User:Simon of Aragon/Linux

Linux OS and WINE

I was asked to make a page about how to play Guild Wars on Linux OS under WINE. The official response of the developers and company motto is going to say they don't support it. They won't be responsible and blah, blah, blah... Linux OS is everywhere these days. If you own a tablet or phone they run Android OS which is a "flavor" of Linux. I happen to run Kubuntu which is a combination of KDE and Ubuntu.
Why do we run this OS instead of Windows? Because we have a choice. You can go buy a computer and refuse to run Microsoft. I was faithful to MS XP SP3 until they made Vista and lied to the public with a New Coke commercial. I can't see using a product made by people who resort to lies. That may sound I am anti-Windows, but more often these days, people are switching OS using Android, Chromebook, etc.. Even the NSA said, Linux OS is safer and more hack proof than any other system. So now you know why I like Linux.

WINE is a funny acronym that means WINE Is NOT an Emulator. WINE is a program overlay that makes Windows games and apps "think" they are running in Windows. Because the OS uses different language structures WINE simply interprets the graphic drivers and other functions. Most people run WINE in two ways;

1. WINE as in a command line, which requires some system knowledge for the moderate to advanced users.

2. Play on Linux (POL), a front end GUI (graphic user interface) with icons and menu for people with little system knowledge.

First thing to learn about the two formats is... NEVER ask questions in the wrong forums. POL is really no different than running WINE from a command line but the fans will shoot you down for asking questions about POL at WINE HQ and same goes for WINE issues at POL. Pick one and stick with it. POL is pretty easy to download and setup, not much there to talk about. One of the best reasons to use POL is for the automation and custom builds.

Setting up WINE

1. Open a Terminal window, this is where you can type in commands and it normally has a text only interface with a $ for the prompt.

2. Type wine --version [enter key]

You should get something like this:

simon@G41-M7:~$ wine --version

wine-1.6.2

simon@G41-M7:~$

If it returns:

simon@G41-M7:~$ wine --version

wine: command not found

simon@G41-M7:~$

WINE is not installed on your machine.

3. To install WINE there are different ways it can be done. On my system I would do this:

simon@G41-M7:~$sudo apt-get install wine

simon@G41-M7:~$sudo apt-get install winetricks

4. Next configure the WINE using:

simon@G41-M7:~$winetricks

You should now be looking at a menu in winetricks. And your default option should be to Select the default prefix. The next menu should have the option Change settings. Now you should see a great many options you can toggle. If poor graphics is a problem or sound is an issue, you can make changes in here and test different settings. Adjust these as you see fit.

5. Run Guild Wars:

simon@G41-M7:~$wine gw.exe

6. Configure Guild Wars

Guild Wars allows for many command line options. For example, if you are having sound issues try;

simon@G41-M7:~$wine gw.exe -dsound

or

simon@G41-M7:~$wine gw.exe -nosound

If you are having graphic card issues try;

simon@G41-M7:~$wine gw.exe -noshaders

or

simon@G41-M7:~$wine gw.exe -dx8 -noshaders

I never had much issue getting Guild Wars to function. I did remove my Pulse Audio from my system because it caused cracking and popping. I normally get a very good ping rate and run about 60 frames per second. Also it is highly recommended you do the full install of Guild Wars using the -image option. This will update your gw.dat and could take a while to download but worth every minute.

You can read more here: Guild Wars on Wine Simon of Aragon - talk