Talk:Running the game

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Contents 1 This Page 2 Windows 2000 3 Mac Port 4 These system requirements... 5 Long time of the repairing files feature 6 Windows Vista 7 Mac OSX Support 8 windowing system exit button 9 Vista 10 Graphics/Sound Options 11 graphics card updating 12 Should we

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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) 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 07:24, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 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.

[edit] Mac OSX Support

→ moved from User talk:Gaile Gray

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 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.

—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 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?

1. 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.
2. 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! :)

—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 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). —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 - 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)

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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] Vista

→ moved from Running the game

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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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.

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$, 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 :)

[edit] 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).