Guild Wars 2

Hello OSX players out there!

I noticed that a lot of people have all sorts of different bugs such as the launcher to keep updating; crazy mouse behaviour; or even some rare cases of the c0000005 error .

For most of these cases there are workarounds. I would like to use this topic as a general help location for common errors and workarounds. But I would also like to dedicate this topic on getting people to know about a issue which we all face.

The biggest problem with the client right now is the performance, and we often go search in the wrong direction on this one. Yes, there have been reports of people with really bad performance, that an SMC reset would help. But on average the client runs about twice as bad as it would on Windows, and this is something we are all experiencing.

A native client would be awesome but not really necessary. But a fix on the CPU threading would make the cider port almost as fast as the native Windows client would.

“What?!” I hear you scream. Well to be precise, there are people like me, with an iMac with a decent graphics card that bottleneck on CPU performance issues. This is because the GPU does not get the data it needs in time, which is best noticed in Lion’s Arch.

The native Windows client is multithreaded, meaning that it uses all the cores and threads on your CPU. However, the Mac client is single threaded. Only one core is used, meaning that in cases like mine, 3 cores remain unused.

Now here is the message to NCSoft: Please, please look into the threading issue. This is a thing only you can do! The small issues and bugs have workaround solutions. But this one is something we all face while playing.

With that said, it’s time for some common solutions:

TgUpdate 1.11 on launcher start
1. Check current version # of TG Wrapper by navigating to Applications -> Guild Wars 2 -> Get Info

2. If the version is older than 1.0.009524, download TG Update. You can get the TG Update here: http://cider.ncplatform.net/Live/GWII-Update-009524.tgz.

3. After downloading, manually unpack the .TGZ file by double-clicking on it

4. Updater should now be unzipped and visible. Double-click updater and you will be prompted to select your output app

5. Navigate to where your Guild Wars 2 client is located. (default location is Applications -> Guild Wars 2)

6. After selecting Guild Wars 2 you may be prompted by your Mac to allow the update to make changes, if so enter your password and the updater should resume updating. Note: If you are getting a message: “GWII-Update-009524.app” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer". You must allow third party apps in your System Preferences->Security & Privacy->“Allow apps downloaded from anywhere”

7. Once patching has been completed confirm that TG Wrapper version has updated to Version 1.0.009524 by re-following step #1

8. After the update is completed try launching the game client

Crash code c000005
1. Delete all files ~/Library/Application Support/Guild Wars 2/

2. Try launching the game client

Crazy mouse camera turning
1. In-game press esc.

2. Go to “Options” and check if the Camera -> Rotation Speed is set to the lowest setting. With fast mouse sensitivity the game amplifies it too much.

3. If step #2 is indeed on lowest setting, try pressing cmd+tab on the keyboard, minimising the game. After you see the desktop cmd+tab again selecting the Guild Wars 2 icon, this should make the game full screen again.

4. The mouse should behave normally now.

Gem purchasing is bugged
1. Do the “TgUpdate 1.11 on launcher start” fix from above

2. Check if your launcher version is NOT older then 1.0.009524

3. Validate if this fixed your problem.

Please keep this topic clean, questions are more than welcome. please be clear and detailed with the question you provide. And just do not make this into a slow chat.

Awesome!!! This just fixed a login issue on my MBA. Thanks a million!

OpenGL is a provably more efficient pipeline than D3D. Abstracting D3D on top of an OpenGL based system (Mac/Linux) is considerably less efficient than it could and should be. While I appreciate the tone and intention of your post, it’s not really accurate to say that this Transgaming port of the Windows code will ever be efficient like native code.

The native client for WoW makes this obvious.

Well, until NCSoft makes a true native client, these solutions work well. Far easier than that solution presented in the tg update 1.11 thread.

Damage.2170:

OpenGL is a provably more efficient pipeline than D3D. Abstracting D3D on top of an OpenGL based system (Mac/Linux) is considerably less efficient than it could and should be. While I appreciate the tone and intention of your post, it’s not really accurate to say that this Transgaming port of the Windows code will ever be efficient like native code.

The native client for WoW makes this obvious.

Even though you are right about this, I can understand that a native client is not interesting for a developer. Therefore a Wine/Cider/Transgaming port is not as bad as you’d think. Most games for Mac (read: almost all) are a Wine port.

I’ve ported Skyrim myself, and although it runs worse on Mac and has some limitations (Direct 3D injector modding), it still runs very decent. This isn’t the case for Guild Wars 2, it runs like s***, pardon my language. I can play games like The Witcher 2 on Ultra settings, whilst not being able to run Guild Wars 2 on any setting on my iMac 27".

It all comes down to this single factor of not using multi-threading, I think this is a bug that they were not able to fix. I can’t seem to port Guild Wars 2 myself with multi-threading… So they just stuck with holding this single core application.

The funny thing is, the higher the resolution and more powerful your rig is.. The more problems you’ll face because the single core CPU can’t cope with the data throughput. It runs relatively smooth on my 2011 Macbook Pro 15", but that game runs at 1440×900.

This also explains why Lion’s Arch is absolute hell, it is the most CPU intensive place with all the custom player textures that need to be loaded. Sitting around in Lion’s Arch for a few minutes smoothes out the frame rate by a lot, but it still isn’t fast.

FricoRico.6893:

Even though you are right about this, I can understand that a native client is not interesting for a developer. Therefore a Wine/Cider/Transgaming port is not as bad as you’d think. Most games for Mac (read: almost all) are a Wine port.

Well we have to separate “developer” from “institutional habit”. Most of the developers I know don’t have a vote, and moreover don’t really care as long as they get what they need to do the job. Most of these design & technical spec decisions are made by the management team at the studio.

What you say about Mac games being mostly wrapped Windows games is mostly true. However status quo doesn’t mean that it needs to continue that way. Especially when all mobile devices — portable computers — (except Windows Phone) are OpenGL platforms. While most app store games are 2D/libgdx/libcocos — most anything that is 3D is OpenGL-based.

But forget that — excellent OpenGL game engines have been produced to help studios & developers build multiplatform for desktop, mobile and console: Unreal, Marmalade, Unity.

I’m somewhat sympathetic with GW2 from a timeline perspective. I think development started back in 2007. It wouldn’t have been possible for them to make a perfectly portable spec back at that time using 3rd party stuff. They could have decided to use OpenGL, but Microsoft deliberately tried to sabotage OpenGL in 2007 by gimping it in Windows Vista. I’m sure that made those early development decisions lean towards DirectX. So, GW2 currently has its own engine, uses Havok for physics, and some other 3rd party stuff in the Windows toolchain.

Fast forward to 2012, and GW2 launch — lots has changed. I’m sure they’d go back and do a number of things differently if they could. From my POV, any arguments that there are no developers to do OpenGL work is a myth, one probably started by Microsoft. Look at all the OpenGL 3D apps showing up on app stores now. Those get done because there is demand. Microsoft engages game studios directly which is something the OpenGL side doesn’t do, so I’m very leery of people who run AAA game studios and the kind of behind the scenes relationships that exist with Microsoft.

But mostly … it’s out of the AAA studio comfort zone, it’s lack of will, and some entrenched practices — not a technology or “ease of development” issue.

AAA studios will be dragged into OpenGL because mobile market share will force them to eventually. They won’t go because we’re asking nicely. :-) Especially when Cider & Wine are there as a crutch.

I do agree, let’s get this client to work as well as it can work. I wish ArenaNet would come forward with some kind of roadmap for this client, and be real with us about it. I’ve said before, it’s very unlikely that ArenaNet would switch tracks and build a native client for GW2 at any stage. GW2 will get more content but the tech will not change.

I’m glad folks like you are working on resolving some of these problems. All I can do is muster what is left of my time/energy at the end of the day to write these posts, I don’t even play anymore. Hopeful that if there is a GW3, that ArenaNet goes all in on OpenGL and finally OSX & Linux users will get a client that isn’t a 2nd class citizen.

Some companies change their windows code slightly to make it run better with Wine (Rift comes to mind as an example, there is a dedicated forum thread there).

However, Windows is too entrenched in ANet’s DNA. I ran across a blog from an ex ANet-er (this one: http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/, he also worked on some Blizzard games) and from his posts it looks like even their servers run Windows. There’s not even a hint of cross platform considerations in his code examples.

Also note that ANet is owned by NCSoft, a South Korean company. I’d say Windows penetration even in tech circles there is the worst in the world. So there will be no help from management wrt to cross platform.

Sigh… rant over.

As another mac user, I sympathize with the general desire of Mac users to have a native client. However, as you may already be aware, the GW2 has been designed from ground up using DirectX framework instead of OpenGL. Having the game work on mac natively requires OpenGL. Switching it will likely involve a substantial re-write of the game engine…

Yes, using cider/transgaming was a quick workaround. Since the game betas and the release, there only was a Windows client. The Mac beta client came as a nice surprise to those who have wished and requested a mac client. It is a beta however, so it has issues.

I am not sure if ANet has the time, resources and know-how to be able to do this. Maybe it is also a matter of priority and focus: 1. release more content for all players or 2. re-design game client engine to accommodate a portion of players who prefer to use OS X environment (albeit these same users can also use Windows via Bootcamp to play the same game).

To me the focus is clear given ANet is developing and releasing content frequently. Do I wish there was an official response on the matter and future direction? I am not sure…it would not change anything as a re-write of the engine is likely to take a long time. Even if they said they are planning to release the Mac port in a year or two, I and likely many of you would still continue to use the Mac Beta client in the meantime or Windows client via BootCamp.

Could ANet has chosen a different company to port its game client (Feral Interactive, Virtual Programming, etc) so it is closer to a native app? Not likely given their game client requires frequent modifications to allow for new content in MMO. This would likely mean added overhead cost for ongoing modifications to the game client through another company.

Transgaming to me seemed like a logical choice given that it is the wrapper, allowing for frequent updates to game client that do not require as frequent changes to the wrapper.