Curse

Fayt Godsend · Apr 11, 2007, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Ok, so I play guild wars, and I have some loading screen lag...it could be due to my dial up...or not. I also run EQ2 with absolutely no lag, and the only time i lag on GW is on loading screens.

So here is what I want to know, I have heard some people talking about some -image switch thingy...can someone please walk me through that? Tell me how to do it, because if it can get rid of a little bit of lag on loading screens, I would be eternally grateful to you guys. please help me, I love GW but hate loading lag...

-Fayt Godsend-

tijo · Apr 11, 2007, 08:18 PM // 20:18

I'll refer you to that thread http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=94814 it should prove useful. Also system specs would help. Some games tend to like some brands of hardware than others. For example, GW seems to like ATI graphics cards more than their nVidia equivalent, and it really dislikes netgear routers if not configured properly.

Fayt Godsend · Apr 11, 2007, 08:27 PM // 20:27

Hey, I'll try that link, I think i have pretty decent specs...I was reading the contig thing, I don't know a whole lot about computers at all, so maybe you could help me out with the contig program?

Fayt Godsend · Apr 11, 2007, 08:45 PM // 20:45

Ok, so i did the image thing, explain to me what it is doing, since i have dial up it is going to take me forever to decompress...but i will only have to do this once right? It's been going for about 10 minutes now and still at 0%...i am doomed for a day...

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 11, 2007, 10:57 PM // 22:57

On dial-up...well you need to get a copy of a friend's updated GW.DAT file. Or go to a place that has accessible higher speed/bandwidth internet and start and finish the update process. You only need a fully UPDATED GW.DAT, nothing else. You copy that DAT file into installation at home and replace the old one, you will be updated then.

A full -image will take an extraordinarily long time on a dial-up connection but the benefits will be well worth it.

Usually updates are small so you won't have this problem but since this is a new install you have to play serious catch up.

Word of advice:

Reformatting/Changing your PC? Copy your GW.DAT to a safe place.

Additionally there is also a method to install a fresh copy from your old DAT. It will check the old DAT with the version online but save you a lot of time.

Fayt Godsend · Apr 12, 2007, 11:40 AM // 11:40

Well, im not to knowledgable when it comes to computers, so i don't know how to do this other stuff, but the -image thing was incredibbly easy, so...i will be out of the game for a few days, running the download whenever i can (at night over night, during school, stuff like that) and hopefully I will be on by monday? if not im gonna need a GW patch, to help with the cravings...

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 12, 2007, 12:16 PM // 12:16

Good luck! No chance you can get the DAT downloaded on a friend's PC with faster net?

A fully updated DAT is 2.9 GIG.

Now the good news is if you have the CD version it will mean you to download a lot less than that...

But, either way, it will be well worth it, your game will be a lot smoother once you are fully updated.

Guild Wars was designed around the idea of playing on a dial-up connection.

I play on a satellite connection, I have more bandwidth than dial-up, but my inherent latency is much higher.

So, I get my updates fairly easily, I just play the game 1000 ms <or more> behind everyone else, lol.

Fayt Godsend · Apr 13, 2007, 11:21 AM // 11:21

So how would this work? My little brother plays, and he has cable, the internet is slightly faster, and his updates and such are maybe only 4-5 minutes, whereas mine are near an hour everytime...So if he did this -image thing he would get it done much faster than I, but how do we copy the files? The are of coarse to big for a floppy, and to big for all the flash drives i have(they are all portable, and pretty small) and this may make me seem incredibley computer illiterate, but I can't mail them can I? lol it has been running for nearly 48 hours...and has only finished maybe 4k of the 50k files...

What exactly is this update doing? I thought I heard somewhere that it is decompressing all the files...Is this gonna bog my computer down? Decompressing means to make bigger right?

Etta · Apr 13, 2007, 11:37 AM // 11:37

Wow wait a sec! You doing -image with 56k modem? Or am I missing something here? As for the .dat file tranfer, dvd burner is your friend if you have it that is.

You don't have to do -image all the time, what it does is download all the of the GW' files to your pc. That's right all 30k-50k files, so do it once if need be. When that's done you will notice a faster loading time. 48hrs and only 4,000 files that doesn't sound right at all.

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 13, 2007, 11:54 AM // 11:54

Yes, he'd get the file much faster than you, decompressing is the slower part of the process but unless the update server is really flooded it's not too bad. Ideally, you don't want to have to download the whole game every time you turn around so backing up the DAT routinely isn't a bad idea. The good thing about the update process is that you can interrupt it and then start it up again, if necessary.

If he has Guild Wars installed, it's simple: just grab a copy of his GW.DAT and overwrite the old GW.DAT file in the Guild Wars Folder on your PC. But, you will need a way <obviously> to get the file to your PC, so an external hard drive helps. Without a portable drive, the only *other option is to span archive the DAT and record across a few CD's <assuming you don't have a recordable DVD>

So, see if you can borrow someone's USB Drive for an evening.