Yeah, I’m another one who dual boots Linux/Windows just so my games will run well (and currently only using the Win side for GW2). I’d love a native Linux client. I don’t honestly see it happening anytime soon, as I suspect we still represent a very, very small percentage of the game’s users, but I’d love it.
People with Linux are mostly people who either don’t want to, or can’t spend money. Exactly the wrong kind of people to try to market a product to.
OK, real talk now. Take that generalization and shove it up your kitten. As a Linux user I’m offended by this and I’m not going to tolerate this any more. I pay for all my games, and most people I know do the same, no matter what platform they are on.
Not only is it a generalization, it is also demonstrably false. Statistics gathered by the Humble Indie Bundle clearly show that not only is there a hunger for good games on Linux but that Linux users on average are willing to and pay more for the content. Feel free to examine the evidence yourself.
Zahld, that would be great, except developing a working version of an MMO on an OS that changes on the whims of the completely random people that make it is… well, it’s hard.
I’m not really sure who you mean, but here is what Linus Torvalds (yes, that guy who wrote Linux) thinks about binary compatibility. Also, I guess Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, HP, NEC, Oracle, Samsung, AMD, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Hitachi, Huawei, Motorola, Panasonic, Toyota, Adobe, ARM, Barnes and Noble, Broadcom, Canonical, D-Link, Dell, DreamWorks, Epson, LG, Marvell, MIPS, Nokia, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Siemens, Sony, Twitter, VMWare, Yahoo and many others really are random people. Seriously, does anyone know any of those companies?
Meh is quite correct – the Linux Foundation exists not only to move Linux forward as an operating system but to also standardize it and keep it competitive. This means things won’t change on a whim, no more so than, say, Microsoft deciding to make Windows 8 have a closed app store that drove the developers at Valve to get serious about Linux support. Many large businesses feel secure enough about the stability and future of Linux to use it on the backbones of their information systems.
Sorry Nels, but you should really educate yourself on the topic before shooting your mouth off. You will find that Linux has been steadily gaining market share and mainstream acceptance by even the non tech-savvy among us. With the added attention of Valve and their ability to pressure graphics card manufacturers into developing better drivers for Linux (pretty much the main thing holding Linux based gaming back), I predict this trend will only increase.
Meh is quite correct
Create a nickname they said. It’s not your visible name they said. Now I’m stuck. Meh, whatever. Also, thanks for the data links. I was too lazy and angry to look for those.
Here’s more data – 16% Linux vs. 6% Mac sales.
I just have to say, while many people seem to think this is a good idea, they don’t really understand the basics behind the business end of the idea.
I find that statement kind of funny, since it’s the same thing that used to be said about the Mac. Success in business is in no small part about growth, and anyone watching the growth of linux in the past few years will notice a very distinct pattern. (Hint: it’s not going downward.)
People with Linux are mostly people who either don’t want to, or can’t spend money. Exactly the wrong kind of people to try to market a product to.
According to all quantifiable evidence, that is patently false, as others in this forum have already pointed out.
developing a working version of an MMO on an OS that changes on the whims of the completely random people that make it is… well, it’s hard.
You’re hawking an awful lot of FUD, sir.
You might have seen some applications change on a whim, but linux libraries and system calls (upon which a game is built) are quite stable, and their developers take great pains to keep them that way. MehWhatever linked a great quote showing just how important this is considered in the linux world.
I can also say from personal experience that, given equivalent competence on both platforms, developing for linux is quite a bit easier than for Windows. It has been for a long time. This is especially true when performance is important, in part because there are no secret behaviors in an open source platform.
Linux users don’t get accounts for free. The question would be, is there’s a large enough market demand in the linux platform.
A better question would be, “will there be enough?” A successful business doesn’t plan for yesterday, after all, it plans for tomorrow. Based on the trends I’ve seen over the past few years (such as a steady increase in commercial linux games, the largest online game distribution channel committing to linux, the rise of a very obvious target linux distribution, Microsoft Windows going in directions that frustrate users and developers more than ever) it really looks like the answer is yes.
(edited by ocelost.4321)
Here’s more data – 16% Linux vs. 6% Mac sales.
Come on ANet, you censored the link into non-functionality. How is s . ht an expletive… well ok I can kind of see it but that is really a reach. This kitten business is out of control.
Here is the operational link
+1 for Linux client
Here’s more data – 16% Linux vs. 6% Mac sales.
Come on ANet, you censored the link into non-functionality. How is s . ht an expletive… well ok I can kind of see it but that is really a reach. This kitten business is out of control.
Here is the operational link
Hm. That’s pretty useful information. If other developers have seen similar trends, there may be very good reason for a linux client. Once a few more AAA titles are on linux, I feel it will become the OS of choice for more and more gamers, but that’s just because of how much I adore my own PC.
Valve just released their latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey. Their Mac OS client was released nearly three years ago and now has a 3% OS share. Their linux client was released just a couple of weeks ago and already has a 2% OS share. I’d say that’s an interesting sign of things to come.
Wow 10 pages and growing come on Anet get the hint and port GW2 over to Linux
Well I want a linux port now but I guess it will never happen just as when I played wow, but wow ran really great in Wine tho, gw2 does not. I need to overclock my computer to 4.7 ghz to get steady 30 fps with no drops, and the worst thing is that I cant type anything in game, as soon as I press enter to type something game crashes.
Did I already post in this thread? Meh.
+1 (or +1 again) for a Linux client.
The only reason I have Windows at all is because
1) it was free via “Dreamspark” (some Microsoft software is made available free of charge to college students; Windows is included in this)
2) almost every game worth playing requires DirectX and is designed to run best on Windows, though some games play exceptionally well through WINE on Linux, “exceptional” is a rare case; most are just “acceptable” and usually have a flaw or two.
In Guild Wars 2’s case, the beta weekends 1 and 2 clients cooperated quite well with WINE. Beta weekend 3 and the release client saw something of a reduction in performance. I can’t break 20 FPS on Linux with an i5-3570K and a GTX 660 Ti using NVIDIA’s latest proprietary drivers even with desktop compositing turned off.
Well I want a linux port now but I guess it will never happen just as when I played wow, but wow ran really great in Wine tho, gw2 does not. I need to overclock my computer to 4.7 ghz to get steady 30 fps with no drops, and the worst thing is that I cant type anything in game, as soon as I press enter to type something game crashes.
The chat error is probably due to running the game without the “-dx9single” tag in the terminal. Add that in and you should be able to talk in chat just fine! On top of that, if you are unable to use the trading post, try patching in the awesomium patch (as noted in WineHQ). The fps, sadly, does not get much better (I sit at a constant 25 fps, myself—a 20-ish fps drop from Windows).
I skipped alot of post in this thread due too them looking like someone clubbing a penguin again. Anyway, I know GW2 will run fine on PlayOnLinux without the lag that Wine has.
I skipped alot of post in this thread due too them looking like someone clubbing a penguin again. Anyway, I know GW2 will run fine on PlayOnLinux without the lag that Wine has.
Have you tried it? Right now, even if you tweak the hell out of your GW2 installation via PoL you won’t get decent frame rates, unless you have a extremely good processor.
New poster here. Seeing valve push linux as a gaming platform made me finally do the switch and now linux is my main OS. Now if ever is the best time to be a linux gamer. I see bright future ahead, friends. These are good times for us indeed.
Anyways, I managed to install gw2 and I gotta say that while playing the game through wine is possible, it is certainly not viable. We need a native linux client asap.
Anet needs to read this article.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/121015-windows-8-may-drive-me-to-linux
Windows 8 is going to be a tablet emulator on PC.
So.
Will you, Anet, make a tablet friendly version of GW2? A console version?
Why not make a something more on the side of the Opensource idea (not implying you have to open your code) and use something more multiplataform oriented?
Opengl and Openal WAS in the past a reall mess, now they are as powerful as any directx library (if not better). Linux is going to a more unified place with Ubuntu and Mac is using a *Nix plataform with good compatibility with everything you made for linux.
Forget about Valve, think about Microsoft turning our pcs into a tablet.
Anet needs to read this article.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/121015-windows-8-may-drive-me-to-linux
Windows 8 is going to be a tablet emulator on PC.
So.
Will you, Anet, make a tablet friendly version of GW2? A console version?
Why not make a something more on the side of the Opensource idea (not implying you have to open your code) and use something more multiplataform oriented?
Opengl and Openal WAS in the past a reall mess, now they are as powerful as any directx library (if not better). Linux is going to a more unified place with Ubuntu and Mac is using a *Nix plataform with good compatibility with everything you made for linux.
Forget about Valve, think about Microsoft turning our pcs into a tablet.
This is essentially what I’m seeing as well – Microsoft is all but ceding the PC game to Linux at this point by putting so much emphasis on tablets to the point that Windows 8 is unusable on a PC. Honestly, the only reason I still run Windows on my home PC is because of Guild Wars 2. If they released a client that ran well on Linux (I don’t have the money to build a machine that would make up for the performance gap on wine), I would switch tomorrow and never look back.
+1 for Linux Client
Reading through this topic made me laugh at parts, cry at others and simply wordless at yet others.
Especially the ignorance of Nels was something that made me shake my head…
Yet another proof that the crap they show on TV to brainwash people actually works.
Either way… I’m a well paying customer (getting pretty much every new skin that pops up on Black Lion, even getting it twice for my girlfriend too) and did my homework before buying this game because I loved that GW1 was running so flawlessly on Linux via Wine.
Well… it runs too… but the speed is just… horrible… mostly because of the missing multi-threading support in Wine but still…
If Linux got officially supported by ANet I would be a very happy camper, as I would no longer have to worry about Wingoof-Hacks to get the game I bought legally and keep spending money on running.
Face it people, Linux is the future… it runs on servers, desktops, smartphones, tablets, routers and even those tiny mediacenter boxes you hook up to your TV.
And I’m sure that a lot of Linux Badmouthers out there have at least one of those things I just mentioned running in their home, even if its just a router.
would love guildwars 2 on linux.
+1
dont know how to sign.
Re-activating this thread…
I know, I know. The thread is pretty much dead at this point, but I would like to echo something that has been said before:
Anet could ask specific community members if they would like to be part of a “linux developer team,” where they take some of their free time to work on the code. Chances are that many members on this thread have experience coding and would love to help out with the project. If the project is done in segments, there is no way any single person would have access to the entirety of the code. I would actually be more than willing to help for a title (like “Ubuntu blue” or “Arch Apple” or something), and possibly something to put on my resume. “Guild Wars 2 Linux Developer” doesn’t sound too bad.
I realize I’m being somewhat idealistic here, but I thought I’d say throw it out there.
Just wondering, but do Guild Wars 2’s servers run on Windows or Unix/Linux? Anybody knows that?
Just for the record: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM0MzU
Just for the record: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM0MzU
alright, I’m drawing a blank. Why did you link this thread to Phoronix? I frequent the site a lot for benchmarking and news, but I guess I missed the big picture.
Just for the record: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM0MzU
alright, I’m drawing a blank. Why did you link this thread to Phoronix? I frequent the site a lot for benchmarking and news, but I guess I missed the big picture.
If you copy and paste the link in your browser, you get to an article called “NVIDIA, Valve Share Lessons In Porting To Linux”, which has some advices about porting game to Linux from Valve and nVidia. clicking on the link doesn’t work though, and you get redirected to Phoronix’s main page…
Watched it, finally (sorry pretty dang busy). It was posted on April 6th. For some reason, the link you posted still did not work, so I’m going to post the direct link to the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=btNVfUygvio#!
That being said, it was interesting (and expected) that the most difficult—if not only—problem to overcome was the D3D→OGL switch. I have recently heard that DX might not make it to DX 12, which might deter some developers, but since Anet is still using DX 9, I don’t think it will be that big of a deal.
Also, as an added point, I am worried that Win8 does not handle gaming as well as it should, a friend of mine had to switch back to Win7 to get Guild Wars 2 to play like it should have played on his system.
+1
and all my internets to this thread.
I’m still crossing my fingers they are just holding off for after the Mac Beta ends and then we might hear some word about a Linux port.
If it’s not being planned, then please ANet give this some real thought. You’ve already done most of the heavy lifting by making it run in OpenGL.
I’m fairly certain they already have an experimental linux client. Porting games to linux isn’t THAT hard, it’s mostly debugging and optimization. And considering they already have a mac client, well…
(edited by aldariz.8169)
I’m fairly certain they already have an experimental linux client. Porting games to linux isn’t THAT hard, it’s mostly debugging and optimization. And considering they already have a mac client, well…
The point, though, is that they used Cider to port it to mac, which is not the optimal way to do it (as in it is not a true port, but it is a port nonetheless). Truth be told, though, I’m fine with the Cider port. On top of that, there is no evidence that a linux port is even being considered, especially because an interview a while back with the dev’s stated that a linux client was unlikely (along with their console plans, unfortunately). If a Dev came on here and said, “Yo, guys! We are working with an experimental linux client” or “Yo guys! We are not working on the client, but might consider working with WINE in the future” I would be content.
Now, they could use Cedega (which is the predecessor of Cider and for linux instead of mac), and I would be happy with that. Truth be told, I would be happy with the dev’s working with the Black Lion Trading Company and screenshots so they works with WINE without patching. Also, since they DO have an OpenGL port (mac), I would love to use my -opengl option while running the game instead of -dx9single. That would also be a solution.
Also, I had it in my mind that the porting to OGL was the heavylifting, the optimization, truth be told, shouldn’t be a big deal at all—especially because linux users are used to doing a lot of that themselves.
I’m sorry for all the text. It was mostly on accident.
I guess I missed something… They did an OpenGL port??
Yeah, The mac port is technically an OpenGL port (by my standards anyway), even so, It could have been done better, from what I understand.
Yeah, The mac port is technically an OpenGL port (by my standards anyway), even so, It could have been done better, from what I understand.
Well, it’s not exactly a port. More like a DirectX game wrapped in a (kitten-y) translation layer.
Yeah, The mac port is technically an OpenGL port (by my standards anyway), even so, It could have been done better, from what I understand.
Well, it’s not exactly a port. More like a DirectX game wrapped in a (kitten-y) translation layer.
Eh, as I said, it’s not the greatest thing in the world, but I bet the mac beta still has better fps than wine. I would be content (but not pleased) if Anet just used cedega for linux users. Obviously the best option here is a true OpenGL port.
Well, it’s not exactly a port. More like a DirectX game wrapped in a (kitten-y) translation layer.
^ This.
Using a D3D wrapper, imho, was a kitten idea, very unprofessional.
They are probably not even considering a Linux port, but honestly, I don’t think I would use a wrapped client anyways.
Steam for Linux is growing fast though, I haven’t logged in Windows for weeks thanks to this.
Looks like we’re finally getting some games, too bad GW2 isn’t one of them :/
+ 1.
I bought this game at launch, and stopped less than a month later simply because i switched to Linux.
I’d love to get a Linux Client so i wouldn’t have to reboot into Windows every time i want to play.
From what i know it’s already ported to Mac.. Why not support Linux as well?
+1
I think that ANet needs to consider this; initially, yes, there may not be a ton of users.
But in the long run there is a rabid fanbase for Linux who eat up any and all games with Linux support. You’d also have an edge on the competition, since there’s basically no MMO (WoW runs pretty well on Wine but that doesn’t count) with Linux support.
Interestingly enough, according to quite a few sources, Blizzard intends to release a linux game by the end of 2013. I don’t know if it will be a new game all together or just a port of an old one, but it’s still a step in the right direction (even if I’m not the biggest fan of Blizzard).
Just thought I’d throw that in there.
Interestingly enough, according to quite a few sources, Blizzard intends to release a linux game by the end of 2013. I don’t know if it will be a new game all together or just a port of an old one, but it’s still a step in the right direction (even if I’m not the biggest fan of Blizzard).
Just thought I’d throw that in there.
I’m pretty sure the only source for that Phoronix. I don’t trust Phoronix for ‘leaks’.
Interestingly enough, according to quite a few sources, Blizzard intends to release a linux game by the end of 2013. I don’t know if it will be a new game all together or just a port of an old one, but it’s still a step in the right direction (even if I’m not the biggest fan of Blizzard).
Just thought I’d throw that in there.
I’m pretty sure the only source for that Phoronix. I don’t trust Phoronix for ‘leaks’.
Eh. Fine. It was also on PCgamer, slashdot, etc. The point is that many other developers are porting, so it might be a good idea for Anet to do the same.
I run Linux and the Gem store or Trade Post don’t work. If I could have the gem store in Linux, who knows, I might actually be able to give some money to ANet by buying gems.
But why should I care to give Anet my money if they don’t care about me, a player using Linux?
If they don’t want my money, that’s too bad.
Have you tried it? Right now, even if you tweak the hell out of your GW2 installation via PoL you won’t get decent frame rates, unless you have a extremely good processor.
I don’t have a “extremely good processor or graphics card” and I get good framerates on Best Appearance (minus anti-aliasin and with post processing set to low, because it makes things too blurry and glowy for my taste). If I’m walking around gathering or w/e it’s about 30 fps, fighting with others about 15 fps. (On character creation it’s 68+, but I prefer to limit my FPS to 30 on my Gw2 shortcut to prevent overheating.)
It’s the same on windows.
Not bad for a modest laptop (bought in 2009).
I do run a very minimal Linux window manager, though. I don’t like bloated desktop environments like KDE or Gnome, all I use is Xmonad or Openbox, with Trayer. (Archlinux installed from scratch so I install what I want, nothing more)
Maybe that helps?
I run wine-1.5.26 (not PlayOnLinux).
The only things I changed from default are “emulate virtual desktop” as big as my screen resolution, and I run Gw2.exe with:
WINEDEBUG=-all (note the minus sign) and -fps 30 -nomusic
But that’s not necessary, the game worked for me without making any changes, those are just personal preference.
So:
WINEDEBUG=—all wine Gw2.exe -fps 30 -nomusic
(I don’t like to play with the background music as it makes me drowsy, so I thought that disabling it would save some resources. All other sounds still play)
(edited by lorazcyk.8927)
I run Linux and the Gem store or Trade Post don’t work. If I could have the gem store in Linux, who knows, I might actually be able to give some money to ANet by buying gems.
https://github.com/PlayOnLinux/wine-patches/blob/master/GuildWars2/Awesomium.patch
This should fix the trading post for you (if I understood the problem correctly). It’s an easy fix on Arch thanks to the ABS.
Hope it helps!
If I’m walking around gathering or w/e it’s about 30 fps, fighting with others about 15 fps.
Yuck. I mean, if it works for you, that’s your call, but I’m not going to accept anything below 60.
If I’m walking around gathering or w/e it’s about 30 fps, fighting with others about 15 fps.
Yuck. I mean, if it works for you, that’s your call, but I’m not going to accept anything below 60.
Your tone of voice sounds like “well that’s your choice, but you should play on windows because it will have a better framerate”.
It doesn’t.
The framerates are the same for me both on windows and linux. I verified this many times.
And what choice do I have, when I play on a 2009 laptop with just a dual core and a gtx 260M? I mean, it’s not some amazing gaming rig.
You know, I actually first bought this laptop so I could play Gw 1. I’m pretty happy how it runs Gw2, since I wouldn’t be able to afford a new computer to play it. I just didn’t expect it would run the game SO beautifully and smoothly.
I run Linux and the Gem store or Trade Post don’t work. If I could have the gem store in Linux, who knows, I might actually be able to give some money to ANet by buying gems.
https://github.com/PlayOnLinux/wine-patches/blob/master/GuildWars2/Awesomium.patch
This should fix the trading post for you (if I understood the problem correctly). It’s an easy fix on Arch thanks to the ABS.
Hope it helps!
I’ve been keeping an eye on that but never got around to trying it. But I should give it a try… once I figure out how to have multiple versions of wine installed at the same time.
Nice find. If you go up the git repo folder you can see there’s other gw2 patches too. Now I’m tempted to try!
Not trying to go off-topic. I saw this ad and gave it a mental hmmm. Dell was going private and stating that one major reason is that they see the end of Windows domination in the marketplace. Windows 8 isn’t going over so well. The prospect of more games making a true OpenGL port are looking good.
Then this ad came up:
http://www.alienware.com/ubuntu/
+1 if Anet can pull off a true port of their own.
I am not a Alien/Dell fangirl just pointing out that a major manufacturer is exploring other options than windows. Seems to be a good indicator of the future.
If I’m walking around gathering or w/e it’s about 30 fps, fighting with others about 15 fps.
Yuck. I mean, if it works for you, that’s your call, but I’m not going to accept anything below 60.
Your tone of voice sounds like “well that’s your choice, but you should play on windows because it will have a better framerate”.
It doesn’t.
The framerates are the same for me both on windows and linux. I verified this many times.And what choice do I have, when I play on a 2009 laptop with just a dual core and a gtx 260M? I mean, it’s not some amazing gaming rig.
Sorry if it came off like this. All meant was that I usually play on Windows, because on Linux I hit the CPU bottleneck at 50-55FPS, while on Windows I get 100+. The problem is definitely more evident on higher settings, my GT555M laptop gives me a stable 50FPS on both Windows and Linux with all the settings turned down as low as possible.
+1
As someone who is pointing my career in the Linux Sys Admin/DevOps direction, I spend most of my time in Linux…. except when I want to play Guild Wars 2. Please, ArenaNet, if nothing else work with the WINE project to get Guild Wars 2 working well in Linux
I loved gw… can no longer play as i do not have windows anymore… only linux (mint), gw neeeddds a client for linux users! i would purchase the game again if it were more available on linux. Installed succesfully using wine… but during patch i guess it is? it always crashes and im only able to get about 1/10000th of total files.
I miss my game
It’s always funny to watch Linux debates. I have my own opinions, but I’ll try to be a little more objective and say my peace. There are many posts I want to quote, but that would be pretty cumbersome, so here goes:
Yes, I have hardware that runs on some form of Linux, ie, routers, etc. That is where Linux has its strength: Once you get it to do something, it keeps on doing it efficiently and very stable, such as the huge amount of the internet backbone that runs on Linux. It runs it fast, efficient, less power consumption, less holes for viruses, etc. That’s because that’s ALL it does. There is no extra code to exploit, no subroutines that can be activated for malicious functions or chew up resources.
Remember trying to install a game on DOS? An advanced graphics game. Did you ever have to scroll through dozens of drivers trying to find one that the game could use that your video card would use, and that your monitor would use? Why did that go away? Microsoft DirectX. A whole GROUP of standards, not just D3D (a lot of people forget that). The game is written for DirectX, and DirectX works with your individual video, sound, etc. drivers and delivers the gaming experience. There is also OpenGL (which actually does not replace ALL DirectX functions). DirectX and OpenGL are VERY different. So, of course the mac port was DirectX in an OpenGL translation layer. Anet didn’t want to re-write the game code from the ground up. And no one seems to have addressed the result: How well does it function? Not as good as the Windows client, obviously. Obviously. So what ensures anyone that a Linux client would work better?
Mac OSX is a standardized supported operating system. Windows have several standardized supported operating systems – updated, licensed, money to cooperate with companies to create applications. Linux is not. It may function; it may do wonderful things, but it TRIES to be standardized and supported, but it isn’t — that’s why it’s free. How many versions of Linux are there? I mean sub-versions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, etc. and ALL the little version steps within them. Will they all run the same software? NO. So, why would I expect Anet to try and write a client for it? Thousands and thousands of different versions of similar base code. There is no single “Linux”. Microsoft and Apple have the money and right to update and standardize their OS. Linux does not.
Anet did not write GW2 from scratch. They wrote it on DirectX. Anet did not write the subroutines for Windows to communicate via the internet. Windows takes care of that automatically. Multithreading, Human Interface Devices, Sound, the whole nine yards. I am an IT Professional. People who do not like Windows do not know how to use it. There is a massive amount of functionality and versatility that you may never even come across. It’s really comparing the Apollo missions to the starship Enterprise. Yes, they both travelled in space. Linux is never going to replace Windows’ function in the computer world. And, games run on Windows. Adapt.
(edited by Elusive.9481)
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