Guild Wars 2

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

Right when MS is going forward to allow more Linux based areas be integrated in Windows?

There isn’t even a native mac client yet(I know they are working on it).

go play gw1 XD, works wonders on linux (wine).

I heard there is some platform being developed to be used across some linuxes(canocnical probably) windows and mac, still duno if is true.

Tekoneiric.6817:

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

Linux generally isnt a good gaming platform. It’s also less likely for existing games be recoded/developed just so that they support linux.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Tekoneiric.6817:

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

Linux generally isnt a good gaming platform. It’s also less likely for existing games be recoded/developed just so that they support linux.

dude, mac osx is in a even worse place.

No announcement for vulkan support. Even crappier opengl support than linux.

The only few good things about apple is that they force everyone to a new osx so less software fragmentation and has a better sound system.

The worst part, I do not believe apple cares about desktop gaming at all.

Having to support multiple operating systems is an extremely poor economic proposition, as apart from the cost of developing the new client, you then need more support staff to support the new client, and none of this will result in any substantial increase in new players.
Whats wrong with using Wine?

I totally support a linux port. People are feed up with Windows policies and privacy concerns. I would never use windows again if linux had better game support. I really really want windows 7 to be my last OS from Microsoft, that is, if they continue their bad habits.

But lets be honest: One company shouldn’t control the fate of an entire industry, I.E. the PC gaming industry. Imagine the outrage if there was only XBOX. People would riot.

And yes linux does run a few games, but its not a true alternative yet, thanks to lack of support from hardware manufacturers and game companies.

Even if we need to crowd fund alternatives, it needs to be done. For the sake of everyone’s future.

Cobrakon.3108:

I totally support a linux port. People are feed up with Windows policies and privacy concerns. I would never use windows again if linux had better game support. I really really want windows 7 to be my last OS from Microsoft, that is, if they continue their bad habits.

But lets be honest: One company shouldn’t control the fate of an entire industry, I.E. the PC gaming industry. Imagine the outrage if there was only XBOX. People would riot.

And yes linux does run a few games, but its not a true alternative yet, thanks to lack of support for other OS’s.

Even if we need to crowd fund alternatives, it needs to be done. For the sake of everyone’s future.

well, anet seems pretty deep into microsoft technologies.

All I want them to do is do the vulkan port already.

The rest of the game can be wrap in wine will basically near equal or better performance than the current state of things.

Mac OS X… that platform seems like a lost cause unless apple does something or crossover decides to make a vulkan over metal wrapper.

Cobrakon.3108:

I totally support a linux port. People are feed up with Windows policies and privacy concerns. I would never use windows again if linux had better game support. I really really want windows 7 to be my last OS from Microsoft, that is, if they continue their bad habits.

No they are not. If “people” actually would care about privacy concerns, Facebook and Google would cease to exist overnight. Nerds like you and me who value their privacy and are willing to accept some inconveniences in the process of keeping it are the clear minority, which means it will never be profitable to cater to our needs.

In addition, it’s hard enough already for PC developers in a world of so many different drivers and hardware – I can’t imagine how it would be if they also had to take the myriad of linux distributions into account. When it comes to hardware and support, Linux is the worst, especially for not so tech-savy users.

Even I, having a university degree in computer science, struggle sometimes to set up linux on a laptop with all internal modules working (e.g. WLAN) . For the consumer, the reasons or “whose fault is it” do not matter, they want kitten to work with as little effort as possible.

The fundamental problem for any commercial support for Linux is What is Linux?
There are currently 235 differant Linux distributions .
Which one would be supported?
Who decides when and if the supported distribution gets changed / altered / has new libraries added etc.
This is a total nightmare for a game company to even address.
WOW still has no Linux support, even though its been asked for since the game was originally released in 2004.
Blizzard have obviously done the sums and figured out theres no economic benefit for them.
For people who want Linux, how much would you be prepared to pay for the Linux client and its development costs ,and a monthly sub to pay for Linux Support?

mauried.5608:

The fundamental problem for any commercial support for Linux is What is Linux?
There are currently 235 differant Linux distributions .
Which one would be supported?
Who decides when and if the supported distribution gets changed / altered / has new libraries added etc.
This is a total nightmare for a game company to even address.
WOW still has no Linux support, even though its been asked for since the game was originally released in 2004.
Blizzard have obviously done the sums and figured out theres no economic benefit for them.
For people who want Linux, how much would you be prepared to pay for the Linux client and its development costs ,and a monthly sub to pay for Linux Support?

The big problem is the dwindling PC base. People are moving to mobile devices for nearly everything. I talk to many people through work that don’t have home PCs anymore. When you combine that with issues with Windows these days it’s going to squeeze the possible number of players down. If they did a Linux client it would be more portable to other platforms easier than one coded specifically for Windows.

I really wish the Linux community, game makers and graphics card companies would get together to establish a Linux gaming platform standard. With a little effort on their part they could establish a platform that would kill the Windows dominance as a gaming platform.

Linux is moving toward becoming a legitimate gaming platform with Steam support, and more and more games being developed for Linux. However, much of the problem lies in customer perception. Many people still think of Linux as cumbersome and difficult to use, or is for “computer nerds” and beyond the average user. Thus, with such a small market share (although it’s growing) it’s not financially feasible to develop a major AAA game for a small subset of players.
Another issue is, as mentioned, the amount of Linux “distro’s” out there. However, generally speaking, when people talk about Linux, they are referring to Ubuntu, unless specifically mentioned (i.e. Redhat people will say the use Redhat, or FreeBSD, or whatever distro they run). Not to mention that many brand name hardware components don’t make Linux/Ubuntu drivers for their gear. As such requires the users to rely on universal drivers, which don’t always work, or way underperform.

However, one CAN get GW2 to work on Ubuntu through Wine or PlayOnLinux (which is a front end for Wine). Last time I did it, there were some major graphics issues which made the game nearly unplayable (had this wired “fog of war” type effect where you couldn’t see much past 1200 range).
As much as I would love to have a native Linux port, it’s very unlikely to happen.

Tekoneiric.6817:

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

My only tie to Windows is this game. I’ve had my fingers crossed for a Linux client since day 1

Not gonna happen, Linux market share is like 2% while Windows is about 85%. Putting in that much effort to please the 2% makes no economic sense.

Khadez.4958:

Not gonna happen, Linux market share is like 2% while Windows is about 85%. Putting in that much effort to please the 2% makes no economic sense.

That’s 2% of the desktop market. Linux is a back in for way more than 2% of computing devices out there. As I stated previously; part of the reason why a Linux client makes sense is portability to other platforms like a native Mac client, PS3/4, etc.

Linux never grabbed market share since its existence.

Linux people were there when Win95 was handing out bluescreens for everything, they were there when people disliked Vista after years of XP and now when they are having this catastrophe called Win10. Still, Linux never takes off.

For me, I can not stand the elitist attitude of many of these “developers”. They never really finish anything. So many distributions, and none really get anywhere. I read about new desktops, but yes, you can do that on Windows too (just replace Explorer.exe with whatever Shell you like; I did so in the past as well). Apart from that, it is good for tinkering on low-end systems (eeePC, Raspberry Pi), Apache servers and for poor people (“Yay, a free OS!”). All the experience with Linux I had was Googling, searching in forums and some IRC. To get one of the basic, v0.0.1.2.6 drivers done.

Look at OpenOffice. Now it’s OpenOffice, NeoOffice and LibreOffice. Or Opera. Turned into Opera, Opera with Chromium and Vivendi (Opera with Chromium). This typical Linux behaviour of “never get anything done” is maybe what keeps it back. Or SmartTVs that crash when accessing connected USB drives. . .

When I would be ArenaNet, I would not want to build on sand as well..

I got my Win7 systembuilder and will stick to it until the last day.

ionix.9054:

Tekoneiric.6817:

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

My only tie to Windows is this game. I’ve had my fingers crossed for a Linux client since day 1

While I’m not currently running Linux on any of my PCs, I have used Linux in the past and know my way around it. I came into computer via the Commodore world. I was a diehard Amiga user for the longest time. I really don’t hold any real allegiance to any one platform. I use Windows because I have to due to work and this game. Having been an Amiga user for so long I find all other platforms wanting.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan of Linux per say; I have a couple of issues with it. One being the general elitist attitude of it’s hard core supporters. I think that more than anything has prevented critical changes needed in it for adoption into the consumer and office desktop market. Given how I feel about it I do think porting to Linux is a very smart idea because of how portable it would make the code.

I’m about to put Linux on one of my PCs and will probably test out GW2 under wine at some point although I run it normally on my gaming PC w/Win7.

Microsoft is driving me away from their platform outside of work with all the privacy issues. I know quite a few people feel that way also. Given that and the decline in PC sales; it’s only a matter of time before Windows based gaming will suffer. MS going to a subscription model doesn’t make it any better.

Zedek.8932:

Linux never grabbed market share since its existence.

Linux people were there when Win95 was handing out bluescreens for everything, they were there when people disliked Vista after years of XP and now when they are having this catastrophe called Win10. Still, Linux never takes off.

For me, I can not stand the elitist attitude of many of these “developers”. They never really finish anything. So many distributions, and none really get anywhere. I read about new desktops, but yes, you can do that on Windows too (just replace Explorer.exe with whatever Shell you like; I did so in the past as well). Apart from that, it is good for tinkering on low-end systems (eeePC, Raspberry Pi), Apache servers and for poor people (“Yay, a free OS!”). All the experience with Linux I had was Googling, searching in forums and some IRC. To get one of the basic, v0.0.1.2.6 drivers done.

Look at OpenOffice. Now it’s OpenOffice, NeoOffice and LibreOffice. Or Opera. Turned into Opera, Opera with Chromium and Vivendi (Opera with Chromium). This typical Linux behaviour of “never get anything done” is maybe what keeps it back. Or SmartTVs that crash when accessing connected USB drives. . .

When I would be ArenaNet, I would not want to build on sand as well..

I got my Win7 systembuilder and will stick to it until the last day.

Core of Android is a Linux kernel with the apps written in JAVA. So yes, Linux is everywhere.

What is needed is a game console OS built around Linux and that’s what the Steam Box is. And like the current XBone and PS4, it’s a PC in a console’s clothing. And it’ll never fly because of the target price point of consoles VS PCs.

As for a native Linux version, not going to happen for the same reason we don’t have a native Mac version. The game engine wasn’t designed to be cross platform and doing so as an afterthought is more expensive and it is a simple trade off between cost to do and additional income if they do VS Cider/Wine emulation in which the Cider version is in perpetual Beta since Cider is in perpetual Beta if nVidia is still actively supporting it at all.

But I disagree with the whole notion that the PC gaming market is dying. They’ve been saying this since the XBox 360/PS3 era and hasn’t happen yet. There will always be a push for faster, higher resolution gaming that far exceeds the capabilities of the current general of consoles. And that’s where PC gaming lives. The console will always be designed around a 5+ year old gaming PC hardware to keep the price in check.

So keep wishing.

Behellagh.1468:

As for a native Linux version, not going to happen for the same reason we don’t have a native Mac version. The game engine wasn’t designed to be cross platform and doing so as an afterthought is more expensive and it is a simple trade off between cost to do and additional income if they do VS Cider/Wine emulation in which the Cider version is in perpetual Beta since Cider is in perpetual Beta if nVidia is still actively supporting it at all.

Well to be fair, Anet has stated that they are working on a native Mac client. They have not made any promises but it is known that is something they are working on. Here is the last update from a few months ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Can-we-please-get-a-working-Mac-Client-Merged/page/12#post6158218

As for Linux I wouldn’t get any hopes up. Let’s see if they manage to get the native Mac client working.

Oh, I know @JustTrogdor. And it might be the start of an entire game engine revamp looking at a multiplatform/multi API. But I’m thinking we won’t see anything come from this for a year when they first told us about it. And then the next question is would they even consider Linux unless they get some Value love ($$).

Tekoneiric.6817:

Khadez.4958:

Not gonna happen, Linux market share is like 2% while Windows is about 85%. Putting in that much effort to please the 2% makes no economic sense.

That’s 2% of the desktop market. Linux is a back in for way more than 2% of computing devices out there. As I stated previously; part of the reason why a Linux client makes sense is portability to other platforms like a native Mac client, PS3/4, etc.

It only “makes sense” for people who arent seeing more details of the picture.

Console and mobile portability was not considered, should not be considered, and will never be considered for GW2. The biggest factors are the update oversights (ie vetting processes each time) by the console “parents” that delays updates longer than what we get them now; game-breaking bugs existing longer than hours or days because of update oversight; server rollbacks as a result of update oversight issues; strictly isolated console servers due to inability to retain synchronous versioning across all platforms. These are the hurdles anet pretty much said “kitten no” to.

Aidan Savage.2078:

It only “makes sense” for people who arent seeing more details of the picture.

Console and mobile portability was not considered, should not be considered, and will never be considered for GW2. The biggest factors are the update oversights (ie vetting processes each time) by the console “parents” that delays updates longer than what we get them now; game-breaking bugs existing longer than hours or days because of update oversight; server rollbacks as a result of update oversight issues; strictly isolated console servers due to inability to retain synchronous versioning across all platforms. These are the hurdles anet pretty much said “kitten no” to.

And here I was thinking it was more about how ANet didn’t want to give Sony a share of the profits if it were on the PS3/4…. How ignorant of me.

The fact that you have Linux on so many different things doesn’t mean that a Linux gw2 client will run on all these things. Don’t forget the CPU differences here, phones are all on ARM CPUs for example so an x86 Linux build isn’t going to work on them. And even if it did you would have the resources to run the game anyway

Khadez.4958:

The fact that you have Linux on so many different things doesn’t mean that a Linux gw2 client will run on all these things. Don’t forget the CPU differences here, phones are all on ARM CPUs for example so an x86 Linux build isn’t going to work on them. And even if it did you would have the resources to run the game anyway

We all know this. Of course not all Windows based platforms have the forte to run the game either.

The whole point of this discussion is that it’s easier to port from Linux to other platforms like Mac, Unix or even Windows than it is to go from Windows to other platforms. We all know about Wine but while that isn’t emulation it’s not the most ideal method to run it. Mac users have been putting up with that particular kludge for awhile.

Some portable platforms are getting to the point where they are nearly capable of running graphic intensive games. Not to mention dedicated set top boxes. It’s only a matter of time. Its better to be ready for come what may then not.

Not. Gonna. Happen. It’ll probably happen for Mac before it even becomes a dream in a developer’s mind to happen on linux. Why would anyone develop for a measly 2% of the marketshare? You don’t spend your big dollaroos on that small of a marketshare, that is bad business. If someone in my company said something like that they would get fired for making a noobish mistake. I mean you could make the software, but linux users have not shown to be big spenders above windows or macs. How do you makeup the cost? Charge linux users more? Make windows users bear the cost of making software for the 2%?

I get that all the linux fanboys have a love towards linoox, and they think it’s the bee’s knees, but unfortunately the rest of the world has gone windows. That is what people develop for, that is what makes the dollars, that is why the game came out windows first. Windows is what they give workers and developers, and yes, some developers prefer linux I know I do. That still doesn’t mean it’s a good gaming platform when the best way to play games on it is beg for developers to notice your 2% share, and decide to invest. Second best is with wine. Slowdown guaranteed. gotta translate those windows calls to linoox calls.

oh and lets not forget the terrible driver support by manufacturers, ah geez gosh darnit now fanboys have to write their own drivers and distribute them.

So in sum a native linux client is not worth it.

• not big spenders on average
• wine is a horrible workaround for running windows games on linux, might as well run windows
• driver support is wanting
• small marketshare 2% ain’t jack when you’’re in arenanet land.
• not worthwhile investment, could invest money back into game.
  
  A ton of you don’t understand just how dominant windows is. Just about every PC sold is either windows or mac. Sure a small percentage is sold linux installed, and some windows PCs turn into Linux, the market dominance still remains.

With a market share of maybe 2% there is no commercial value in shipping and maintaining a Linux build.

Tekoneiric.6817:

And here I was thinking it was more about how ANet didn’t want to give Sony a share of the profits if it were on the PS3/4…. How ignorant of me.

PS3 is dead.
PS4 will not even run it in 720p@30fps without a lot of optimization.
And this is just the hardware problems.

My signature states my stance on this. I have also made a very detailed post regarding GW2 on Wine within the WineApp database for GW2 64-bit and I made a post on the “Players Helping Players” forum for maximizing performance using AMD hardware and the GW2-64 bit client.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Guild-Wars-2-on-Linux-with-AMD-Hardware/first#post6223385

mauried.5608:

The fundamental problem for any commercial support for Linux is What is Linux?
There are currently 235 differant Linux distributions .
Which one would be supported?
Who decides when and if the supported distribution gets changed / altered / has new libraries added etc.
This is a total nightmare for a game company to even address.
WOW still has no Linux support, even though its been asked for since the game was originally released in 2004.
Blizzard have obviously done the sums and figured out theres no economic benefit for them.
For people who want Linux, how much would you be prepared to pay for the Linux client and its development costs ,and a monthly sub to pay for Linux Support?

hey, that is why I advocate port gw2 to vulkan and wrap the rest in wine. Smallest support option out there.

Tekoneiric.6817:

Aidan Savage.2078:

It only “makes sense” for people who arent seeing more details of the picture.

Console and mobile portability was not considered, should not be considered, and will never be considered for GW2. The biggest factors are the update oversights (ie vetting processes each time) by the console “parents” that delays updates longer than what we get them now; game-breaking bugs existing longer than hours or days because of update oversight; server rollbacks as a result of update oversight issues; strictly isolated console servers due to inability to retain synchronous versioning across all platforms. These are the hurdles anet pretty much said “kitten no” to.

And here I was thinking it was more about how ANet didn’t want to give Sony a share of the profits if it were on the PS3/4…. How ignorant of me.

Feasibility before profit. The environment needs to be sustainable, and stable, enough that players WANT to be there.

Tekoneiric.6817:

Khadez.4958:

Not gonna happen, Linux market share is like 2% while Windows is about 85%. Putting in that much effort to please the 2% makes no economic sense.

That’s 2% of the desktop market. Linux is a back in for way more than 2% of computing devices out there. As I stated previously; part of the reason why a Linux client makes sense is portability to other platforms like a native Mac client, PS3/4, etc.

How is this an argument for GW2 being ported to Linux?

It isn’t a console game (it might work if you rig it that way but it was never designed to be a console game), and it isn’t a game that would work on any mobile device any time soon since those barely handle games like Plants Versus Zombies II with a forgiveable frame rate.

Guild Wars 2 is a PC game. Not a console game or mobile game like candy crush.
Probably 85% of PCs are Windows based.
So Khadez has it right.

This is why GW2 will not have linux support, there is not enough of a client base to do so, and this is even before me discovering there’s 200+ versions of Linux out there. Even if they went with the most ‘popular’ version of linux it would probably cut that 2% of PC users in half… Not worth it.

Even withing the Linux community, you wont get any agreement as to which version of Linux is the most popular.
From a game makers perspective , they need some kind of commercial backing for any OS they develop a game for, so Windows works and IOS would also work, but Linux doesnt because theres no commercial backing for it.
Android works because its backed by Google and if there was a PC version of Android backed by Google then its more likley that a game manufacturer would look at it , but its unlikley as Android was never designed for X86 architecture CPUs.
As an example of the types of problems that a game manufacturer would have to overcome, I got myself a new laptop a couple of weeks ago and it came with Win10 on it, so I decided to put Ubuntu on it to see how well it would work.
Installed fine , but no sound and no wifi.
Turns out the the Intel soundcard and the broadcom wifi card have no Linux support, and no one can tell if / when they ever will.
A person buying a Linux game for such a PC would blame the game company as the game would be unplayable.

mauried.5608:

Whats wrong with using Wine?

I am guessing you are a windows user? Maybe they should JUST develop a linux and/or macos version and windows users could use an emulation layer instead of us? How long do you think it will be before you are complaining about the situation?

Menadena.7482:

mauried.5608:

Whats wrong with using Wine?

I am guessing you are a windows user? Maybe they should JUST develop a linux and/or macos version and windows users could use an emulation layer instead of us? How long do you think it will be before you are complaining about the situation?

But here’s the thing, Windows is the predominate OS for personal PCs therefore it makes logical sense to develop for it. Linux on the home PC is minuscule therefore why it’s not. While it’s noble and all to fight Microsoft’s domination and support open source and open APIs, it’s simply not at a primary gaming target.

So Windows will likely never see an emulator for a more dominate platform gaming platform. It’s the majority and Linux isn’t.

Many people ask this all around internet lately.

Worry not – there is very simple, yet perfect solution! “Direct Hardware” feature of virtual machines.

It allows OS within virtual machine to communicate with hardware directly instead of going through APIs. Meaning, you can boot up Windows on your virtual machine, install proper drivers and then run GW2 on it through “Direct Hardware” enabled.

I don’t think you will loose more than 10 FPS, if any.

Better days for linux are comming now that Vulkan API is released and Ubuntu’s Mir+Unity8 will be focused around it(no more xorg) which means developers will have to code once for all platforms supported by vulkan.

TokyoGhost.6492:

Many people ask this all around internet lately.

Worry not – there is very simple, yet perfect solution! “Direct Hardware” feature of virtual machines.

It allows OS within virtual machine to communicate with hardware directly instead of going through APIs. Meaning, you can boot up Windows on your virtual machine, install proper drivers and then run GW2 on it through “Direct Hardware” enabled.

I don’t think you will loose more than 10 FPS, if any.

Better days for linux are comming now that Vulkan API is released and Ubuntu’s Mir+Unity8 will be focused around it(no more xorg)

requires cpu + mobo with vt-d support. not for everyone

nvidia is kinda an kitten. Blocking driver installs on consumer cards when it detect itself to be in vm. Of course, the workaround is to spoof the vm.

loseridoit.2756:

nvidia is kinda an kitten. Blocking driver installs on consumer cards when it detect itself to be in vm. Of course, the workaround is to spoof the vm.

nvidia was always kitten company, closing its product as much as they can. Switched to full AMD long time ago.

I just have one computer that runs win7 at this point, the rest run some flavor of debian-based or ubuntu-based distro. To me, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. The direction that MS is going is not the road I want to take. I am not alone in this either. Majority of people I have played with have stuck to win7 or are linux users to begin with. The options to game on the debian (or other linux flavors) platform has been expanding as well. Its very an untapped market with a very dedicated user base.

Personally, I would love to have a native client, however unrealistic or realistic it may seem to people. Because no game will ever make me want to use win10.

As a Linux user I’m pretty surprised finding that topic on the official forums. Good to see that I’m not the only one who would like to play this game Linux.

However, there are two sides to this. People have a good point when they’re saying that Linux has a smaller user base. On the other side, the lack of Linux Clients in general is a big driver of that user base size – When popular Game Companies don’t offer their games on Linux, they’ll never have a Linux Fan Community. Linux users become invisible to gaming companies for a simple reason: We use Windows to play their games.

So the general point here shouldn’t be if it’s worth investing in a Linux Client at all. The question should be “How can we enable Linux users to play our game, without spending more money than we get out of it?”. (note) If we assume that there are Linux users in the community who are playing the game on windows, you could also see this as an investment to keep these players playing the game.

There’s no simple way to do this. But it doesn’t need ridiculous amounts of money or a magician either.

So, how do we approach this?

First, we have to agree on the following prerequisites:

• “Linux” will be one popular Distribution of Arena Nets choice. Ubuntu or Linux Mint should be good. (Usually it’s easy for the community to port these over to other Distributions)
• The Linux user uses proprietary drivers for their graphic card
• There is no guarantee for the Linux Client (no refunds)

Some issues that will annoy developers:

• No DirectX for Linux (sorry, but f.u. Microsoft)
• Some included libraries to develop the game may not be available for linux
• Porting usually messes up the existing code base

With that in mind, what are the options we have?

• A native Linux Client (cheap when your engine already supports it, expensive when it doesn’t)
• A proper Wine support or Guild Wars 2 (already quite good, see below)

If we consider the cheaper method, Wine is a good way to make Guild Wars 2 on Linux happen.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_on_Wine
The game even has a GOLD+ rating on WineDB! https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=32861

Guild Wars 2 already runs great-ish on Wine. For a game that doesn’t have a native support, the game looks incredibly good and has little to no graphical artifacts.

As soon as you manage to install it properly, the game runs and all the features the game provides are working perfectly.

However …

There’s something that kills the idea of playing Guild Wars 2 on Wine. the performance is bad.

Why that? Is Linux just bad for games? Not really. If your graphics card is good and you have proper drivers installed, you can even play on the highest graphics settings.

But Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG that is pretty CPU heavy. The performance of the game will be affected by your CPU performance. If Windows can run Guild Wars 2 on a stable 25 fps, it’ll run on about 12 fps with Wine.

So here we have an already working, stable version of the game on Linux. It works well but it would need two things to be great:

• Find what slows down gw2 in Wine and fix it
• Fix the camera (you can only rotate it in one direction without hitting the edge of your screen with the mouse)

From my PoV, these two were the only real reasons that kept me from playing Guild Wars 2 on Linux. I don’t need a native client, I need a version of the game that can run in wine without requiring expensive CPU power. I’m pretty sure that there is potential for optimization.

Fixing these issues would cost much less than trying to create a native Linux Client. Maybe it would only take a freelancer or a small team working on these optimizations for a limited amount of time.

That way, Arena Net can make a part of their player base happy and maybe attract other Linux Users, without spending too much. If the costs are higher than the returns – just flag it as marketing budget. There’s always enough marketing budget

TL:DR; Make Guild Wars 2 on Wine better, it’s already almost perfect

Most people who play MMOs, play them for the entertainment value.
They dont play them because they run on a particular OS.
The cost benefit ratio for a Linux Client simply isnt there.
Blizzard would have made a Linux client for WOW years ago if it was,
People grossly underestimate the effort and expertise needed to port a complex game to another OS, and then be able to provide ongoing support for it.

mauried.5608:

Most people who play MMOs, play them for the entertainment value.
They dont play them because they run on a particular OS.
The cost benefit ratio for a Linux Client simply isnt there.
Blizzard would have made a Linux client for WOW years ago if it was,
People grossly underestimate the effort and expertise needed to port a complex game to another OS, and then be able to provide ongoing support for it.

Its why anyone plays games, for entertainment. But people won’t play a game if they do not have the system for it, PC vs console games for example. And blizzard does indeed have an unreleased linux client, made years ago.

People are not grossly underestimating the effort and expertise it takes. They are underestimating having a linux client and the value of it.

TheMagickDoll.7594:

having a linux client

For which version? Ubuntu? FreeBSD? Redhat? Custom kernel builds? The other issue is that there’s going to be driver issues as well, which arent any particular problems of anet’s outside of being a consideration as to whether or not it’s possible to make a client.

From what I can see, and have personally experienced, linux is more of a coding and software development platform than anything else.

mauried.5608:

Most people who play MMOs, play them for the entertainment value.
They dont play them because they run on a particular OS.
The cost benefit ratio for a Linux Client simply isnt there.
Blizzard would have made a Linux client for WOW years ago if it was,
People grossly underestimate the effort and expertise needed to port a complex game to another OS, and then be able to provide ongoing support for it.

Heh. The main difference between windows and linux/mac is that linux and mac use OpenGL, an open source API for 3d graphics, while windows uses priamrily DirectX, a privative derivate version of openGL. But DID YOU KNOW:
-Windows can use OpenGL as well.
-OpenGL is as good (if not better in my experience) as DirectX.

If you develop a game in a linux-based system, it is very easy to port it into different platforms, because most (if not all) your resources are open source.

On the other hand, you can of course develop it exclusively for windows, using tools like DirectX, Visual C++, .Net Framework e.t.c e.t.c… then of course you will have a kitten time porting it, because then you’d actually have to translate the source code from one version to the other, or use some kind of emulation solution to simulate the other version. And in the end even after doing that, it will never be optimal for any system other than Windows.

The fact that most linux games are also ported to windows is no coincidence.

P.S: You say that “the cost benefit ratio for a Linux Client simply isnt there”, but you can see clear examples of the contrary, such as valve making most of their games available for linux, including Dota2 and Counter Strike, which are very succesful online games.

The major issue with OpenGL in Windows is for consumer level drivers is optimized around DirectX while OpenGL is given the short end of the stick. Use to play City of Heroes which used OpenGL in Windows. Except it kept breaking, being fixed, breaking again on seemingly every driver update. So if you were in the habit of updating your driver for “latest hot game” driver patch, roll dice if OpenGL still worked. ATI/AMD was better than nVidia at the time with it’s OpenGL support in the consumer driver.

Now there are commercial drivers for the “professional” graphics cards that were targeted for CAD and the like but while their OpenGL works it wasn’t necessarily optimized for speed.

So really the issue is about decent graphic driver support for OpenGL in Windows and as long as that is iffy, most developers will still use DirectX.

ionix.9054:

Tekoneiric.6817:

I wish they would code a Linux client for GW2. Many people have grown to despise MS and Windows more and more. I think it’s a good time for game developers in general to move to supporting native Linux games as an option.

My only tie to Windows is this game. I’ve had my fingers crossed for a Linux client since day 1

Don’t sit around waiting. That is what I was doing for month and months. Being lazy saying “oh I will wait for this or that to have a linux client…”. I stopped doing that installed a few distro’s until I found one that was more stable with my hardware and started solving my list of problems and needs. I have not touched a MS OS other than at work in 6 months. I am happier every time I sit down at my PC. My fonts are the way I want them, my colors look as I intended. I am lacking nothing that I wanted at this point at all from what I had when using Windows anything.

I found I even liked some of what windows 10 was offering but have now found that I can have almost all of the things I liked in Linux instead, legally for free. You can customize WIN10 pretty good but nothing close to what I have achieved with Linux.

Yes I have GW2 playing in playonlinux with wine. I tried it both ways manually until I could make it work and then with playonlinux. I found both ways valid. I stayed using playonlinux as I am lazy I guess and put my time into learning more about linux in other ways and not with wine currently. Maybe I will go learn more about manually config’n it all later.

Playonlinux works pretty well and pretty easy. I have to tinker it a bit here and there but it runs. No it does not run perfect but it runs within 85% of what I had before with Windows on the same hardware. The hardware I use is pretty dated as well.

-Phenom Deneb quad 955 stock
-HD 7950 radeon GPU
-16 GB RAM
-SSD for all OS and apps

Playonlinux:

Install the latest version and look at a guide if you want to succeed. I don’t like linking stuff so just do the searches its easy info to find with what little actually exists.

right now I am using
-playonlinux
-gallium 9 oss drivers
-wine-staging 1.9.15 (1.9.15 stable works to but I like options in staging mode)
-install d3dx9 component from the configure menu
-install tahoma (1 and I sometimes do 2 as well)
-set your GPU mem size in the display tab of config menu
-I think it helps to have truetype fonts or something like that installed already in your distro for stuff like times new roman and other MS fonts it seems to render better in GW2 once running even with changing nothing, I have no clue why.
-there is more but just check the links for gw2 playonlinux and wine pages for complete info.
MY FPS Is jumpy sometimes but for normal stuff stays around 25-40. I did a TEQ last night with this setup and got no worse performance overall than I did with my Windows install, got gold across the board and full loot without any issue and could easily jump waves and fight without to much issue. I have not really tested WvW or PvP yet but I am going to soon.

I am also going to do experiments with the current ati drivers but I have to do some imaging backups of stuff first as I am not a Linux pro and break stuff all the time. That said I should disclaimer all this by saying;

I work in IT and have degree’s in computer science. I have messed with Linux on and off for over 10 years. I am not a pro at all but feel more satisfied when I am in a Linux distro and that might just be the smug IT biss in me talking. I like to solve problems and find answers I didn’t have before. For me doing this and making it run better is a joy. You might not get the same thing out of it and won’t be please with what I referenced above.

I find valid reasons for both OS’s to exist I am not saying one is better than the other just that I use it in this way and for those reasons. In the end it doesn’t even really matter is MS is a pack of spying biss-tards some agency we don’t even know about is probably collecting 10x’s what the NSA is. I like secrets as much as the next person but I only keep them in one place. Do what you have to but there are options.

I’m going to throw in a “I’d love a native Linux client”.

GW2 is one of the only reasons I still use Windows, with a native client I can permanently wipe Windows from my HD.

But I do understand the issues from Anet’s PoV. What we actually have is a chicken and egg issue. There’s not many Linux gamers because nearly all games are coded for Windows. To get more Linux players there needs to be more Linux games, which isn’t happening because there isn’t many Linux gamers.

Something in this circle needs to change.

I’m really hoping Vulkan will help.

Forgive me if I seem very ignorant but if there is a Mac version does that mean that it is written in OpenGL or is that not how it works?

If it is written in OpenGL wouldn’t it be “fairly easy” make a Linux version? I think it ANet could make a lot of money if they chose to provide people with a Linux version. What with people unhappy (me being one of them) with what Microsoft is doing.

Seagull.9238:

Forgive me if I seem very ignorant but if there is a Mac version does that mean that it is written in OpenGL or is that not how it works?

If it is written in OpenGL wouldn’t it be “fairly easy” make a Linux version? I think it ANet could make a lot of money if they chose to provide people with a Linux version. What with people unhappy (me being one of them) with what Microsoft is doing.

The current Mac version is a cider port made through Transgaming now owned by NVIDIA. So it is not written in OpenGL. However, Anet has been working on a native Mac client. I’m not sure what they are using to do it though.

DX9. The Mac version uses Cider, which is basically WINE. They did however say they were working on an actual Mac client.