Guild Wars 2

This is the most exciting news I have heard this year so far! I’m holding my breath a little, but if this means they could be looking into a linux client… Man would I be a happy camper!

Ranva.8024:

Many people have literally zero experience with any UNIX system, but like to talk kitten about it …
The installation and day to day use of say Ubuntu is as complicated as with Windows or Mac OS X.

I would go a step further and say that the installation and day-to-day usage of Ubuntu is easier than Windows or Mac OS X. My last install of Windows 7 took hours and hours of updating and rebooting. My latest install of Ubuntu took 30 minutes. In neither install did I have to touch my terminal.

Linux honestly has more advantages than disadvantages, it just doesn’t have the economy behind it.

I really think that Anet would be making the right decision in supporting linux, after all Guild Wars had a relatively large % of linux users. The problem is that Guild Wars is old and the moment those linux users realized Guild Wars 2 does not run as well on linux… well, they probably quit playing.

I do not think HoT will work well with Wine, and if it does not, they are screwing their linux and mac users.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

If you are interested, there was a huge thread back in the day on the Guild Wars 2 Guru.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/9286-back-to-their-roots-sylvari-redesign/

The initial post does a decent job of bringing up all the topics of sylvari discussion back in the day.

So. Linux. I use linux exclusively. Guild Wars 2 works on linux through wine with very little hassle. It does not work well, though. No matter what you do, you will only get about 25-50% of the FPS you would get in Windows.

This particular thread got really hostile really quickly. Most of the linux threads on this forum do not do that. I will try to be as objective as I can for this reason.

The truth is that commercial software developers develop most frequently for Windows. Is Windows the better choice? Eh, I am biased so I will refrain from answering that question. What I do know is that most of the people around me cannot use Windows for their work. For them, Windows is for gaming.

If kazimarou is in a similar situation, his claim that “most people ( me included) would like to change to say ubuntu or arch or any linux destro but can’t coz this game only runs on windows and mac.” Could be 100% true. It’s all relative to our experience.

There is also certainly demand for a linux port of Guild Wars 2. I mean, go way back to the initial release of the game (~2 years ago?). You’ll find a huge thread about linux support. From then, more and more posts have crept up. Anet has ignored every one of them.

This means that we should not expect a linux port.

As linux users, we have 3 options:

1. Use Wine. Deal with horrid FPS
2. Dual-boot Windows. Deal with Windows.
3. Quit Playing. Deal with it.

I’ve chosen a mixture of options 1 and 3. For a while, I had Windows dual-booted, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. When I heard about HoT, I was a little excited because I thought Anet might have completely rewritten their game engine to make it more GL friendly… but I honestly am starting to doubt that now.

In the end, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a linux client. In my opinion, creating one would have been the right move for Anet 2 years ago, but their linux community has long since moved on. Now, I don’t know anymore. I think it would still greatly benefit them as a game development company, but so many other companies support linux nowadays that they would no longer stand out as much for their deciding to provide a linux client.

Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry it was long.

TL;DR: Linux is a risk Anet probably will not take.

Eh, Why not?

• I am 22, currently studying physics in graduate school in Japan.
• I spend most of my day coding.
• I actually love coding, writing and studying.
• I use archlinux (yeah, I am one of those guys)
• I play Guild Wars 2 occasionally, but nowadays I mainly get on here and check to see if anyone is having trouble getting the game to run on linux.
• I am one of the few remaining Guild Wars players.
• I was a super active poster during the development of Guild Wars 2 and made a tremendous number of posts about sylvaris and mesmers. Honestly, both of them turned out exactly as I wanted… so my main is a sylvari mesmer and I love him to death.
• When I play games, I don’t care about winning. I just want to do something interesting. That might be why I am currently going through the game without armor. Level 40 so far. I don’t think that’s too bad.

Well, that’s all I care to tell you guys. Peace!

I don’t think he necessarily meant that mobile was the future of gaming, just the future of computing, in general… which might be true. Who knows?

You know, I was thinking about it. If they make an OpenGL port, it would run better in WINE even without a linux version… though we would still have the multi-core issues so the CSMT patch would still be necessary.

Just throwing my name into the hat. Split the modes. Conquest is super fun, but Stronghold seems completely different. I don’t want to get ready for Conquest and then be thrown into a Stronghold match. They require different strategies and thus different builds and armor sets.

JustTrogdor.7892:

HAHA drop Mac support? They never supported it unless it was a bug that didn’t allow Mac customers to buy gems. Those issues got fixed right away. Everything else was left to Mac players helping other Mac players even after they said there was a dedicated Mac support person for the 2nd or 3rd time since I have been here.

Honestly, they don’t need a mac specialist, they need a WINE specialist. That’s what they are essentially using. The problem is that there are still mac players that play the game and they do have a mac beta. To onlookers, it looks like they are supporting mac, even if in practice they are not. To go back on that would be a bit rough PR-wise.

I agree though. The mac-beta has not been one of their most successful endeavors.

Also: Just realized… TROGDOOOOOR!

naiasonod.9265:

I mean, come on, if dropping about a hundred bucks or so every few years strains your wallet, you’ve got way bigger problems than what is and isn’t supporting Linux.

I would like to point out that the price tag isn’t necessarily the problem, at least for me. The price tag for a single game (the cost of Guild Wars 2 + Windows = 4X the cost of Guild Wars 2 alone) might be more of a problem, but still not the main problem. The main problem is that Windows is way too far removed from the desktop I and most other linux users need to get work done. You simply cannot easily do what linux does and it doesn’t make sense to lose all the programs we need just to play a game. In addition, the pair of Windows and Guild Wars 2 together requires a good amount of storage, a special partition (that needs wiggle room in the case of an expansion), and a special boot procedure just to get everything running. Then we have to deal with all the nuances of Windows, which are completely different than what we have become accustomed to. It’s ultimately a pain, but people do it because they need Linux to work and want Windows to play. If we could cut Windows out, that would be the best solution for us. That’s why you see all these threads. Linux users are a bit tired of all the hoops they have to jump through for unnecessary software (games).

I would also like to point out that Linux users become overly attached to their specific linux desktop for a number of reasons. This makes Windows more and more distasteful to them… but that’s beside the point.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Anet doesn’t even seem to support the Mac beta (for over 2 years) cider port client. The old Mac forum was almost never responded to. There have been multiple times when they said they would (promises of a Mac support team) but nothing ever really happened from support unless Mac customers could not buy gems. That got fixed when it happened but not much else. With the forum merger Mac support posts are like typing into the wind, they just blow away and get buried (well to be honest they were before the merger as well). So I would not get your hopes up or even wish it for you Linux users.

So, Anet tends to be quiet when they have things in the works. Maybe they refused to help mac guys because an engine update was expected in the future. I mean, I don’t think they will drop mac support. I don’t think it’s a good move to stick with DX9 and DX10 would kill mac support. OpenGL is their best option. If they go that route, Linux will be much closer to a possibility.

That’s honestly the only hope we (linux users) have.

Iyeru.5240:

This does NOT mean that you should put all your chips on ReactOS though. Linux is an amazing alternative, and should be well sought after, especially when so few issues occur in Linux, and if there are, they tend to get fixed rather quickly.

…

Also, I will have to start saving for a new computer in the near future, it will cost me from 1200 to 2200 USD or so to be relevant in PC Gaming for games I want to play, and some of that high price is thanks to me needing to buy a copy of Windows, since I’m currently using release previews / evaluations.

So. I am actually not a big fan of ReactOS because, at least from my perspective, everyone is already using UNIX or UNIX-like systems (Linux, included). Really, it’s only gamers and everyday consumers that do not. I use Linux because it’s the only OS I can actually do my work on. That said, I am never just running games on my machine. I’m always doing work on the side (which is why dual-booting makes so little sense).

Also: Are you building a computer from scratch? If so, $2200 will get you a super good machine. You should certainly be able to play whatever you need to and then some with that amount of money… if you are running Windows. Honestly, there are no games on linux that will even challenge a machine you build for $2000.

Back to the OpenGL port: In the previous thread, we had oodles of ideas and nothing from Anet. It was incredibly disheartening. I feel that no matter what we say, Anet’s already made up their mind on this and there is a reason they did not comment on the last thread. Now, because of the way Anet works, I don’t know if this is a good or bad sign, but I wouldn’t bet on a Linux port (but I’m not a betting man, in general).

That said, I still think it’d be useful to talk about the possibility of a linux port… But we need to be careful to keep ourselves from demanding things from Anet. Instead we should explain our reasons to the best of our abilities and hope for the best.

We also have to recognize that they will almost always take care of Windows first, Mac second, and Linux third.

kinetik.8679:

currently the OS trend is as follows , it is around about these percentages, this data correlates to machines connected to the internet.

2015 Win8 Win7 Vista WinXP Linux Mac
January 21.0% 52.8% 0.8% 4.7% 5.5% 9.8%

in reality, if they were to port it to another platform, mac would be first, only because of the near 10% they hold atm, linux would be after, though i too wouldnt mind seeing a linux port one day.

Truth be told, 5.5% is much better than I was expecting. In the gaming community, most linux and mac guys dual-boot. This means that as far as Anet is concerned, the numbers for linux and mac are probably a bit lower than those found just browsing the internet. They also already “support” macs with their mac beta.

I am sure all the Wine users are counted as Windows users by Anet. I feel that a good number of mac users also dual-boot specifically for gaming and are thus counted as Windows users. I don’t mean to be overly pessimistic… I just don’t think Anet sees any real desire from their gaming community to make a port.

And even if we do get the word out, 5.5% is probably not enough of a sales increase to justify creating the port.

That said, I really, really want a linux port. Probably more than anyone else you will meet.

I would also like to point out that even if Anet does manage an OpenGL client (which would be a feat in and of itself), linux support is still a long ways away. That said, there are very few Linux MMO’s, so they would certainly have a market. I don’t know how large the market would be in comparison to their player-base, but I know I would support the Quaggan out of Anet if they supported Linux.

That’s really all I can say. Nowadays, the desire for a linux client has died down and players have contented themselves with the mac beta (well, some of them have). Multi-platform support is probably not on any of their minds… which means it’s unfortunately not likely to happen.

One thing I love about this community, though, is that when we ask about linux, people respond. They don’t just reply, “LOL. INSTALL A REAL OS!” They genuinely try to help. There is a Linux community playing this game, and I really like that.

Rashy.4165:

…
They did hire an Engine programmer with cross-platform experience, so who knows what that entails. Either way, an upgrade to their game engine should be on the table or in the process of being done – an MMO that wants to continue long into the future can’t stick to using DX9.

Hmm… did they now? I didn’t hear anything about the cross-platform developer. I agree with the DX9 stuff, but I think that mac and linux combined only amount to <10% of their playerbase. That might not be enough justification to switch to OpenGL.

If they update to even DX10, wine will have problems. Their Mac beta relies on wine just as much as linux. I cannot imagine Anet just stopping their mac beta… but most mac users are probably fed up with the beta by now anyway. Honestly, it has been in beta for years now. Surely they had some intention of writing a full client at some point, right?

yanipheonu.5798:

Man, maybe one day we’ll be free from exe tyranny of Microsoft.

This is not that day

Honestly, I was super hyped for a while… but I feel it’s not going to happen. We just have to deal with WINE for now.

Sirius.4510:

Improved graphics in the trailer? Could you be more specific?

I decided to hold off on answering this until the latest POI, where I could see everything again. It could be that I was wrong. I remember everyone talking of improved graphics and there are quite a few threads talking about a potential engine update, but those might have just been whisperings from the part of the community that wants it.

dlonie.6547:

FWIW, GW2 runs beautifully under wine. It’s not the same as a native client, but it works very, very well.

As I said in the “OMG Y U NO DX12??!?!” threads, I really don’t think they need to put resources towards updating/porting the graphics API, I’d rather see them work on new content.

It really doesn’t run THAT beautifully. I mean, my FPS is about 1/4th what it should be. My graphics card and CPU barely even recognize GW2 should be using resources even with the CSMT patch.

There seemed to have been some improved graphics in the HoT trailer, which means that it is possible they updated their engine. If so, this might mean wine has a bit more trouble than it is currently having and it could also spell disaster for their cider mac beta. Now, if they went OpenGL, it wouldn’t be a problem for mac or linux; however, I don’t really see that happening.

Andred.1087:

GW2 is fairly CPU intensive, and even if it doesn’t show on your computer as being heavy on the CPU itself, the process of converting the machine code instructions into Linux-compatible instructions is quite costly, as I’m sure you are already aware. In short, it’s not likely that wine will ever be able to perform on the level of native code, especially with the limitations of GW2.

Honestly, I am not looking for the speed of native code. However, looking at my processors, none of them are even hitting 50% while running the game. The point is that I have a laptop that is ~6 years old running the game just as well as my new beefy computer. I have seen people running the game better and am trying to figure out what it is they did to do that.

Silmar Alech.4305:

You can try virtualization with the free Vmware player that is available for Linux. I read from some Mac users that running GW2 in a virtualization product gives significantly better performance than using the beta Mac client. The Mac client is simply running the Windows client in an wine-based emulator software. I assume this is true on Linux as well: full hardware virtualization performs better than emulation through wine.

The downside is that you need a Windows licence for the virtual machine.

Thanks for the input! I tried VMing on my previous computer, but again… that computer was orders of magnitudes slower than this one. That said, this game is currently the only reason I would install Windows. I feel like that’s a waste of resources.

*Disclaimer to anyone reading: I don’t want to start a flame war between Windows and Linux. I just want to optimize WINE. If it turns out that I have done everything I can, I’ll consider other options.

kokiman.2364:

Dualbooting isn’t an option?

No, unfortunately not. Sorry.

Hey guys,

I haven’t been able to play the game at all for a while because my computer could not handle it. I just bought a new computer for simulations (it’s got an intel i7-5820k, a gtx970, and 32GiB of RAM). I thought I would give the game a go. It’s running at 15 FPS. Interestingly, increasing the graphics setting does not at all decrease my FPS and my computer barely even notices GW2 is a thing (unlike when I play a few steam games).

What can I do to up the FPS? I have implemented CSMT both on my own wine versions, git, and playonlinux. Nothing seems to work.

I’m afraid I might have to finally throw in the towel on this one.

thejoedude.3465:

Also do you have to get eye of the north to get hall of monuments stuff? Im more interested in story but i want to get something out of it for gw2 also

Yeah, EotN actually introduced the Hall of Monuments. You need it for GW2 stuff.

loseridoit.2756:

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL

valve opensourced their directx to opengl compiler

Woah! I forgot about that! That makes everything so much easier on Anet. Maybe they will give thought to an OpenGL port, then.

Sworddragon.8512:

Maybe ArenaNet could try to make a beta client with Wine or Crossover. But currently there are some problems with Wine:

- Raw input does not work (but it is already implemented in Wine, there is just a bug preventing it from correctly functioning).
- Wine cannot fully take advantage of multiple cores in relation with the graphic parts of DirectX (at least this will be fixed in Wine 1.8).

Or ArenaNet could make a beta client with Guild Wars 1 on Wine before this as an experiment as Guild Wars 1 runs currently much better than Guild Wars 2.

…

Just wait for Wine 1.8 as it is not unlikely that we will get a performance boost of ~100+% on multicore systems.

I’ve noticed some shader issues on my own machine, which makes dying armor a little difficult. I don’t know if this has been fixed.

Also, do you have any idea when 1.8 will be released? I’ve got 1.7.17 on my machine currently.

I was thinking that they could use the old Guild Wars 1 engine as a test for a number of compatibility issues, as most of the bugs in the Guild Wars 1 client carried over into the second game. The problem is that this will take much more time than Anet is probably willing to spend on it. I would love to help in any way I could, but I don’t think it’s very likely that Anet would allow the community to see source code (even of the Guild Wars 1).

I was also pretty sure that Cider (what Anet used to make the mac port) was Cedega’s younger brother. It’s not an ideal solution, but if Cider worked decently for mac, maybe Cedega would work decently for linux. That said, I’ve heard that the mac port has some bugs in it.

To be honest, the question of linux support has been posed multiple times in the past few years. Anet said in an interview a year ago that they were not looking into a linux client at that time.

There are, of course, quite a few obvious business advantages:

1. Linux users pay for their games quite generously and generate just as much as their Mac brethren.

2. Guild Wars 2 would be the first AAA MMO on linux (to my knowledge) and would certainly generate quite a bit of hype and support because of that.

3. Due to distribution fragmentation, linux communities are tight-knit. If Anet would not have to go out of their way to market the port. Linux users will likely do that on their own.

4. Many developers are now beginning to develop for linux too, creating less of an incentive for linux gamers to dual-boot with Windows. This means that some gamers (myself included) are not playing GW2 as often as they would like simply because there are options that play much smoother on our computers.

Of course, this comes with a major disadvantage:

Many linux users want a complete rewrite of GW2’s code for OpenGL. I do not think anyone has any idea how much work this may or may not require of Anet. Even for their mac client, they used Cider instead of doing it themselves. It’s quite likely that Anet looked into OpenGL at some point, realized it would take more time than necessary, and got another group to do it.

Simply put: Yes, a linux client makes sense. Unfortunately, it does not seem to make enough sense for Anet to develop it currently.

That said, I play GW2 through wine on Archlinux and would love to see a linux client so I can get greater than 15 FPS.

gruurk.8501:

Window users are the only ones that sit there saying it’s not needed. Why? Because they know it would be the first OS dumped for a better one. Windows is known to be by far the worse OS out there but its accepted because of the lack of technical expertise to use and manage a real one. So, their fears is games would be ported over to more effective OS’s, they lack the skills to keep up and they will be left out.

Yes, we need a Linux client yesterday. The time of Windows is coming slowly to an end. And for me it can’t happen soon enough.

I totally understand where you are coming from, but there is no reason to bash Windows. I’m a linux user (have been for 6+ years) and will talk about the merits of linux all day. Heck, I’ll even have an honest conversation about all of linux’s faults (which is incredibly tough to to since I’ve spent so many years perfecting my own set-up). To say that Windows is clearly inferior to linux, at this point in time, is simply untrue. Windows users don’t want a linux client because they see other things for Anet to work on elsewhere, not because they are afraid that their OS will be replaced. Honestly, I feel that Windows users, unlike linux users, have much less emotional attachment to their OS. If the world were suddenly free and open-source, most of them would switch in a heartbeat. They are arguing against a linux client simply because there is so much more to be done and their chioce of OS is working fantastically well (in comparison). I also feel that Anet has their own agenda to fulfill and that adding an extra 3% player base is not incredibly interesting to most of the current players or developers. Unfortunately, to the linux users (like you and I), it’s becoming less and less acceptable to go without a client for linux and we are clawing at any arguments we can find to persuade Anet to create one for us.

The fact of the matter is that we need a linux client, pure and simple.

Shahrizai.7683:

I guess I’ll go and launch Steam and throw some money at them instead of the gem-store. After all, they understand and do what Anet does not.

This is the reason I still post on this thread. I love Anet and agree with most of their decisions, but if they ignore linux for much longer, they might lose a chunk of their player-base. I want to support Guild Wars 1 and 2—they are still some of my favorite games; however, I want to support linux MORE.

Anet still has the potential to be one of the first AAA MMO’s on linux. This will draw attention to them AND help them out financially (not that they are struggling in any way, but more money is always good). Currently, linux users are figuratively throwing wads of cash at every developer that supports them. There is no better time for Anet to break into the linux market.

I don’t want them to miss this opportunity.

On top of that, I now have plenty of shiny new linux games to distract me. For this reason, I have not logged on to Guild Wars 2 in months. Why would I? I have real developers creating linux games. I have been in support of Guid Wars 2 since the announcement a few years ago. Now, though… I don’t know. The game is great, but is it worth logging on to Windows for? No. That is the simple answer.

More often than not, when I am playing video games, I am also ssh’d into another computer and running code. I cannot do this easily with Windows. In fact, when playing games on Windows, multitasking is nearly impossible because of the single workspace. For this reason, there is a large opportunity cost to running Windows. Namely, if Windows is running on my computer, I cannot do any work. No game is worth dropping my productivity to zero for a definite amount of time. This is why I use WINE. It is a decent solution for now. Unfortunately, it is slower than just running the game in Windows. The best solution is a linux client.

It is in my best interest and the best interest of Anet to make a linux client, so far as I can see. I am even willing to help in any way possible. Unfortunately, it is hard to persuade anyone that linux is worth looking into, so the Guild Wars 2 linux community just keep talking on this thread to let players know that the linux community is still out there, waiting for their client.

madmalkav.4805:

Is there any performance advantadge on running the game on a VM instead of using Wine?

Honestly, I have not tried GW2 on a VM; however, wine is typically the easier solution. With a VM, you have to keep both OS’s fed (with RAM and such) and still “boot into” a Windows partition you have on your machine. Because of this, if you’ve got Windows on your machine, it’s probably still best to boot into it for games, considering you will have to deal with the OS either way. There are also certain restrictions the VM imposes on it’s own, effectively limiting the maximum FPS (from what I can tell, VMware is better for gaming purposes than VirtualBox). In the end, I would be surprised if there was a performance gain from running a VM. Again, though, I have not tested it.

As for the rest of the thread: Guild Wars 2 has been out for a year now, which means that Anet has probably gotten into a development groove. With any luck, they will start to look into items that were previously lower on their list (like a linux client).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

In this case, I don’t think it is so much a funding problem as it is a time problem. Anet has stretched themselves pretty thin. Kickstarter would only act as a medium to show how much the community cares about a linux client (and I don’t think it is meant for that). Even then, I highly doubt the devs will even think about anything beyond a cedega port.

As a side note, Valve has said that Dota 2 will be out “soon” for linux (and mac). Not that that is entirely surprising. Still, it’s another popular title that is soon to work on linux, and maybe that’s enough to get Anet to think about linux again.

Mathias.9657:

If I had 1billion dollars I’d just buy GW1 and hire a dev team.

Honestly, I would be okay with that.

All in all, if I had a billion dollars to spend on Guild wars 2 (not the first game), I would see what I could do about making Anet financially independent.

I would then work on making true OpenGL linux and mac ports for the game (not a Cider port).

After that, I would start expanding into Cantha and Elona—probably with Elona first because it is closer geographically (And I liked it better).

Honestly, though, Anet has done a very good job with the game. It is incredibly fun and replayable. Though I’m still not a fan of the new skill system, it is definitely a step in the right direction from other MMO’s.

soulsuke.7913:

@Leios: hey, it looks like my script as well! Although I linked it in a .desktop file, I don’t like to keep terminal tabs busy… It just bothers me somehow lol

By the way, I’m using a GTX 560M (with Optimus disabled, thank Lyssa)… So yeah, this workaround is pretty hardware dependant. It’s a shame really, but this is the best we got so far, I believe… Unless we start pressing both ANet and the Wine dev team :p

Yeah, I run it as “gw2 &” so I can keep the terminal up and running. When I’m gaming, I typically have a code running too so I like to keep the output on either the same desktop or the next desktop over.

That being said, if we could create a linux guild or some place for linux-users to gather in-game, it might be easier to get people playing on linux and thus help the developers see that a linux client is most certainly a worthwhile pursuit

Advent.6193:

Interesting. How well does this function in a WvW situation? I was originally eating 10-15 fps in open world. Being able to do 15 in a zerg-scrap might be worth another attempt.

As a side note: Are there any linux guilds to join or worlds that are somewhat linux-centric?

I was playing on my armorless character, “Legless for Linux,” last night. I figured I’ll point out some of the glaring problems with GW2 and WINE in game:

That being said, I still enjoy the game. I just don’t play it often due to the aforementioned bugs.

I would also like to point out that even if Linux is 1% of the marketshare (which it is not), we consistently match Mac sales on games that support our platform. Look at any humble sale, and you will see linux and mac, each consisting of ~15% of the profit. On top of that, Guild Wars 2 would be one of the first MMO’s switching to linux, meaning that most linux users would purchase the game in support. That is money in the bank, Anet! I think that it is a fantastic idea to at least talk to the people at Cedega—even if you don’t want to make the port yourselves.

If nothing else, when you design buildings or jumping puzzles, please use fewer spiral staircases. With WINE, my camera will not rotate that far without getting caught. Mad King’s Clock Tower was likely the most annoying task I have ever attempted on linux.

Thanks.

soulsuke.7913:

Actually, the multiple cpus issue in wine can be fixed: http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11674
Problem is, it won’t make GW2 run that much better. Looks like this wasn’t the main bottleneck.

Man! That’s so unfortunate! I just made sure the fix was, indeed, in my build of WINE… And then I logged on just to be sure. I’m Still getting abysmal FPS. I’m sad.

On a more positive note, because this game doesn’t work on my system, I have taken to doing productive things in my spare time.

With their new dev system (where they are cranking out living world content every two weeks) I doubt this issue will even be looked at until October when they are repeating the Mad King event. Even then, they probably have so much else on their plate that it won’t be until Wintersday that the devs even recognize that this suggestion thread is/was active.

In other words. This will be a slow and bumpy ride.

Blimm.5028:

- snip -

I know how you feel, but the fact of the matter is that WINE does not always match Windows performance. Actually, only on rare occasions is it good enough for the casual gamers, which means it most certainly is not good enough for top-tier gamers. Honestly, the only reason I play games on linux rather than Windows is because I have spent hours upon hours building my system to be precisely what I want it to be and cannot imagine giving that up just so I can run a game.

Also, any linux will do for a gaming distribution. More often than not, there is only a minuscule FPS difference between distros. I know that once AAA titles are released for linux, gamers will love the OS, but it will take some time for that to happen (maybe a decade or so). Until then, we’ve just gotta keep pushing our favorite games into linux territory.

Speaking of which, anyone have any news on the reported Blizzard linux game client? The announcement is supposed to come in sometime over the summer.

Aneirin Cadwall.9126:

I have only ever met two Mac enthusiasts in my lifetime that know anything at all about how computers work at a fundamental level.

I was actually quite surprised the other day when I walked into a new lab to work in and noticed that they use exclusively Apple products. Truth be told, Apple provides a decent UNIX environment with a fully functioning terminal without actually having to mess with your machine. For that reason, I have to give Apple some credit. At the same time, a majority of other researchers think Apple is of the devil (even worse than Microsoft, sometimes).

Still, I do agree with what has been posted before. If Anet is having trouble with their Mac port (which has obviously been prioritized over a linux one), chances any linux port is pretty far off in the future.

Honestly, it used to be that linux gamers would have to bite the bullet and play games on WINE or else dual-boot windows. Now, with steam and humble bundles, that’s no longer the case. I have more games available to me on linux now than I ever did on windows. The only thing I don’t have is an MMO I actually want to play. I’m content dropping Guild Wars 2 entirely, though, if the port is never going to happen. As it stands, because it’s WINE build has not become any better, I hardly play the game anyway.

Really, though, I would like ANET to say SOMETHING to us. I mean, for the longest time, this was the #1 suggestion on the suggestion forums. Even if they just say, “We do not intend to create a linux port at this time.” That would be fine by me. I’m just getting tired of checking this thread every day to see if anyone has said something worth mentioning or if ANET has posted.

John Yanez.5486:

Well I haven’t played Team Fortress II since switching from Lubuntu 12 to Debian 6.0.
I’m sure there’s a way to get Steam to work with Debian and one day, when I’m not feeling lazy, I might give it a try.

Hmm. I know in my own distribution (Arch), the steam beta was in the AUR in a matter of hours. I’m surprised to hear it is not on your distro yet (especially because of Debian’s notoriety).

John Yanez.5486:

I wonder what percentage of Steam users would use GNU/Linux if Steam supported other Linux distributions besides Ubuntu.

Honestly, I don’t feel like the percentage would increase too greatly. Most of the time, if there is a port to one distribution, the other distribution’s software centers have the same package in a matter of hours. That being said, linux is still new to the gaming world. I’m sure once bigger games are ported, there will be more players coming to linux. Actually, now that I think about it, I bet there are quite a few players sitting on windows, just waiting for their favorite game to make the switch (such as many players on this thread).

Even though steam says only ~1.5% of players play on linux, I’m not worried. We need to give it time and push for big games to make a big deal about supporting linux. We also need to support companies who support us. Eventually the market will shift and allow linux to be an OS contender.

I actually agree with some of the above posts. Until linux gamers stop buying windows games, we won’t get anywhere—even if our OS is technically superior. The fact is that most linux gamers also know how to get their games to run appropriately on their computer, a quality that allows game developers can overlook the OS as a whole without feeling bad about it. Life’s tough as a linux gamer.

Still, I feel Anet is missing an opportunity to be one of the first AAA MMO’s to be on a linux platform. They would surely get publicity from that—especially if they play their cards right.

Aneirin Cadwall.9126:

It’s a fairly safe bet that Linux users the world over wouldn’t mind a client that isn’t officially supported. Give me 60 FPS and I’m good to go. ;p

Honestly, I would be good with 30. I am definitely okay with a decent WINE port… but that doesn’t solve the underlying issue. The fact is that very few AAA game development companies see linux as a viable development platform, and I think this is the problem most linux-users on this thread are trying to correct.

Hey guys, in case anyone was unaware, there was an interview a while back with Colin Johanson, where a linux port was brought up:

Which is somewhat unfortunate. The interview is a little old (December 2012), so they might have looked back into it since then. Still, it’s doubtful. Even though this thread is one of the hottest topics in the suggestion forums, I don’t think our port is coming any time soon.

That being said, I’m all ears for ideas!

eisberg.2379:

Also what kind of hardware were you people using? I installed Windows 7 on my PC, and had zero problems, didn’t even have to install any drivers for any of my hardware, everything was plug and play. There was literally no difference between a new install of Linux Mint, and Windows 7, both worked right out of the box.

Suffice it to say that there was more than one computer. My brother’s was a Gateway, mine was an Asus, my friends was a Toshiba (along with my grandparents’). Every one of them had some sort of hiccup. I won’t go into the exact problems, but mine was the worst without any way to connect to the internet (even after directly connecting it through ethernet). After those experiences, linux was a dream come true. I will mention, though, that each of these experiences was during an upgrade from Vista to 7.

Regardess, I apologize for the somewhat off-topic post

Interestingly, the other suggestion thread is one of the most viewed threads on the suggestion forum (next to disabling right-click targetting—which is a fantastic idea, too). The Guild Wars franchise has always had a relatively large linux population. Guild Wars 2, though, does not run well at all.

Here is a link to the other thread.

Ultimately, the thread is filled with linux users who want to play the game where they are comfortable. Some of them have even tried to acquire refunds because of how poorly the game ran on their system. If you are too busy to read the thread, most people feel the linux client is a fantastic idea, but some Windows-centric players feel it is a waste of time. In my opinion, a linux client is the way to go, but who knows what Anet is thinking?