Guild Wars - On Linux
July 2006Update: As of Wine 0.9.41 (July 2007) the cursor problem has been fixed in the main tree and I've found a work around for battle sounds in the game. Start Guild Wars with -dsound then go into options and enabled "Use 3D Audio" (not EAX) and then exit. Restart without the -dsound. Also DO NOT enable the new "Use best texture filtering" option or you will not be able to see the game window.
| Linux Rating | |
|---|---|
| Install | 2/5 |
| Graphics | 5/5 |
| Sound | 4/5 |
| Network | 4/5 |
| Overall | 4/5 |
| System Requirements | |
|---|---|
| OS | Windows ® 98,ME,2000,XP (WINE needed) |
| CPU | 800Mhz Pentium III |
| RAM | 256MB |
| Video | GeForce 3 or 4 MX with 32MB Video Ram |
| Network | Internet connection required |
| Publisher | NC Soft |
One of the games I really enjoyed playing on Windows has finally become an option for Linux users. As of this writing, July 2006, it still is only about 95% working with WINE. The mouse cursor doesn't display because it uses a 32bit cursor image. (24bit + 8bit alpha) However, there is a patch already in the works and maybe in the next version we will have a fully working game!
The newer versions of wine use winecfg to configure wine. My settings are as follows.
Update: April 2007 for wine 0.9.34
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Wine Version | 0.9.34 |
| Windows Version | Windows 2000 |
| Allow DirectX to stop mouse | Checked |
| Enabled desktop double buffering | Checked |
| Allow the window manager to control windows | Checked |
| Emulate a virtual desktop | Unchecked * |
| Vertex Shader Support | Hardware |
| Allow Pixel Shader (if supported by hardware) | Checked |
| Vertex Shader Support | Hardware |
| Sound Drivers | Alsa |
| Hardware Accelleration | Full |
| Default Sample Rate | 44100 16 Bits |
*Wine wine >=0.9.34 full screen mode works as does resolution changes.
The installer is just one .EXE that will download the game from the internet. One word of caution, the install is about 2.5GB! But once downloaded, you should be able to enter the game. It will continue to download as you play and enter new zones.
All in all, this latest version of wine does a great job and it won't be long before we are playing all windows games.
Tips for a better game play. (April 2007 with wine 0.9.34, these are not needed for Wine 0.9.41 from July 2007)
| Gw.exe arguments for wine older than 0.9.41 | |
|---|---|
| -dsound | Force use of direct sound |
| -noshaders | Disable use of vertex shaders (Performance and compatibility fix) |
| -dx8 | Force use of DirectX8 (default is Dx9) |
For all versions of wine.
| Guild Wars Options in-game (F11) | |
|---|---|
| Shadows | Low (Fixes odd problem with texture shadows on ground) |
| Wine Registry Software\Wine\Direct3D (wine regedit) | |
| UseGLSL | enable (default disabled) |
| VideoMemorySize | real video memory (default 64M) |
| DirectDrawRenderer | opengl (default GDI) |
Everything else in game can be high. I've tested this running at 2560x1600 and get 71-150 FPS. Updates to Wine 0.9.38 have fixed many Direct3D bugs and allows for a very nice looking game.