Guild Wars, wine and nvidia

[conedude13]

Hi all. To start out this post, here are my system specs:
Intel P3 @ 1.8 GHz
NVIDIA geforce 4 ti 4600 @ 128 mb ddr
1 Gb ram
Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 (no xp)

I recently had trouble with xp, so I decided to go all in on Linux and everyone suggested Ubuntu. So here I am! My problem today is that I want to play Guild Wars. That’s it, that’s the only thing that I want to do. I will find a Linux version of everything else and will be fine with it, but I only really really want guild wars to work to make my whole ubuntu experience perfect.

That being said, here is what I have done so far. When I first started with ubuntu, I downloaded everything for the NVIDIA drivers through the Synaptic Package Manager and followed This Guide for beginners. I installed Guild Wars (gw) with no problems since wine was installed from synaptic. When I tried to play gw, however, I got an error saying that at least directx 8 should be installed for me to be able to play. So I thought it was a wine problem. So I then got xwine, dx9wine, wine cvs...and nothing worked. I kept on getting the same error.

So then I did a clean re-install of the system, only this time, instead of getting everything about NVIDIA from synaptic, I followed This Guide on installing the latest and greatest drivers for my NVIDIA card. And this time, gw would start up! I experienced a ton of lag for downloading the updates when you first log into the game. To fix this, I added
Option "NoLogo"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
to the section "device" area of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Then the downloads went blazing fast, and I made it to the log in screen of gw. Which leads me to my next, and present, dilemma. There was soooo much lag! I would type in my user info for logging in and it would take about 7 seconds for it to catch up with me. And I can forget about logging into the game. It takes forever, and will eventually just crash.

So, that is where I am right now. I feel that I am extremely close to finding a solution to my problem. I have searched all over these forums, as well as other forums, for a practical solution that does not involve me getting cedega, which I refuse to pay for. And I also would like to get to stay away from having to install a small xp partition on my hard drive to just play this one game. Any help, any help at all, is extremely appreciated!

Thank you for your time.

[handy]

Hi, it's great that you can now get GW to run under Wine, it would not a few months ago!

Both Wine & GW are in perpetual developement, so I guess that explains it.

I did battle with GW via Ubuntu a few months back, & have been playing happily without lag ever since using Cedega 4.4.3.

What a fantastic game!

See this link for the blow by blow details!

Even though you are using Wine, you should be able to use the same settings in the GW Options Menu & get the same results: NO post zoning lag!

If not try the Cedega time demo to be sure that Cedega will be fine on your hardware (I'm sure it will).

Could you please post your results on the end of my thread (this blow by blow one) I am trying to keep all relevant GW stuff happening there. There's not been a lot of GW posts, I believe because there are no great problems running it on cedega with the appropriate simple settings in place. Now having Wine working with GW, as well as Cedega!! THAT would be a really BIG bonus. Which would bring a lot of Ubuntu (linux) users into the wonderful world of Guild Wars

I have to say it again: What a fantastic game!

[EDIT:]

Have a look at Automatix, it makes initial setup of a Ubuntu box soo much easier for both new & old hands alike!

[conedude13]

My graphics isn't really up to par. When the login screen comes up it is very choppy and you can't see any of the mountains and stuff. Anyone out there proficient enough in wine and have similar system specs to mine that tinkered with their wine config files?

Hey Handy, are you in a guild? If so, are their any guild mates of yours that have gw up and running on a Linux box using wine instead of cedega?

[handy]

My graphics isn't really up to par. Anyone out there proficient enough in wine and have similar system specs to mine that tinkered with their wine config files?

Hey Handy, are you in a guild? If so, are their any guild mates of yours that have gw up and running on a Linux box using wine instead of cedega?

I am the sole member of my own guild!

No disputes with members that way...

Really, I just created one for the educational experience.

No, I haven't spoken to anyone else whilst playing GW who runs linux, mostly they have never heard of linux! There are a lot of kids playing the game, which could explain some of the ignorance about linux.

You have tried playing with all the graphics options turned right down?

Screen res' down too?

I would have thought that it would work ok with your machine spec's...

Try the cedega demo, & see how it goes, if you find that performance is better, that will add to our knowledge base.

[EDIT:]

The cedega demo is really easy to install, & runs GW straight away. Well it did for me anyway!

If GW ran ok under windoze, it will under linux.

[zgerrz]

I wish I could get this game to work with my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro...

[handy]

I wish I could get this game to work with my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro...

That's a problem I can't help you with, I'm sorry.

Some users have dumped the ATI's out of frustration & bought nVidia graphic cards so as to be able to play their game(s) of choice on Ubuntu (linux).

The only consolation I can offer, is that at least you can get into a card that is a reasonable gameing card for linux for not too many dollars these days. But, I also know that what is not many dollars in one part of the world is prohibitively expensive somewhere else. Or if you are a student, or what have you...

[conedude13]

I actually kind of gave up last night. It has been over 2 weeks since I have last played gw!! So i just slapped xp on a 20 gig partition of my hard drive and plan to install ubuntu on the rest tonight, again.

If you are the only member in your guild, would you consider joining mine? If you play often that is.

I ran with all of the graphics all the way down to the left as far as they could go in the game options menu. But the graphics in the backgroud of the login screen still look like garbage. Maybe it's the graphics card driver? I have nvidia-settings, but the only thing you can do in that is check a few boxes. In xp, with the latest drivers for the card, I have a lot of tweaking options. I never really tinkered with them though, just with the ingame stuff.

Oh, and if you are interested in the guild at all, here is the site: The Dragons of the Lost Star Main Page

[zgerrz]

Yeah, I've begun searching eBay for an nvidia card. I'm tired of ATI's poor drivers.

Anyone know the nvidia equivalent (performance wise) to a Radeon 9800 Pro? I'm looking to get an nvidia card that performs a little better than what I have now. I've been looking at the 6600 GT (AGP only).

[handy]

I actually kind of gave up last night. It has been over 2 weeks since I have last played gw!! So i just slapped xp on a 20 gig partition of my hard drive and plan to install ubuntu on the rest tonight, again.

If you are the only member in your guild, would you consider joining mine? If you play often that is.

I ran with all of the graphics all the way down to the left as far as they could go in the game options menu. But the graphics in the backgroud of the login screen still look like garbage. Maybe it's the graphics card driver? I have nvidia-settings, but the only thing you can do in that is check a few boxes. In xp, with the latest drivers for the card, I have a lot of tweaking options. I never really tinkered with them though, just with the ingame stuff.

Oh, and if you are interested in the guild at all, here is the site: The Dragons of the Lost Star Main Page

The thing that you loose that makes a noticable difference when you turn the graphics right down in GW options, is reflections. That's why the login screen looks like crap. As far as game play is concerned you will rarely notice that reflections are not there, (well I don't anyway).

As far as I am concerned, loosing the bloom effects & reflections is a tiny price to pay, to be able to otherwise have a perfect GW gameplay experience, WITHOUT windoze!!

I haven't even bothered with the nVidia settings, you can spend a lot of time & gain b' all, in my opinion anyway.

As far as your kind invitation to join your guild is concerned: Thanks very much for the invite, but I will stay a loner for a while yet, I am slowly polishing my skills & still learning new ones.

I am not at all interested in the GvG part of the game, I like the role playing best of all.

So, to some up my thoughts: If you didn't, & I can't tell from your post, try the game with all the settings turned down as per my findings in THAT other thread? Try it, you may be pleasantly surprised. The loss of reflections is really not a biggy, once you get past the login screen.

[handy]

Yeah, I've begun searching eBay for an nvidia card. I'm tired of ATI's poor drivers.

Anyone know the nvidia equivalent (performance wise) to a Radeon 9800 Pro? I'm looking to get an nvidia card that performs a little better than what I have now. I've been looking at the 6600 GT (AGP only).

You can't go wrong with a 6600GT, try for as much on board ram as possible.

I bought my 6800GT on ebay, 2nd hand for half the new price, back when the 6800 ultra was the ducks guts! So, if you are game to do it on ebay, you may be able to get more bang for your buck, so to speek!

Good Luck!