I have no command line options set but the game launches in VR anyway. I just want to play normal mode...

Same here. Even if I launch the basic Obduction shortcut on the start menu it still launches Vive VR. I've read places where you can crash the VR service after launching the game, but that doesn't work for me either. As soon as I close VR using any method, it also closes the game.

Help here too. I did it yesterday, not sure how though. I decided to play it flat because reading texts are just too hard to read in VR mode. Went back to play it today, and pretty much everything I did automatically brought up Steam VR.

The closest I got was just having Steam VR run in the background and I was able to get it to launch normally on my monitor, but the frame rate was cut in half!

Same here.
Obduction can be played in VR and 2D and vice versa and that immediately. Problem is Sound!
The sound is always routed to the VR device, even if I switch settings in Windows Mixer. Playing without sound is lame.

No, I didn't test it yet, because it's kind of inconvenient. Removing the Oculus is easy as I only have to pull the cable, but when I want to use it again I have to crawl under the desk, get me some flashlight and trying to fumble the plug in again.
I don't want to do this more than once a day.... ;)

Slight technical point: whether it's played on a flat screen or it's played on a VR rig, it's all "3d"....;) There's an X & Y axis, with the Z axis being simulated to create the illusion of depth. Please, it was bad enough when people started calling stereoscopy "3d"--I don't think we should muddy the water again with another inept buzzword. You couldn't explain the difference between stereoscopy and 3d API graphics (D3d, Vulkan, etc.) to those people at all. They didn't understand the mix of the two at all.

Same problem, even though I have NO VR plugged in. I have to click off the small pop up screen.

Had the same problem, however, I have a .bat file that disable the Oculus runtime for games that I dont want to play VR in and it works great with Obuction aswell, of course

Yeah, I know, 2 years late but better than never I guess

Try this:
Navigate to where the game is installed, right click on the .exe file and create a shortcut. Now open up the properties of the shortcut, make sure you are in the shortcut tab, and in the target field after the final quotation mark add -nohmd. Good luck!

I ran into the same issue here with sound coming out of my oculus headset when launching with the -nohmd option. However, I believe I've found a fix (even though it's about 2 years after your post). Go to engine.ini file in C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Obduction\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor and under [Oculus.Settings] put a ; in front of the line that says AudioOutputDevice... You then must make this file Read Only because it will rewrite the file every time you start and quit the game. Just right click on the file, properties, tick the box for read only and ok. Unfortunately, the Cyan logo music will still come out of your headset, but the game will play sound out of your default device.