GuildWars on Linux - now it's possible, with high FPS

Guild Wars on Linux, high-FPS setup guide
Now anyone can reach high FPS in GW, while using Linux/Wine. The whole guide talks about Ubuntu linux, but it works on other distributions too.

Accessories:
- Linux (You can download it, or you can order a FREE CD of Ubuntu)
- Of course GuildWars
- Wine (detailed later)

Getting&Configuring Wine
Download Wine (1.1.1 or higher), Direct link to 1.1.1, for ubuntu, i386 version
You'll need a clear Wine installation, no native DLLs, no DirectX, nothing! Don't install any system files on it!!
Run winecfg to get Wine working. Things you need to set (they are on different tabs, search for them)
- Windows version: Win98 (this will mostly work on EVERY application, not just GW)
- On Graphics page, check the first 3 checkboxes.
- On Sounds page, check the ALSA driver if it exists. if not, keep the default.

Installing GW
Navigate to your DVD drive, open Setup.exe (if the File Association window pops up, select custom command, and type wine
Proceed as you were on Windows.

Running GW with high permormance
Download the launcher
Open the file in a text editor and edit the username according to your Linux installation. (for me, the username is: mate, so the path is /home/USERNAME/.wine... etc)
If it isn't the path for your Wine or GW installation, correct it. (Like on non-Ubuntu linux, or if you installed GW elsewhere)
Make it runnable by right clicking>Properties>Rights and check the only checkbox on the page.
Run the file, and when asked, click Run In Terminal. An empty terminal window opens, but don't close it, cause it kills the game.
Open GW setup window (F11), proceed to Graphics tab and set Shadows and reflections to OFF. Not Low, but OFF! That's important.
Here you go, high FPS under linux.

The proof:

thats a great development good work i dont use linux. But Linux users can be happy with this.

I wouldn't say 40 fps is high though, but I get the feeling it's better than what people used to get?

the human eye sees 10+ FPS as motion picture, so the 40+ fps is acceptable for me - on linux. compare this to the previous 7-15 fps record. i think i made a great achievement, if i can admit myself

DirectX?
I didn't know it was possible to run DirectX on Linux, but i'm a Linux newbie so y'know.
Could you tell me how you get DirectX9 on Linux please?

It's usually over 25fps (reason why TVvs work at 24-30fps), and sometimes over 100fps:
http://amo.net/NT/02-21-01FPS.html

Oh and GG btw, getting higher FPS on linux is always good (rather than buying bigger HW).
You can't run native DX on Linux.

Sound really neat. I'm happy for all the Gw Linux user out there. All 7 of them.

Ow, c'mon. Lighten up, Guv. It's Friday.

Okay, so it possible to Emulate or something or-other DX?

Rawr! Penguins ftw~

Only if I had a secondary drive available for another OS... n.n

I don't think so, and it's not necessary. I said "no DX" because some (newer) Linux users tend to install DX from a game disc. It seems to install correctly, but replaces Wine's DLL with natives which Wine can't handle so much.

Dual-booting? That's not so convenient. Imagine that each time you want to play windows games, you have to restart your PC. Native Linux&Wine FTW

Come on now, get serious. You're going to tell me that simply restarting your PC (to boot into Windows) is more troublesome than cludging together some oddball mess to get GW (or any "windows" games) to run half-assly?
But, as they say, "it's not how well the dog dances, but that he dances at all!"

P.S. I'm not "anti-Linux" or "pro-Windows" - I simply don't see the real point in trying to get GW to run in Linux (or OSX, or whatever). It's not a question of which OS is better or worse - once you're in GW, the underlying OS makes no difference, it's gonna be the same game (except that it may run slow, without a lot of graphic goodies.)

I always want to be able to fall back on a Windows OS incase Linux can't do something I want it to do.

And I can't decide which Linux to get!
Debian (for very advanced users I believe)
Knoppix (wannabe Debian)
Ubuntu (I always confuse this one with Debian)
Fedora/Redhat (Windows XP with a Penguin flavor)

A) U might have a point... but that way I shall simply kill&forget linux, just boot directly into windows. cause who the hell will swap OS 25 times a day? it simply tooks too much time. this is for those who want to play on linux...

I do not play GW on linux. rarely i do. and i still consider windowses weak, but i dont have a choice

B) Choose Ubuntu.
Debian is far too complicated
Knoppix is far too useless (live distro? meh)
Ubuntu is okay, currently it's the mostly used
Fedora isn't a WInXP with Penguin flavor but ahuge fail (imho)
Redhat isn't free

Just a thought on that, if you had a partitioned drive or two drives, xp or vista on one and linux on the other, would you be able to run two copies of GW at the same time, or would it close the first copy opened?

i doubt you can run two OS's at the same time, so that's not a issue.

It's actually possible, with the right apps, to run two copies of GW under windows at the same time, so I'd think, yes, you could do it. But you can't have both copies logged into the same account at the same time anyway.

Guys, stop the discussion on dual-booting, in just a few years it'll be complete history due to general hardware support for virtualisation. You can already as of today run both Linux and Windows at the same time using Xen. Let's call an end to this counter-productive discussion, it's not Linux vs. Windows, it's more about giving people the choice.

EDIT:

Well, yes you can, it's called virtualisation (or Virtual Machine Management). The hosted virtualisation is well-known from VMware, next-gen virtualisation is Linux-module KVM or native Xen (also very neat academic L4). And it'll allow you to do this (the 3D feature is Beryl, not native in Xen):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY8wOji7hIo

You can have xp running at the same time as vista, but I don't know if you can have windows and linux running at the same time.

I know about the GWx2 programme, which is probably what you're referring to. I was just wondering if you could have a drive/partition running windows with GW on it at the same time as a drive/partition running linux with GW.

I don't use linux, hence my enquiry...

thanks for the tutorial but its not exactly anyone.
If you have an ATI card, forget about playing games in linux. Other than the amazing gnome mahjong.

Just out of curiosity (for the op) what hardware is this running on. I mean if that is running on a laptop X1400 at mostly max settings... thats downright awesome. Conversely if that is on a Nvidia 9800 X2 quad core and 8 gigs of ram... well a little less impressive

As for linux, Ubuntu is the most newb friendly and seems to have the broadest hardware support. For stability Redhat wins hands down. Its what we use at nasa, well that and Solaris which is technically not a linux. Ubuntu was my first linux and it supported all of my hardware out of the box, so yea hehe cant beat that (windows cant)