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

[GoingMenthol.7281]

On 12/29/2021 at 10:13 PM, Barabeam.4638 said:

I don't use reshade on linux, but I do use an alternative called vkBasalt >> https://github.com/DadSchoorse/vkBasalt

I recall someone posted a very nice configuration file for gw2 somewhere in this post. 

 

If you prefer dealing with GUI, https://github.com/benjamimgois/goverlay

GOverlay is an application that helps in configuring vkBasalt as well as some other gaming related tools on linux. 

 

By any chance you know how to configure the effects on vkBasalt through GOverlay? Or where the config files are saved to? I've just about got it working (I didn't realise ArmoredVehicle's package had vkbasalt settings in user_run) but I can't change any settings

[Samurro.1463]

On 2/25/2022 at 2:36 PM, Samurro.1463 said:

Hey there havent played for a while and I am curious how can I integrate latest performance improvements to my install? I am using Lutris package. Is there any clear cut way to make use of recent improvemnts?

 

Thanks in advance.

Can you please provide instructions how to update a version which was already installed through your method to the newest updates you did? Or is this not necessary??

[stanazol.8143]

On 2/20/2022 at 12:29 AM, ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:

Please Note: On Linux I could only get it to work while the game is in DX9 mode. So far I haven't managed to make it work while the game is running in DX11 mode.

 

arcdps works with steam proton 7 and -dx11 flag

[Barabeam.4638]

On 2/27/2022 at 4:02 PM, GoingMenthol.7281 said:

 

By any chance you know how to configure the effects on vkBasalt through GOverlay? Or where the config files are saved to? I've just about got it working (I didn't realise ArmoredVehicle's package had vkbasalt settings in user_run) but I can't change any settings

 

Hi! Sorry, I was out of country without my gaming PC obviously xD, so I didn't have a convenient way to look things up. To be honest, I currently use vkBasalt directly through the config file. I haven't tried GOverly just yet. 

Umm, there is a global vkBasalt configuration file, and you can also have a copy of it in any directory you want, and then in the user_run file, you can simply add the line:

export VKBASALT_CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/the/config/file/vkBasalt.conf

for me, it looks like this.
export VKBASALT_CONFIG_FILE=/home/enigmoon/Games/GW2/data/drive_c/GW2/vkBasalt.conf
 

The configuration I am currently using was posted by @Nevin Kiludan.2639 in this thread. This is the link to his post.

 

If you need any more help in this I will be happy to assist. 

 

CC: @Nevin Kiludan.2639: I was wondering, did you update/adjust your vkBasalt configurations? If so I would be interested to try them XD, thanks!

[Neuropain.6742]

Sorry if this has been answered but I couldn't find it through searching the thread.

 

The new versions of the Radial mod is dx11 only and that's the only version that will be developed, I can't figure out how to get it working though, is there a proper way to do that? I only care about this mod, no Arc dps or anything else.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mirotvorac.9640]

I play Guild Wars 2 on Linux before 5-6 years but FPS on same PC drop 50%~60% , today when game support dx11+vulkan maybe work better any player test perfomance under Linux?

[Barabeam.4638]

10 hours ago, WARHEAD.1932 said:

I play Guild Wars 2 on Linux before 5-6 years but FPS on same PC drop 50%~60% , today when game support dx11+vulkan maybe work better any player test perfomance under Linux?

Most of us here in this thread play gw2 on linux, the portable package prepared by Armored Vehicle is very good, I used it for a few years. >> can be downloaded in the first post, choose the package suitable for your hardware whether nvidia or AMD. 

 

I think it goes like this, if your GPU supports vulkan, then go with the regular portable package for your brand (nvidia or AMD), if your GPU does not support vulkan, go for the "Legacy" package for your brand. I hope that helps. 

[Nicodemus.1486]

hey all!

 

it's been a bit since i've played, and i'm back for the new expansion.

 

i used to use GW2 Radial, but it doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. something probably changed while i was away.

 

anyone know how to get it running again? thanks!

[ManiacMika.9851]

• Added a clearer log message in the addon loader log file if running the addon while the game is in D3D9 mode, prompting the user to switch to D3D11.

I see this on the Github release link which probably means it's not compatible with D3D9 anymore.
I see most recent post in this topic saying that they are not able to use ArcDps with D3D11. Exception below:

On 3/7/2022 at 8:15 AM, stanazol.8143 said:

arcdps works with steam proton 7 and -dx11 flag

I didn't try that yet, but if arcdps works in dx11 with proton, then maybe gw2radial does too.

Also, Blish HUD now has a radial mount addon for DX11 so you can also try that one.

[Neuropain.6742]

2 hours ago, ManiacMika.9851 said:

• Also, Blish HUD now has a radial mount addon for DX11 so you can also try that one.

According to the developer Blish HUD does not work on Linux, it's something they plan on working on in the future but for now we're out of luck.

[GoingMenthol.7281]

On 3/7/2022 at 2:27 PM, Barabeam.4638 said:

export VKBASALT_CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/the/config/file/vkBasalt.conf

for me, it looks like this.
export VKBASALT_CONFIG_FILE=/home/enigmoon/Games/GW2/data/drive_c/GW2/vkBasalt.conf
 

The configuration I am currently using was posted by @Nevin Kiludan.2639 in this thread. This is the link to his post.

 

I think GOverlay causes issues when adding config files directly into the GW2 folder even when GOverlay was disabled, my desktop was crashing and had to restart multiple times to work again. this is the vkbasalt.conf i had:

 

Spoiler

# zzz
# Nevin Kiludan.2639 settings
# zzz

effects = cas:tone:vibreshade
TexturePath = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Textures"
reshadeIncludePath = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders"
depthCapture = off

# toggleKey toggles the effects on/off
toggleKey = Home

# Vibrance
vibVibrance = 0.100000
vibVibranceRGBBalance = 1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

# Tonemap
toneDefog = 0.100000
toneBleach = 0.000000
toneGamma = 1.000000
toneExposure = 0.000000
toneSaturation = -0.150000
toneFogColor = 1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

casSharpnesscasSharpness = 0.40

# Reshade
FXcolorful = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Colourfulness.fx"
denoise = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Denoise.fx"
asharp = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/AdaptiveSharpening.fx"
lsharp = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/LumaSharpen.fx"
vib = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Vibrance.fx"
curv = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Curves.fx"
lev = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Levels.fx"
tone = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Tonemap.fx"

 

maybe i entered something wrong? i changed the file and folder locations to where i found the reshade folder (/.local/share/ instead of /.local/)

[Barabeam.4638]

On 3/15/2022 at 10:27 PM, GoingMenthol.7281 said:

 

I think GOverlay causes issues when adding config files directly into the GW2 folder even when GOverlay was disabled, my desktop was crashing and had to restart multiple times to work again. this is the vkbasalt.conf i had:

 

  Hide contents

# zzz
# Nevin Kiludan.2639 settings
# zzz

effects = cas:tone:vibreshade
TexturePath = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Textures"
reshadeIncludePath = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders"
depthCapture = off

# toggleKey toggles the effects on/off
toggleKey = Home

# Vibrance
vibVibrance = 0.100000
vibVibranceRGBBalance = 1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

# Tonemap
toneDefog = 0.100000
toneBleach = 0.000000
toneGamma = 1.000000
toneExposure = 0.000000
toneSaturation = -0.150000
toneFogColor = 1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

casSharpnesscasSharpness = 0.40

# Reshade
FXcolorful = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Colourfulness.fx"
denoise = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Denoise.fx"
asharp = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/AdaptiveSharpening.fx"
lsharp = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/LumaSharpen.fx"
vib = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Vibrance.fx"
curv = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Curves.fx"
lev = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Levels.fx"
tone = "/home/menthol/.local/share/reshade/Shaders/Tonemap.fx"

 

maybe i entered something wrong? i changed the file and folder locations to where i found the reshade folder (/.local/share/ instead of /.local/)

Yep, 

I already see one mistake, which is in this line > effects = cas:tone:vibreshade

There is no effect that is called vibreshade, you do have vib though. so it should be cas:tone:vib instead of what you currently have.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Barabeam.4638
Removed some unnecessary information

[xyfire.9307]

Latest update appears to have broken the launcher on PopOS. The last time I played was maybe 5 days ago. When I launch with ./play the launcher appears, the update downloads and installs, but then locks up my desktop. I have to jump into TTY and kill GW processes for gnome to free up. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue?

[garpu.6210]

I'm using wine-staging (7.3) and the GW2 windows launcher.  No problems on my end. Last update to what?  GW2, your OS, or?

[xyfire.9307]

3 minutes ago, garpu.6210 said:

I'm using wine-staging (7.3) and the GW2 windows launcher.  No problems on my end. Last update to what?  GW2, your OS, or?

Well I thought it was related to the latest update to GW2 but I will have to review what packages have been upgraded in the last week. Running PopOS 21.10. The first time I launched the game today, the launcher appeared, downloaded the latest update, and then froze. Killed the processes and tried again. Now GW2 launcher only partially displays and GNOME locks up. Have to jump into TTY to kill processes. I did recently upgrade my graphics card from an R9 270 to an RX580 but I have played GW since then and didn't have to change any configurations.

 

Not really sure what to check, although I'm now wondering whether I installed the Legacy package because of the 270...

[Reactor.6975]

On 2/20/2022 at 1:29 AM, ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:

Please Note: On Linux I could only get it to work while the game is in DX9 mode. So far I haven't managed to make it work while the game is running in DX11 mode.

@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).

Spoiler

deltaconnected said he 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.)

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Reactor.6975
hide unnecessary

[xyfire.9307]

On 3/23/2022 at 12:22 PM, xyfire.9307 said:

Well I thought it was related to the latest update to GW2 but I will have to review what packages have been upgraded in the last week. Running PopOS 21.10. The first time I launched the game today, the launcher appeared, downloaded the latest update, and then froze. Killed the processes and tried again. Now GW2 launcher only partially displays and GNOME locks up. Have to jump into TTY to kill processes. I did recently upgrade my graphics card from an R9 270 to an RX580 but I have played GW since then and didn't have to change any configurations.

 

Not really sure what to check, although I'm now wondering whether I installed the Legacy package because of the 270...

 

Just a quick update... The launcher display is frozen but (I only see "initializing") but if I click where "log in" should be and then click  "play", the game launches. Annoying.

[JaneCV.9267]

I haven't played in a couple of weeks but now all of a sudden I can't get the launcher to launch anymore. I downloaded the latest version again and started over from scratch but no dice. I get as far as the little launcher updater starting, downloading the launcher, and then it closes and that's it. I tried using the Lutris script to install GW2 and that one works okay but I prefer using this version. Any ideas? Here's my debug output:

 

esync: up and running.
002c:fixme:winediag:LdrInitializeThunk wine-staging 6.10 is a testing version containing experimental patches.
002c:fixme:winediag:LdrInitializeThunk Please mention your exact version when filing bug reports on winehq.org.
0034:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0034:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0064:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0064:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0070:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0070:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0098:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0098:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
002c:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
002c:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0024:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0024:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0110:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0110:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0118:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0118:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0118:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 0000000000120000 0 000000000011FD30 4 stub
0118:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 00000000013B0000 0 000000000011FD10 4 stub
0118:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 00000000013B0000 1 0000000000000000 0 stub
0118:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
0118:err:winediag:wined3d_dll_init Setting multithreaded command stream to 0.
0144:fixme:ver:GetCurrentPackageId (000000000331FE10 0000000000000000): stub
016c:fixme:msctf:ThreadMgr_ActivateEx Unimplemented flags 0x4
0180:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0180:fixme:font:get_name_record_codepage encoding 20 not handled, platform 1.
0180:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 0000000000120000 0 000000000011FD60 4 stub
0180:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 00000000013B0000 0 000000000011FD40 4 stub
0180:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation 00000000013B0000 1 0000000000000000 0 stub
0184:fixme:kernelbase:AppPolicyGetThreadInitializationType FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA, 00000000020AFE10
0188:fixme:kernelbase:AppPolicyGetThreadInitializationType FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA, 00000000021BFE10
0190:fixme:kernelbase:AppPolicyGetThreadInitializationType FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA, 00000000023DFE10
018c:fixme:kernelbase:AppPolicyGetThreadInitializationType FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA, 00000000022CFE10

[garpu.6210]

I'm not having any issues, but I'm using wine-staging 7.3, without lutris or any GW2 mods. Are you using any mods?

Edited April 21, 2022 by garpu.6210

[JaneCV.9267]

Nope, I just downloaded the package in the OP and ran setup without doing anything else.

Edit: Fixed it! Just copied the GW2-64.exe from my Lutris install over to ArmoredVehicle's setup and renamed it and now it works fine. Guess that exe file was just too old or something.

Edited April 21, 2022 by JaneCV.9267

[Mungrul.9358]

Is there any performance difference between the Lutris version and the one in this thread?
I moved across to Linux this weekend, and initially went with the version from this thread, but had problems with it; it would launch, but wouldn't get past a black screen (GW2 cursor was present). This was initially on Ubuntu 22.04 with all my disks set up as ZFS, probably not the best idea 😄

 

The Lutris version got further, and initially seemed to be running pretty smoothly, but when I tried switching to dx11, it froze up, and when I got it back, the FPS had tanked.

 

I started experiencing other odd behaviour on the Ubuntu build, so ended up canning it and installing Pop!_OS 22.04, all disks sensibly formatted, and installing the Lutris version of GW2 by default.

It's running pretty well, even on DX11, and the average framerate is high, but there's noticeable dips that seem to be related to texture and model caching.

Does the version in this thread have these kinds of fps dip when it's working, and is this just the price we pay for playing GW2 on Linux?

It's certainly very playable, and not a game-breaker, but it would be nice to eliminate.

[Hell Nirvana.9045]

It depend on the hardware you have.

Did you do the extra troubleshooting steps as well?

[Mungrul.9358]

Yup, but they did nada.

I've now even abandoned the Lutris version and have settled on running the game through Steam and Proton Experimental, which was very easy to set up and runs very, very well.

Obviously, I've only been playing GW2 on Linux for a few days now, so my opinion hasn't got the benefit of time behind it, but running the game through Steam is probably the easiest way to run it and gives great performance.

 

If you've already got GW2 downloaded, add the executable to Steam as a non-Steam game, right-click it in Steam and choose Properties, then Compatibility, then tick Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool, which should default to Proton Experimental.

And that's it, you're done.

[Tee.4610]

After a couple of years I went back to play GW2 just recently.
And I'm really glad to see so much love for linux support from the community. Last I checked it was in a very rough state but I somehow managed to install it. But now, especially thanks to @ArmoredVehicle.2849 install script, it was a blast installing and running GW2 (except the slooow download but I remember that always being the case on first install).

But anyways so much for the pleasantries now for my actual issue:
The perfomance of GW2 for me is reeaaally slow.
It IS playable and on character select, I'm getting about 140FPS but eg in The Grove, frames drop to around 40FPS max. This is on "Best appearance" menu-setting. When using "Best Performance" setting, I indeed get about 90-100 FPS but ... well, I want to have at least a bit of eye-candy.
Yes, I could play the game like that and I will since I enjoy it. But my hardware specs should be able to run the game MUCH faster.

Here's my specs:

CPU:
 Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-8700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
   L2: 1.5 MiB
 Speed (MHz): avg: 4814 min/max: 800/5000 cores: 1: 4800 2: 4788 3: 4801
   4: 4839 5: 4800 6: 4793 7: 4800 8: 4801 9: 4956 10: 4799 11: 4800 12: 4800
Memory:
 RAM: total: 31.28 GiB used: 7.44 GiB (23.8%)
 Report: arrays: 1 slots: 4 modules: 2 type: DDR4
Graphics:
 Device-1: AMD Navi 21 [Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 XT] driver: amdgpu
   v: kernel
 Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
   unloaded: modesetting,radeon gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 2560x1440
   2: 2560x1440
 OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (SIENNA_CICHLID DRM 3.44.0
   5.17.1-3-MANJARO LLVM 13.0.1)
   v: 4.6 Mesa 21.3.8

I set CPU-Governor to "performance" (0) since I experienced a lot of frame-drops when using default "balance-power" (8).
However, the FPS are still way below what I would have expected from this machine with current mesa drivers.

I also tried Lutris installation running with `lutris-GE-Proton7-11` but nope - same bad FPS.

Now, is this because of my old(er) CPU bottlenecking? When running the game it settles at around 30-40% usage on all cores. But I heard GW2 is pretty CPU heavy (I guess especially so in areas like The Grove).
Or did I miss something essential here?

I went back a few pages here but haven't found anything related to that on first glance ( going through 53 pages is not fun ). Did I overlook something and if so can someone point me to it?

I'm happy to provide any infos or logs if required - just tell me what to do (if it's not something unreasonable).

Cheers.

Edit: it looks like it's connected to shadow- and character model limit settings. After setting both to "Medium", performance went up from around 30-40FPS to 50-60FPS ... better but still not what I expected. Every other setting did not (or only very little) improve performance. So if anyone knows of some workaround/tweak, please let me know.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Tee.4610
pinpointing shadow- and character model limit settings

[INSTALLGENTOO.2076]

On 3/29/2022 at 3:18 PM, 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.)

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