Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet
(edited by Gaile Gray.6029)
Hey folks,
We’re excited to be launching the Guild Wars 2 Mac 64-bit Test Client today, and want to offer you an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions in this forum thread.
Read the blog post here.
And an FAQ has been posted in our Knowledge Base.
Please share your thoughts!
(edited by Gaile Gray.6029)
Well this is exciting. Copying my .dat file over now…
Huge thanks to everyone who’s been involved in getting things this far.
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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234
Oh! From the Patch Notes, I thought the game was just getting ready for the native Mac client. Not that this patch was introducing it.
Hmm. Best of luck.
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Posted by: Supercluster.7159
Awesome!! Thanks Anet.
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Posted by: ArmoredVehicle.2849
I would also really appreciate it if ANet would open up the OpenGL renderer to the Windows client.
Well this is exciting. Copying my .dat file over now…
You actually don’t have to. If you don’t have .dat in the 64-bit app, it’ll try to find the 32-bit app and use the .dat from there. This way you can keep both apps (in case one has issues) and use either. FAQ
I know it’s kind of off topic, but there is no way to use the OpenGL renderer on Windows, is there? Us Wine players would really appreciate that… There’s dozens of us! Dozens!
Currently there is not. Despite OpenGL being cross-platform there are a lot of differences between platforms (available extensions, API conformance, etc). We tried it briefly but additional work would be required to get it working properly, and we already have our hands full with the macOS client.
I know it’s kind of off topic, but there is no way to use the OpenGL renderer on Windows, is there? Us Wine players would really appreciate that… There’s dozens of us! Dozens!
Currently there is not. Despite OpenGL being cross-platform there are a lot of differences between platforms (available extensions, API conformance, etc). We tried it briefly but additional work would be required to get it working properly, and we already have our hands full with the macOS client.
Thanks for the answer. Any chance of it coming further down the line, or maybe even a native Linux client?
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Posted by: Mossy Gargoyle.3274
This is very exciting. Thanks for rolling this out.
After some very preliminary testing, the client has a halting or jerky quality when I rotate the camera or move my character through the world. It’s akin to a graphical hitch. I also get the stuttering effect when I zoom out to the world map. This is with settings turned way down (lower than I currently use on the beta wrapper). Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Posted by: penelopehannibal.8947
You’ve made thousands of people happy. Thank you ArenaNet! <3
First thing I’ll say is the TP and Gem Store works a lot faster, and the graphics even on the same settings I had before seem better.
Hello, is there a way to set a other resolution then nativ and half-nativ?
And the ^-key on the German Apple Keyboard is not bindable.
I noticed the long grass doesn’t move when I walk through it. I therefore declare this port entirely unplayable and broken.
Jokes aside, fantastic work and it’s wonderful to finally be able to play the game acceptably on the platform of my choosing.
So is this a native client as discussed or a 64bit wrapper like the old 32bit client? I noticed you didn’t use the word native so I’m curious.
I know it’s kind of off topic, but there is no way to use the OpenGL renderer on Windows, is there? Us Wine players would really appreciate that… There’s dozens of us! Dozens!
Currently there is not. Despite OpenGL being cross-platform there are a lot of differences between platforms (available extensions, API conformance, etc). We tried it briefly but additional work would be required to get it working properly, and we already have our hands full with the macOS client.
Given that wine users (like me) are not actually running Windows (but usually Linux), and that MacOX is essentially a Unix system: how difficult would it be to provide a native Linux client, based on the OSX client? It sounds like most of the necessary work has already been done with the OSX client.
Given that wine users (like me) are not actually running Windows (but usually Linux), and that MacOX is essentially a Unix system: how difficult would it be to provide a native Linux client, based on the OSX client? It sounds like most of the necessary work has already been done with the OSX client.
As much as I want this to be true, it’s really not. Porting from OSX to Linux is … trickier than you think it is. Both systems being “Unix” is not really helping here – the graphics, input and audio stacks are all different.
Thanks for the answer. Any chance of it coming further down the line, or maybe even a native Linux client?
Definite no on the latter. For the former I wouldn’t expect it.
This is very exciting. Thanks for rolling this out.
After some very preliminary testing, the client has a halting or jerky quality when I rotate the camera or move my character through the world. It’s akin to a graphical hitch. I also get the stuttering effect when I zoom out to the world map. This is with settings turned way down (lower than I currently use on the beta wrapper). Any thoughts or suggestions?
This is due to shader compilation. The longer you play, the less you will run into it (until the next time you launch the client). We have some ideas of how we can lessen the impact of it, but nothing that’s ready.
Hello, is there a way to set a other resolution then nativ and half-nativ?
And the ^-key on the German Apple Keyboard is not bindable.
Not currently. As for your key binding issue, currently it appears in certain layouts that the key next to 1 and the key next to left shift are swapped for input in certain contexts. So temporarily you can use the button next to left shift to swap weapons.
Thanks for the answer. Any chance of it coming further down the line, or maybe even a native Linux client?
Definite no on the latter. For the former I wouldn’t expect it.
Thank you.
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Posted by: Moira Shalaar.5620
Thank you all so very much! I have been waiting ages for this and am so excited! Oh this looks beautiful! I will try it out in Dragon Stand soon, which has been my nemesis in game since the HoT release. I almost always crash at the final fight and then cannot get back into the map. If this fixed that it will be a HUGE QoL for me!
Just logged in to try the new client and the first thing I noticed is that the full screen gamma slider does not do anything. I tried on all three setting presets to see if that might make a difference but it does not. I confirmed that this also does not work on a second mac, so it is more likely a client issue rather than machine specific.
Also noticed that the F Keys don’t seem to work (i.e. F11 for opening and closing options)
Here are my particular stats:
OSX 10.11.6 iMac 27in Retina 5K (Late 2015); 4Ghz i7; 24GB RAM; Radeon R9 M395X w/4096MB VRAM
OSX 10.11.6 MBP 15in Retina (Late 2013); 2.3 GHz i7; 16GB RAM; NVIDIA GForce GT 750M 2048NB VRAM
(Edited for OS version)
(edited by Moira Shalaar.5620)
So is this a native client as discussed or a 64bit wrapper like the old 32bit client? I noticed you didn’t use the word native so I’m curious.
It is native.
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Posted by: Falseprophet.1502
I do see that we’re missing a Windowed Full Screen mode, which I think contributes to the issue of not being able to use F1-F4 if they’re bound to other actions outside of GW2 (at least how this is how it worked for me with the 32-bit client).
I noticed some graphical bugs, where I would lay down my guardian’s symbol and rotate the camera, and the symbol will disappear (continued to do the damage).
I echo the rigidness of how it currently is but I am sure that will be fixed. I am finally so excited to finally play with some settings higher than LOW!!
Forgot to mention – is anyone else having insanely high ping?
(edited by Falseprophet.1502)
When I try to install the app macOS checks the binary and states it’s damaged and can’t be used. Has this happened to anyone else?
Loving the client so far just have a couple of small annoyances to mention:
1) Before this client I always played on the highest resolution available (full screen) and the smallest interface possible too. With this client I noticed only 2 full screen options and neither one actually differs from the other as far as I can tell. And in both I’m stuck with unreasonably large interfaces because the small one is still way too large. (Screenshot will show some of this issue)
2) As I played in fullscreen a lot I noticed early on that using ‘Command + Enter’ would exit fullscreen, this seems to have been disabled.
Will continue playing with it and report any bugs I happen to run into.
So is this a native client as discussed or a 64bit wrapper like the old 32bit client? I noticed you didn’t use the word native so I’m curious.
It is native.
Thanks, I just wanted to make sure. I’m downloading it on 3 different Macs now. I’ll provide feedback as I test them out. I look forward to not having to bootcamp anymore.
IT’S HAPPENING!! :‘D I have no words to describe how awesome today is. Been struggling with issues in the past few months in what has now become the OLD mac client. Thank you for your work and dedication. Not giving any feedback ’cause I have yet to install and try it, just wanted you to know I deeply appreciate what you’ve done.
After Rotating the Camera with right mouse button, the cursor is stuck (but visible) on its position for about 200 ms. I dont have “Use scrolliong geastures to change directions” enabled
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Posted by: Moira Shalaar.5620
I do see that we’re missing a Windowed Full Screen mode, which I think contributes to the issue of not being able to use F1-F4 if they’re bound to other actions outside of GW2 (at least how this is how it worked for me with the 32-bit client).
Forgot to mention – is anyone else having insanely high ping?
ok, I guess the issue isn’t with [FN] keys as a whole, but only F11 specifically. I tried toggling the Mac settings for the keyboard [FN] key but that does not change F11 not working at all. I do not have that key bound to anything else either.
My pings are averaging about 41 right now.
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Posted by: SlippyCheeze.5483
I know it’s kind of off topic, but there is no way to use the OpenGL renderer on Windows, is there? Us Wine players would really appreciate that… There’s dozens of us! Dozens!
Currently there is not. Despite OpenGL being cross-platform there are a lot of differences between platforms (available extensions, API conformance, etc). We tried it briefly but additional work would be required to get it working properly, and we already have our hands full with the macOS client.
Linux WINE players probably want to invest some time and effort in https://wiki.ixit.cz/d3d9 instead — though I believe it will not work with the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, so spring those $$$ for AMD
ok, I guess the issue isn’t with [FN] keys as a whole, but only F11 specifically. I tried toggling the Mac settings for the keyboard [FN] key but that does not change F11 not working at all. I do not have that key bound to anything else either.
F11 among several others are system level keybinds by default. We chose to not override this behavior.
Depending on the key and ones hardware fn and/or alt/option may need to be held to bypass the system level setting.
Alternately one can switch the system level setting in System Preferences in the Keyboard panel. Look for something to the effect of “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” However this will generally still require alt/option for some keys unless you also turn off the system level Shortcuts.
(edited by Jon Olson.8439)
Oh! It’s happening! Yay!!!!
It’s actually letting me play at full screen on my 4k iMac without crashing every 2 minutes. There’s a little ghosting but this is dozens of times better than the 32-bit client. Thank you so much!!
Jon, there is something strange with the mouse rotation. it has delays sometimes
when you pressing the right button click and then rotating camera to any side, then you stop pressing right click and the mouse appears and stops. it needs extra action to make it move again, but it must keep moving even you stopped pressing the right click. can you please repair it?
Thank you guys for the client! we have been waiting for it very much!
(edited by Talek.6795)
Curious is this running in OpenGL or Metal? Will it ever run in Metal?
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Posted by: Falseprophet.1502
My pings are averaging about 41 right now.
Hmm, interesting. I am not sure what is causing it, it’s not an issue of my ISP but my ping seems to shoot up between 300-700 when I launch the 64-bit client, whereas the 32-bit I would have a consistent 20-40 ping
(edited by Falseprophet.1502)
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Posted by: Moira Shalaar.5620
ok, I guess the issue isn’t with [FN] keys as a whole, but only F11 specifically. I tried toggling the Mac settings for the keyboard [FN] key but that does not change F11 not working at all. I do not have that key bound to anything else either.
F11 among several others are system level keybinds by default. We chose to not override this behavior.
Depending on the key and ones hardware fn and/or alt/option may need to be held to bypass the system level setting.
Alternately one can switch the system level setting in System Preferences in the Keyboard panel. Look for something to the effect of “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” However this will generally still require alt/option for some keys unless you also turn off the system level Shortcuts.
Sorry, I apparently was not clear in my post. F11 does not do anything, regardless of whether I have that setting toggled or not, regardless of whether or not I press [FN] while using F11/Vol Down. The only way for me to access the options panel is through the GUI. Conversely, F12/Vol Up functions exactly as expected to log off, using the [FN] Key with the box “Use all F1, F2 keys as standard function keys” unchecked, and without the [FN] key when the box is. Sorry for not communicating clearly enough.
Just downloaded it, and ran it. Between 12-14 FPS, very stuttery, and the resolution is… so very small, but that seems to be the norm.
I also noticed that if I alt-tabbed to another app with it running it bogged down the whole system. Typing a reply in Discord meant my words were a few seconds behind what I had typed.
Very excited this is happening, and I just… wow, I want to do everything I can to help make this a great client! What can we users do, aside from general bug reports?
I’m very excited this is happening and so thankful for everyone at ArenaNet involved. <3 Thank you! I’m a bit confused though, as to which client to download. I see there’s a 32-bit. But there’s also a 64-bit that says “test client”? My Mac has an Intel Core i7, which is 64-bit. So should I go with the test client? Thanks again.
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Posted by: Moira Shalaar.5620
the new 64bit client is for users to try. It still has issues that they are trying to mass test and resolve, so it is up to you if you want to try it. That 64bit client is a native Mac app, and should allow higher graphics settings and a more stable playing environment over all once it is a bit more polished. Also, you can have both downloaded and installed side by side.
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Posted by: marcustyphoon.7194
Holy crap, this is awesome! Installing on my GT 750M rMBP and GTX970 hackintosh to test right now. Notes so far:
- Performance seems decent after a few minutes of stutteriness. Still worse than Windows by a significant amount obviously, but not bad at all for what it is.
- There’s a short pause in mouse movement after releasing the right mouse button from turning the display, which is pretty annoying.
- The labels on the map screen seem to be rendered in the wrong resolution, especially when zoomed out.
- Interface size: small doesn’t work (the text stays the same size, with only minor UI changes)
Great job.. now how about one for us Linux users who have to run it with WINE?
Tried it so far on iMac and MacBook Pro. Only two different resolution choices each aside from windowed mode as apposed to more options with the old client. Also full screen gamma adjustments don’t change anything while in full screen. Loading screens are much, much slower than the 32bit client. A lot of jerkiness when moving the camera around. I didn’t notice much performance improvement when switching between mostly medium graphic settings and lowest as opposed to the 32bit client. I didn’t play long enough to see if things crashed.
Keep up the good work. I’ll look forward to trying it again as you include updates.
(edited by JustTrogdor.7892)
Full screen resolution choices are currently limited to whole number divisions of the system given screen resolution. I cannot guarantee that this will change, but we’ll see.
The graphics are amazing,
but it still needs a bit of work
I cannot keybind the § key to weapon swap (its the one left of the 1, below the esc key on the mac).
And the fps is horrible
I’m getting about 15 in the 64 bits version, while the 32 gives me 90 when just standing around in a quiet area
makes the game look like you’re watching it drunk or though someone else’s glasses
Even when running a simple wine 64 bit version I get way better fps
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Posted by: ArmoredVehicle.2849
I know it’s kind of off topic, but there is no way to use the OpenGL renderer on Windows, is there? Us Wine players would really appreciate that… There’s dozens of us! Dozens!
Currently there is not. Despite OpenGL being cross-platform there are a lot of differences between platforms (available extensions, API conformance, etc). We tried it briefly but additional work would be required to get it working properly, and we already have our hands full with the macOS client.
Linux WINE players probably want to invest some time and effort in https://wiki.ixit.cz/d3d9 instead — though I believe it will not work with the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, so spring those $$$ for AMD
Those are some impressive results with Gallium-Nine. I might even get an AMD card to mess around with someday.
From my experience I can safely say it’s very much playable with an Nvidia card on Linux. FPS is very good on Medium settings, ranges between 40-90fps depending on the area and with the 64bit client there are no crashes during big events neither.
The screenshot I attached for example, shows the game running under Wine-Staging 2.0 for just a little over 7 hours straight.
Oh dear! GW2 is THE ONLY reason I’m still using Windows if this turns out to be viable I’ll go buy mac! Thank you soo much!
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Posted by: Falseprophet.1502
I was experiencing some stuttering and high ping, I set my refresh rate to 60hz in the settings and the performance was much better, but still had some graphic, lag, and other to be expected issues.
the new 64bit client is for users to try. It still has issues that they are trying to mass test and resolve, so it is up to you if you want to try it. That 64bit client is a native Mac app, and should allow higher graphics settings and a more stable playing environment over all once it is a bit more polished. Also, you can have both downloaded and installed side by side.
Thanks for the response. I installed the 64-bit while my MacBeta client was still installed in my computer and it didn’t require any patching, which seemed odd, but it ran anyway. It looked weird. There was a shadow over my character at all times, and crazy slow loading screens. The FPS was around 16, which I wasn’t excited about.
I tried installing the 32-bit thinking it might be more stable but I wasn’t able to as I kept getting the following message: “Could not verify the integrity of the installer”. I’m not sure where to go from there but I have deleted the MacBeta client and relaunched the 64-bit client, which is now downloading data. I’m only assuming it may have been using data from my old MacBeta. I’m not sure, but I’ll keep testing once I’ve downloaded everything again. -fingers crossed-
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Posted by: Cragga the Eighty Third.6015
Mac Mini, 2.6gz Intel core i5, Intel Iris 1536, running Os 10.10.5
First good thing I noticed was: better colors, closer up, bigger characters! Yay! My Asura is no longer a 1/2 inch high blob in the screen, looking like she’s wearing Goth makeup!
Second good thing I noticed, the Black Lion store now loads correctly, instead of hanging up in loading forever if I try to change from the trading post to the Gem store or something.
First bad thing I noticed. Huge load times. When first starting up, and when going from one city to another, I began to wonder if the game had crashed before the loading screen finally went away.
Second bad thing I noticed: (bug report filed) weird visual ‘ghosts’ in Lion’s Arch, giving my character strange shadow figures or bright auras trailing along with her.
Third thing: super slow visuals. I also noticed the jerky, sputtery, skippy movement (and contrary to one statement above, it did not go away or get better as I played, it got worse if anything.) My glider would not appear before I hit the ground unless it was a reeeaally long glide. My pet was invisible half the time. (Also, I noticed that character sound effects either did not happen or were delayed.)
But the thing that sent me back to the 32-bit client was this: I went to the Verdant Brink. Noticed an orange gear hanging in the air, walked over to investigate, and died. Went to the waypoint, came back. A few minutes later a burning crashed chopper appeared under the orange gear. (I guess I was fried by invisible flames?) And as I watched it, I was attacked and killed by a band of invisible enemies. Saw nothing but a few red bars floating in the air. (Filed a bug report on that, too. Appropriately, as I believe they were actually wasps.)
So, I’m happy you’re working on a better Mac client, and I will be very happy to try it out again once some issues are addressed. Meanwhile, I hope Arenanet will continue to support and update the 32-bit version.
Feedback so far:
Firstly, this is on a Maxed 2012 iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
3.4 Ghz Core i7
24 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB
- It used the downloaded assets from the 32 bit client! Awesome!
- Test settings: Everything set to “High” except shadows, Character Model Quality set to Highest, use Hi-Res textures on (yay!), Native rendering
- Zoning is slow. Slow slow slow. Took four minutes to load my character in from character select, and about 45 seconds to move to a different waypoint.
- Sound is delayed about 5 seconds from when my character acts.
- Particle effects are delayed about the same amount.
- Game is running 30fps in Ember Bay though, possibly vsync limited even though I don’t have that selected.
- actual gameplay is fine, other than the particle effects and sound – combat actions happen on time.
- Anything interface-y was initially slow (for example, guild treasury was ~15 seconds) but loads more quickly after caching
- Sound is amazing! I can’t explain it, but it sounds more “spacious” (as if my speakers were placed further apart), stark difference from the 32 bit client.
LOD switching is definitely causing lag – when the texture map changes (because I get closer to an object), there’s a definite stutter as the game changes textures. Also, when I first load into an area, I need to spin around a few times to, presumably, load the textures into memory before movement is smooth.
Interesting, spinning around in Ember Bay at the Lava Lounge, I occasionally se a static “ghost” of the buildings – maybe like a shadow map or something? – that doesn’t move as I rotate.
(edited by orenwolf.1953)
Jon, is there anything specific you’d like us to test/report on? I am so your guinea pig for this.
- Sound is amazing! I can’t explain it, but it sounds more “spacious” (as if my speakers were placed further apart), stark difference from the 32 bit client.
I noticed this as well and forgot to mention it. The sound seems much more robust.
Why is the native scrolling gesture turning still so slow? When I select the box and move around, the turning is soooooo slow that it’s not even useful to use. It feels so natural to use the two finger drag on a Mac trackpad but if you cannot turn the character with the pin point precision that this game demands, you cannot use that option.
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