Guild Wars 2

OpenGL port would be profitable actually. Because the OGL specification does not require you to download any extra run-times. As OGL is included with video card drivers, including Windows 98 and newer. Not to mention, being open-source means that OGL gets updated quicker, and gets bugs fixed a lot faster.

I would also love a Linux port. Getting tired of Microsoft and Windows. Linux is a much better environment.

Nutshel.7264:

as much as I’d like linux clinet… ain’t gonna happen
Unfortunately anet wrote the kitten thing using D3D for rendering instead of OpenGL and porting whole rendering engine to OGL would not be profitable.

What about the mac client?, Is not mac using OGL, and if so is the case then a Linux port would be possible.

+1 for Linux

I’m in a situation where I use Linux daily/nightly on both personal and business.

Some of the games like Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Garry’s Mod, Faster Than Light, Oil Rush ( and more but I don’t play others at the moment ) are on Linux natively and would like to see Guild Wars 2 as well on this platform natively… I keep saying “natively” because using “wine” is tacky… although during the transition… not entirely ( I’ll explain later )

Just rewrite your rendering engine to support both Direct3D and OpenGL and the rest should be fairly easy…

Do what Valve did… put OpenGL support in your Windows binary so people can play it on Linux using wine and then over time… transition across to Linux…

Valve, Blizzard Entertainment ( announcement only ), Crytek ( rumored looking for Linux engineers ), Frozenbyte and more are all supporting or looking to support Linux

I would recommend you support Linux as it’s a platform that is growing in usage regardless of whether it’s in the commercial field ( like Ubuntu ) or not ( like Arch Linux, Gentoo, Mint, Fedora, Manjaro and more )

Not supporting OpenGL is actually less profitable… besides the Microsoft Windows series and Xbox series… Direct3D is no where… OpenGL or OpenGL ES is all over…

This is NOT a question asking “Are you going to support Linux natively?” or “Do you have plans to support Linux natively?”

This is a message saying “I would recommend you support Linux natively”

Thank You

+1 for Linux client.

I’ll just leave this here.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_windows8_geforce&num=1
And don’t worry about other Linux gamers out there that don’t have Nvidia. Every real Linux Gamer has Nvidia card(s). AMD is openly lazy about developing drivers. I would continue playing GW2 if it were supported (native or coordinated with Wine devs) in Linux. I’m not going back to windows after my winsxs folder grew to 30Gb after a year of using it. There is no excuse for an OS to take that much space just because it can’t a find a better way to deal with DLLs. I would love to see my Bifrost running at full speed on Linux.

My deal with this is that as they have a Mac “Client” (I use quotes as it is not a native port, but an emulation) and “support” (as it’s being done by another company, they cannot directly affect issues with it), why not do the same for Linux?

My mentality is that if someone can do something for Mac, they can do it for Linux very easily. If it’s Windows-only, it’s one thing. But since Mac and Linux are so similar, it’s silly to be Windows/Mac only these days (particularly since the Mac “port” isn’t native).

It actually runs better on Linux for me (through wine!) than it does in Windows and I don’t have the specs to run the Mac “client” to even test it out.

So… either a native port or at least do what was done for the Mac community for the Linux community. Plus, you’ll probably get a lot more money out of Linux users if you support them. They’ll buy more from the Gem Store as soon as there’s word of official support. I know I’d be more willing.

If you look at humble bundle’s pie charts, every single time the Linux users donate more money on average. Even if it’s a Windows-only game for the idea of ports. But, when there is a game with a linux version, they become both a higher percentage and the highest donating group on average. From what I’ve seen, projects seem to get a burst of money once Linux support is mentioned – and then the Linux community will be long-term fans/advertisers/buyers so long as support is kept up.

Lorelei.7809:

snip.

Unfortunately, the Mac port is not very well maintained (from my understanding). In addition, they used a Transgaming program called Cider to do it. You may or may not recognize Cider’s older brother, Cedega, which specializes in making linux ports of Windows games. It’s the same deal. Anet had/has very little actual control over the port, itself.

Outside of that, though, I agree. It would certainly be profitable for Anet to at least consider porting to linux.

Honestly, though, I don’t know what the linux community expects. There are still very few of us and no matter how much noise we make, that fact won’t change until AAA developers start developing for us. However, because there are so few of us, AAA developers do not think it is economically viable to port to linux in the first place.

I really think our best bet at getting Anet to recognize linux is to create a linux guild for linux users and linux supporters. Because you are allowed to join more than one guild, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. If we become important or become known in the community, maybe players will start turning their heads.

Thanks for reading,
Leios

I support this suggestion! The only reason I’m not playing GW2 right now is because I’m on Ubuntu (linux) and don’t want to mess with Wine.

Leios.8965:

Lorelei.7809:

snip.

Unfortunately, the Mac port is not very well maintained (from my understanding). In addition, they used a Transgaming program called Cider to do it. You may or may not recognize Cider’s older brother, Cedega, which specializes in making linux ports of Windows games. It’s the same deal. Anet had/has very little actual control over the port, itself.

Outside of that, though, I agree. It would certainly be profitable for Anet to at least consider porting to linux.

I am indeed aware of Cider/Cedega. And yes, it isn’t a great client, but at least they have official support, even if hardly anything can be done. I was thinking they could work with/officially support Codeweavers/Crossover as an option if they wanted to do something similar to the Mac client – unless I misunderstand. This way, though, there would be official support (though not a native port, better than the nothing they give us now).

Honestly, though, I don’t know what the linux community expects. There are still very few of us and no matter how much noise we make, that fact won’t change until AAA developers start developing for us. However, because there are so few of us, AAA developers do not think it is economically viable to port to linux in the first place.

I really think our best bet at getting Anet to recognize linux is to create a linux guild for linux users and linux supporters. Because you are allowed to join more than one guild, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. If we become important or become known in the community, maybe players will start turning their heads.

Thanks for reading,
Leios

I’d be up for a Linux guild. Though, I suppose it still would be a bit awkward with guesting, but everyone would still be on the roster.

As far as noise goes, I think particularly in an MMO, Linux gamers would be an asset as, if given official support, would be much more willing to log in consistently and consistently buy from the Gem Store and advertise the game to our friends. Linux fans – are a very passionate bunch, and having that passion on your side is a very good thing indeed.

Lorelei.7809:

I am indeed aware of Cider/Cedega. And yes, it isn’t a great client, but at least they have official support, even if hardly anything can be done. I was thinking they could work with/officially support Codeweavers/Crossover as an option if they wanted to do something similar to the Mac client – unless I misunderstand. This way, though, there would be official support (though not a native port, better than the nothing they give us now).

I’d be up for a Linux guild. Though, I suppose it still would be a bit awkward with guesting, but everyone would still be on the roster.

As far as noise goes, I think particularly in an MMO, Linux gamers would be an asset as, if given official support, would be much more willing to log in consistently and consistently buy from the Gem Store and advertise the game to our friends. Linux fans – are a very passionate bunch, and having that passion on your side is a very good thing indeed.

I actually 100% agree about a Cedega port. When running the game on WINE, the FPS is bad, but I expected that. The textures don’t update, but I also expected that from playing years of GW1 on WINE. I did, however, expect the gem store to load. I also expected my camera to be able to rotate freely. Honestly, those two bugs are almost game-breaking for me. Because the gem store / trading post does not load under a new version of WINE (and I keep making the mistake of pulling WINE from my official repos), I cannot sell all the rare items I will not use but are in my inventory anyway. Because my camera catches at a random angle every time I right click, I cannot do most jumping puzzles (easily). I am sure if we had a cedega port, those issues would be addressed and fixed—along with the texture bug (hopefully). Also, if we could increase the FPS only a little, I might be able to actually enjoy the latest content rather than read the reviews from other individuals.

As far as the guild is concerned, I don’t think it would be that big of a deal. Because this game allows players to be a part of more than one guild at a time, we would really only be asking that one of their characters joins the guild, which isn’t too much to ask. With guesting, we can probably make it work well enough.

A few points I cannot help but reiterate:

-Linux gamers would definitely support Anet if they supported linux. I believe Guild Wars 2 would be one of the first AAA MMO’s to support linux, if they chose to do so.

-Anet must be proactive about this. The switch to linux will not be as big of a deal if another company has already done it first.

-The reason linux gaming is not a big deal is because companies continue to ignore linux gamers. If a handful of important companies were to support the OS, there would definitely be an increase in the number of linux players out there. This is why linux gamers amount to ~2% of steam gamers. Our only real AAA game to play is DOTA2 and that game is quite frankly difficult to get into (for me, anyway).

Anyway, those were my two cents. If you add them all together, I’ve probably donated a full dollar to this thread, alone.
-Leios

Leios.8965:

Lorelei.7809:

I am indeed aware of Cider/Cedega. And yes, it isn’t a great client, but at least they have official support, even if hardly anything can be done. I was thinking they could work with/officially support Codeweavers/Crossover as an option if they wanted to do something similar to the Mac client – unless I misunderstand. This way, though, there would be official support (though not a native port, better than the nothing they give us now).

I’d be up for a Linux guild. Though, I suppose it still would be a bit awkward with guesting, but everyone would still be on the roster.

As far as noise goes, I think particularly in an MMO, Linux gamers would be an asset as, if given official support, would be much more willing to log in consistently and consistently buy from the Gem Store and advertise the game to our friends. Linux fans – are a very passionate bunch, and having that passion on your side is a very good thing indeed.

I actually 100% agree about a Cedega port. When running the game on WINE, the FPS is bad, but I expected that. The textures don’t update, but I also expected that from playing years of GW1 on WINE. I did, however, expect the gem store to load. I also expected my camera to be able to rotate freely. Honestly, those two bugs are almost game-breaking for me. Because the gem store / trading post does not load under a new version of WINE (and I keep making the mistake of pulling WINE from my official repos), I cannot sell all the rare items I will not use but are in my inventory anyway. Because my camera catches at a random angle every time I right click, I cannot do most jumping puzzles (easily). I am sure if we had a cedega port, those issues would be addressed and fixed—along with the texture bug (hopefully). Also, if we could increase the FPS only a little, I might be able to actually enjoy the latest content rather than read the reviews from other individuals.

The only issue I have is armor preview not working fully – I can only preview one piece of armor at a time (texture issue) and I’m running it under PlayOnLinux with their patched wine version specifically for GW2. My FPS is either the same or faster than was on my Windows partition. The Gem Store loads, it runs smoothly for jumping puzzles, etc. The only problem I’ve had is it crashing every once in awhile (particularly on my older-spec’d computer).

As far as the guild is concerned, I don’t think it would be that big of a deal. Because this game allows players to be a part of more than one guild at a time, we would really only be asking that one of their characters joins the guild, which isn’t too much to ask. With guesting, we can probably make it work well enough.

A few points I cannot help but reiterate:

-Linux gamers would definitely support Anet if they supported linux. I believe Guild Wars 2 would be one of the first AAA MMO’s to support linux, if they chose to do so.

-Anet must be proactive about this. The switch to linux will not be as big of a deal if another company has already done it first.

-The reason linux gaming is not a big deal is because companies continue to ignore linux gamers. If a handful of important companies were to support the OS, there would definitely be an increase in the number of linux players out there. This is why linux gamers amount to ~2% of steam gamers. Our only real AAA game to play is DOTA2 and that game is quite frankly difficult to get into (for me, anyway).

Anyway, those were my two cents. If you add them all together, I’ve probably donated a full dollar to this thread, alone.
-Leios

Agreed.

+1 for linux support.

Heck, I would throw my money at ArenaNet if this would happen.
Then I could finally get rid of Windows entirely, there’s no reason for me to use it anymore except GW2 and some other games.

I would really apreciate a Linux client and would be willing to pay for it, too.
I currently use wine (PlayonLinux) to run GW2 on my PC and the performance is very low (and my system is on the higher-end: i7-3770K; AsRock MB; Radeon HD7990). I get about 40 fps at medium detail…

If A-Net thinks it’s to expensive to port to Linux, I would suggest to start a crowdfunding campaign (indiegogo/Kickstarter) and let the community pay for it.
Maybe it would be a good idea to contact the wine devs for help and tipps on porting (and i think they might have rough ideas on the effort required).

I give my vote for a linux client.

Used to dual boot but now days it is Linux 100% of the time. Work SLES 11, home Kubuntu 13.04.

Now that Valve is porting games to linux I have been rocking my old orange box again (CS:S, DOD:S, TF2, etc…) And although the selection is small I have been presently surprised with the linux ports that are available. Currently trying to get GW2 working on Wine, we’ll see….

Codeweavers looks like a good choice for a linux port. Isn’t that what Arena Net used for the Mac port?

http://www.codeweavers.com/services/faq/ports/

Valve’s steam box is supposed to be linux based. can’t wait.

For those not aware there is a Steam Linux Users Group

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug

http://steamlug.org/

if i could run guild wars 2, netflix and adobe suite in linux i wouldn’t have a need to use windows, so I VOTE for a GW2 client for linux

I run Ubuntu 13.04 100% at home and I am now looking at the switch to Debian 7 instead. Since I use Wine to play GW1 and GW2 I do have a low fps, max of 17 (on medium settings. 6 to 9 fps with highest options). I am using a six core amd processor and a HD Raedon 7750 v-card. When I let the options choose the settings for my system it maxes everything out. Looks great, runs very very slow. I run Teamspeak simultainiously with GW2. My biggest problem is that the system locks up at random times. Only GW locks up and freezes my input from the keyboard and mouse, Teamspeak continues to run without a problem. I am hoping that going to a straight Debian system will fix some of this issue. I play other mmo’s on the same system and GW is the only one that has the lock up issues. I am hopeful that a native Linux port would help me to address this problem. I have three copies of GW1 (all four titles each) and GW2 at our house for my wife, son, and myself. And yes I would be willing to buy the game again to get a native port. I do use gem cards, a lot in fact; so does my wife. If only the developers would support Opengl, and maybe work a little with the wine project, then perhaps our experience of this game would get better as well.

Thank you.

devs, if u are not sure, that linux clinet will not give u a money feedback …may be u will start a kickstarter project?

100% support a linux port.

I’d love to see a Linux port. The crowdfunding idea could be a good way to get it happening too.

Big +1 for a native Linux port, including OpenGL, OpenAL, etc. (And this will really benefit OSX users too)

Smaller +1 for a Linux port using a Wine-based wrapper. Not as good as native, but at least this.

+1 for linux client

I say +1 again, I really want a Linux client

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QKwWPQ1Orzs

and understand part of why developers are not into the time and effort supporting linux will entail.

some quick examples

1. driver update hell: all gaming hardware uses “evil binary blobs” for drivers, due to the design of linux, even minor kernal patches can totally fubar drivers.(drivers tied directly to the kernal=bad)

2. no equivalent to directX, and before somebody trys to say “opengl” that would be the closest thing to direct 3d, directx also covers direct input, direct draw, direct sound, and a few other things, all of them supported to a specific level by a specific windows version.(xp has dx9, vista/7/8 have dx11)

3. no universal installer package type, you have RPM, DEB, DMG, TAR, exct(dozens), dosnt matter what package type you use, not all linux distro’s are going to support it.

4. the linux community: this one will be hard for alot of you to swallow but, a large chunk of the linux community are very militant and belligerent if they dont get their way, if you give them an opening they will be allover you to open source everything, as well as insulting you for not doing things thier way, and not giving them top support priority………

I say the above having seen it from both sides, I dont hate linux, I infact use it when it is the better option.

the fact is, linux has such a small market share for a reason, its just really not ready for the average desktop user.

bsd is closer(desktop bsd/free bsd) but, its still not really ready for joe sixpack type users.

as to any comments about lack of malware on linux…..thats a good one….you should tell security firms that one, they will laugh till they pass out……as will anybody who deals with pc’s in large numbers…

the fact is, even linux developers admit linux isnt by its nature more secure, and hasnt been for a long time(even before UAC), it is just very lucky because, by not becoming a popular desktop OS its managed to stay under the radar for the most part…..again, I say this having friends who develop linux and having talked to many linux dev’s (the slackware/vector guys are alot of fun and very helpful)

btw, an old saying that fits here.

“BSD is what you get when a bunch of Unix hackers sit down to try to port a Unix system to the PC.
Linux is what you get when a bunch of PC hackers sit down and try to write a Unix system for the PC.”

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QKwWPQ1Orzs

Another person who Googled “Why Linux Sucks” and found this? It’s a talk given by a Linux developer to Linux developers, about things that can be made better. The same guy’s next talk was “Why Linux DOESN’T Suck”, and you can watch that here.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

1. driver update hell: all gaming hardware uses “evil binary blobs” for drivers, due to the design of linux, even minor kernal patches can totally fubar drivers.(drivers tied directly to the kernal=bad)

WHAT. I mean, like, WHAT. Kernels are not binary compatible? Yep. But you only need to recompile the driver, or even let something like DKMS do it for you, in a way that’s completely transparent to the user. But kernel drivers use a very specific API that’s stable and doesn’t actually break too often. The last time something broke inside NVIDIA’s proprietary driver was because of an error in their build scripts that was fixed by all major distributions, and then by NVIDIA itself in the next release. (source: Arch package commit, another Arch package commit soon after)

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

2. no equivalent to directX, and before somebody trys to say “opengl” that would be the closest thing to direct 3d, directx also covers direct input, direct draw, direct sound, and a few other things, all of them supported to a specific level by a specific windows version.(xp has dx9, vista/7/8 have dx11)

OpenGL for graphics, SDL2 for windowing/input, OpenAL for sound. DirectDraw is deprecated, even though its functionality can be implemented with either raw OpenGL or SDL2’s 2D primitives (source: personal experience, additional references: MonoGame-SDL2 by Ethan Lee – Eversion, Waveform, Fez, etc., Porting Source to Linux by Valve – Team Fortress 2, etc., Linux as a gaming platform, ideology aside by Leszek Godlewski – Painkiller Hell and kitten ation).

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

3. no universal installer package type, you have RPM, DEB, DMG, TAR, exct(dozens), dosnt matter what package type you use, not all linux distro’s are going to support it.

Make the launcher a single binary (heck, it is a single binary already), download the game to $HOME, just like Steam does. It’s not the best way, but it’s easy and absolutely workable for most distributions.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

4. the linux community: this one will be hard for alot of you to swallow but, a large chunk of the linux community are very militant and belligerent if they dont get their way, if you give them an opening they will be allover you to open source everything, as well as insulting you for not doing things thier way, and not giving them top support priority………

I don’t know where you see this “large chunk”. From my experience, there are a lot less RMS/FSF/GNU zealots than there were a few years ago (source: Arch community, /r/linux, some local resources).

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

the fact is, linux has such a small market share for a reason, its just really not ready for the average desktop user.

How exactly?

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

bsd is closer(desktop bsd/free bsd) but, its still not really ready for joe sixpack type users.

In which ways?

(cont’d)

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

as to any comments about lack of malware on linux…..thats a good one….you should tell security firms that one, they will laugh till they pass out……as will anybody who deals with pc’s in large numbers…

That is a major factor, yes. But breaking a Linux system is actually rather difficult, and definitely much more difficult than breaking a Windows system, be it via malware or otherwise (source: personal experience, Linux kernel CVEs in 2013, Windows 8 CVEs in 2013 — compare the amount of critical ones).

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

the fact is, even linux developers admit linux isnt by its nature more secure, and hasnt been for a long time(even before UAC)

Source please.

I’d buy the game again for this. Performance in Wine just doesn’t cut it, it’s perfect one day and then utterly dismal for the next 6 months.

Guys. Go to page 13 of this thread. Jazhara Knightmage.4389 posted that exact same comment there, deleted it, and then reposted it. There is clear evidence (seeing as how some posts say “@Jazhara Knightmage.4389” and then reply to a comment that ISN’T THERE).

I don’t know why anyone would do this, and it is mildly irritating. In this case, dissent is not a good way to bump the thread (if that was the goal).

Regardless, I wonder if it might be better to split this thread into two: one for the hardcore linux-user who wants a pure OpenGL port and another for those linux users who just want to have less of a hassle with installation and initial play of Guild Wars 2 with WINE. The latter thread could also include those pushing for a Cedega port.

Leios.8965:

Guys. Go to page 13 of this thread. Jazhara Knightmage.4389 posted that exact same comment there, deleted it, and then reposted it. There is clear evidence (seeing as how some posts say “@Jazhara Knightmage.4389” and then reply to a comment that ISN’T THERE).

I don’t know why anyone would do this, and it is mildly irritating. In this case, dissent is not a good way to bump the thread (if that was the goal).

Regardless, I wonder if it might be better to split this thread into two: one for the hardcore linux-user who wants a pure OpenGL port and another for those linux users who just want to have less of a hassle with installation and initial play of Guild Wars 2 with WINE. The latter thread could also include those pushing for a Cedega port.

Funny thing is, he didn’t even bother reading what i answered back then :\

And… To be honest, I’d rather split this topic in 3: one for native OpenGL port, one for Wine/Cedega/other “port”, and one for people who just want to troll and don’t care to read all the pages of this topic.

A native port would, of course, be nice. I don’t hink they will ever make one though. MAC also just got a “cider” port. The only thing I can hope for now, is better wine support. It runs absolutely horrendous on my computer (i7-2600k oc 4.0 kHz, GTS450). In fact so bad, I don’t plan to play the game anymore until the framerate is high enough. (<20 fps on normal settings? wtf!?)

GW2 in Wine is awful, just awful. +1 for Linux port, please make it happen!

Have the developers made any comments about the possibility of a Linux-client?

The only reason for me to boot into Windows is because of this game. I want to continue to play this game, but as more games come out on Steam for Linux, I am willing to sacrifice many games to support those who actually develop for Linux.

I will give it an attempt to install GW2 through Wine when the time comes, but if that doesn’t work that well, GW2 will be missed.

Blaises.3804:

I would love to see a linux client. I’d be totally wiling spend money on a gemstore item that did nothing but fund someone to work on the linux client.

Since this game if free, and I play it a lot, I try to set aside an amount of money to use in BLTC each month. If they made a Linux-client that I would have to pay for, I would pay to unlock the Linux-client as well.

Funny how people saying “Game company X (e.g. ArenaNet) should not care about a tiny fraction of their potential client base, because it would not make economic sense”, are always part of the non-tiny majority. It reminds me of the famous statement sometimes attributed to Bertold Brecht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…

Imagine that instead of a Windows-only, non-Linux game we were talking about a game that was:

• Right-handers only / left-handed people can not play
• Men-only / women can not play
• Christian, Muslim and Jewish-only / other religions and atheists can not play
• Black and white only / other races can not play

Certainly left-handers, women or people of neither black nor white race ARE a minority playing GW2.

The examples above are ridiculous, because the very same game can be played by a right-handed white christian male or a left-handed asian atheist woman… but imagine that was not the case! Imagine that making a man-only game available to women cost some effort… would it be moral, or even legal, to say “forget about women, they are only a small minority (among GW2 players), so why bother?”?

@galadhor

Kind of agree to that, but there is still expenses that would need to be covered. Unless they feel the income of the available versions are big enough to make a version for Linux.

Still, there is a version for Mac. How many gamers uses Mac contra Linux? And how hard would it be to port the game to Linux? Also, how much effort is it to develop games that are easier to port to other platforms?

I do hope we will see some changes when it comes to gaming on Linux with Valve’s involvement. Some games even seems to get better performance in Linux (one source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/valves-optimizations-make-linux-port-of-l4d2-outperform-windows-version/ and ), although the gap was much smaller when they tested the OpenGL version on Windows (Linux OpenGL: 315fps, Windows DirectX: 270.6fps, Windows OpenGL: 303.4fps). Also, after Valve’s announcement hardware companies have started putting more effort into drivers for Linux. There has also been speculations about other game companies involvement in Linux, after for instance EA attended to Ubuntu Summit.

Hopefully Linux will be a more suitable platform for gamers in the coming years

Within a few months, I will probably be satisfied with drivers (next GPU drivers from nVidia and changes in the kernel seems to have been improved a lot) and games (Metro: Last Night, Dota2, Europa Universalis IV, Half-Life 2, etc.) within a few months to keep me occupied until more games pop up

If there wont be a Linux port, or some kind of attempt to do a crowd funding, is there a good thread here somewhere about getting the game to work on Linux?

TamarinNOR.3251:

If there wont be a Linux port, or some kind of attempt to do a crowd funding, is there a good thread here somewhere about getting the game to work on Linux?

The best guide, I think, is actually on Wine HQ

That being said, don’t expect thrilling results or anything. It works, but is still pretty wonky.

EDIT: Link’s not working. Just google a Guild Wars 2 linux Guide on WineHQ and you should find it. Sorry about that.

Leios.8965:

TamarinNOR.3251:

If there wont be a Linux port, or some kind of attempt to do a crowd funding, is there a good thread here somewhere about getting the game to work on Linux?

The best guide, I think, is actually on Wine HQ

That being said, don’t expect thrilling results or anything. It works, but is still pretty wonky.

EDIT: Link’s not working. Just google a Guild Wars 2 linux Guide on WineHQ and you should find it. Sorry about that.

Yes, he’s right, it works. But on my hardware I get around 12fps. Which, obviously is unplayable.

I’ll try again when I upgrade my hardware in a few days to see if that makes a difference.

nehkz.2304:

Yes, he’s right, it works. But on my hardware I get around 12fps. Which, obviously is unplayable.

I’ll try again when I upgrade my hardware in a few days to see if that makes a difference.

Unfortunately, no matter how you configure WINE, you are still looking at half the FPS you would with Windows. At least, that’s been my experience.

I installed on Linux today. Got 16 FPS. STILL, I can’t seem to get my nVidia card to run via PlayOnLinux (GPU with Optimus technology), so it runs on Intel Integrated GMA4000HD (if I remember correctly). Now even player skins have a problem loading …

Will be interesting to see how it will be with kernel 3.9+ and the new drivers from nVidia that is in Beta.

I have read that there is about 10-25 fps drop on Linux in some comments around the web. If that is true it could be doable.

You DO NOT want the cider wrapper, it’s terrible!

Once they actually make a native client to the mac OSX, linux should be easy peasy.

That is true But Windows is to be taken off the system within 2 months, I am tired of dual booting, and I doubt there will be a native Mac client at that time.

I assume a native Mac client will support OpenGL, since Direct X aren’t officially supported on Mac, and that should make things way easier for Linux gamers. However, I did find some information from when the news about a Mac client first appeared that it were using Cider from TransGaming and would still be using Direct X.

Tried to find out how the progress on Mac beta is working out, but it seems like it has been beta for a while and might be for an uncertain amount of time as well. And the developers seems to be very silent with talking back to the community.

The only quote I have read about a possible Linux client is from Colin Johanson:

“You know, it’s something that we check around every now and then, but there’s no one actively working on it right now, and we won’t be working on it in the near future. But we have talked about it, yes.”

TamarinNOR.3251:

I installed on Linux today. Got 16 FPS. STILL, I can’t seem to get my nVidia card to run via PlayOnLinux (GPU with Optimus technology), so it runs on Intel Integrated GMA4000HD (if I remember correctly). Now even player skins have a problem loading …

Will be interesting to see how it will be with kernel 3.9+ and the new drivers from nVidia that is in Beta.

I have read that there is about 10-25 fps drop on Linux in some comments around the web. If that is true it could be doable.

In addition to the FPS drop when using wine, textures do not dynamically change (thus player skins don’t load), the camera hangs at random angles, and the trading post fails to load.

As far as getting your nVidia card to work, add “primusrun” to the command to start playonlinux. That should get it to work — assuming you have bumblebee working fine.

Will try that, thanks! I have bumblebee yes, and I have used optirun to start applications with the nVidia cart. It works when I test the card, but not in applications like PlayOnLinux or Steam.

Yeah, I did notice some graphical problems. Some player skin not loading for one. Some I can deal with, just hope non of them will be a 100% deal breaker.

I have mainly used consoles for gaming, thus this laptop isn’t all that well suited for gaming, and I only get 35 fps in Windows. Now that games are coming to Linux, I might as well jump back to PC as gaming platform, and get a desktop PC that can run this game a little better in Linux. That should have an impact on performance.

Considering I just made the switch to Linux I’d really love to see a Linux client. This is the only game I even play anymore but I couldn’t justify staying on Windows for one game. I know dual booting is an option but I am less than thrilled by it.

Just adding my +1 to the Linux client idea so ANet can see there are supporters out there.

The engine is so needing a rewrite -very poor multithreading, anchored on an obsolete DirectX with lot of disadvantages- than a good rewrite is needed anyway. They could very well do both things at a time, and they will gain a better engine that can run on OSX, Linux, PS4, and will run better on Windows .

I’d really love to hear a dev saying something about this… It’s been 14 pages already!

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

3. no universal installer package type, you have RPM, DEB, DMG, TAR, exct(dozens), doesn’t matter what package type you use, not all linux distro’s are going to support it.

This alone is probably one of the biggest reasons you’ll never see a linux client.

Just make a tarball and let the community handle the rest.
Valve used a DEB file for Steam and it worked on most distros within a day or so.
The “universal installer” thing is a bullkitten excuse.

I’ve started frankensteining a Windows machine from parts I have laying around, that will be dedicated to playing GW2.

I just need a little taste, man (but at a little more than 8 FPS).
I feel so dirty…