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angelwriter428
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re: Sol Patch: Knowing Your Game's Files

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Knowing Your Game's Files

 

Hello everyone.

 

In this article, I want to show you how the game works at an operational level.

 

Basically, the game consists of 2 files: gw2.exe and gw2.dat. If we have a 64bit version of windows, we can download the version corresponding to our operating system.

 

image

Unlike other games, when we download the installer, we directly download the launcher of the game.

 

The entire game is contained within the gw2.dat file. Precisely, this file is created when we install the game for the first time

 

If you do not have the 64-bit version you can download it here.

https://account.arena.net/welcome or https://account.arena.net/content

 

image

 

The other files and folders (like Bin Folder) are created automatically if missing.

 

This makes the game very easy to maintain and carry. For example, once the gw2.dat file is downloaded, we will not need to install it again. If we want to copy the game to another folder, pc, or we need to reinstall the operating system, we make a backup of those two files (or simply gw2.dat since gw2.exe is very easy to get).

 

Copying the game files in different folders let us run multiple instances of the game if we own more than one account.

There’s a special file named local.dat, that is in: %users%/”user-name”/%appdata%/Guild Wars 2/  Within the drive where Windows is located (usually C: /)

 

This file contains, among other things, the last user name and password as well as the in-game graphic settings. If it is missing, it will also be created automatically.

 

When we select a character and the game does not finish loading, deleting this file usually solves the inconvenience. We will have to customize our preferences in the options again as the game is loaded with the default settings.

 

Sometimes, you run the game but, apparently, nothing happens. Most often, you would try several more times until you give up and reset your system. Instead of that, open the TASK MANAGER,

Win+R

type taskmgr

hit ENTER

or CTRL+ALT+DEL

Select Task Manager

scroll down until you find gw2.exe or gw2-64.exe (you will see as many files processes as times you ran the game). Select each one and the end each process. This will kill all processes that were running wrong. Try to run the game again.

 

Command Lines Arguments:

We can customize the way we run the game, and we do this through a command line.

For this we can create a shortcut by right clicking on GW2.EXE > Send to > Desktop

Then, access shortcut properties by right clicking on it

.image

 

image

 

Arguments can be found in https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Command_line_arguments

 

While i won’t go into detail over what each command does and how to use it, I will say that one of my personal preferences is:

 

"<...>\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe" -email myname@myprovider.com -password 12345 -nopatchui

That allows me to run the game without going through the launcher.

"<...>\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe" -repair

Allow us to repair gw2.dat file.

 

And there’s another reason why i’m not going in deph into command line arguments. It’s because a gamer and reddit user /u/TheCheatsrichter/ developed a little launcher called GW2Launchbuddy, that helps us customize the game.

Reddit post of the last beta version:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5untnk/gw2_launchbuddy_v14_release_but_will_it_blend/?st=j47kxw7x&sh=1e9324b8

It can be downloaded from:

https://github.com/TheCheatsrichter/Gw2_Launchbuddy/releases/tag/1.4.2

You can paste it inside the Guild Wars 2 folder, or create a new one (I suggest that you create a new folder).

Once you run it, you have to point the gw2.exe file clicking the “Set Directory” button .

image

 

The first tab will let us select which command line argument we want to add to the game.

Launchbuddy will check for new builds every time we run it.

 

image

 

The “Fix Client” button will let us repair some game and Launchbuddy issues. Launchbuddy searches for new builds every time you run it, but not while it’s already running. Sometimes there’s a new build while we’re are playing and launchbuddy is already running. In this case, you can download the new patch using this button.

image

image

The 3rd tab will let us set our in-game graphic settings. We can even save different configurations to apply in the 2nd tab.

 

image

 

This tab not only lets us save all account information such as name and password, but it also allows us to customize different graphic settings to which we can easily switch back and forth instead of changing in options each time we switch gamemodes. This is really helpful to those of us who don’t have a high end PC and need to lower the game settings when playing in world vs world, or other process demanding maps / gamestyles.

As you get used to the application, you will discover more ways to use it and it will become more rewarding.

 

 

I don’t want to end without showing this little tool you can find in the Serverselection Tab:

image

 

Once you click on Check Servers. You will see a list of IPs. Selecting the servers with lower ping might help you get a better response in game.

 

Also, choosing other ports can also help with ping issues. Some of the ports you can try are 80, 443 and 6112. This can help reduce ping and latency.

 

Ok! I think this is all for now! I hope you enjoyed reading this and hope you learned something. Maybe I can write another review on different resources for Guild Wars 2 that I’ve being using during my almost 5 years in Tyria.

 

Later and Cheers,

 

Telúrico Frevens

 

 

 

 



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