Talk:Running the game

This Page
Since Running the game is on the main page I thought it would be best to have all known arguments to this page and use Command line as instruction to use them on windows. Command line should then be renamed to something else. --Bob 19:14, 19 February 2007 (PST)


 * If we're going to list all command line arguments here, then I think the Command line article should just be a redirect to this one - that'll save redundancy and simplify updates as only one article will need to be maintained. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:26, 19 February 2007 (PST)
 * that good, but i think a page explaining how to make sort cut icon to run gw whit different argument on window must remain. --Bob 20:34, 19 February 2007 (PST)

Windows 2000
Does anyone know how to force Guild Wars to run in high priority mode in Windows 2000? For some reason the priority of gw.exe gets set to low when I switch windows, and when I try increasing the priority, it gets set back to low. This only seems to happen when I've been running my computer for a while. -- Gordon Ecker 22:11, 10 March 2007 (EST)
 * I am no windows expert but this ask slashdot article might help. --Bob 21:18, 11 March 2007 (EDT)

Revive'd, but I'm having the same issue on Windows XP Professional. 76.94.212.186 02:55, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Mac Port
Anyone know if a Mac port using ' Cider is considered by ArenaNet?
 * No more info for mac or linux port then when the original gw was release. A native port would be best but until then you could try using Guild Wars on Wine. --Bob 12:22, 4 April 2007 (EDT)

These system requirements...
...are totally unrealistic. I added a note about what I experienced. I can proof (screens, dxdiag) the bad performance on several systems and I strongly suspect that its cause is the tremendous amount of information coming with several campaigns. ~ dragon legacy  05:17, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Long time of the repairing files feature
Does it HAVE TO take so long? Is there no way to speed it up? Sorry, i'm fustrated because the game froze on me while in the Abaddon mission. DBZVelena |  (Talk page)   02:26, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Hey, at least you aren't having to -image a 3.5GB file... MisterPepe talk 02:29, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Lets pretend I know what you mean ok :P DBZVelena  |  (Talk page)  [[image:User_DBZVelena_sig.jpg]] 02:30, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * =P It downloads a completely new copy of your GW.dat file. Mine's about 3.2GB at the moment - something that I'd really rather not re-download. MisterPepe talk 02:43, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, it downloads and decompresses all files for the dat file. So if you've run -image recently, it's not going to wipe out your dat file and start from scratch. You probably know this, just mentioning it for someone else coming along and potentially being afraid to use the -image switch to avoid a huge download. (You will, of course, get the huge download if you delete/rename the dat file before using the switch). --Nkuvu [[Image:User_Nkuvu_sig_button.jpg]] 07:24, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Windows Vista
On the Japanese Guild Wars website there is a link to a Japanese news item dated 19. January 2007 which has something to do with Windows Vista: (click here). Go go Japanese speaking community members! T.T.H. 14:41, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

whats the news or info about windows vista support? for the current game? i plan on buying a new computer soon and i know that if i am it will probably come preloaded with vista i would get a mac but dont have the moneys for that.

Mac OSX Support
We`re really-really-very-very-really needed Guild Wars on MacOS...

Gaile, really wanted to ask you ingame about Mac:Osx G5/Intel Support for gw as in if Guildwars or Guildwars 2 was ever to come out on that O/S, Guildwars is the only reason i use windows on my mac. Its not about me, but i think it would be cool to see some mac users be able to play Guildwars on OSX, i think it would run pretty good may i have your thoughts on this. PS: This question is question for Gaile, not for other people to say 'Macs Suck", So thanks for your time Gaile if you can reply back! - Chrisworld 02:21, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, Chris. As far as I know, we are not planning to offer Guild Wars for Mac. However, I've always been told that we will support other OSs if there is sufficient demand. So I guess it's up to the business team to determine if there is enough interest in Mac support to justify the (pretty considerable) cost of porting to the Mac OS. With Guild Wars 2, I imagine this question will arise with even more interest, since the fact that it's a whole new game raises additional possibilities. Let me see if I can find out anything more about this. If you don't hear, it's because we don't know yet, but I'm sure it'll be on the minds of the decision-makers as development continues and we may have more information as the process continues. --Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 04:41, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that since GW2 is still in the early development stage, a move to OpenGL would benefit you greatly, and make porting to other operating systems a lot easier. This might be something to discuss with your dev team, if it's even an option. I know that my next computer is going to be a Mac, and I would love to be able to play Guild Wars (2) without booting into Windows. Nub 01:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Now thats what im talking about, Nub! Mac FTW!- Chrisworld 01:34, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much, Gaile! - Chrisworld 23:48, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I feel the same way. I currently play Guild Wars on Linux, but it's not all that smooth due to the volunteer implementation of wine, the Windows compatibility layer. If more game developers would switch to OpenGL and other libraries that are inherently cross-platform, the cost of porting between platforms is minimized (though not negligible). It's sad that DirectX continues to be the dominant platform for games -- the only reason it remains the dominant platform is because it was once the dominant platform and developers don't want to learn something wholly new.


 * &mdash;Tanaric 14:21, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Have you seen the demos for DX10? I don't think the "only" reason for it being the overwhelming choice of the game development industry is familiarity. :) I cannot say what will come in the future, but most craftsmen choose the best tools. I have no direct hands-on experience with this question, but I wonder if perhaps the reason why DirectX continues to be selected is because it does what it does better than any other option. --Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 21:48, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * DirectX 10 is soooooooooo (insert a coupla billion more 'o's here) hawt! I love it. No, really =D. It's my friend =)! xD Ale_Jrb  ( talk ) 21:55, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Gaile, I've yet to see a demo that shows "here's the absolute best of what you can do with OpenGL vs. absolute best of what you can do with DirectX 10, using highest quality textures each library can handle." I haven't seen anything even remotely close to passing the bar for objective journalism comparing the two, or even DX9 vs. DX10.


 * As far as craftsmen choosing the best tools, that's an interesting analogy. I'd like to take it a step further. Given the choice, which would the average craftsman choose?


 * Vendor A: You can use my tool for free, with whatever other tools you like. It's verifiably high quality as the majority of high-end craftsmen use this tool. For some reason, craftsmen in your particular subfield neglect it, but there's still a wealth of information about my tool available, again for free. If you feel the need, you're welcome to tinker with and customize my tool.
 * Vendor B: You can use my tool for free. However, you'll have to pay $300 for the environment that supports this tool, plus a extra $300 for another tool my tool depends on. All of your customers who use products built with my tool must also pay a $300 fee for supporting software. Oh, and nobody else is allowed to provide support for our tool but us -- if we decide to change the tool, you must oblige and you have no recourse. If you need a feature our tool does not provide, you have no recourse.


 * Put most practically: if the best developers choose the best tools, the fact that World of Warcraft is OpenGL based says quite a bit to me! :)


 * &mdash;Tanaric 03:06, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't know anything about either "platform" but I was reading up on the DirectX wikipedia page and it says: "There are alternatives to this framework, some more complete than others. While there is no unified solution that will do everything DirectX does" DirectX Going off that I'd venture a guess that DirectX has more features than OpenGL does hence making it better. -- Scourge  [[Image:User Scourge Spade.gif]] 03:40, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * We've all been somewhat sloppy in our nomenclature. When considering the graphics part of DirectX, we should really say "Direct3D." OpenGL is merely a graphics API, nothing more. DirectX incorporates Direct3D for graphics, DirectSound for sound, DirectPlay for game controllers, etc. When you use OpenGL, you can choose to use a complete platform built on top of OpenGL (like SDL), you can choose to cobble together various other libraries that handle specific tasks (like using OpenAL for sound), or you can choose to write your own libraries for certain features from scratch (rarely necessary). &mdash;Tanaric 13:15, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * um. just adding my support for this idea. I have a mac (imac, powerbook, old 8500 tower) and a PC at work and home. For the arguments above I say OpenGL FTW! I can't imagine a situation where the open platform isn't better than the closed one unless you think about the libraries you want to include. If writing from the ground up, open platforms just... seem better. And that is my technologically unbiased, yet biased, opinion. - Thulsey  [[Image:User Thulsey good.gif|Zheng]] - talk 15:16, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Just to throw yet another leaf on the pile for OpenGL, I expect to switch to Linux by the time GW2 comes out, and one of the major reasons I haven't already is that I keep hearing that Guild Wars on Wine is still pretty hit-or-miss. Perhaps it might be useful to set up some sort of central place to gather comments from those interested, to gauge demand both from current players for whom a Mac or Linux version would be more convenient and from people for whom a lack of Mac or Linux version is a barrier which, if removed, would get them to join? Certainly if GW2 is going to be multi-platform, the time to make that decision is now if not sooner. Of course, a port of GW1 as well would make me quite the happy ranger, but I'm rather less optimistic about that one.


 * Oh, and to the comment most craftsmen choose the best tools, that's actually a logical fallacy. Most craftsmen would choose the best tools if they were equally familiar with all the tools, with no prejudice (e.g. an early bad experience with one coloring future judgements even after the problem is corrected, taking advertising or word of mouth over hands-on experience, brand loyalty, mental lock-in, etc). And even that assumes that one is necessarily better than the other. - Tanetris 23:07, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Remember, im talking about a full native version of Gw running natevily in OSX no emulators... :D - Chrisworld 23:26, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I have to play GW on Crossover and the problems I've had to resolve trying to play it kind of killed the experience for me on a Mac and dual-booting is annoying: a time waster if you use Boot Camp or a RAM hog if you use Parallels. I would actually pay twice as much for GW2 if it was Mac-compatible, the elation resulting from simply clicking on an icon and watching it execute without a hitch would outweigh the cost. ;) Synapse  talk


 * I added a comment on User_talk:Chrisworld but i think other here might be interested. There is User Apple and User Linux to be use on your user page. Show your support for non-microsoft system! --Bob 00:03, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

We are now 2009, any more info for gw or gw 2 on mac? ==sierra==

windowing system exit button
Is there a way thru program argument, registry edit or any other mean to remove the X (for exit) button in top right corner when game is full screen? if posible i would like to keep hide and minimise/maximise one but will part with them all to get rid of exit one. I almost click that button ever since i play GW and today i just did before finishing a quest :X --Bob 21:33, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't know and I don't think so. Instead, try using ALT+Enter to switch from full screen to windowed and vice versa. No clicking involved. ~ dragon legacy  05:26, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I try to avoid clicking it by accident. like when playing with hero flag. --Bob 12:43, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Try a smaller interface then. ~ dragon legacy  13:14, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I had the same concern as you Bob. My work-around : edit your UI (press F11) and put the party panel in the top-right corner. It will cover the X button, preventing you to click it by accident. Chriskang 13:54, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Vista
edit/10-31-07 I have Run Guildwars on Windows Vista-Pro and Home for over 6 months and have not have any problems yet. rr4542@gmail.com
 * Yeah, works fine for me, too. ~ dragon legacy  18:08, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Whenever I close GW on Vista, windows media player pops open. Doesnt matter how I close it (x button, task manager, right click and close) it always opens...--Ryudo 20:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

I have had problems when exiting Guild Wars with Vista Ultimate, but with Windows Media Center, not Media Player. It pops up every time I exit the game asking me to install it but I have no intentions of installing it. -ex0a 12:19, 31 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Strange, I went ahead and download Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 so I don't encounter that problem. It also looks and behaves better ^^ -- W  o  B  [[Image:User Wings of Blood sig icon.png|24px]] 21:33, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Its a common problem what people get its because on the shortcut it has the command -mce which is for media centre so whenever its closed it opens that, to fix it just remove -mce from the shortcut. Yes Windows 7 wouldnt do it and thats because the command doesnt seem to trigger it in beta but it might in full Windows 7 when it s released. truesimzy 03:15, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I'm using Windows 7 Enterprise and it happens to me. I went ahead and fixed it right now but I wanted to state that this is not just in Vista, this also happens in Windows 7.

Graphics/Sound Options
Should we include an explanation of these details, especially for those under the "Advanced" section in the Graphics tab? This might help those with slower systems run the game more optimally, and to clear up any confusion we may have about the definitions of these terms. --Dash 04:05, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

graphics card updating
Hey, i recently picked up a gateway GT5S22: http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/GatewayGT5622.htm

it kicks a large amount of butt considering the ~600 mb RAM i had on my old walmart box. However, the integrated intel 950 graphics card is absolute junk, and with all that ram i can barely sqeak out 9 fps in guild wars. i was wondering about buying a new, regular card. integrated cards are no fun and wont touch ES: oblivion, which I got for xmas.

Something is seriously wrong with your computer if you're only cranking out 9 FPS with those specs. My old MacBook (Core 2 Duo @ 2ghz, 1gb RAM, GMA950 like yours) ran GW at full speed.

ive taken some pc repair classes, but never dealt with this before. also, got 150-200 to spend on a new graphics card, any recommendations? I can go higher, not like i use my weekly 300 paycheck for anything, but even 250 scares me a bit. that seems to be a good benchmark from what ive seen, though.

many, many thanks go out to anyone who can offer help. --71.226.206.236 13:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)Asura Minalya


 * Please, in the future, do not use this talk page for this purpose. For a short answer; Guildwars is very CPU bound, trowing more gpu wont improve your framerate much. Doing less then 15 fps in large and detailed area is common. You can easly find video card that surpass the official guildwars requirment wich is "ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 Series video card, with 64 MB VRAM" for 150$, |look around for review site. --Bob 07:58, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

My apologies, I saw in a random clan FAQ to come here for help on the technical side of things. Lesson learned. My question can be deleted now, but I just want to say thanks again, bob :)

Should we
Place a helpful link (perhaps in the Notes section or Reference) about this website, System Requirements Lab? It's a handy tool for determining if various specs are compatible. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:People of Antioch (talk).
 * That service require to run ActiveX code, which is same as native code. This is a security threat as much as "opening" hot_chicks_lulz.jpg.exe. While the site you propose could be reputable and safe, the fact that it work only on IE win32 WITH ActiveX enabled reduce it usefulness to nearly zero. --Bob 00:52, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Whilst it is wise to be wary of unknown activex installation, SRL is a well-known and trusted site. Also, "Works with Internet Explorer, Firefox & Netscape browsers. You will need to give your permission to download a secure ActiveX/Java browser component. You can easily uninstall the ActiveX/Java browser component when the analysis is complete." So :p -- snog  rat [[Image:User Snograt signature.png]] 21:07, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows 7 7000/7100
This game works just fine on my Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit) Machine with the same hardware I used on XP:

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz, 8MB L2 Cache 4GB DDR2 RAM 667MHz 4 Hard Drives: 750GB SATA, 500GB SATA, 120GB IDE, 80GB IDE Liteon DVD-RW (Imgburn and CloneCD both work.) Geforce 8600 GTX 512MB RAM with the latest Forceware. Sound Blaster X-Fi Fata1ity (sound is excellent, but no new windows startup sounds yet!) Attansic Gigabit Ethernet NIC connected to Linksys Router/Firewall out to AT&T DSL Modem.

Sometimes I get distorted graphics if I play for too long, and when switching areas, I will always see my desktop flash a little. Other than that, there really aren't any issues... the game is 150% playable! It runs a lot faster than my XP hard drive, but maybe that's because of a clean install of the OS.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) with the same hardware I used with vista before, and guildwars used to work. It's not installing/running correctly for me and I can't see it, though I see the (small) process in the windows task manager. ETA it seems it doesn't think it can open the file. I'll try telling it to run as admin. ETA again, still not working. Did you have to run it in a compatibility mode? It'd be nice for this to work because I run a guild and have windows 7 until August or so. 68.162.213.80 18:29, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

huh. It's working. I told it to uninstall and it started installing for real. hopefully it will run fine. 68.162.213.80 18:39, 8 March 2009 (UTC) After like 2 hours it worked. Hope this info might be of some help to someone 68.162.213.80 22:37, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
 * lol flaunt your hardware more pls.we dont care about your 4 HD's -- adrin [[Image:User_adrin_ecto_sig.png]] 07:51, 5 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I run this game perfectly fine on the W7 RC x64 (7100). Been playing for a few months on it and works great, even faster than XP. ~Farlo Talk 05:06, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * 64 bit build 7100 – rare occassions of BSOD which I cannot nail down. Clean install with Windows Experience Index of 4.9. Happened about 4 times in the past 2 weeks. Will update with any more info as I find it. – josəph  18:35, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I undid your edit on the main page because there aren't enough people complaining of that, so it's not the GW client. I've been running W7 RC1 since it came out and GW with absolutely no problems. One suggestion if you're using a clean install would be check for dust and faulty hardware. You could have a big build-up of dust causing it to BSOD from overheating. Also, did you have this problem with othr installs of W7 or any other OS? ~Farlo Talk 18:51, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Brand new PC built myself. I regularly clean the interior of my PC's too, knowing the problems of dust, heat, etc. No problem of this kind on Linux (same PC) or Windows XP. (older PC) – josəph  23:05, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Not sure what to say. Is it only GW? Try some benchmarks, or other MMOs to see if they respond the same way. All I can think of is faulty hardware, in which case, should be under warranty :P  ~Farlo Talk 06:37, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * By now Nvidia/Intel/Ati have updated there drivers to add support for windows 7 (7600) so it should run without any errors. --Dominator Matrix  05:27, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Laptop Reqs?
Will a laptop with the following requirements work GW? Please bring the results to my talk --Lotus 02:02, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Prosseser: Intel Centrino Core 2 DUo Mobile, spead 2.0GHz
 * 4GB System memery
 * Graphics ATI mobility Radeon Hd 3650
 * Modem: 56GH with restrictions to to 53
 * Opperating System Windows VIsta Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
 * It exceeds the recommended system requirements by a wide margin, you should be fine. -- [[Image:User Gordon Ecker sig.png]] Gordon Ecker (talk) 05:45, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

scared to close GW >.>
I recently bought a new computer which uses Windows Vista. I successfully downloaded GW, but the .exe file doesnt seem to open GW itself (just shows a loading window and the options to uninstall, reinstall, and run GW from its current location, which doesnt work). I also can't enter a command line, which might just be one of vista's properties. halp ? D: 74.97.0.104 01:05, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm... I'd say try the Uninstall option, and also delete your Guild Wars folder from the Program Files and check the Programs and Features to uninstall it. If none of that works, send an email to Anet. ~Farlo Talk 06:39, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Recommended System Specification the Best?
I've been researching everywhere and I can not get a straight answer. I hope someone here can help. I want to upgrade my graphics cards to one that runs Guild Wars at its best, but without going overboard and wasting money on extra performance that will not be used. I want a graphics card that will run G.W. at all the highest settings efficiently. Does anyone know which graphics card I should get? Assuming I have the requirements to install it. Is the recommended graphics card in the Recommended System Specification the highest needed to run G.W.? ~KerosAohco~
 * Well, we'd have to know your other system specs. I can run at max graphics with 40+ fps with Pentium D 2.8ghz, 3GB RAM, and a Nvida 7900. Depending on you're specs and budget, and if you want to game well in other games, I'd suggest a Nvidia 9600 or higher, or an ATI 4750 or higher. One card that seems really good is the ATI 4850 or 4870. They are $100 and $150 USD respectively and get really good performance.  ~Farlo Talk 23:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, currently I'm running a Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz, 2 GB RAM, and a PCI Express ATI X1550 graphics card. It's kinda an old computer, but I've been taking care of it, so surprisingly it still runs like almost new. I have a "large" budget, but I don't want to buy a new PC yet. Guild Wars is the only graphic intensive game I play on my PC. I just wanted to buy a graphics card that will allow me to run G.W. on maxed out in-game settings. Like texture, shader, and all that. As I said, I don't want to go overkill and buy something that is more than I need to run Guild Wars.  ~KerosAohco~
 * GW is a 4 year old game which is really optimized. Even bad video cards can run it on max settings at a decent framerate. GW isn't too GPU intensive. Most integrated chips can even run it well. ~Shard  [[Image:User Shard Sig Icon.png]] 05:35, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * ATI 4670 is what I have. I like it for the price and fact that it uses very little power (it doesn't actually require a connection to the power supply, it just runs off the motherboard). About 130-100fps usually at 1152x864 with everything on max, though I usually get 40-60fps since I can't stand not having vertical sync on. Previously Unsigned 06:37, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Cool guys, thanks for the help. I got a somewhat good idea what I might need. I guess my last question is, is the recommended graphics card the best to run G.W.? ~KerosAohco~

Help: Windows 7 - Windows Position
Whenever I open gw it starts in full screen and I have to change it to windows mode EVERY time it doesn't save, does anyone know a fix?
 * http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Command_line#-windowed read the bit at the top and type -windowed. -- smøni  01:00, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Ah thanks just found that :P forgot about the commands lines

Computer Seizures
Is it only me or whenever I press Alt-Tab to change programs and then change back on Win7Ult the screen looks like it is having seizures. it flashes. I have to shut down my computer to get back playing my game. 98.251.61.216 17:21, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It's not only you. I'm not sure what's causing it though, most of the time it works fine but sometimes the game fails to alt-tab properly and starts flashing between the fullscreen GW and the desktop. Windows 7 here also. --Draikin 17:10, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've been having the same problem. Anyone found a solution for this yet? - Marisa 22:36, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I changed compatibility to Windows Vista 2, never had a problem. Windows 7 Ultimate. Lucian Shadowborn  [[Image:User_Lucian Shadowborn.jpg|19px]] 01:04, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Revised section and New Note
Greetings,

I've updated the Flash Drive section and added the networked drive section. By experience, I know that these methods work, and for networked installations, they also work well barring any heavy bandwidth activity while your machine and the remote source try to trade data back and forth just for the DAT file contents. 68.82.28.213 22:17, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Will there be a Mac Client?
So, it is now May of 2011 & it's looking like the launch will be coming fairly soon. Is there any more word on the possibility of a Mac client? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.243.20.147 (talk &bull; contribs) at  20:33, 3 May 2011  (UTC).