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Guild Wars 2 Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Sep 11, 2015.

  • by booman, Sep 11, 2015 at 1:27 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    guildwars90.jpg

    Guild Wars 2 will satisfy any gamer who wants multi-player, roleplaying, looting, responsive storyline, crafting, pets, character development and of course... Combat!

    guildwars82.jpg

    Guild Wars 2 includes a dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game.

    Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Guild Wars 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

    Note: This guide applies to the Free-To-Play version of Guild Wars 2 downloaded from their website. Other versions may require additional steps.

    Tips & Specs:

    To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

    Mint 17 64-bit
    PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
    Wine: 1.7.49-staging

    Wine Installation

    Click Tools
    Select "Manage Wine Versions"
    wine01.png

    Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.49-staging
    Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

    Select it
    Click the arrow pointing to the right
    wine02.png

    Click Next

    Downloading Wine
    wine04.png

    Extracting

    Downloading Gecko
    wine05.png

    Installed
    wine06.png

    Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window

    Go to: https://www.guildwars2.com/
    Click "Play For Free"
    guildwars01.png

    Signup and login
    guildwars02.png

    Click "Windows Client Download"
    guildwars03.png

    or
    Download the client from here:
    https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2/win

    Save Gw2Setup.exe on your desktop
    guildwars04.png

    PlayOnLinux Setup

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
    guildwars05.png

    Click "Install a non-listed program"
    guildwars06.png

    Click Next

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
    guildwars08.png

    Name your virtual drive: guildwars2
    Click Next
    guildwars09.png

    Check all three options:
    • Use another version of wine
    • Configure Wine
    • Install some libraries
    Click Next
    guildwars10.png

    Select Wine: 1.7.49-staging
    Click Next
    guildwars11.png

    Select "32 bits windows installation"
    Click Next
    guildwars12.png

    Wine Configuration

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
    guildwars13.png

    Graphics Tab
    Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
    Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
    Desktop size: 1024x768
    Click OK
    guildwars14.png

    Installing PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, DLL's, Components)

    Check the following:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_d3dx9
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    Click Next
    guildwars15.png

    Note: All packages will automatically download and install

    Click Browse

    Navigate to your Desktop
    Select "Gw2Setup.exe"
    Click Open
    guildwars17.png

    Click Next

    Loading screen
    guildwars19.png

    Click "Install Guilde Wars 2"
    guildwars20.png

    Click OK
    guildwars21.png

    Sign in
    Wait for preloading...
    Click Ready
    guildwars22.png

    License Agreement
    Click "I Accept"
    guildwars23.png

    Select a server in your area
    guildwars24.png

    Create a character or play as an existing character
    Close Guild Wars 2 and continue with PlayOnLinux

    PlayOnLinux Shortcut

    Select Gw2.exe
    Click Next
    guildwars25.png

    Name the shortcut: Guild Wars 2
    Click Next
    guildwars26.png

    Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
    Click Next
    guildwars27.png

    PlayOnLinux Configure

    Select "Guild Wars 2"
    Click Configure
    guildwars28.png

    General Tab
    Wine version: 1.7.49-staging
    guildwars29.png

    Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

    Display Tab
    Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses
    guildwars30.png

    Close Configure

    Select "Guild Wars 2"
    Click Play
    guildwars31.png

    Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

    Optimization

    Click the gear or press ESC
    Select Options
    guildwars32.png

    Graphics Options

    Adjust:
    • Resolution
    • Refresh Rate
    • Frame Limiter
    • Interface Size
    • Gamma
    Advanced Settings

    Adjust:
    • Animation
    • Environment
    • LOD distance
    • Reflections
    • Textures
    • Render Sampling
    • Shadows
    • Shaders
    • Postprocessing
    • Character Model Limit
    • Character Model Quality
    • Ambient Occlusion
    • Best Texture Filtering
    • Depth Blur
    • Effect LOD
    • High-Res Character Textures
    • Light Adaptation
    All changes happen real-time

    guildwars33.png

    Disable Preloading

    Click the Wrench Icon
    Scroll down to Streaming
    Select "On Demand" from the drop-down menu
    guildwars34.png

    Note: This requires downloading the entire game on next launch, but can improve performance.

    Conclusion:
    Guild Wars 2 installation was simple and straight forward. Launching the game is slow on the first try, but tweaking the graphics requires a bit of patience. Make sure to use an Nvidia Geforce video card and the proprietary Nvidia drivers for best performance. My GeForce 550 Ti was able to run Guild Wars at a playable frame rate, but I was not able to crank all the display settings to high.

    I found that disabling Streaming and turning down Shaders & Antialiasing improved performance without loosing too much eye-candy.

    Gameplay Video:


    Screenshots:
    guildwars99.jpg

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    guildwars102.jpg

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    guildwars104.jpg

    guildwars105.jpg
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2016
    vashin likes this.

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Sep 11, 2015.

  1. booman
    By the way try this as well:
    1. Launch PlayOnLinux
    2. Select Guild Wars 2
    3. Click Configure
    4. General Tab
    5. Type in Arguments: -dx9single
    6. Close Configure
    7. Launch game
    This will force the game to run in Direct X 9

    Also, here is a post about AMD 78xx cards and performance in Linux: Reddit AMD 78xx
  2. Tuna
    First off Booman let me thank-you again for the thorough and in-depth help, advice and research you've been an absolute champ, big, big thank-you.

    On to the problem, sadly I've heard this time and time again about AMD and their cards, sadly I bought this PC a couple of years ago and never thought I would be on Linux so it wasn't really built with Linux in mind - going off on a quick tangent I'm also having an graphic issue running "World at War" where the characters and gun model flicker in and out of visibility - making both Multiplayer and Zombies both very difficult to play (other than that they work fine, frustrating!).

    Anyway, back again to the problem - I've just seen you've posted a new message so I'll give that a quick read and give it a pop tomorrow (It's 1am at the moment so I'm off to bed in a bit!) and I will let you know what the end result is.

    Once again booman I'd like to say how very grateful I am for your time and help, if you use Steam send me a message with your account and if you like I'll buy you a game as a thank-you.

    -Be well & thanks

    Tuna
  3. Tuna
    Quick reply! I read your post and as it seemed quite simple I gave it a go - anyway long story short the "-dx9single" suggestion worked (at least, I was able to see the server list!) so.. tomorrow I'll give it a play and if I have any other issues I'll let you know, otherwise HUGE thank-you Booman!
  4. booman
    Awesome! Great to hear you can actually play now. Were you able to join a server and select a character?
    How does it run with your AMD card?
    Tuna likes this.
  5. Tuna
    Hey Booman, yes I was able to connect to a server and after fiddling and tweaking the settings I managed to get it running at a decent 30/40 fps which is lovely (although as mentioned, the gfx are toned down quite a bit).

    Happily running around and have a level 11 at the moment, so again a huge thank-you.

    I got your message and will reply further with this conversation there! A million thank-yous! :)
  6. booman
    Awesome! I"m happy Guild Wars 2 is working for you. Nice to see it free-to-play, otherwise I wouldn't have ever tested it.
    If you ever get a chance to upgrade your video card, you will probably get better frame rates.
    Tuna likes this.
  7. daconmat321
    Guys, if for some reason you cant log in on the launcher. Go to "configure" on PoL. Then "Wine" and then select "Command Prompt" When it launches the CMD. Type "Netsh firewall set opmode disable" I had to do this so that I could log in and play the game..

    Ty for the original guide OP!
  8. booman
    That is strange, whaich distro are you using?
    daconmat321 likes this.
  9. daconmat321

    I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 64-bit. It wouldn't allow to log in due to firewall so I had to disable it :)
  10. booman
    That should be fine, but I wonder why you had to do that. I never touched my firewall.
    The only time I have touched my firewall is when I'm trying to share files.
    Maybe there is a port you can add for Guild Wars 2 so you can leave your firewall on?
  11. booman
    Here is some information I found Common Error Codes:
  12. vashin
    Following your guide I was able to set this up on Arch Linux LXDE. I am running the GW2-64 Beta client. After setup I changed the wine version to 1.7.54-staging and changed the Arguments under the PlayOnLinux configuration general tab to -dx9single. Never had to change anything under firewall. I did get a message about the firewall at first but that was only because I used the wrong password. Added GW2-64 to run as Windows 10 under the applications tab in winecfg, ticked enable CMST under staging tab. Changed the virtual desktop size to 1366 x 768 to match the size of my display. The game runs good on my laptop. I checked all graphics modes running in ultra is a little slow but it is possible. Great guide and thank you. :)
  13. booman
    No problem!
    Thank you for confirming your settings and performance.
    I didn't even notice Wine Configuration added Windows 10 support.
    I'm glad you are able to play in 64-bit Wine, I have yet to give it a full test because it has been buggy in the past.
    vashin likes this.
  14. Gl3d50N
    Hey guys,

    Congratulation for this guide, I can play GW2 almost perfect in my Linux (Manjaro), I've just one problem, when I'm playing after 5 or 15 minutes, my GW2 lost the connection, and I need restart the game to play again, it happens again and again, I don't know what I need to do, I think it's some firewall, but I don't know how to configure it.

    Can someone help me?

    Thanks!!!
    booman likes this.
  15. booman
    Interesting, I didn't have that issue when I was testing Guild Wars 2. Are you using Wireless for your internet?
    Did you follow this guide exactly?
    You can always try a newer versions of Wine as well. Like 1.9.12-staging
    Gl3d50N likes this.
  16. Gl3d50N
    Yeah, I follow exactly like this guide, and I used the same version of wine, I'll try another version tonight, thanks for support me.

    Almost forgot, I have wireless, but I use wired. When I used with Windows, my only problem was because the port 6112, and I forced to use the port 80, and worked well, now I force again, but not worked.

    If I change the version of wine and solve, or not, I'll report here, thanks!!!

    Just a question, any chance of some firewall on linux, block this?
  17. booman
    Yes, there is a chance Linux firewall will blox Guild Wars 2. Do you know how to allow the game or disable the firewall?
  18. Gl3d50N
    No, I didn't know kow to configure this firewall for GW2. :(
  19. booman
    What distro are you using?
    I use Mint 17.3 and usually disable the firewall completely.
  20. Marlhin
    I've installed the GW2 64bit version recently using wine 2.18-staging 64bit.
    Runs really nice on my old X230 with an Intel HD 4000 (not perfectly because of the crappy iGPU).
    Thanks for the guide!

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