(NOTE.. To be updated for SUSE 12.3)
In any case, this article is for those of you, who like me, like their games on Linux. Or those of you who are curious about gaming on Linux, but never took the leap.
Getting Started
First of all, here is what I had to work with.
Hardware
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU X 980 @ 3.33GHz
- Memory: 12 GB SDRAM 1333MHz (six 2GB units)
- Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 570 (Driver version 295.40)
- Hard Drive: SSD drives
- Internet connection: 100MB.
Software
- Wine 1.5.3 (this is the latest version. 1.4 stable should also work),
- Emulating Windows 7
- Allowing the windows manager to capture the window
- No other special settings
- System running Pulseaudio, with ALSA drivers for Wine
- Linux 3.3.3-1-ARCH
I started my journey like the rest of you, by downloading the client. The downloader launches and looks good. The only thing is that the transparent edges do not integrate with my desktop, so I get a black frame, but that is of no consequence.
Obstacle one. For some reason, the client download for Linux crashes on regular intervals. I tried to troubleshoot this, and the closest I got was that there is a memory buffer that is filled. Anyway, I just re-launched the client over and over until the full 12.8GB Gw2.dat file was sitting snugly on my computer.
Moment of Truth
Minor graphical bug in Linux - hairline in front
I launch the now fully downloaded client…. success! The Guild Wars 2 login screen greets me in all its glory. I got sound, I got the options tab (max graphics all the way baby), I got my contacts, and I got the login window. I now know that this will work. I might get some artifacts, but the game runs. I enter my (Guild Wars 1) login details.. and is greeted by the character creation screen. Oh joy! I choose to make a human lady engieer. Everything looks great, except that the edge of her hair shows also at the front of her neck. Only a minor glitch, and nothing that makes me worried.
I make my choices, her personal story plays beautifully, and I am in the game. I take a tentative look around. Everything looks normal. I can move and I can open windows. FPS is fine, considering (I later did a test and got about 30-50 FPS in medium busy places. 10-20 in LA at it’s most busy). I can shoot off skills, and I can whisper Lady Rhonwyn to get an invite to the freshly formed GWOnline Alliance Guild. I can join the guild. Only thing I cannot do is chat in the guild or access the gem store, but that is not a problem caused by Linux. (The chat fixed itself after a re-rog-in, I never could access the store though.)
Taking it All In
Then I took a closer look at things I know are a little iffy when playing Guild Wars 1 through Wine. After all Guild Wars 2 is based on the same engine, so it might suffer from the same issues right? Much to my delight even those were nonexistent. Shadows are fine. Reloading textures by changing into town clothes or dyeing armor works without a hitch. No going bald while submerged in water, which would have been a total bummer considering all the underwater content in Guild Wars 2. And no random mouse pointer dissapperance! (A long-standing problem when playing Guild Wars 1 through Wine, patched up a few versions back now).
TL;DR
In conclusion, the game runs as good as on Windows in every imaginable way, and the only major bugs I found were known issues also afflicting the part of the community playing on Windows.
Disclaimers
- Just because it worked for me does not mean it will work for you the same way. Running programs through Wine is a very hardware-dependent exercise. Some suppliers have great Linux native drivers, whereas others do not. And among those who do not, they can work better or worse with the generic ones. For instance, the NVIDIA graphic card drivers are very good for Linux, whereas the AMD/Ati drivers are typically not so great for Wine.
- The game is still un-optimized and is using CPU a lot to render. So while the game runs great right now on systems with good CPUs, there is actually a small chance that it will run worse once ArenaNet optimizes the game to utilize the graphics card fully. Which would be more than a little ironic. Lets all hope it wont come to that.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_on_Wine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZQHO7IbvOA using PlayonLinux
USE 1.5.12 32bit but you can use 1.5.15
