Guildwars (gw.exe) Switches / Command line options

[EternalTempest]

Guild Wars Command Line Switches 2.1.6
July 25th, 2008

This is a community project pulling from various source's, especially guildwarsguru.

How to alter the shortcut

1)Right-click the Guild Wars icon.
2)Select 'Properties'.
3)Select the 'Shortcut' tab.
4)In the 'Target' field...

Example "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -switch1 -switch2 -switch3

Switches

-authsrv
Used to change where GW authenticates to / connect to server. Most likely uses by testers to hook to beta/development servers.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -authsrv xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx = the IP address (ex 127.0.0.1)

-bmp
Screen shots will be in the original bit map (higher quality / larger size) instead of jpeg.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -bmp

-diag
Run's anet Diagnostic Utility. It will create a log file (NetworkDiag.log) and save it in the same folder that the main GuildWars program is located. It runs network connection tests as well as detailed hardware/direct x information. If your working with anet support, this log file contains very valuable information and sending it would help them greatly.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -diag

-dsound (1st Appeared in April 5th Update)
Uses the older / replaced Microsoft direct sound audio engine.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -dsound

-dx8
Forces Direct X 8 graphic rendering. GuildWars graphic engine was updated and automatically runs Direct X 9 if your hardware supports it. Enabling this an older video or non-supported video cards may allow guildwars to run or run better.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -dx8

-email
Allows you to specify a specific e-mail address to use. Easily combined with the password switch. If you have two account, create two shortcuts, one for each account.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -email=xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
(xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx = e-mail address)

-fps
Frames Per Second Limit - Can limit or cap the max frames per second
Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -fps x

Where x = the max frames per second. If you say -fps 10 GW will not render more then 10 frames per second.
Used to slow down guildwars on the high end test computer anet used to replicate "normal" fps / speed, could be useful if computer hardware starts jumps too far ahead and gw (chat, etc) is running too fast.

-image
Downloads all files and Decompresses any compressed files in the gw.dat file. This will improve load time in new area's and get you up to date. ** During this process it may max out your computer (high cpu and memory usage) aka don't multi-tasks during this process **

The game will EXIT as soon as it's done checking. Remove switch to make GW playable again.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe” -image

-map
Unknown Switch

-mce
Unknown Switch
If your running Windows Media Center Editon, with this switch, Media Center (program) launches after guildwars exits

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -mce

-password
Automatically fills in the password

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password=*****
Where ***** = your current password

-perf
Displays the performance statics - Tri, FPS, and Bytes/Sec
(Tri = Triangles, FPS = Frames per second, Bytes/Sec = Transfer Rate)

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -perf

This is independent (show's up in upper right corner of the screen) of the added network connection / frames per second status dot in the lower right hand corner that was added to guildwars.

-port
Unknown Switch

-repair
Attempts to run a "repair" GuildWars install files. Suspect this only works if you installed from a CD/DVD, not the download client

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -repair

-noshaders
Disables Pixel and/or Vertex? Shader's (part of Direct X). Using this with the dx8 switch may help you get GW to run better (less taxing on the card) for low end cards / not quite supported (on board intel for example).

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -noshaders

-nosound
No Audio. Same effect as -mute switch. *Suspect* one mutes the volume, where the other disables the sound engine.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -nosound

-mute
No Audio. Same effect as -mute switch. *Suspect* one mutes the volume, where the other disables the sound engine.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -mute

-noui
No user interface at all. Disable the user interface.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -noui

-sndasio
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine, with ASIO output

-sndfastbuf
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine, with ? option

-sndmultispk
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine, with ? multi-speaker output ? option

-sndwinmm
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine


-uninstall
This will uninstall guildwars.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -uninstall

-windowed
Start GuildWars in a window mode vs Full screen on start up. You can then make it full screen as normal (or latter go back to windowed as normal)

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -windowed

-exit
Game doesn't launch... suspect it invokes.. exit?

Removed Switches

-heapsize
Allows you to specify / limit memory that guildwars uses. This trick could make the game run better or worse depending on how it was set correct/incorrect. I suspect due to the complex nature of this switch, it was removed.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe” -heapsize xxxxxx

-newsound
Unknown Switch
(Suspect it enabled the FMOD sound engine for testing before it went live in the game)

If you find more, figure out how to use above, find error's, please post

Sources:
The responses to this thread
The response from the old thread
Guru Community (other threads, especially tech)
And links to other sites listed in this thread

[Bgnome]

"- perf" is enough to show fps

[FrogDevourer]

Excerpt from SoF forum:
http://forum.sof-guild.com/index.php?showtopic=841

Additional switches available for the GW.exe command :
-update
-uninstall
-noui
-nosound
-noshaders
-repair
-port
-perf
-password
-map
-fps
-email

[D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E]

huh for some reason I cant get the -email to work
the -password works and auto logs in IF it had the address rembered in there; I want to setup 2 shortcuts but

this is how I got it...
"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -email=****@***.com -password=*** -heapsize 128000 -nosound -perf

It will tell me "" is not a vailed email address...
so far I'v tried
-email=***
-emal ***
-emal:***
-email***

I think my firewall is stoping code injections when I run the shortcut...

nope.

[Numa Pompilius]

I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but... it looks like the graphics got 'clearer' after increasing heapsize?
It's like the contrast increased or the LOD bias was changed or something. Can't put my finger on it, but the graphics just look... crisper.

Anyone else notice anything?

[D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E]

hmmm I found this forum when i googled "guild was auto login"
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=378602

seems that -email was disabled...

dangit :(

I tired other various searches..
Guild Wars Command Line
Gw.exe -perf
Gw.exe -email
Gw.exe -password

but most of them said what you did; in french and spanish also...

[wolver1ne]

What's that map switch?

Heapsize doesn't do much for me with 1.5GB of RAM>

[lawman]

for some reason i can only get the first switch to work. When i try to put more than one the following ones dont work.

[Loviatar]

hmmm I found this forum when i googled "guild was auto login"
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=378602

seems that -email was disabled...

dangit :(

I tired other various searches..
Guild Wars Command Line
Gw.exe -perf
Gw.exe -email
Gw.exe -password

but most of them said what you did; in french and spanish also...

:) try doing the same things for setting up 2 accounts to run at the same time and have a shortcut for each and run them one at a time using the shortcut for auto log in for the one you want

[Sol_Vie]

I tried the FPS and Speedier map loading... the map loading seemed to work, though minimally. The FPS still won't show though.

[lawman]

I tried the FPS and Speedier map loading... the map loading seemed to work, though minimally. The FPS still won't show though.

for me they seem to work if you only put one on. But if you use more than one, it only uses the first one.

[EternalTempest]

Been testing some of the options

-nosound = No Sound

-noui = No user interface (I think this invokes the same effect when you do screenshot without gui but it's on all the time) note you can not select character :) with this switch let alone log in.

-noshaders = Tried this and things (graphics) looked diffrent.. but can't place it. I *think* it disable GW pixel/vetrix shader support. If this is true, may be a nice mod for lower end cards that can almost play gw like intel.

I almost want to think there has to be a switch in reguards to DirectSound.
-nodirectsound or -nods did NOT work on disabling direct sound.

Also, it appears that -heapsize has to be at the end, be the last switch

Also found this threed
http://www.gwrage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=653
-fps x = Where x is a numerical value, you limit the game to that many FPS

(I did try this, set it to 10 fps, and was very jerky - wonder if setting this higher then 60 will give you faster refresh rate?)

[Sol_Vie]

I fixed it... accidentaly had the original target in there twice.

[Juhanah]

Is there one to open two clients on the same computer without changing user in Windows?

It would help to transfer stuff from 2 different accounts.

[agent of ascalon]

i thouhgt the title said emote line up, but im confused :(

[Evan The Cursed]

Do they all have to have equal signs?

like -password=******** and -heapsize=******?

[Wrath Of Dragons]

say i have 512 ram(its a laptop...gimme a break)....when you do the heapsiz thingy, and i set it to 128000(256ram) will that make things better, or is my laptop probably be using more then 256 already?

[Wrath Of Dragons]

anyone?

[D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E]

its to allocate memory on demand (always); typing in -heapsize 128000 would allocate 128mb of ram to process (gw.exe) typing in heapsize -256000 would be 256mb of ram; the guy above recommends allocating half your ram to it; so 256000 would be your number.

its good for comps with low ram.

[sno]

(I did try this, set it to 10 fps, and was very jerky - wonder if setting this higher then 60 will give you faster refresh rate?)

Why would you want to do this, if your screen refreshe s at 60fps. It may refresh quicker, but you'll never notice because your monitor itself isn't refreshing any faster (unless your monitor doesn't refresh at 60fps, like most do.)

[aeroclown]

Why would you want to do this, if your screen refreshe s at 60fps. It may refresh quicker, but you'll never notice because your monitor itself isn't refreshing any faster (unless your monitor doesn't refresh at 60fps, like most do.)

Um monitors refresh at a frequency not Frames Per Second, I.e. 60hz, 75hz 125hz. Fps is affected only by your systems ability to render frames. The slower the speed, the lower the Frames Per Second, adding the FPS switch forces your system to use a certain FPS, while this over rides the normal rates, it does not guarantee nor mean your system can and is producing that number of Frames Per Second. Monitor Refresh rates while syncable are very different.

[Wrath Of Dragons]

well according to his post, allocating 256 ram would mean typing 128000.
which doent make sence

[sno]

Um monitors refresh at a frequency not Frames Per Second, Ie 60hz, 75hz 125hz. Fps is affected only by your system ability to render frames. The slower hte speed, the lower the Frames Per Second, adding the FPS switch forces your system to use a certain FPS, while this over rides the normal rates, it does not garuntee nor mean your system can and is producing that numbe ofr Frams Per Second. Monitor Refresh rates while syncable are very different.

IC, thanks :D

Also... is there any way to show ping? like the fps display? fps is somewhat nice but i'd much rather have it show me the ping...

[calamitykell]

well according to his post, allocating 256 ram would mean typing 128000.
which doent make sence
No...

If you have 512 MB, you allocate half, thus -heapsize 256000

[Wrath Of Dragons]

ah. i c. ty

[SaucE]

Has anyone been able to get the -port switch to work? I am guessing you would use it so the GW connects on the port you specify instead of port 6112???

[Evan The Cursed]

Do they all have to have equal signs?

like -password=******** and -heapsize=******?

Well? Anybody?

Because I've set half my ram in heapsize and I don't notice any difference.

[EternalTempest]

Well? Anybody?

Because I've set half my ram in heapsize and I don't notice any difference.

They don't have "=" signs, here's my shortcut

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password blahblah -perf -heapsize 512000

Imporant, heapsize has to be last switch no matter what switches you use.

And I do notice a map loading is a bit better over all and no my password is not blahblah :)

Why would you want to do this, if your screen refreshe s at 60fps. It may refresh quicker, but you'll never notice because your monitor itself isn't refreshing any faster (unless your monitor doesn't refresh at 60fps, like most do.)

I did it as a test and it appears to be valid switch but other then what someone else mentioned about limiting it to your refresh rate, I don't see a need for this.

[Hockster]

If you want to limit the FPS of the game, set your video card properties to enable v-sync. That way the game frame rate will never exceed what the refresh rate of the monitor is. It's also a stupid thing to do, IMO.

[Kaguya]

Why would you want to do this, if your screen refreshe s at 60fps. It may refresh quicker, but you'll never notice because your monitor itself isn't refreshing any faster (unless your monitor doesn't refresh at 60fps, like most do.)
Um monitors refresh at a frequency not Frames Per Second, Ie 60hz, 75hz 125hz. Fps is affected only by your system ability to render frames.
You could say monitor refreshes at FPS, since it draws the screen x times per second.. But what I wanted to really say, is that if your monitor screen is refreshing at 60Hz, assuming it's a CRT-type and not LCD, you are having one major eye strain. Suppose that varies from person to person, but when working on a CRT, 85Hz is minimum for me, any lower and I'll be having a headache for rest of the day. 75Hz goes in small doses tho :D

[sno]

You could say monitor refreshes at FPS, since it draws the screen x times per second.. But what I wanted to really say, is that if your monitor screen is refreshing at 60Hz, assuming it's a CRT-type and not LCD, you are having one major eye strain. Suppose that varies from person to person, but when working on a CRT, 85Hz is minimum for me, any lower and I'll be having a headache for rest of the day. 75Hz goes in small doses tho :D

thanks, that's what I was trying to get at. :) I am using LCD though.

[Lambentviper]

Ok, well none of this is working for me.

I also cant find a "target" or "shortcut" tab/field anywhere in my GW.exe's properties.

once i click on properties, the tab options at the top of the window are:
General; Version; Compatibilty; Summary;

The only place i can think of putting the switches in are the "Comments" field under Summary.

But this doesnt work.... can any1 post some screenshots of where they put their switches at!!??

[Evan The Cursed]

They don't have "=" signs, here's my shortcut

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password blahblah -perf -heapsize 512000

Imporant, heapsize has to be last switch no matter what switches you use.

And I do notice a map loading is a bit better over all and no my password is not blahblah :)

That's really odd, because my password switch is working fine. iow I have -password=blahblah

and when i open the shortcut it auto-logs in.

So if password also works, does heapsize as well? I'll try it without the equals sign just in case.


ANd Lambent - You need to modify the shortcut path. If you don't already have a shortcut to Gw.exe, you'll need to make one. Right-click on Gw.exe and click "Create Shortcut". When the shortcut pops up in the folder, right click _that_ and modify its properties.

[Lambentviper]

ANd Lambent - You need to modify the shortcut path. If you don't already have a shortcut to Gw.exe, you'll need to make one. Right-click on Gw.exe and click "Create Shortcut". When the shortcut pops up in the folder, right click _that_ and modify its properties.


Ahh thanks. Now it works.

I thought i was using the shortcuts' properties but it was actually the main program, just saved to my desktop.

:)

[Adrenus]

nice cool things, tried most of tyhem out

thzx

[El_Inferno]

any solution that i can use more then one switch?
cause when i set -heapsize and after that -password, it does not autologin any more :(

[SaucE]

any solution that i can use more then one switch?
cause when i set -heapsize and after that -password, it does not autologin any more :(

If you readup, someone mentioned heapsize has to be at the end for other switches to work..

[rollntider]

Ok, well none of this is working for me.

I also cant find a "target" or "shortcut" tab/field anywhere in my GW.exe's properties.

once i click on properties, the tab options at the top of the window are:
General; Version; Compatibilty; Summary;

The only place i can think of putting the switches in are the "Comments" field under Summary.

But this doesnt work.... can any1 post some screenshots of where they put their switches at!!??

you got to check the properties of the shortcut, not the actual exe

[EternalTempest]

Here is a new one since the graphics update

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3007612

You can add the -dx8 flag to a guild wars shortcut to force that rendering.

It does seem to help some older cards, too.

This may work to allow Geforce 4 users to default back to DX8 to get AA back.

Note: I found heapsize has to be last. All are command lines for gw.exe but heapsize is a windows "trick".

[Ghozer]

if you dont use any switches... use -perf display fps

if you use other switches use -perf...

mine is... "E:\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password=***** -perf -heapsize 512000

that shows the FPS.... you MUST have -heapsize AFTER -perf if you wish to use heapsize...

[DDRroseDuelist]

wow i never knew about this!! this rocks!!! btw... i dunno if someone said thsi but you can also just set it to remember your email

[Nater]

I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but... it looks like the graphics got 'clearer' after increasing heapsize?
It's like the contrast increased or the LOD bias was changed or something. Can't put my finger on it, but the graphics just look... crisper.

Anyone else notice anything?

Yeah, it probably increased how far you can see, and how many of whatever it is. Be it rocks, grass, whatever.

I noticed something similar when I went from 512, 1GB, and to 1.5GB of ram. (was just fiddling with my PC) Anything over 1.5GB Guild Wars doesn't seem to use and you maxed your line of sight.

[EternalTempest]

From a PM :) Thank you koneko

Added two new switches
-windowed
-diag

Updated -repair

and correct -pref should of been -perf

[Ishmaeel]

-perf
Displays the performance statics - Tri, FPS, and Bytes/Sec
(Tri = ?, FPS = Frames per second, Bytes/Sec = Transfer Rate)
First, thank you for the continued efforts you put into this thread.

The "Tri" part in there refers to the number of triangles (polygons, as some people like to call 'em) that are being drawn on the screen at that moment. It's a stat about the current 3D scene.

You'll notice that the Tri count goes up if you are looking at detailed scenery and it drops down when there is not much going on on screen (as when looking down at the floor).

You'll also notice, if you have a crappy graphics card as I do, when the Tri goes up, FPS goes down. ;)

[koneko]

Found another one in addition to -diag and -windowed - thanks to EternalTempest for adding them and maintaining the list :)

"x:\path\to\guild_wars\gw.exe" -image
Forces full decompression of all remaining compressed data in Gw.dat - no more decompression when loading into an area for the first time.

Note: memory usage would spike from 150MB to 600MB during this long process and the entire system slowed to a crawl (CPU at 90-100%). I ended up having to shut off VMware :(

Also: results of GWdiag.txt (Gw.exe -diag) seem to be incomplete, logfile shows an error at the end (missing dxdiag info).

[Ermac]

My Processor demolished some time ago and ive waited a fairly long time for my new processor,mobo etc.
They arrived 2 weeks ago and when I finnished downloading everything I realized something was wrong with the game... the water had no reflections, it switched colors depending on where from you looked at it, Couldnt Turn anti-alias on and everything was really really laggy.

Now just a few minutes ago I found this thread by mistake..and.... I had missed the update about Dx 9. :O
Reverted it to dx 8, added -noshaders and -heapsize 256000...

Everything was back to normal !! The water was sweet, I could see the terrain further than before the processor melt down and Fps was way higger then I was used to !!
+ that turning off the shaders made the horns on my necro look more evil than before. xD
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/9752/gw0241ux.jpg


I love you guys so much right now. <3

edit: oh and all the colors are a lot more...colorful(lol?) now. ^^

edit2: more vibrant or something .:D

[tidu]

-perf
Displays the performance statics - Tri, FPS, and Bytes/Sec
(Tri = ?, FPS = Frames per second, Bytes/Sec = Transfer Rate)

Just wanted to clarify that Tri is the amount of triangles being rendered, same thing as polygons. Some game engines require models to only have polygons of 3 sides(triangles), which is why these are referred to as tri's instead of poly's :)

And thanks, this is good stuff.

[Mandy Memory]

Just wanted to clarify that Tri is the amount of triangles being rendered, same thing as polygons. Some game engines require models to only have polygons of 3 sides(triangles), which is why these are referred to as tri's instead of poly's :)

And thanks, this is good stuff. Actually this is standard because it keeps stuff from becoming nonplanar. (That leads to some interesting problems...triangles are good, and as far as I know, computers only deal in tris.)

[EternalTempest]

Thank you for the updates :), did a quick update on the 1st post but will be updating it more proper latter.

koneko = Anet tech support told me there was no "utility" to do this when I asked them :) great find.

[Omega X]

Found another one in addition to -diag and -windowed - thanks to EternalTempest for adding them and maintaining the list :)

"x:\path\to\guild_wars\gw.exe" -image
Forces full decompression of all remaining compressed data in Gw.dat - no more decompression when loading into an area for the first time.

Note: memory usage would spike from 150MB to 600MB during this long process and the entire system slowed to a crawl (CPU at 90-100%). I ended up having to shut off VMware :(



Yes, EternalTempest suggested that switch in another thread as a workaround for slow decompression in game.

Though I used it in the Run box instead of messing with my shortuct.

The Client goes through the ENTIER DAT file and checks to make sure that all of the files are there. It they weren't then they were downloaded. All files are then decompressed.

My memory usage went up about 300MBs But suprisingly it didn't saturate my CPU like it does in game. I was able to do something else while waiting for things to download.

The final file size ended up being 3.59 GBs with everything downloaded and decompressed.

[EternalTempest]

Yes, EternalTempest suggested that switch in another thread as a workaround for slow decompression in game.

Though I used it in the Run box instead of messing with my shortuct.

The Client goes through the ENTIER DAT file and checks to make sure that all of the files are there. It they weren't then they were downloaded. All files are then decompressed.

My memory usage went up about 300MBs But suprisingly it didn't saturate my CPU like it does in game. I was able to do something else while waiting for things to download.

The final file size ended up being 3.59 GBs with everything downloaded and decompressed.

Strange, mine is currently 1.9 GB and it didn't download any other data. Do you have the factions retail key on your account? Have you had to reinstall the game at all? It did decompress 22,000 files for me.

[Omega X]

Strange, mine is currently 1.9 GB and it didn't download any other data. Do you have the factions retail key on your account? Have you had to reinstall the game at all? It did decompress 22,000 files for me.

NO I don't have the Factions retail key but I think that the FPE stuff was still being pushed at the time. I did reinstall a while before the -image switch, the file was 1.2GBs. It went through about 28,000 files, and since all areas weren't downloaded, the client downloaded them and then decompressed them.

1.9GB sounds like what it was if it wasn't all decompressed. My previous install with FPE stuff with some of it undecompressed was about 1.7GBs.

It won't be pretty but I can do a reinstall and let the client download everything completely and let it all decompress again just to make sure.

Edit 1: with -image starting a complete reinstall will download 52,500+ compressed files from ANET. It might be night time before I can confirm the file size(on a 256kbps connection). So I am not going to go through with it today. Maybe I'll find a friend and hijack his Cable connection to see if the filesize is accurate.

[Tarun]

It's roughly 1.88 GB (So about 2GB really, or 2,022,416,384 bytes) after it's fully decompressed. The *.dat file holds your settings as well.

[anow]

Hey, When I added these onto my guildwars Shortcut, it downloaded the new files, then decompressed, this took around 30 mins. when i came back the game would not start, the splash came up saying "Connecting To Anet" then it just crashed to my desktop... this is what i am right now "D:\program files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password=***** -noshaders -image -nosound -perf -heapsize 256000

[Ishmaeel]

Hey, When I added these onto my guildwars Shortcut, it downloaded the new files, then decompressed, this took around 30 mins. when i came back the game would not start, the splash came up saying "Connecting To Anet" then it just crashed to my desktop... this is what i am right now "D:\program files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password=***** -noshaders -image -nosound -perf -heapsize 256000
It is not crashing to desktop. It is silently quitting after processing the updates. Remove the "-image" part from your shortcut.

Client's normal mode of operation with that switch is: "download all new files, decompress, quit". You should only use it to force the client for a full update, preferably from the command prompt. You can also make a new copy of the shortcut just with the "-image" switch and rename it "Update Guild Wars".

[Kaguya]

The *.dat file holds your settings as well.
Actually no, atleast not fully, I got same settings at work as I got at home, from clean install. GUI layout and inventory is kept on server for sure, not entirely sure about keybindings and such.

Graphics quality setting is kept clientside, probably on registery, or the .dat file. Betting on registry tho.

vv-- hokay, but still there's stuff serverside. Keybindings on server would be kinda nice, but guess it would be useful seldomly, and eats a lot more database.

[koneko]

Actually no, I got same settings at work as I got at home, from clean install. GUI layout and inventory is kept on server for sure, not entirely sure about keybindings and such.

Graphics quality setting is kept clientside, probably on registery, or the .dat file. Betting on registry tho.
Graphics quality: Client-side, .dat file (reinstalled, copied .dat file, GW started up in 1280x1024@60Hz, High Quality)
Account name: Client-side, .dat file (reinstalled, copied .dat file, account name value filled in)

Not very much being kept in the registry, really...

I can't seem to find any more fun-filled switches. The rest of the stuff that I dumped from gw.exe seem to just be gibberish (they don't work). Also, I just had to recreate my .dat file (corrupted) - uncompressed, it's sitting at 1.68GB (older .dat file uncompressed was larger - maybe because it only downloads latest files). Maybe Omega's had his file since the beginning (older updates + newer files overwriting older stuff, no cleanup) and that would explain the size? Who knows.

[EternalTempest]

Did Test on the lap top with -image.

Install client, get the exe and then when it tried to connect to download the gw.dat files, I blocked it with the firewall. Then from the command line did the image and let it download everything. This was today (with faction code). Came to: 1.92 GB (2,072,768,512 bytes). Not sure how much factions installed. I only have the pre-order key on the account, not the CE retail key..

[Elrond Afil]

Hi,

My gw is not updating properly..

so ive done the -image


its at 12.6 meg 3% 14,069 files remaining

I really don't want to wait 2 days for 2 gig of data to download...does it just download the data i don't have? or does it download it all??

[Nascent]

Any word if there is some sort of a switch to disable the direct sound they implemented? I dislike playing the game with no sound in order to maintain a framerate -_-

[EternalTempest]

Any word if there is some sort of a switch to disable the direct sound they implemented? I dislike playing the game with no sound in order to maintain a framerate -_-

I've tired to find one in the past but here is how you can kill Direct Song.

Start Run -> Type in Regedit (Enter)
Find this Registery Key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ DirectSong
Right Click and Export it (so you can re-enable it latter by double clicking on it), then delete the reg key

[Nascent]

its not direct song that is the problem, though. I've purposefully kept those uninstalled this time around thinking that might have been linked to the degrading performance.

I mean the games emulating 3d sound, etc. The new upgrades they made to the sound engine mostly. A way to perhaps return it to its previous state? or trick the game into thinking you dont have any 3d accelleration on your sound card so it doesnt try to even employ the new sound system.

I've attempted turning the silder in the 'advanced' options of the sound tad to No Acelleration, which, when I enter the game, does return it to a state of good performance with sound activated...for a short period of time. Then I start getting all sorts of weird sound glitches until I eventually end up just turning the sound off regardless. I've found this to not be a viable solution, thus I was wondering if there's a switch, or something.

[Celestial Harmony]

You deserve a medal for posting these, I've got much better performance outta my laptop in GW now, still run on lowest settings but the draw distance and framerate are a lot better for me with the -dx8 -noshaders and heapsize 1024000 switches.

So, if anytime you need a n00b monk....

[Omega X]

Did Test on the lap top with -image.

Install client, get the exe and then when it tried to connect to download the gw.dat files, I blocked it with the firewall. Then from the command line did the image and let it download everything. This was today (with faction code). Came to: 1.92 GB (2,072,768,512 bytes). Not sure how much factions installed. I only have the pre-order key on the account, not the CE retail key..

The preorder stuff IS Factions. When I did the install for factions, it only added in about 90 files. (Didn't find that out until later...)

I also got finished testing and the DAT file came out to about 1.79GB. Which is weird because my file is so big. Maybe I stumbled across some kind of issue with the -image switch. My file shouldn't be that big.

So I'm gonna go back and redo my install to make sure that its not just my machine.(which it shouldn't be).

[koneko]

Factions-related content is downloaded whether or not you have the retail key for that particular campaign if you use -image. The program doesn't differentiate between Prophecies and Factions content when it downloads; it just grabs everything it can from the server.

Clean install (no Gw.dat), hovering around 1.75GB.

My theory on why the .dat file grows in size over time like Omega X's: (old base Gw.dat) + (update) + (update) + ... ---> new/updated Gw.dat + leftovers of old outdated files that aren't cleaned up/removed. Or something...

[Omega X]

That is my theory as well.

When I did the reinstall FROM CDs instead of downloading in full, the Dat file grew to about 3gb(I did it twice to make sure). Since its old GW+New GW+SF+Factions.

But when I did an -image install directly from Anet, the DAT file was in the 1.7GB range. That kinda size makes sense because Factions reuses a number of textures and models.

Maybe someone should bring this to the attention of Anet. But to make sure, someone else should do what I did to see if what I found out is reproducible.

What I did was:

-Install from CD: Guild Wars: CH1

-Close program after finishing.

-Install from CD: Guild Wars: CH2

-Close program after finishing.

-Run the exe with the -image switch

Then report the size of the DAT file.

[Omega X]

Ok I did another test.

I installed straight from the Factions CD since it most likely contained a more recent image of the game instead of the original Prophecies CD.

The size grew to 4GB and once the process finished, it shrunk back down to 3.18 GB (3,421,900,800 bytes).

So it actually lost some weight unless it comes later since I have yet to add in my UI customizations and options.

I'm gonna write to Tech Support and ask them the correct size of the Image.

[kaya]

-heapsize

This must always be the LAST switch off of the shortcut.

This is a windows trick that tells windows to devote ram just to a program (in this case, guildwars). This can speed up loading of maps. It was recommended you specify ½ of your ram.

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe” -heapsize xxxxxx
xxxxx = the bytes

Quick chart: (½ ram) in bytes
128MB -heapsize 64000
256MB -heapsize 128000
384MB -heapsize 192000
512MB -heapsize 256000
640MB -heapsize 320000
768MB -heapsize 384000
1024MB -heapsize 512000

Here is a handy Bit Calculator - http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/


Ok, I'm a little confused about this... maybe I just dont know how theese numbers work. Anyway, from what I gather were sapposed to imput 1/2 our ram in bytes. I have 2 gig of ram, and from the chart it says that 1024 MB = 512000 bytes, but when i use that handy little calculator it tells me that 1024 MB = 1073741824 bytes. I'm wondering which number I'm sapposed to use, and why are they different? Or am I just reading it wrong?
Somebody want to educate me?


EDIT!!

oh wait... I think i figured it out... where is says bytes in the above quote, it's sapposed to say kilobytes? Let me know if thats right or not, and if so then it probably should be updated. Thanks!

[kaya]

Ok I did another test.

I installed straight from the Factions CD since it most likely contained a more recent image of the game instead of the original Prophecies CD.

The size grew to 4GB and once the process finished, it shrunk back down to 3.18 GB (3,421,900,800 bytes).

So it actually lost some weight unless it comes later since I have yet to add in my UI customizations and options.

I'm gonna write to Tech Support and ask them the correct size of the Image.


I ended up with 3.31 GB (3,560,779,264 bytes) after i customized my settings.

[EternalTempest]

Ok, I'm a little confused about this... maybe I just dont know how theese numbers work. Anyway, from what I gather were sapposed to imput 1/2 our ram in bytes. I have 2 gig of ram, and from the chart it says that 1024 MB = 512000 bytes, but when i use that handy little calculator it tells me that 1024 MB = 1073741824 bytes. I'm wondering which number I'm sapposed to use, and why are they different? Or am I just reading it wrong?
Somebody want to educate me?


EDIT!!

oh wait... I think i figured it out... where is says bytes in the above quote, it's sapposed to say kilobytes? Let me know if thats right or not, and if so then it probably should be updated. Thanks!

That was copied over from another post.. now that you point it out.. They seem to be 1/2 ram with three zero's on it... and the conversion are not coming out right for me either... I didn't notice because it seemed to work perfect on my system with the numbers mentioned..

[Kabale]

If you have 2Gb of RAM use -heapsize 1024000

[kaya]

hmm... it's still a little confusing to me. I'll google it... but i'm wondering if the heapsize should be in kilobytes, or bytes. because everyone seems to be using kilobytes, but the instructions say to use bytes. Both totally different numbers.

anyways it's probably kilobytes, but if it is then the instructions should be updated for people who dont know much about it like me.

[EternalTempest]

hmm... it's still a little confusing to me. I'll google it... but i'm wondering if the heapsize should be in kilobytes, or bytes. because everyone seems to be using kilobytes, but the instructions say to use bytes. Both totally different numbers.

anyways it's probably kilobytes, but if it is then the instructions should be updated for people who dont know much about it like me.

I tweaked it to say 1/2 ram and add three zero's and added 2GB ram in the chart. Techie, the one that posted a ton of good tech stuff appears to no longer be on the forum and he was the one to post that windows tweak.

Thinking of tweaks.. I wonder if the tweak to for adding "prefetch to the shortcut will make it load faster

Example, Windows media player has a tweak that ms did
"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1
Which copies part of the exe to a part of windows, so when launched it makes it load faster.

[kaya]

hmm... good one to test out. :P

[Omega X]

I tweaked it to say 1/2 ram and add three zero's and added 2GB ram in the chart. Techie, the one that posted a ton of good tech stuff appears to no longer be on the forum and he was the one to post that windows tweak.

Thinking of tweaks.. I wonder if the tweak to for adding "prefetch to the shortcut will make it load faster

Example, Windows media player has a tweak that ms did
"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /prefetch:1
Which copies part of the exe to a part of windows, so when launched it makes it load faster.

IF Prefetch was set correctly in the Registry, there is no need to add the /prefetch switch since it does it for all exes. I think XP is set by default to prefetch programs in SP2.

[monkey grip]

any ideas on the -map switch?

thanks for compiling all these, this is great!

[schroedingercat]

yay! the -dx8 switch fixed a bug i have had forever - every time i opened a belt pouch or bag, i would completely lock up for over a minute.

made life really sucky when i was farming. hehe.

[EternalTempest]

its not direct song that is the problem, though. I've purposefully kept those uninstalled this time around thinking that might have been linked to the degrading performance.

I mean the games emulating 3d sound, etc. The new upgrades they made to the sound engine mostly. A way to perhaps return it to its previous state? or trick the game into thinking you dont have any 3d accelleration on your sound card so it doesnt try to even employ the new sound system.

I've attempted turning the silder in the 'advanced' options of the sound tad to No Acelleration, which, when I enter the game, does return it to a state of good performance with sound activated...for a short period of time. Then I start getting all sorts of weird sound glitches until I eventually end up just turning the sound off regardless. I've found this to not be a viable solution, thus I was wondering if there's a switch, or something.

I would upgrade to directx 9c (April 2006), it did updated DirectSound3d and worked on performace issues with some users (not all). Also grab the most current sound card drivers for your card / onboard solution.

Another trick is to shut down DX Sound Acceleration in windows but that's more of an incovient work around. Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Device's -> Audio (Tab), Advanced Button (under Sound Playback), Performance (Tab)

If it's not set to max, turn it up. If it's max, start bumping it down a notch an see if it works better.

any ideas on the -map switch?

thanks for compiling all these, this is great!

No idea, If I were to guess I think Gaile uses this to warp to area's with here characer and the fact she has a special GM account.

IF Prefetch was set correctly in the Registry, there is no need to add the /prefetch switch since it does it for all exes. I think XP is set by default to prefetch programs in SP2.

I did notice some applications, Such as firefox, thunderbird, and Guildwars it shaved 1-3 sec worth of load time after running it at least once with the switch but nothing to rave about.

[Helll is for Heroes]

there is also

-dx7

increases my performance from dx8 by about 20 frames.

[EternalTempest]

there is also
-dx7
increases my performance from dx8 by about 20 frames.

Not able to get this to work on mine.

Normal Launch (Shows Direct X 9 render in options)
-dx8 switch (Shows DirectX 8 render in options)
-dx7 switch (Shows Direct X 9 render in options)

I have a Geforce FX 5700 Ultra.

[Omega X]

I didn't think that they would add a dx7 option.

[MagicLB]

Since Today the -Repair & -update Switch don´t work. Anet has fixed it. Look at this Thread http://forum.onlinewelten.com/showthread.php?p=1048226#post1048226

[awesome sauce]

How do i go about running two of the switches at once?

[LifeInfusion]

Anyone try using a resolution switch to change it to 16bit or 32 bit?

I was thinking maybe -resolution1024x768x32 or -r1024x768x32 or something of the sort... haven't tried though

[r0cki]

Well i tried the -image switch and it worked, but as soon as it reaches about 30 files remaining it freezes, i have to do ctrl+alt+del to stop the game, take the -image off and play normaly.

I think that it screwed my game, because i get HUGE fps drops and graphic glitches every half an hour.

Can any1 help me out? I'm clean of spyware, virus, and my rig is: P4 2.4, 1gb ram and 6600gt.

[Crim_Vos_Telvannis]

How do i go about running two of the switches at once?

Like this:
"H:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -password=****** -perf -heapsize 512000

[EternalTempest]

Well i tried the -image switch and it worked, but as soon as it reaches about 30 files remaining it freezes, i have to do ctrl+alt+del to stop the game, take the -image off and play normaly.

I think that it screwed my game, because i get HUGE fps drops and graphic glitches every half an hour.

Can any1 help me out? I'm clean of spyware, virus, and my rig is: P4 2.4, 1gb ram and 6600gt.

I have to use the -image command and it's been working. There is a bug between Sysgate Personal Firewall and Guildwars Decompression. If it tries to decompress files from the gw.dat file while changing zones.. it goes slows to a complete stop any may load me.

The gw.dat file may be corrupted and you may have to reintall. Try this. Rename gw.dat file then run the -image switch before you go to bed and leave it running over night, it should re-download the entire game by morning. If that works, deleted the renamed gw.dat file.

About the -repair / -update switch not working. Can anyone start testing it out. I've never been able to get them to work before the update but others had been.

[xBEASTx]

To use the -image switch do you leave it on there always or remove it after you download everything?

I ask because one of my guildies tried it last night. Downloaded the files, removed the switch and restarted guild wars and it would lock up at the login screen and wouldn't let him connect to gw.

[r0cki]

I have to use the -image command and it's been working. There is a bug between Sysgate Personal Firewall and Guildwars Decompression. If it tries to decompress files from the gw.dat file while changing zones.. it goes slows to a complete stop any may load me.

The gw.dat file may be corrupted and you may have to reintall. Try this. Rename gw.dat file then run the -image switch before you go to bed and leave it running over night, it should re-download the entire game by morning. If that works, deleted the renamed gw.dat file.

About the -repair / -update switch not working. Can anyone start testing it out. I've never been able to get them to work before the update but others had been.

You are the man! (At least for now)

It's working at the moment, got into the game, and stayed there for like half an hour or so and didn't noticed the fps drops nor the glitches. Thanks for the tip. :D

[EternalTempest]

To use the -image switch do you leave it on there always or remove it after you download everything?

I ask because one of my guildies tried it last night. Downloaded the files, removed the switch and restarted guild wars and it would lock up at the login screen and wouldn't let him connect to gw.

How it normally works it connects, then download / decompress everything. Then just exists. I have to remove the switch to get gw to load correctly.

In this case I would.. rename the gw.dat file, then launch the game as normal (no image swich), let it download enough files to get to the log in and see if it can connect. If it does, you know the gw.dat file (the one you renamed is corupt). If it does the same error.. may be hardware drivers or other system issues.

[SnipiousMax]

Does the heapsize help in preformance, or just loading?

[EternalTempest]

Does the heapsize help in preformance, or just loading?

All I've seen is impact on loading zones, but not actually performance in game.

[khp]

Good day !

Do you know if there is anyway to disable the ugly cursor ? I just would like to use default windows cursor instead of this 32-bits-ugly-cursor.

Thanks everyone.

[Bokocasso]

Any progress with the two accounts problem?? I really love the autologin option, but having two accounts really make things harder. :/

[Zakarr]

I guess you can find out all working options by searching already known commands from gw.exe or gw.dat files with a hex editor. They all are probably in same location.

[izilidur]

If I get more Ram memory, then loading of a new areas will be faster, right?

[EternalTempest]

If I get more Ram memory, then loading of a new areas will be faster, right?

Yes, in fact if you get to 1gb of ram for Windows XP, a lot of things will run better (not just guildwars). Now anything past 1gb you may not visible see a boost as you would coming from 512 -> 1gb.

[Wrath Of Dragons]

i recenntly switched from 512 to 1, 270 ram (little over a gig....just to clarify)
the difference was insane! much smoother turning, faster loads into maps and towns, and switching vbetween GW and something else, like windows media, was MUCH faster. when i minimized GW, it went down right away, with almost no pause.

[MercenaryKnight]

This question was asked before, but I didn't see an answer. For the -image switch about making all areas updated and loaded. Do you have to leave the -image thing in the command line every time you play? Or do you do it once then remove it so you already up to date on all the areas?

[kaya]

when you use the -image switch, you need to use it by itself, then remove it when your done. You'll notice all it does it open up the downloade screen, then exit you out when it's done downloading. You wont be able to play the game with this switch in the command line.

in fact, if you wanna make it a little easier, do what I did and make 2 seperate shortcuts to the game, call one image, and use it for the image switch, and call the other one your normal GW, and use it for playing the game with all the other switches you like.

[Apocrypha]

Any progress with the two accounts problem?? I really love the autologin option, but having two accounts really make things harder. :/ 2 shortcuts, each with -password and -<email? or whatever> switches.

[EternalTempest]

2 shortcuts, each with -password and -<email? or whatever> switches.

Last time I checked, e-mail flag didnt work. I suspect it was disabled in Gw.
The shourtcut would be gw.exe -email<switch> -password=******

[Jarn103]

The information regarding the -noui switch is wrong. You can login if you have it set to remember your password and you have the -password switch in. This will log you in. From there (you must have the character selected that you want to play) you can hit 'p' to enter the game. I have not checked if you can fight without a ui, though I would imagine you could using the numbers. Shortcuts to things still work, which is why you can login. You can do actions and things without a ui, too. You can even talk in chats, although you won't be able to see what you say nor will you be able to see what others say. You will also not see zone loading screens.

[Tutis Evito]

erm..need some help..ive tried the -pref switch and nothing...nada..zilch ever comes up and shows me fps or anything...what am i doinbg wrong?

[Katari]

Last time I checked, e-mail flag didnt work. I suspect it was disabled in Gw.
The shourtcut would be gw.exe -email<switch> -password=******
Yeah, it seems like that switch stopped working maybe a month ago. But it hardly matters, the password switch still works, and you can tll GW to remember your email.

[Helll is for Heroes]

erm..need some help..ive tried the -pref switch and nothing...nada..zilch ever comes up and shows me fps or anything...what am i doinbg wrong? its -perf not -pref

[BloodStar]

Becareful with the image command, I just did it, it download all the extra 350+MB of new data for Nightfall preview event, it then quit with out decompressing and for some reason wiped my GW.Dat file :( Started like around 2.5GB (I had both GW and Factions installed, fully updated except for Nightfall pre-event stuff), now its 5.6MB!

Fecking sucks going to have to reinstall everything again, and redownload all the extra updates :(

If gonna use image command it might be worth ur while to make a copy of current GW.dat file, to a different part of your drive just incase (wish I had). So if it fecks up all you have to do is copy it back.

[Peddy]

-image worked perfectly with me. Had to download 36k files and only took like 500megs of space. But heard that some used it and GW filled something like 5gigs. And some was forced to reinstall because of a corrupt .dat file. Just be sure not to exit the updater after you've started it.

[TreeDude]

Been using -image for well over 6 months. I use it for every update. Never had a problem.

[dronex]

ok heapsize slowed my GW with about 50% ... loading faster ... hell no !

[jaeharys targaryen]

hello all
im looking for a way to run the client downloader thingy ona firewall i cant change
when it trys to connect to arenanet, it gets blocked
any1 know an ftp, or some "safe" way to run it so the firewall doesnt go ape****

[Kais Vivelame]

Is there a -sort option for sorting characters on the selection screen ?
Otherwise, the ability to sort characters is nearly useless as it's always on "unsorted".
I would like to add "-sort alphabetize" (for example)... Of course it would be better if the sort order selected was remebered by Guild wars itself.

[Quizer]

Is there no option to stop the client from downloading data unless immediately needed? When my connection's working especially well, the client is prone to consuming my monthly bandwidth at an alarming rate. I had it so bad already that if I log out and log back in as quickly as possible, it consumes upwards of 5 MB in mere seconds. Can't I stop this?

Quizer

[Pickle]

I am having a little trouble with the -heapsize command, well at least I think I am. When I use this, and say limit it to 256000, should this keep Guild Wars from using over that amount? If so I cant seem to get it working, the game still uses more than what I am telling it to.

[WalkaboutTigger]

The -heapsize command line switch tells Guild Wars to set aside an additional amount of physical RAM to allow for a dedicated memory cache and does not force a limit on the amount of RAM the game can use. Guild Wars generally will use less than 512 MB RAM unless you set the -heapsize switch.

What is it you are doing when playing GW that would make you want to limit the RAM GW can use?

[WalkaboutTigger]

Is there no option to stop the client from downloading data unless immediately needed? When my connection's working especially well, the client is prone to consuming my monthly bandwidth at an alarming rate. I had it so bad already that if I log out and log back in as quickly as possible, it consumes upwards of 5 MB in mere seconds. Can't I stop this?

Quizer

There is no way to prevent GW from performing an update except to do the rapid login as you describe. I could recommend getting a different, unlimited, Internet connection as it sounds like that is the issue, not the feature of the game that allows updates to be streamed automatically during periods of low utilization...

[WalkaboutTigger]

Does anyone know a method to access the information within the .DAT file? As in accessing the .DAT file the way one might access a .ZIP file?

Thanks

[EternalTempest]

The -heapsize command line switch tells Guild Wars to set aside an additional amount of physical RAM to allow for a dedicated memory cache and does not force a limit on the amount of RAM the game can use. Guild Wars generally will use less than 512 MB RAM unless you set the -heapsize switch.

What is it you are doing when playing GW that would make you want to limit the RAM GW can use?

It showed up in the tech forum as a performance tweak that appeared to work people so I carried it over.
With that explanation, I can see how for some it forces more memory to make gw work better or at the same time cause issues and kill perofmance.

Does anyone know a method to access the information within the .DAT file? As in accessing the .DAT file the way one might access a .ZIP file?

Thanks

I read on some page (obscure) about this topic. There result was all the files are in there yet there was not clear "start/end" ways to clearly ID what file is what (it's own index maybe?). They had a limited degree of success on some files but did not post how to actually they did it.

[wattsja]

Is there a way to login in Offline mode ... so I appear not to be online to my friends?

I know you can login then choose offline, but you run the risk of being seen and also people in your guild will see that you were on.

[UndeadsRUs]

I can think of a use for the -fps command.

Let R be the monitors refresh rate
Let F be the frame rate that the video card is rendering at
Then D, the frame rate displayed on screen would be given by

D={R, for ((F>R) || (F==R))
(R/2), for ((F<R) && (F>(R/2)))
(R/3), for ((F<(R/2)) && (F>(R/3)))
(R/N), for ((F<(R/N-1)) && (F>(R/N)))}

For example:
Given: R=60, F0>60, F1=60, F2=55, F3=35, F4=25, F5=13

D0=60, using D=R, for ((F>R) || (F==R))
D1=60, using D=R, for ((F>R) || (F==R))
D2=30, using D=(R/2), for ((F<R) && (F>(R/2)))
D3=30, using D=(R/2), for ((F<R) && (F>(R/2)))
D4=15, using D=(R/3), for ((F<(R/2)) && (F>(R/3)))
D5=12, using D=(R/N), for ((F<(R/N-1)) && (F>(R/N))) with N=5

Verbally,
In case 0, the video card is outputting more than 60 FPS(R). VSync will cap this at 60 FPS(R).

In case 1, the video card is outputting exactly 60 FPS(R). VSync will cap this at 60 FPS(R).

In case 2, the video card is outputting less than 60 FPS(R), but more than 30 FPS(R/2). Since the frame buffer will not output partial frames with VSync on, the video card will render once every 2 monitor refresh cycles. The frame rate would be 30 FPS(R/2).

In case 3, the video card is outputting less than 60 FPS(R), but more than 30 FPS(R/2). Since the frame buffer will not output partial frames with VSync on, the video card will render once every 2 monitor refresh cycles. The frame rate would be 30 FPS(R/2).

In case 4, the video card is outputting less than 30 FPS(R/2), but more than 20 FPS(R/3). Since the frame buffer will not output partial frames with VSync on, the video card will render once every 3 monitor refresh cycles. The frame rate would be 20 FPS(R/3).

In case 5, the video card is outputting less than 15 FPS(R/4), but more than 12 FPS(R/5). Since the frame buffer will not output partial frames with VSync on, the video card will render once every 5 monitor refresh cycles. The frame rate would be 12 FPS(R/5).

Conclusion: Because enabling VSync causes the displayed FPS to be (R/N), it causes FPS loss when F<R. However, disabling VSync can cause image tearing when F>R. Using the -fps command to limit the engine's rendering to your refresh rate can give the performance of disabling VSync, without the image problems normally associated with doing so.

[EternalTempest]

Using the -fps command to limit the engine's rendering to your refresh rate can give the performance of disabling VSync, without the image problems normally associated with doing so.

Very nice, I will give it a try and add that to the guide as well.

[Laughing_Man]

anybody get the -map switch to work, or know what it's 'supposed' to do?

[EternalTempest]

anybody get the -map switch to work, or know what it's 'supposed' to do?

My guess (shot in the dark) it's used so your character maps to a specific location. It may be disabled or an admin function that normal players can't access. Some of the switches were found when they started scanning / hacking the exe and found all the switches as part of the exe.

[Njaiguni Blaze]

-heapsize doesn't work anymore:
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Talk:Command_line#-heapsize_removed

[Percipience]

Using the -fps command to limit the engine's rendering to your refresh rate can give the performance of disabling VSync, without the image problems normally associated with doing so.

This is false. The mechanism Vsync uses to prevent tearing cannot be duplicated with FPS capping. Tearing does not magically stop because you are at some arbitrary FPS, anyone who experiences tearing can verify this easily. Vsync prevents tearing by not displaying an image until the full screen is rendered and thus prevents tearing. Capping the FPS has NO mechanism to prevent tearing, the game will display partial screens with a cap just like it did without a cap.

[hippynz]

I have a Duron 1gb (over clocked to 1.12gb)
Geforce 4 64mb video card
640mb ram

and I know it is time i upgraded my system http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/images/smilies/redface.gif
:o
The game sort of runs but is jittery and crashes after a while.

any ideas?

[Njaiguni Blaze]

I have a Duron 1gb (over clocked to 1.12gb)
Geforce 4 64mb video card
640mb ram

and I know it is time i upgraded my system http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/images/smilies/redface.gif
:o
The game sort of runs but is jittery and crashes after a while.

any ideas?
I have a computer with an online video and soundcard. Intel Celeron 3.06GHz and 479 MB RAM and Guild Wars runs fine. I don't know what a Duron is, but am surprised that you would have problems with GW.

[EternalTempest]

Major Update - Found out how to use an hex editor :)
Need to thank everyone again for posts, feedback, and new discoveries.

I cleaned up of switches, better order of listing

Any idea what some of the new switches are?
-authsrv or -newsound

authsrv (guess) may be a switch to deal with authentication server?

newsound sounds like there experimenting with a new sound engine / sound code?

[Laughing_Man]

Major Update - Found out how to use an hex editor :)
Need to thank everyone again for posts, feedback, and new discoveries.

I cleaned up of switches, better order of listing

Any idea what some of the new switches are?
-authsrv or -newsound

authsrv (guess) may be a switch to deal with authentication server?

newsound sounds like there experimenting with a new sound engine / sound code?

Could you point me in the direction of this hex editor and a link to where/how you figured it out? I'd like to try my and at it with GW and some of my other games to see what I might find ^_^

[EternalTempest]

After reading the post with the link to this wiki (ty to Njaiguni Blaze for pointing it out) - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Talk:Command_line#-heapsize_removed

I looked / found this freeware hex editor - http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm

When you do a "Find" in the exe dialog box, make sure you:
Checkmark "as Unicode Latin (UTF-16LE)
Uncheck case senstive
Do a search for any of the known strings (dx8, nosound, etc)

See screen shots

[onerabbit]

Hi, erm cant seem to get this right

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7957/untitledgd8.jpg


any tips?

[cellardweller]

add a space between the " and the -

[onerabbit]

lol..thnx :)

[Fay Vert]

There is now a -bmp switch to save screenshots in the old bitmap format since the new jpg update.

[EternalTempest]

There is now a -bmp switch to save screenshots in the old bitmap format since the new jpg update.

Thank you for that update :)

I re-looked and also spotted an -mce switch as well that ... launched my media center on Windows Xp Media Center Edition. Also an -exit switch that makes guildwars.. not launch.

[sevendash]

Thank you for that update :)

I re-looked and also spotted an -mce switch as well that ... launched my media center on Windows Xp Media Center Edition. Also an -exit switch that makes guildwars.. not launch. Can you explain better what -mce does?

[EternalTempest]

Will try.

There is a version of Windows XP called XP Media Center Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Media_Center_Edition

It's an application built in to windows to make your pc more TV boxtop.
It has an easy to use interface for watching tv, record tv like a DVR (if you have tv tuner card), watching dvd's, listening to music.

It also allows you to stream video / audio to a device hooked to your tv as well called MCE Extender (xbox 360 is one, xbox has a kit to turn it in to one).

If media center is your primary application... aka pc is close and hooked to your tv and use the remote control it, even though it runs on top of windows, you don't really want to get out of the MCE interface to plain regular xp pc interface all the time.

With the mce switch on guildwars on, when I exit guild wars it auto launches the media center software automatically. That way you can lauch guildwars from within MCE (and it close media center), play GW, then it bring back you easy to use media center interface without being dumped back to xp and have to manually re-launch media center.

Again, this would be more for people who pc is acting as there tv tuner / cable box / dvr that interact with the remote. Not a traditional computer user.

[LAMS3K]

"-Authsrv" is used to specify what authorization server you want to connect to. The format is: -authsrv [IP]
Such as:

-authsrv 127.0.0.1

Would make Guild Wars try and authenticate(login or any account modifications) itself with the local computer. Which fails considering no one but ANet is running a server. It does not appear to accept a port number. This command does not accept a domain name instead of an IP address. I suppose this command is here for alpha testers. It would enable them to connect to a different server network than the rest of us.

[fikusan]

i think the -authsrv switch can also get you on faster servers maybe?
if the servers of your region are overloaded, you can get a buddy on a non-laggy server to tell you the ip of the server they are on(it shows up during map travel). see if that works

[Feuer]

Yes, in fact if you get to 1gb of ram for Windows XP, a
lot of things will run better (not just guildwars). Now anything past 1gb you may not visible see a boost as you would coming from 512 -> 1gb.

#1
Nah, there is still a big difference when you get 2 gig upgrade from 1.

My rig is athlon(tm) 64 3800+ 2.4GHz. video card is: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 gs. And I've recently stopped playing/paying wow, and let my dad barrow 1 gig stick.
Then i decided to start playing gw again, and when i put the other stick back in, my fps went up from usual 60 fps to 75, a lot more smoother, and maps download a lot faster, loads up great!

#2 I just want to say, i started reading this thread from the middle and didn't know how you do the shortcut thing(i do now), but i just put it in the run box from the start menu and it does all the things for me from there. (os windows xp)

#3 :D (sorry but i got to number the points that i make)
does anyone know if there is a way to get all your default settings for GW (such as graphics, sound) to default without deleting the DAT file?
i know there is the "reset all" or "auto detect" but some of the things weren't changing for me, like the shader would stay on high even when i slid the bar around and pressed "auto detect"

[Speedz]

Is there a switch or some other way of running multiple instances of guildwars on a single system?

[CoolWolf]

Accidental Double Post - Delete Please

[CoolWolf]

DirectSong is additional downloadable music, so unless you install that you will be using games basic music, so either -mute / -nosound or standard game music is all you'll get.
(DirectSound is the basic in-game music/sound effects etc!)

As for the -fps switch, I have since discovered that it was originally used internally when testing the game on fast gfx servers and designers systems to slow the game to the standard gfx card speed that we mere users (mortals) have.

It will also be useful to slow the gfx cards, like the next gen d3d10 aka DirectX9EX/L and DirectX10 cards (nVidia 8800 GTX/GTS as an example) if you find things like damage indication and chat going to fast to read,

[King Kong]

Does the -email switch work at all, or has it been removed?

[EternalTempest]

"-Authsrv" is used to specify what authorization server you want to connect to. The format is: -authsrv [IP]
Such as:

-authsrv 127.0.0.1

Would make Guild Wars try and authenticate(login or any account modifications) itself with the local computer. Which fails considering no one but ANet is running a server. It does not appear to accept a port number. This command does not accept a domain name instead of an IP address. I suppose this command is here for alpha testers. It would enable them to connect to a different server network than the rest of us.

Cool, I will add the information to the guide.

Is there a switch or some other way of running multiple instances of guildwars on a single system?

Not by switch to my knowledge, but there is a way - Check this forum - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70999

As for the -fps switch, I have since discovered that it was originally used internally when testing the game on fast gfx servers and designers systems to slow the game to the standard gfx card speed that we mere users (mortals) have.

It will also be useful to slow the gfx cards, like the next gen d3d10 aka DirectX9EX/L and DirectX10 cards (nVidia 8800 GTX/GTS as an example) if you find things like damage indication and chat going to fast to read,

Very good, thanks for the info, will update the guide with this info


Does the -email switch work at all, or has it been removed?

Not sure how to use / not been able to figure it out / not seen other be able to use it

*** New Switched ***
Best *guess* will do testing as well
-dsound Enabled the dsound engine (software) that were use to
-sndasio Enable audio using ASIO Audio Format
-sndwinmm No idea other then part of the new? sound engined

Removed Switches
-newsound switch was removed - I guessing it allowed you to "test" the new audio engind (fmod) but removed since it's the default software music engine now.

[Nilator]

My -password still works. So, yeah.

[NeHoMaR]

My -password still works. So, yeah.It's not dangerous put a password in a shortcut file? I mean, some spyware or something could look for the file and get password. Sometimes some minor spywares are not detected by anti-virus because looking at shortcuts is not dangerous.

[MMSDome]

i saw in the post your funny chat section a guy changed the color of his text, how do you do that and select what color?

[EternalTempest]

i saw in the post your funny chat section a guy changed the color of his text, how do you do that and select what color?

I don't think this is controlled by any switches off the gw.exe

Pretty sure it's an account based function. Such as Gaile Grey's GW account is flagged as "GM" so she can do GM emote (GM hovers over head) and her text is a different color and has more options then normal players such.

[Eroth]

Does the -email switch work at all, or has it been removed? I've figured out how to use it. It's like the -password one. It auto-plugs in your e-mail, say if you can't save your account name like the button says you can

it's -email=xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.com

(for thou challenged, the xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.com = your email)



The -email was probably incase you wanted to log on very quickly for the first time. (I timed that it took 10-15 seconds with starting and typing account [had -password on] and only 1-3 seconds with -email and -password) and yes I know I'm a loser for timing it, but I have nothing else to do while I'm sick. but it's just kinda wierd/useless and if you get spyware then they have your password and e-mail of which equals a bad combo.

[Aphrael]

-email switch
fills in the account tab...

tried on my gf pc which we both use.. i have -email and -password set up on two different icons so that we can play at different times and not have to worry about typing in account names each time...

[Njaiguni Blaze]

-email switch
fills in the account tab...

tried on my gf pc which we both use.. i have -email and -password set up on two different icons so that we can play at different times and not have to worry about typing in account names each time...
Yes, the parameter got added last update again.

[Forgotten One]

Ok I have tested out some of the switches and I like the auto-logon ones.

FOR THE RECORD the -email switch got returned so here is EXACTLY how you auto-logon:

(path)/gw.exe" -email address@here.xxx -password yourpasswordhere

No equals sign, no colon, no dashes, just a space. The commanline differentiates between the switch fields by the "-" before the abbreviation.
Switches are different than flags "-email=(address)" is considered a flag (like Visual Basic coding). -email doesn't equal the address, it IS the address, so -email=(email) doesn't make sense if you think about it that way.

Using that switch line EXACTLY (after the .exe") auto-logs you in completely.
Imputting just the -email switch only fills in the account logon (which is auto-filled by the last logged on account anyways), so if you only are using 1 shortcut to login with multiple users/accounts, don't bother (or if you're the primary player, just put in the -email one and not the -password one as well).
If you're using a custom shortcut for each user, then the only thing holding you back from using both to auto-logon to your character select screen, is malware (or human) paranoia.

My sound card is a Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty attached to 240w 5.1 surround Logitech speakers so I have full support for all audio mixing/formats.

I am currently using the -sndasio switch

Now one thing I noticed about the 2 new sound switches (-sndasio & -sndwinmm), is when you have either of those 2 enabled, the checkbox beside "Use 3d hardware acceleration" gets un-checked and greyed out in the sound tab in the F11 menu.

I also notice that in-game, the sound effects (spell casting, weapons clashing, shields blocking, etc) on my centre speaker are non-existant directly infront of me (although the sound from my other 4 speakers sound better quality) but the music plays back fine.

If you don't use any sound switch, the sound seems a tad "muddy" to my ears, but the "use 3d..." checkbox is checked and I get the sound effects on the centre speaker.

Is anyone else noticing this?

EDIT: Oh yeah also 1 more thing. I ran the "-diag" switch and it reported that it did not detect any "HW memory" or onboard memory on my sound card, which is false. My sound card has 64MB of RAM on the soundcard, so it seems like the game is ignoring it, not using it, or is showing a false negative (opposite of false positive).

I hope someone at Anet sees this and investigates these strange things.......

[EternalTempest]

Thank you for the update, and the testing of the sound switches.
I've updated the guide, I do apologize for the lateness of this update.

I'm only using 2 speaker headphones and unable to test out the sound stuff atm.

[Cataclysm]

-fps 30 doesnt work for me...

[Lycrius]

noshader seems to have slight improvement to my fps also with noshader the flowers stay on screen (without nshd they kept fading out and coming back randomly. (old post but still ok. thanks for this)

[boberic]

how do i make gw render in dx9?

[Njaiguni Blaze]

how do i make gw render in dx9?
It should automatically. If the "Graphics" tab under F11 shows you DirectX 8, it's your videocard that doesn't support dX9.

[boberic]

my card supports dx9 because my gw use to run with dx9 but now it runs with dx8....? why?

[Njaiguni Blaze]

I don't know how good you are with software, but if you do have dx9 installed (which you can check by clicking "Run..." in the Start Menu and typing "dxdiag") you need to uninstall dx8 and then reinstall dx9. That might help. Can't be bothered to explain atm, it's early and I have to go soon, sorry.

[boberic]

can some one explain where dx8 is if it is on my pc...? and how i should proceed with uninstalling it?

[EternalTempest]

can some one explain where dx8 is if it is on my pc...? and how i should proceed with uninstalling it?

Dx or DirectX is nothing more then a programing API that allows programmers to make stuff without having to right it from scratch.

Just by updating DirectX from Microsoft, you get the newest version. GuildWars will run in DX9 by default if your system supports it. If you have Windows XP, you do not have dx8, what happens is Dx9 is backwards compatible with DX8 games.

The dx8 switch is usefull to people that have dx9 based video cards, but not powerful to really run GW. If your gw is running in dx8 mode, it's because your video card or video card driver does not support dx9 . There no real way to remove dx8, unless your running an OS older then Windows 2000. By default, GW will run at the best possible solution available on your computer automatically.

Try updating your video card driver, and grab the most current DirectX runtime here from microsoft - http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/AboutGFW/Pages/DirectX10.aspx

What video card do you have? Did this happen around the same time that GW-eotn launched?

[Toxic Muffin]

Hey!
I'd like to send a thanks out for thoes of this forum.
That -image switch helped me alot!!

I'm still a bit confused about the -heapsize switch tho.

I play on a laptop, and got the lowest settings set up for all my guildwars options.

How can I figure out what I could set heapsize too to help me run the game better?

[EternalTempest]

Hey!
I'd like to send a thanks out for thoes of this forum.
That -image switch helped me alot!!

I'm still a bit confused about the -heapsize switch tho.

I play on a laptop, and got the lowest settings set up for all my guildwars options.

How can I figure out what I could set heapsize too to help me run the game better?

Heapsize was a way to manualy change how Gw ran. It could make it better or worse. I do beleive the issues they had with people using the heapsize switch caused Anet to remove it. It's no longer a valid switch.

[Osiron The Master]

I do the password one so that it theoretically automatically logs me in. Problem is, it only wok on the 2nd try. I have to double-click on my GW desktop icon, exit out of it, then double-click it again before it puts in my pw automatically. Is that normal?

[therangereminem]

the -password xxxxxxx does not work
instead its -password=xxxxxx just to be noted

i have two shortcuts one with my girlfreidsn accoutn and one with my info already saved we lazy lol

[deadman_uk]

Anyone try the -sndasio switch? It uses the newer sound engine, with ASIO format.

Is this already implemented or do you have to enable it with the switch command? Is there actually any difference between this and the default? Does this provide the best sound experience? because it runs in software mode and not 3D sound mode....

[deadman_uk]

Doesn't anyone care about sound? :confused:

[King Kong]

the -password xxxxxxx does not work
instead its -password=xxxxxx just to be noted

l

Mine works -password xxxxxxx so does my father in laws

[RCProtFTW]

-repair switch is not working for me

[EternalTempest]

-repair switch is not working for me '

I think it will only work if you installed from Cd, not using the client down loader.

[Forgotten One]

Anyone try the -sndasio switch? It uses the newer sound engine, with ASIO format.

Is this already implemented or do you have to enable it with the switch command? Is there actually any difference between this and the default? Does this provide the best sound experience? because it runs in software mode and not 3D sound mode....

Read my post on the previous page (#153).
If you have a sound card that supports ASIO format, then all you need to do is add the switch -sndasio to your GW shortcut and it'll automatically be enabled.

Please post your results of using it because I want to see if it's playing it back properly (in terms of GW having proper implementation of the codec) or if the results that I had become were just me (again read post #153 to see what I am asking of).

therangereminem- You must have some syntax error or something becuase I have been using the -password (password_here) switch since my original post back a page, and it still works for me.

I'm going to try the two newer audio switches again. I went back to the default codec (no sound switch) because of the loss of my centre channel when using the -sndasio switch.
The weird thing about that error is, if I pan the camera so what was ahead of me is now off to the side, I can hear that fine. It's what sound effects are directly in-front of me that it does not play back. (and again, the EAX+3d boxes are greyed out for some reason).
Just not 100% sure if this is expected or not.

BTW if I didn't mention it earlier I have all DirectSong music packs as well and boy is the music absolutely amazing, and even BETTER with that asio switch.

EDIT: BTW, the -image command rules. After GWEN and the Bonus Mission Pack installed into my system, I noticed alot of npc's started to jump like the charr alot (and it screwed up ALOT of quests because of it).
I re-downloaded the .dat file by creating a new gw shortcut with ONLY the -image switch.
Delete your old .DAT file first, then run that shortcut.
It will take a LONG time, unless you have very solid internet, to re-download the DAT file (also depends how many GW campaigns you have installed as well), but you get all the most updated files that way and installs them in a proper order rather than just (stacking) them ontop of eachother.
After doing that and completely re-downloading the DAT file, it fixed that error, and actually sped the game up a bit.

IF YOU HAVE NOT downloaded the DAT file from Anet using the -image switch since original install, I would STRONGLY suggest doing that. Especially if you have all 4 campaigns
If you can't be bothered or can't afford the time/bandwidth, then don't complain about glitches not being able to be alleviated (can't help you until you help yourself kinda thing).

[EternalTempest]

I'm going to experment with the sound and post results.
Did you know about the alt ASIO driver you can install to use instead of your sound cards driver - http://www.asio4all.com/

Since DirectSound3d was pretty much removed (which affects Creative lab uses and EAX) in Vista that may be a nice way to get good sounding audio on GW on Vista again.

[Snograt]

Hmm, isn't that the very issue that Creative Alchemy addresses?

rather big download link for Euro users (http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/download2.asp?MainCategory=209&Product=14000&dlcentric=10434&Product_Name=X%2DFi+Fatal1ty&filetype=3&OSName=Windows+Vista+32-bit) or just go to Creative's site and check out what it is - go to http://www.creative.com/language.asp and pick your location.

[EternalTempest]

I refuse to pay for the Alchemy software, Free for X-Fi users, but have to pay (and use internet activation) for Audigy users. I have an Audigy ZS.

Alchemy re-routes EAX calls via OpenAL to re-enable hardware acceleration.
Non-Audigy / X-Fi users could use ASIO to see if they better sound.

[DarkNecrid]

Anyone know if you could possibly use this to force GW to run in resolutions it doesn't support? Say...640x480? Or way higher?

[Admael]

I refuse to pay for the Alchemy software, Free for X-Fi users, but have to pay (and use internet activation) for Audigy users. I have an Audigy ZS.

Alchemy re-routes EAX calls via OpenAL to re-enable hardware acceleration.
Non-Audigy / X-Fi users could use ASIO to see if they better sound.

If you're tired of the Creative/Vista/EAX/ALchemy bullshit, and ready for a new card check out the ASUS Xonar (http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/tp/SoundCards.htm).

ASUS gets ragged on a lot about knowing nothing about sound, including me, and for awhile I believed it, Creative did dominate the soundcard market for a good 15 years. I remember my first Sound Blaster Pro on the oldschool ISA bus, but then again, "onboard audio" was rare.

The Xonar supports EAX 2.0, without the use of some shoddy program.

[Jade]

Has anyone found a way to us the switches at the same time as Texmod?

P.S. I apologize if this has been in this topic before, I just don't have the patience to read through 177 posts to find out.

[EternalTempest]

Just found two new switch's when I checked gw.exe
They seem related to the sound engine. Updated the guide and added the new switches.

The new switches are

-sndfastbuf
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine, with ? option

-sndmultispk
Use the newer (FMOD) sound engine, with ? multi-speaker output ? option

[RavenGT]

edit: OH god I just replied to a really old post.

[nebuchanezzar]

Yes, thread necromancy at work here.

Playing with Windows7 (ya beta)and of course I have installed GW to mess with it. I noticed that the shortcut it auto created in the Guild Wars folder has the switch -mce

"-mce
Unknown Switch
If your running Windows Media Center Editon, with this switch, Media Center (program) launches after guildwars exits

Usage: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -mce"

I have logged in and it appeared ok at first but I shut down and started running -image.

I installed from the website here at work just today(I'm IT and have a couple machines to testbed W7 for shits&giggles) and not from a CD, which may have some effect. I might try a disc install on one of my extra PC's at home tonight to see if there is any difference.

Also, fwiw, nothing opened automatically after closing GW the first time but, this is the beta W7 Ultimate edition instead of XP MCE which the switch appears to be related too.

W7 isn't slated to go live/retail for another year but I thought I would share. I have made another shortcut without the switch and will mess with both of them on Monday most likely.

*edit*
It would appear that Windows 7 includes Media Center(the program) so I assume that is why it added the switch. I haven't seen it actually open Media Center after closing the GW client yet.

[Ironballs]

I absolutely love the -image switch.

I hate heading out with a group and having to load 1000+ files before being able to play.

Thanks!

[i_on_shroomz]

ok so i had to reinstall guild wars and i am trying to do the -image thing to download all the files so im not waiting all the time, but when i add it on and click ok, nothing is happening. i dont understand what i am doing wrong, can someone please help me out?

[Helix Dreadlock]

Can't you find this in Wiki? I remember finding a post similar to this before, not sure though. Has anyone else seen this before, or am I just crazy?

[stretchs]

Be sure when you type the -image, you allow a space after the final "