can use that to launch the game directly or you can make a shortcut to it and put it anywhere and use it from anywhere.
In Conclusion
- Make a VD.bat and put it near the exe
- Launch VD in headset
- Use the VD bat to launch the game.
- WIN
ARMGDDN Batmaker For VD Users
So i know some of you either tried to follow along above and said "HUH WTF!?" or just took 1 look and said "No way that is too much fuck this" Not everyone is as tech literate and i get that. So i also make a batmaker which makes it easier to make a VD bat and i recorded a tutorial as well for those that need a visual aid.
Automatic Batmaker Instructions
NOTE
Important setup step! Open your VD streamer and set the openxr to VDXR to remove steam from the picture and get a huge boost. This also helps to have touch controllers in game as well. AUTO will rarely if ever use VDXR
- First download the batmaker here or here
- Find the games exe. The shipping exe should be used if it exists
NOTE If a game has a shipping exe that is the one you want to use. What is a shipping exe? If a game has a shipping exe it almost always has a regular exe in the main folder there as a decoy. This is not a real exe and all it does is point to the shipping exe. To find the shipping exe look for a folder named after the game, no abbreviations and no _data at the end. So if the game is blade and sorcery a folder named BladeAndSorcery likely has a shipping exe hidden in its subfolder but its called BandS or BladeAndSorcery_data then it likely has no shipping exe. Once you find the folder named after the game and then you will need to look a bit, usually it will have a bin or binaries folder inside and then another one named x86x64 or win64 or something like that and then inside that folder you will find the shipping exe. Very often the shipping exe has the word shipping in it... for example BladeAndSorcery-win64-shipping.exe would be a likely name. Blade and Sorcery does not HAVE a shipping exe but this is just an example. Use the shipping exe if it exists instead of the decoy exe. NOT EVERY GAME HAS A SHIPPING EXE
- Drag and drop the games exe onto the icon of the CLOSED batmaker and then follow the prompts. You can tell you are doing it right if you hover the game exe over the closed batmaker because it will say "+ Open with ARMGDDN_Batmaker_By_DMPv3.bat"
- At this point you will want to search steamdb.info for your game and then go to the configuration section and see if any arguments are needed. In the example above we used blade and sorcery as an example and no arguments were needed. Lets continue to use this as an example. So in this case I would hit enter instead of entering any arguments
- The batmaker is done, you can either hit enter again to end it or wait the 3 seconds for it to end on its own
- Once the bat closes this will AUTOMAGICALLY create the VD.bat in the same folder as the exe (and not the batmaker).
- Now you can use that to launch the game directly or you can make a shortcut to it and put it anywhere and use it from anywhere.
Important Note
The VD batmaker assumes you are using the default install location for the VD streamer. If you are not using the default location, I suggest reinstalling to the default location (which is "C:\Program Files\Virtual Desktop Streamer\VirtualDesktop.Streamer.exe"
) or you edit my batmaker (if you know what you are doing) to reflect your custom path or lastly you can edit the final VD.bat to point to your custom install location. THE VD BAT WONT WORK OTHERWISE
Tutorial Video On How to Use The Batmaker
RANDOM VD INFO
[2024 UPDATED GUIDE] Virtual Desktop setup, settings, and launch tutorial
Virtual Desktop's New OpenXR Runtime Bypasses SteamVR To Boost Performance
Air Link (ASW) vs Virtual Desktop (SSW) - VIDEO
Virtual Desktop VR Streaming Gets 'Synchronous Spacewarp' On Quest 2+
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