Guild Wars 2

I have made two attempts now to get help to either resolve why the streaming feature is not downloading the game content and get it downloading the game content or get acknowledgement that it is a bug and is being fixed. The first attempt was a thread in the bug section. I’m being told by friends and guild mates that I should start a thread in the tech support forum section as I’m more likely to get the problem resolved here. To make the process as smooth as possible I am including all email correspondence which has taken place over the weekend. I am beyond frustrated with email support. Their replies will make it clear as to why. Also the forum is limiting the post to 15,000 characters so this has to be split into multiples. Please help me resolve this issue or confirm that it is a bug in need of fixing and that it is being fixed. Thank you.

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Me:

For reference: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Content-streaming-bug/first#post5941037 as this was my original contact on the issue. Due to discontinued dialog in the thread and the problem not resolved or any indication of ok got it we need to fix a bug or something. I am opening this support request so that the problem can either be resolved by troubleshooting or a conclusion be reached that this is a bug that ya’ll need to fix. Given that this is a week since I last reply from a staff member and it is still not working I assume that this has not gone beyond the individual who attempted to help troubleshoot the issue. Thanks. Oh and please do respond one way or another so I know what is going on in the case this is a bug and ya’ll have to patch the game for it to work. That way I can report to my guild that it is being worked on as we had discussed this as well while I was waiting for replies on troubleshooting.

Support’s reply:

I do see that you did do the game advisor before. But if you don’t mind going through it again, so I could have a updated one. Thank you.

“We’d like to gather some more information about the problems you’re experiencing by having you run a program called Game Advisor on your computer. This application provides us with helpful information about your system and Internet connection.

If you’re using a router, hub, or switch, please disconnect it and connect directly to your modem before running this utility. You may have to reboot your modem and/or computer to reestablish your Internet connection. If this isn’t possible due to your network setup, please run Game Advisor with the router connected as the information will still be useful.

To run Game Advisor, please perform the following steps:

Download Game Advisor here: http://us.ncsoft.com/gameadvisor
When prompted, save the file to your Windows “Desktop” so you can access it easily. Please save the file before running it (running it from the website can cause file issues).
Double-click on the Game Advisor file and then click on the icon for the game you are having trouble with.
Click “Test Computer and Connection” and wait a few minutes while the test completes.
Once the test completes, a “Test Result” window will come up showing the location of the test result file. Please attach this file to a reply to this e-mail.
Once we receive the test results, we’ll have a better idea of how to resolve your issue."

My reply:

Thank you for your reply. Attached is the requested file generated by game advisor. I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you again.

Support’s reply:

Thanks for getting back to us.

Guild Wars 2 requires TCP ports 80, 443, and 6112 to be fully unrestricted and accessible, both inbound and outbound. If you are connecting to Guild Wars 2 on a campus, military, or business network, please check with your network’s administrator to verify that these ports are fully opened and unrestricted. If you are on a home network, make sure that your network’s hardware is configured properly.

To find out how to configure your router, review your owner’s manual or visit the manufacturer’s website. Here are links for several common manufacturers:

D-Link®: http://support.dlink.com/
Linksys®: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/support
NETGEAR®: http://kb.netgear.com/app/home
Belkin®: http://www.belkin.com/support/
For further information about opening ports or port forwarding, you can visit www.portforward.com. Note: This site is not affiliated with or supported by NCSOFT or ArenaNet.

My reply:

I now have those ports forwarded. What do I do next? Thank you.

Support’s reply:

Thanks for getting back to us.

I noticed some discrepancies in the report that could be contributing to this issue. To resolve this issue please do the following:

Click the “Start” button to bring up the Start Menu.
Type in CMD into the “Search programs and files” field but do not hit enter. Doing this will change your start menu to show the program “cmd.exe.”
Right-click on “cmd.exe” and select “Run as Administrator.”
Once complete, type “netsh winsock reset” without the quotes. When the command is completed successfully, a confirmation appears, followed by a new command prompt line.
Try connecting to the game again.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any additional issues, questions, or concerns.

My reply:

I followed those steps and ran the command. It instructed me to reboot so I rebooted. I then proceeded to start guild wars 2 once I was in windows. The client had 74,4xx files left to download. I logged in and chose my necro character to play. I also confirmed that stream setting was set to max. And proceeded to play for 20 minutes. I then exited the game. And start guild wars 2 again. And the files left to download was still at 74,4xx. In that amount of time thousands if not tens of thousands of files should have downloaded. Thank you for your continued assistance.

Support’s reply: (This is where my frustration begins.)

I believe there may be some confusion in our interaction and I apologize for this. The patcher will not download new content while playing Guild Wars 2. In order to complete your download, you will need to wait until the patcher finishes outside of game.

My reply:

According to the description of the in game setting for streaming max streams files as fast as possible. Comparatively the idle setting say it will only download when you are idle. For reference arenanets own new post about this before they changed from the command line switch to an in game setting is here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/coming-soon-beta-version-of-streaming-client/
and the June 9th patch notes detailing the switch from the command line method to in game setting is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-9-2015 This patch note puts it as simple as it can be: “Streaming Client will allow players to play the game faster by reducing the up-front download size when first downloading the game or when a patch is released.” The client has a “playable” marker on the download process. At that point you are allowed to click play and enter the game. From there it is supposed to follow the option players chose in the in game setting indicated in my first sentence. This however is not functioning correctly. And was the reason for the thread (I linked to in the opening) that no longer was getting official replies to mid troubleshooting and for me having started the email support request. Thank you for your continued assistance.

Support’s reply:

Thanks for getting back to us.

Sometimes connection issues are caused by the way your network is configured. As a temporary troubleshooting step to rule out potential router problems, we would like you to try bypassing your router and connecting directly to your modem instead.

To do this, please perform the following:

Locate and remove the Ethernet cable that is plugged into the back of your router from the modem. This cable may be connected to a port marked as a “WAN” port.
Replace the Ethernet cable currently plugged into your system with the cable you removed from the router.
Confirm that your Internet connection is working properly by visiting a few websites. If you can’t browse to a website, please reboot your modem by unplugging the power cable to it and plugging it back in.
Reboot your computer, and try the game again.
This is not intended as a permanent solution, but will help us pinpoint the cause of the problem you are experiencing.

If this resolves the connectivity issue, the router may need to be configured properly. Assistance with configuring the router can be found at the router manufacturer’s support website.

If the issue persists while directly connected to the modem please let us know.

My reply:

I’m directly connected to the internet modem. I opened guild wars 2 and repeated the playing on my necro and also verifying that the in game setting is set to max. It is still not streaming downloading files as it is supposed to be. Thank you for your continued assistance I look forward to your reply with what to do next.

Support’s reply:

Thanks for getting back to me.

I’ve reviewed your Game Advisor report and discovered some packet loss (data being dropped between your computer and our servers). I’d like you to download and use a free program called “WinMTR” to get more detailed information about the problem.

How to get WinMTR:
1. Download WinMTR here. A .zip file will download automatically a few seconds after the page loads.
2. Open the .zip file.
3. Select “Extract all files” and make sure “Show extracted files when complete” is selected.
4. Click “Extract.” A new window should open.
5. Double-click the folder “winmtr_bin_0.8” in the new window.
6. Double-click “WinMTR.exe” to run the program.

Once WinMTR is running:
1. Log in to Guild Wars 2
2. In the chat window type “/ip” without the quotes and press enter. This will return an IP address followed by a colon and a number (for example, “192.158.1.1:0”).
3. Copy the IP address but omit the colon and everything after.
4. Paste or type the IP address into the “Host” field in WinMTR.
5. Click Start.
6. Let WinMTR run while you play Guild Wars 2 for about 30 minutes.
7. After about 30 minutes have passed, click the “Export HTML” button in WinMTR and save the file to your desktop.
8. Attach the “.htm” file to a reply to this e-mail (note: make sure you’re attaching the actual file and not copying the file location from your browser).

Once I have the file I will review the results and let you know what I find.

My reply:

I hope the tool worked correctly. I was playing and almost 25 minutes later the game hung up everything froze up like I was looking at a screenshot. My PC was not froze up. I could manage to interact enough with winMTR to save the log file as directed. I hope that it actually logged for the whole almost 25 minutes. As I suspect it is winMTR that caused the game to do that. Since the game has never, in the over 3 years I have played, done that. I have attached the file as requested. Thank you again for continuing to help.

Support’s reply: (I got really frustrated at this because I feel like they didn’t even bother to read what I was saying, as I had stated multiple times that I have confirmed the setting is set to max.)

Can you make sure you have your Content Streaming set to Max? You can find this in your in-game options menu towards the bottom of General Options.

My reply:

I confirmed again just for this reply that it is set to max. And also have confirmed it is set to max every time I have started the game during this process. Thank you again for you continued help.

Support’s reply:

Thank you for contacting us about this issue

To further investigate this issue I will need you to provide a screenshot of your Guild Wars 2 client and any other screenshots you believe is relevant to this issue. Hopefully after looking at your screenshots we can narrow down the troubleshooting process.

My reply: (I try to provide more info regarding the issue in hopes that it helps.)

Ok the login-downloading.jpg is the client before logging in showing that it is downloading at that part. Please note that the number of files remaining now is only lower due to the brief handful of seconds it has been at the login these some dozen times now the game has been opened during this troubleshooting process. I noted the file count each time I pressed play so that the moment this part appears on the next opening I can confirm that while I was in game playing nothing was downloaded. The option-confirm-max.jpg is the option screen in game showing that it is indeed set to max. I know of no other relevant stuff to take a screen shot of because there is nothing in game visual that provides any feedback or progress to let us know that anything is happening. The only info I have to go on is that files remaining shown during login. Isn’t there some sort of build in tool that can run extreme verbos logging of everything that is going on in the client so you guys can see exactly what is happening between the client and server to pinpoint why it is failing to downloading during game play? Have ya’ll installed the client from scratch on a PC and began playing when it reaches the “playable” mark, then confirmed in game was set to max and been able to reproduce the problem? Or find that it is downloading while playing the game in your test? I ask because I want to know if ya’ll have tried to reproduce/confirm and also because I know I’m not the only one that is having this problem and I have not been able to find anyone who can confirm that this feature actually works. None of my friends are willing to delete the game and start from scratch to test it. Anyone else friends or otherwise fall into two categories.One response is I don’t start playing the game until it has completely downloaded and that is how they always have and always will do it (not sure why they would want to wait when they don’t have to). The other response is the streaming has never and just put up with it not working right.

Support’s reply: (This reply practically infuriated me as my frustration was already high.)

I appreciate that you have been patient with our investigation

It didn’t sound like you tried renaming your target line. Right click on your Guild Wars 2 short cut and click on “Properties”. On the “Shortcut” tab your target line should look something like this: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe”

I’d like you to add -StreamingClient at the end of the target line, here is an example: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -StreamingClient

Please note that there is a space between the original target line and “-StreamingClient”, here is an incorrect example: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe-StreamingClient”

My reply:

The patch notes I linked several replies ago indicates to the contrary. It says that command line thing is no longer needed. However for the sake of this process I tested it using the command line in the short cut. I played for half hour after launching using it. Then exited and started it again to see where the files were at. No change, same amount left from when I started.

Support’s reply:

So I know what the notes for this have stated. So this is all dependent on your internet connection stability. You’re playing tge game while the patch install? I’m assuming this is the case. If so I would recommend trying to let the patch install without being in the game. I know that Guild Wars 2 has the option to play while it installs, which is awesome, but when playing your bandwidth is definitely going to prioritize what’s being used first. Knowing you are able to play this game at Max settings based on your computer specs and depending on what you are doing the bandwidth is going to go more for the game than for the back ground download.

Yes I know the client does allow players to play while it installs, but you are definitely limited because it hasn’t fully updated. If you are still in the process of updating, please try leaving the client to update. Now if you are having issues with the client updating we can try and help troubleshoot that particular situation.

My reply: (At this point I’m so frustrated my reply probably shows it)

My connection is not the issue. I have a 20Mbits connection. It performs consistently at that. Thats over 2 megabytes per second. The game is only using 8Kbits.That’s less than 1/1000 of 1% of my bandwidth. I could be streaming Netflix HD in two rooms of my house and still have over half my bandwidth available for the game to use. Yet it would still be only using less than 1%. And again I have spoke with dozens of people and none of them can tell me that streaming works. Have you done a clean install of the game and tested this on a PC there to confirm that it is functioning correctly? Because once the client has reached the “playable” mark in the downloading it is supposed to continue to download every second you are playing. Thank you, I look forward to your reply.

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You might try adding the command line argument, ‘maploadinfo’ to see what’s going on. Also, you never stated whether you tried the ‘image’ command line argument, in your other thread.

Good luck.

As far as I understand -image just forces the game to download everything before it starts up. Which defeats our purpose here of getting the content streaming feature to download it. Attached is an image of the maploadinfo displayed upon loading in from character select.

i’d also recommend filing a bug report, too…

i don’t understand why support doesn’t understand the problem….

the problem is obviously, that the client does not stream while playing, even when set to max. it doesn’t make any sense to even suggest that the internet service is too slow. (they should at least state a recommended minimum internet speed if they claim the internet is too slow) especially in this day and age when nobody in the USA uses 56k dial up modems anymore…

Jia Shen.4217:

As far as I understand -image just forces the game to download everything before it starts up. Which defeats our purpose here of getting the content streaming feature to download it. Attached is an image of the maploadinfo displayed upon loading in from character select.

Ok, there is definitely something odd with your client. I use ‘maploadinfo’ (and have forever), and since Streaming was in beta, I show a percentage in the streaming field, always, and you show zero.

You have tried a -repair of the client, yes?

Of course, once you’ve downloaded all the files with the launcher, there is nothing more to download, streaming or no.

After reading you ask if I have tried -repair. I went ahead and tried that even though the install of the game is so fresh. It did it’s thing. But appears to have been no damaged files. At least if there was they had nothing to do with this issue as the game still isn’t downloading files while playing. I again confirmed that it is set to max upon entering in game with a character. And proceeded to play for a half hour. I then exited and opened the game and at log in the number of files hadn’t changed from the time I clicked play. Also while playing the game, resource monitor continues to indicate the game only using about 8kbits per second while playing.

Have you tried re-downloading the launcher? Perhaps, that’s where the issue lies.

I redownloaded both 32 and 64 bit clients. Still not downloading content while I play on either client.