Playing Guild Wars 2 on Linux - Performance optimizations and more.

[Hell Nirvana.9045]

On 5/29/2022 at 8:17 AM, INSTALLGENTOO.2076 said:

hey could you explain this a little more? I want to get arcDPS working but i'm on DX11 and I'm not sure how to run winetricks against armoredvehicle's wine prefix. I tried running the arcdps setup script and it didn't work, i also tried copying both the dx9 and dx11 dll files to both the parent GW2 directory and the bin64 directory and still nothing

WINEPREFIX=/full/path/to/your/prefix winetricks -q d3dcompiler_47 is how I did it.

Your target path should be the one where folders dosdevices and c_drive reside.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Hell Nirvana.9045

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

On 3/30/2022 at 12:18 AM, Reactor.6975 said:

@ArmoredVehicle.2849, in order for Arcdps to work on dx11-beta, atm you need to add the usual d3dcompiler_47.dll to the prefix and set the priority to use it ("winetricks -q d3dcompiler_47"  will do it automatically).

Delta said it changed some things on initialization so the next step probably won't be needed, but if after that the game stopped showing the error MsgBox, and on the character selection screen it starts to render a black screen - you will need to add "dxgi.deferSurfaceCreation = True" (without quotes) to the "dxvk.conf" file and place it in the game root directory, or control its location using env var "DXVK_CONFIG_FILE". (The current dxvk.conf sample https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/blob/v1.10.1/dxvk.conf. Uncomment the required option and set the supported option value.)

 

Really really late reply.

 

Thanks for the heads-up with how to get arcdps working with DX11. In order to make it easier to install the mod I'll be releasing an updated package some time this weekend 🙂

 

-----------------------

Ok packages are now updated.  Changelog as per below:

 

3rd June 2022 Update - (Version 2.3.5)

Small maintenance update mainly to address ArcDPS compatibility and update to latest DXVK-Async release.

 

Changelog:

- Updated DXVK to 1.10.1-ASync

- Added ArcDPS support for DirectX 11

- Reworked the ArcDPS install/uninstall scripts. To update ArcDPS simply run the install script again (it will automatically remove the old ones).

 

 

I've tested it briefly and everything appears to be in working order 🙂

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by ArmoredVehicle.2849

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

hm arcdps d11 worked fine for me, after I installed d3dcompiler_47.dll. No dxvk.conf fiddling needed.

[INSTALLGENTOO.2076]

I'm having trouble still getting arcdps loaded, just switched to the latest armoredvehicle package and ran the arcdps install script but am not seeing any logs in GW2/addons/arcdps (the dir doesn't exist) which indicates the DLL isn't getting loaded. i ran the d3dcompiler_47 winetrick, validated that the native dll overrides were in place for d3d9 and d3d11, and tried copying the DLLs into a couple additional places, none of which worked. this is on fedora. anybody have any other ideas for what i should try next?

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

16 hours ago, INSTALLGENTOO.2076 said:

I'm having trouble still getting arcdps loaded, just switched to the latest armoredvehicle package and ran the arcdps install script but am not seeing any logs in GW2/addons/arcdps (the dir doesn't exist) which indicates the DLL isn't getting loaded. i ran the d3dcompiler_47 winetrick, validated that the native dll overrides were in place for d3d9 and d3d11, and tried copying the DLLs into a couple additional places, none of which worked. this is on fedora. anybody have any other ideas for what i should try next?

 

That's strange. I've re-tested both Nvidia and AMD/Intel packages. Arcdps worked out of the box.

 

Steps I took:

 

Unzip package

Ran setup.sh script (in terminal)

Ran game up to character select screen

Closed game

Ran Arcdps install script (in terminal)

Ran game

Game opened with Arcdps window.

 

With the way I've setup the package, you shouldn't need any other overrides.

[firewingz.1605]

So, lately I've had an idea to check out the performance on linux after the dx11 release, and I'm quite happy to say that my experience was far better than expected.

 

Technical Details

I have an AMD Ryzen 3600, and an NVIDIA RTX 2060. My windows' version Windows 10 21H2, and as for linux I use arch linux's latest release. I had my GW2 settings as follows:

Animation - High | Antialiasing - SMAA | Environment - High | LOD Distance - High | Reflections - None | Textures - High | Render Sampling - Native | Shadows - Low | Shaders - High | Postprocessing - None | Character Model Limit - Low | Character Model Quality - High 

 

The Windows Experience

• On average, performance was smooth:
  • 100-110 fps around idling
  • 60-70 in raid instances
  • 40-55 in WvW
  • 80+ / 35-45 (while events) in the open world

 

The Linux Setup

• I've chosen to use Lutris for GW2, the DXVK version without shader cache. The installation of Lutris is very simple, the thing you really have to look out for is to:
  • have the right dependencies for wine
  • have the right dependencies for your video card

Thankfully there are two great pages on lutris' github explaining these steps.

 

The Linux Experience

• The first time I launched the game, after loading amd moving around, fps drops started and went on for about 2 minutes. These drops will appear every time you start the game with DX11, but the 2 minutes is getting shortened every time you launch the game.
  • After the drops finally stopped, the game ran with about 20-30% more fps than it ran on windows.
  • In raid instances the gameplay was way smoother than on windows, my fps was permanently above 90, while on windows it moved around 70.
  • In WvW instead I got 60+ fps, it was amazing, really.
  • In open world events I got about the same performance, but in solo I got about a 30 fps increase.
  • Addons like arcdps and its substitutes worked well, you just have to place them in the game's install directory just like in Windows

 

 Should you try it?

• The reasons why you should:
  • It runs smoother than on windows
  • It's on linux, a safe system with a lot of open-source support and privacy
• Why you shouldn't:
  • Linux isn't comfortable in any way for you
  • Installation and extra tweaks could be a bit tricky if you don't have any experience

 

My last problem:

Why isn't there a comprehensive guide to installing the game on this platform? No wonders why people get confused if the first result to the google search is a 2018 video with a manual wine config. With enough feedback, I'll think about making one...

[Hotride.2187]

Anyone has experience with understanding crashes?

I've had a few crashes during dragonstorm, which I'm currently doing once a day (e.g. today I crashed twice, once at ryland once at braham). Would be nice if there is something to do about that. I play with proton via steam (experimental version). I have AMD cpu and gpu, on archlinux. I'm overall happy with how the game runs, but if I can do something to fix the crashes that would be great. Also where do I find the crash dumps? They don't seem to be in the folder I've installed GW2 in.

I've noticed arcdps has trouble showing the GW2 crash dialog (instead it shows an error dialog it couldn't show an error dialog), any way I can tell arcdps to not interfere?

I also have a consistent crash in the darkrime delves story instance, basically at the start. Goes away if I reduce texture quality to low (I had it at high at the time). Aaaand I've crashed like once at the octovine, near the octovine itself. I think the leyline anomaly event also crashed me once but I might be misremembering.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[INSTALLGENTOO.2076]

On 6/12/2022 at 6:57 PM, INSTALLGENTOO.2076 said:

I'm having trouble still getting arcdps loaded, just switched to the latest armoredvehicle package and ran the arcdps install script but am not seeing any logs in GW2/addons/arcdps (the dir doesn't exist) which indicates the DLL isn't getting loaded. i ran the d3dcompiler_47 winetrick, validated that the native dll overrides were in place for d3d9 and d3d11, and tried copying the DLLs into a couple additional places, none of which worked. this is on fedora. anybody have any other ideas for what i should try next?

 

On 6/13/2022 at 12:09 PM, ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:

 

That's strange. I've re-tested both Nvidia and AMD/Intel packages. Arcdps worked out of the box.

 

Steps I took:

 

Unzip package

Ran setup.sh script (in terminal)

Ran game up to character select screen

Closed game

Ran Arcdps install script (in terminal)

Ran game

Game opened with Arcdps window.

 

With the way I've setup the package, you shouldn't need any other overrides.

 

still trying to figure this one out as my initial setup steps were identical to yours, i did all the other stuff after it didn't work initially. I found this in the debug logs:

0264:err:winediag:wined3d_dll_init Setting multithreaded command stream to 0.

i believe the value is 0 if the DLL isn't loaded and 0x1 if it is; this might be controlled by a registry key, but i don't know which one. will report back with any additional findings

update: i enabled csmt via the registry and that changed the value of the aforementioned setting in the logs, but still nothing happening with arcDPS and no log file where the arc docs say it should show up which means the DLL still isn't getting loaded. idk what to do

Edited June 19, 2022 by INSTALLGENTOO.2076

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

20 hours ago, INSTALLGENTOO.2076 said:

 

 

still trying to figure this one out as my initial setup steps were identical to yours, i did all the other stuff after it didn't work initially. I found this in the debug logs:

0264:err:winediag:wined3d_dll_init Setting multithreaded command stream to 0.

i believe the value is 0 if the DLL isn't loaded and 0x1 if it is; this might be controlled by a registry key, but i don't know which one. will report back with any additional findings

update: i enabled csmt via the registry and that changed the value of the aforementioned setting in the logs, but still nothing happening with arcDPS and no log file where the arc docs say it should show up which means the DLL still isn't getting loaded. idk what to do

 

In order to better understand what's going on, could you please provide your system specs? (GPU, CPU, Driver. Distro....etc)

 

Also:

- Aside from GW2 do you play any other games on your PC?

- In your GW2 folder (Where the GW2.exe file is) - Do you have a file named "GW2.dxvk-cache"?

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by ArmoredVehicle.2849

[INSTALLGENTOO.2076]

i figured it out... was because i had both d3d9 and d3d11 in the same directory and that's not allowed

[jbxf.8532]

Thanks for this fantastic script. I used the Lutris installers previously (which worked fine up to June). After the Lutris versions broke, this script saved me. 🙂

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Does anyone have trouble with the game crashing after selecting a character with ArcDPS installed on DX11? I've been using it successfully for a long time, but after this update and patching ArcDPS, I can't enter the game without it crashing. Windows users say it doesn't crash but tanks their FPS to nothing, so it might be related.

 

My usual setup is Lutris w/ge-protonified-4.9-x86_64 (later versions have peformance regressions for me), the latest DXVK, running the game in DX11 mode (no crashes since half a year), and vkBasalt.

[nonalcoholic.2379]

On 6/29/2022 at 11:23 AM, Hannelore.8153 said:

Does anyone have trouble with the game crashing after selecting a character with ArcDPS installed on DX11? I've been using it successfully for a long time, but after this update and patching ArcDPS, I can't enter the game without it crashing. Windows users say it doesn't crash but tanks their FPS to nothing, so it might be related.

 

My usual setup is Lutris w/ge-protonified-4.9-x86_64 (later versions have peformance regressions for me), the latest DXVK, running the game in DX11 mode (no crashes since half a year), and vkBasalt.

Not on character selection, but I'm crashing immediately after using any mount skill. No exceptions, instant crash on any mount, also cuts my fps by ~20%. No issues after removing arcdps. Using wine-staging-6.17, dxvk-1.10.1-async, d3dcompiler_47 fix and dx11.

Interesting bit about performance regression, for me it's staging-6.17, anything newer sometimes tanks my fps to unplayable levels. I'll have to try proton-ge version you are using, maybe I'm missing out.

edit: New arcdps update (june.29), "fixed a possible crash" in changelog, all issues I had with previous versions (june.28 may.25) are gone.

Edited June 30, 2022 by teru.2946

[Hotride.2187]

8 hours ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

Does anyone have trouble with the game crashing after selecting a character with ArcDPS installed on DX11? I've been using it successfully for a long time, but after this update and patching ArcDPS, I can't enter the game without it crashing.

Yeah same. I crashed once on trying to enter with a character. I removed the dll after that since I assumed it will crash each time.

The arcdps log file doesn't say anything for the crash. Also no crash file that I find (checked the game directories and the proton drive_c documents directory of the game).

Using proton experimental, on archlinux and amd HW.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

21 hours ago, teru.2946 said:

Not on character selection, but I'm crashing immediately after using any mount skill. No exceptions, instant crash on any mount, also cuts my fps by ~20%. No issues after removing arcdps. Using wine-staging-6.17, dxvk-1.10.1-async, d3dcompiler_47 fix and dx11.

Interesting bit about performance regression, for me it's staging-6.17, anything newer sometimes tanks my fps to unplayable levels. I'll have to try proton-ge version you are using, maybe I'm missing out.

edit: New arcdps update (june.29), "fixed a possible crash" in changelog, all issues I had with previous versions (june.28 may.25) are gone.

 

I haven't tested 6.17 however with 6.19 I've encountered a huge performance drop in some games. One of them that comes to mind was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice where it was running at like half of the expected performance (45fps instead of 90-100 I was getting).

 

I'm currently running GW2 on Wine 7.6, haven't encountered any issues so maybe Proton-GE will perform well.

[Reactor.6975]

23 hours ago, teru.2946 said:

edit: New arcdps update (june.29), "fixed a possible crash" in changelog, all issues I had with previous versions (june.28 may.25) are gone.

y, it looks like just another a problem due updating the game client, which happened on Windows too ofc.

 

23 hours ago, teru.2946 said:

Interesting bit about performance regression, for me it's staging-6.17, anything newer sometimes tanks my fps to unplayable levels. I'll have to try proton-ge version you are using, maybe I'm missing out.

Some clarification:

The `ntdll-Heap_Improvements` patchset is required for GW2 (I haven't tested much, but possible only with versions of dxvk 1.9 and above), but it has been disabled (since it has long been known that this does some things incorrectly) since Wine-Staging-6.18 by https://github.com/wine-staging/wine-staging/commit/7ed2565d7eb4b9e948e37b4c52befc063840ae4c#diff-
b6d6fdf7ad8f2cefc3224f031f1c0640e9a821d77453fdca0ea53788dfc753e9R2

But fortunately there is LFH (Low Fragmentation Heap) patchset (Thanks Rémi) which helps with this problem in GW2 at least. It is initially in Proton and should be also in GE and Lutris builds.
(like here https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/wine-ge-custom/blob/bb96a8ff0d0f212a41325367ed4f499aeac1cc77/patches/proton/50-proton_LFH.patch
https://github.com/lutris/wine/blob/fdac9416350b60449acb9d3cc392eac79ecc97e9/dlls/ntdll/heap_lfh.c )
(There should be no problem with the LFH patch until at least wine-7.7. But after again there are "some" changes in Upstream Wine, and need to look again at how this may affect GW2.)

@ArmoredVehicle.2849do your builds contain LFH patch?
(if you want to update the base version of wine to 7.2 or 7.7 it will probably be easier to find a ready-made version here https://github.com/Frogging-Family/community-patches/commits/master/wine-tkg-git/0002-proton_LFH.mypatch )

@ArmoredVehicle.2849and also probably this patch may be of interest to you as optional: https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51683
This is "somehow fixed" (expected that may not work on some processors) on the arcdps side, but properly should be fixed on the wine side.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Reactor.6975

[nonalcoholic.2379]

5 hours ago, ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:

I'm currently running GW2 on Wine 7.6, haven't encountered any issues so maybe Proton-GE will perform well.

 

3 hours ago, Reactor.6975 said:

But fortunately there is LFH (Low Fragmentation Heap) patchset (Thanks Rémi) which helps with this problem in GW2 at least. It is initially in Proton and should be also in GE and Lutris builds.

 

Thank you very, very much, tried wine-ge-proton7-6 and performance gain is massive. Only had time to run around in LA/Mistlock Sanctuary/WvW a bit, but minimum fps went up by ~30-40, maximum by ~100. Will test with some laggy meta like AB tomorrow, would be incredible to no longer dip down to 40.

[garpu.6210]

Anyone having problems with WINE, GW2, and the new patch today? Crashes at initializing in the launcher.  (Latest dxvk, nvidia 515.57) Was fine yesterday, started patching, and crashing today.

ETA: works with Proton. (Non-experimental.) Not sure I'm going to get a chance to build a new version of WINE today, to see if it's the version I was using. (7.3, Alien Bob's package.)

Edited July 19, 2022 by garpu.6210

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

14 minutes ago, garpu.6210 said:

Anyone having problems with WINE, GW2, and the new patch today? Crashes at initializing in the launcher.  (Latest dxvk, nvidia 515.57) Was fine yesterday, started patching, and crashing today.

 

Was fine as early as 5 hours ago.  Trying to figure out what's going on.

 

[garpu.6210]

3 minutes ago, ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:

 

Was fine as early as 5 hours ago.  Trying to figure out what's going on.

 

So not just my old version? Proton is fine.  Go figure.  (I'm using WINE 7.3, and I think Proton is based on that version, as well?)

I wondered if it's this, but I was able to log in and play yesterday: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/issues/2729

Edited July 19, 2022 by garpu.6210
added dxvk issue

[Killerassel.2197]

I get a crash, too. The game downloaded the update, but the new launcher version doesn't properly start up.

 

Quote

*--> Crash <--*
Assertion: Coherent GPU process crashed
File: D:\Perforce\Live\NAEU\v2\Code\Arena\Engine\ArenaWeb\CoherentUi\AwCohContext.cpp(375)
App: Gw2-64.exe
Pid: 43
BaseAddr: 0000000140000000
ProgramId: 101
Build: 131720
When: 2022-07-19T16:39:13Z 2022-07-19T18:39:13+02:00
Uptime:   0 days  0:00:02
Flags: 0

 

I start GW2 via Lutris; with DXVK. I'm using an AMD card with the open source drivers, so it's not an nvidia problem.

[tomma.9610]

Same problem.

Tried with wine staging 6.17 and 7.12

Multiple lines of warns and errors

Spoiler

err:   D3D11DXGIResource::GetSharedHandle: Stub
warn:  D3D11Texture2D::QueryInterface: Unknown interface query
warn:  f8fb5c27-c6b3-4f75-a4c8-439af2ef564c
warn:  D3D11Texture2D::QueryInterface: Unknown interface query
warn:  f8fb5c27-c6b3-4f75-a4c8-439af2ef564c
 

 

[framed.3081]

I have the same issue.  I was playing fine when the patch dropped.  The update applied normally, but I was unable to start the game after that, getting the "Coherent GPU process" message instead.  I tried running through Lutris, and also by running directly against my native wine version, both failed the same way and both had been working up until the patch. 

[Nymthalas.4019]

If you enable the logs for the game you will see a vulkan error, im reinstalling and trying if it doesnt work ill look more into the vulkan error, because i tried the dx11 force argument, but not sure if it was working (my error made dx9 fail so i want to try dx11)

 

Ok, even install fails with the same error.

err:   Failed to create shared resource: VK_KHR_EXTERNAL_MEMORY_WIN32 not supported
warn:  D3D9: Failed to write shared resource info for a texture

Edited July 19, 2022 by Nymthalas.4019
Update

[Spirit PL.3458]

 I changed dxvk from 1.10.1 to 1.10.2 and it fixed the issue.