Guild Wars 2

Hey you know what we have allot of between both this form and the new MAC support form (by the way thanks for the port even using cider rather than native atleast says you care) lots of people complaining about low FPS.

lets make a mega post, bellow is my story you don’t have to read it but every signature counts.

Here is the short version

I Feel that this game demands more than was advertised on the box by way of hardware, when they said they had done all the optimization they where going to It worries me because while beautiful and fun it would seem that FPS issues can get in the way of effective game play with the fact dodge is a basic requirement.

and while sub sampling is normally Ok, it would be better if sub sampling actually improved performance.

and the long version

I decided to compare some cards and talk about this a bit so first lets take a look at what cards we have here

http://hwbot.org/compare/videocards#1678_1,356_1,1444_1,781_1-17,29

what i have here is on either side (because I’m not sure how to reshape them)
we have the minimum spec cards as advertised both on the box and the website. and in the middle we have my card and one pore users card who currently cannot run the mac beta (but hey beta’s are always a bit bumpy right).

Now while I understand that optimization is no more than an enormous pain in the but it does come down to knowing where your bottle neck is.

here is another chart the two middle cards now mine and another user’s who has a superior card to mine.

http://hwbot.org/compare/videocards#1956_1,1678_1,781_1,356_1-17,29

now i admit i overclock but we in the middle there report similar performance (he assuming using default settings).

there is something to notice though here,

the one common difference is the memory bus size which understandably is where you would see the bottle neck only this game doesn’t seem to like using Vram infact from my own system monitoring I haven’t seen this game get above 80mb on average (after subtracking the 10-20 windows uses for aero)

So then whats the bottle neck.

From my observations and please not that while i am a programer i am not an expert on 3D and only have tangential knowledge gained from dabbling lightly and years of upgrading desktops for PC gaming until i switched to mac’s for good back in 2008, but it would seem that this game is mostly about video pipelining and processing without actual ram consumption.

The result meaning most of the stress for rending this game falls on the GPU without its aids, hence the 256mb requirement being more representative of the fact you just can’t get your hands on a 128mb video card anymore without devoting an undue amount of effort.

Here is the thing though, the minimum spec cards are clearly bellow standard in both processing power vertex shaders and the like.

I have a hard time believing this game would run on those specs desktop or other wise.

If the minimum is not the minimum then the bar must either be raised to represent a higher demand for PC requirement or the game must be optimized so that it takes grander advantage of the cards at its disposal thus providing better play across the board.

While normally having a minimum of 30FPS is unimportant in an mmo, when you make twitch reaction, dodge rolling, and generally a fast paced combat system. since all the gear in the world won’t protect you forever if all you do is stand still. Then FPS is a concern, one that players should not have to worry about when they have a card that supposedly outspecs the card you demand they have at the bare minimum.

Well that is all interesting but what’s the point you’re making ? Normally people tend to separate the point they are making either in a paragraph or simply putting it as the last sentence. You know, so that there is a definitive reason why a post has been made which allows others to react to it.
From what I’ve read I assume you would like us to sign some petition, but please, make it a bit more clearer.

updated with a short version

i really hope they do continue to optimize b/c 12-15 fps is killing the fun of the game

I think the problem is ‘Minimum Requirements’ is ambiguous. The minimum requirements are there as a guideline so when somebody picks up a box of software or downloads the software that they know their computer will run it. The problem is that there is no clear definition for how many FPS you may or may not get with ‘minimum requirements’ on any game. While its true that on many games, the minimum requirements may let you play the game at 25-30 fps, which is playable, There’s no law (afaik) or regulation that requires game companies to post minimum requirements to play the game at, at least, 25-30 fps. So the min reqs for one game could get you 25-30 fps and the min reqs for another game could get you 5 fps. Technically they fulfill min reqs on both of those examples, because the game does in fact run.

Nothing ambiguous about ‘minimum’.
Google: “The least or smallest amount or quantity possible, attainable, or required.”
Expect lowest settings, lowest resolution, lowest framerate, but it will play. Only it won’t be enjoyable in the slightest.

‘Recommended’, however: “Put forward with approval as being suitable for a particular purpose or role.”
Eg. Battlefield 3 at recommended will get you medium settings [and 720p/30fps, can’t find the source for that one].

The problem is ANet never recommended anything.

Edit: http://i.imgur.com/uiBK8.jpg is your bottleneck. I explain it in more detail here. Hardware from 4years ago is half as powerful as what we have today. Upgrade or enjoy low FPS.

I don’t think a petition is needed for ANet to realize more optimization is due.
They have like full Tech Support forum full of prompts to do just that.

I’ve seen at least 3 posts from Anet staff saying they’re working on it.

a “petition” is a bit silly.

The problem with things like this is that these problems aren’t really as wide spread as you would think. For every one person reporting an issue like this , there are plenty more that are playing just fine.
With all of the various PC configurations available it’s really hard to pin down where the problem may lie.

Myself for example , I have an older machine and run this game on medium settings getting around 40fps PvE. I can’t comment on WvW though.

Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.6ghz
Nvidia GTX460 , on a PCI-Express x16 v1 board
4gig DDR2 800

And my machine is pretty much identical to yours Jimmothy but I have a radeon 6450 and play on 3 fps even while questing, making the game a complete waste of money for me (And it’s not cheap).
I completely support the OP.

Intelliraptor.5328:

And my machine is pretty much identical to yours Jimmothy but I have a radeon 6450 and play on 3 fps even while questing, making the game a complete waste of money for me (And it’s not cheap).
I completely support the OP.

No. the 6450 is an entry level model, it is for web and office use, u should buy a better one like a 7850 or a 7870.

Why petition for something to continue when it hasn’t stopped?

@ZaxanRazor: Would you mind posting links or directly quoting those posts from A.net? I would like to see them, and I am sure it would help more then just mentioning you saw them somewhere. One of my main issues is that I feel like they are ignoring this, and that they do not intend to fix it. I haven’t been able to play because of 5-15 fps hitting me out of nowhere….
Sorry for the trouble, I just think it might help others as well to see they weren’t ignoring it the entire time. I have to post a public blog I promised about the game soon. I have been putting it off. I loved the game when I could play. Instead of talking about how amazing it is, I have to say I can no longer play, don’t know why, and cannot find any official word from A.net that says they even acknowledge it at all. If they said anything, it’s not easy to find.