Why won't VR run in standalone game?

When I try to run my VR app as a standalone game i get the following message in the log:

LogHMD: Warning: Standalone game VR not supported, please use VR Preview.

Also should be noted the console command ovrversion returns nothing, even though I have oculus vr plugin enabled.

Whats the problem here?

Standalone game does not support VR, just like the LogHMD warning said.

Is there a specific reason for this? My game runs at around 300 FPS without VR while using the standalone game. Whenever I package it up and run it, it is down to between 60 and 70. When I add VR, that drops to 30-44 fps.

I feel like if I could enable VR on my standalone game mode, it would run much better and I can get the results that I am looking for. Any ideas on how that can happen, or any potential workarounds?

ouch 30-44 fps is low, how bi is your map?