Guild Wars 2 will satisfy any gamer who wants multi-player, roleplaying, looting, responsive storyline, crafting, pets, character development and of course... Combat!
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"
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
Click Next
Downloading Wine
Extracting
Downloading Gecko
Installed
Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window
Go to: https://www.guildwars2.com/
Click "Play For Free"
Signup and login
Click "Windows Client Download"
or
Download the client from here:
https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2/win
Save Gw2Setup.exe on your desktop
PlayOnLinux Setup
Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install
Click "Install a non-listed program"
Click Next
Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next
Name your virtual drive: guildwars2
Click Next
Check all three options:
- Use another version of wine
- Configure Wine
- Install some libraries
Select Wine: 1.7.49-staging
Click Next
Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next
Wine Configuration
Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply
Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click OK
Installing PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, DLL's, Components)
Check the following:
- POL_Install_corefonts
- POL_Install_d3dx9
- POL_Install_tahoma
Note: All packages will automatically download and install
Click Browse
Navigate to your Desktop
Select "Gw2Setup.exe"
Click Open
Click Next
Loading screen
Click "Install Guilde Wars 2"
Click OK
Sign in
Wait for preloading...
Click Ready
License Agreement
Click "I Accept"
Select a server in your area
Create a character or play as an existing character
Close Guild Wars 2 and continue with PlayOnLinux
PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Select Gw2.exe
Click Next
Name the shortcut: Guild Wars 2
Click Next
Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
PlayOnLinux Configure
Select "Guild Wars 2"
Click Configure
General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.49-staging
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
Close Configure
Select "Guild Wars 2"
Click Play
Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs
Optimization
Click the gear or press ESC
Select Options
Graphics Options
Adjust:
- Resolution
- Refresh Rate
- Frame Limiter
- Interface Size
- Gamma
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
Disable Preloading
Click the Wrench Icon
Scroll down to Streaming
Select "On Demand" from the drop-down menu
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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