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Guild Wars 2 Guide

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Sep 11, 2015.

  • by booman, Sep 11, 2015 at 1:27 PM
  • booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Guild Wars 2 will satisfy any gamer who wants multi-player, roleplaying, looting, responsive storyline, crafting, pets, character development and of course... Combat!

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    Guild Wars 2 includes a dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game.

    Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Guild Wars 2 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

    Note: This guide applies to the Free-To-Play version of Guild Wars 2 downloaded from their website. Other versions may require additional steps.

    Tips & Specs:

    To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

    Mint 17 64-bit
    PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
    Wine: 1.7.49-staging

    Wine Installation

    Click Tools
    Select "Manage Wine Versions"
    wine01.png

    Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.49-staging
    Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

    Select it
    Click the arrow pointing to the right
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    Click Next

    Downloading Wine
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    Extracting

    Downloading Gecko
    wine05.png

    Installed
    wine06.png

    Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window

    Go to: https://www.guildwars2.com/
    Click "Play For Free"
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    Signup and login
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    Click "Windows Client Download"
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    or
    Download the client from here:
    https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2/win

    Save Gw2Setup.exe on your desktop
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    PlayOnLinux Setup

    Launch PlayOnLinux
    Click Install
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    Click "Install a non-listed program"
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    Click Next

    Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
    Click Next
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    Name your virtual drive: guildwars2
    Click Next
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    Check all three options:
    • Use another version of wine
    • Configure Wine
    • Install some libraries
    Click Next
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    Select Wine: 1.7.49-staging
    Click Next
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    Select "32 bits windows installation"
    Click Next
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    Wine Configuration

    Applications Tab
    Windows Version: Windows 7
    Click Apply
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    Graphics Tab
    Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
    Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
    Desktop size: 1024x768
    Click OK
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    Installing PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, DLL's, Components)

    Check the following:
    • POL_Install_corefonts
    • POL_Install_d3dx9
    • POL_Install_tahoma
    Click Next
    guildwars15.png

    Note: All packages will automatically download and install

    Click Browse

    Navigate to your Desktop
    Select "Gw2Setup.exe"
    Click Open
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    Click Next

    Loading screen
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    Click "Install Guilde Wars 2"
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    Click OK
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    Sign in
    Wait for preloading...
    Click Ready
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    License Agreement
    Click "I Accept"
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    Select a server in your area
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    Create a character or play as an existing character
    Close Guild Wars 2 and continue with PlayOnLinux

    PlayOnLinux Shortcut

    Select Gw2.exe
    Click Next
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    Name the shortcut: Guild Wars 2
    Click Next
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    Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
    Click Next
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    PlayOnLinux Configure

    Select "Guild Wars 2"
    Click Configure
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    General Tab
    Wine version: 1.7.49-staging
    guildwars29.png

    Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine.

    Display Tab
    Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses
    guildwars30.png

    Close Configure

    Select "Guild Wars 2"
    Click Play
    guildwars31.png

    Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

    Optimization

    Click the gear or press ESC
    Select Options
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    Graphics Options

    Adjust:
    • Resolution
    • Refresh Rate
    • Frame Limiter
    • Interface Size
    • Gamma
    Advanced Settings

    Adjust:
    • Animation
    • Environment
    • LOD distance
    • Reflections
    • Textures
    • Render Sampling
    • Shadows
    • Shaders
    • Postprocessing
    • Character Model Limit
    • Character Model Quality
    • Ambient Occlusion
    • Best Texture Filtering
    • Depth Blur
    • Effect LOD
    • High-Res Character Textures
    • Light Adaptation
    All changes happen real-time

    guildwars33.png

    Disable Preloading

    Click the Wrench Icon
    Scroll down to Streaming
    Select "On Demand" from the drop-down menu
    guildwars34.png

    Note: This requires downloading the entire game on next launch, but can improve performance.

    Conclusion:
    Guild Wars 2 installation was simple and straight forward. Launching the game is slow on the first try, but tweaking the graphics requires a bit of patience. Make sure to use an Nvidia Geforce video card and the proprietary Nvidia drivers for best performance. My GeForce 550 Ti was able to run Guild Wars at a playable frame rate, but I was not able to crank all the display settings to high.

    I found that disabling Streaming and turning down Shaders & Antialiasing improved performance without loosing too much eye-candy.

    Gameplay Video:


    Screenshots:
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    Last edited: Jan 13, 2016
    vashin likes this.

Comments

Discussion in 'Guides' started by booman, Sep 11, 2015.

  1. booman
    Awesome! Thank you for confirming that Guild Wars 2 still runs well. I never tried a 64-bit virtual drive and Wine version. It makes sense they would run GW2 better

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