I am writing this on behalf of the Linux users, as well as the users who play this game on Windows under OpenGL. Let's face it, when playing this game in OpenGL mode, the performance is better, so there are a growing number of players using OpenGL to play this game.
Just one problem though.... the mouse. It is slow and jerky. It becomes nearly impossible to do BG's like Alterac Valley, as well as 25-man PVE raids. Why? Because it hard to actually point at a button to click it! Why? Because there is no Hardware Cursor in OpenGL in the Windows version of the game. I find it rather strange that the Mac users, who also have to make use of OpenGL get a Hardware Cursor, but the Windows/Linux users who use OpenGL don't.
More and more gamers are going to use OpenGL for the simple reason that it is better and faster than DirectX10. It now even far surpasses the special effects used in DirectX10, for the simple reason that it is an Open Source graphics system.
I am assuming that WoW was programmed using C/C++ (I could be wrong though), for the simple reason that it makes intense use of complex object orientation and the fact that it is ported to both Mac and Windows. So, I am pretty sure that porting Hardware Cursor from the OpenGL in the Mac version to the OpenGL in the Windows version will not be such a difficult task, since C/C++ is a multi-platform language.
The Linux users are not asking for a port of this game to Linux, because Wine can handle the Windows version very well, but all we are asking for is a Hardware Cursor. We don't expect to get support from Blizzard, because we know you don't support Linux as an OS. If you don't wish to do it for the Linux users, at least do it for the growing number of Windows users playing in OpenGL.
I read in an old Blizzard post in the USA forums that OpenGL on the Windows version is only there for testing. Yes, we know. But it is there, and it is faster, so we are going to use it and we demand a Hardware Cursor. There, over time, has been multiple posts on the USA an European suggestion forums (possibly Asian too, but I cant read chinese) for a Hardware Cursor in OpenGL mode... and we will continue posting until we get what we want. We do not pay €14/$15 per month for a slow mouse.
Implementing this will be one small step for Blizzard, and one giant leap for the users of OpenGL.
For those of you who are Windows users and have not tried OpenGL yet, add this to your config.wtf file:
SET gxApi "OpenGL"
Note that the performance of OpenGL is purely based on how good your graphics driver is.
Thank you.
[EDIT]
There is an American post here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13593920180&postId=135927070884&sid=1#0
I posted this to many other topics, since i see a lot of people still leaving wow for this problem here it is again:
Since i see a lot of people troubled by this thing, here i share a solution i found and use.
It is for Debian and Ubuntu users. Some people at ubuntuforums.org made a patch for wine 1.1.14 to make it use the regular desktop cursor in WoW so it makes u competely free from fps or latency issues. It's not perfect but as many and i agree (as a mere user) it's better than the current solution which is a lagged software cursor. With the patched wine package provided at post #35 at the link below you will have your desktop cursor along with the WoW cursor but you can preferably make the WoW one invisible with the addon provided at post #14 at the same link.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1051483
Ofcourse there are somethings that can annoy you. For exemple when u change the camera with mouse right button pressed, normally the cursor should become invisible but in this solution the cursor moves to the center of the screen and makes some vibration. When you release the button it comes back to its old place. This causes nothing but cosmetic bugs and the guy that posted the 35th post said he'll try to make a solution for that.
Secondly, the cursor does look like a normal linux cursor so no more glove look :/ and for the last thing, when u see an ennemy and mouse over him/her, normally the cursor shud change to a sword but in this one the sword appears behind the linux cursor and ofcourse the white linux cursor doesn'T go away.
After all said, please know that it is your own decision to try these. i have no more techinal knowledge than you do and i can't know if this causes different bugs in different systems. All i know is that i use it exactly the way i describe and i am very happy with it.
And last word for blizzard. I guess they still think that linux users don't play games but here is a little demonstration.The following passage is from an independent game website that is reallly well known and downloaded for millions normally.
It’s only been 2 days since the release of the Linux version and it already accounts for 4.6% of the full downloads from our website. Our thanks to everyone who’s playing the game on Linux and spreading the word. Here are a couple of nifty stats:
* About 12% of Linux downloads are of the .rpm package, 30% are of the .tar.gz package, and 57% are of the .deb package.
* More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)
do be aware that this wine patch is only a temporary workaround. It would be a lot better if blizzard still implimented this as this would benefit many Windows people. Bear in mind that my post is not only for the WINE users.
Hardware cursor and better opengl support would be nice. Better handling of textures would be nice too, since the game keeps crashing on systems with > 4GiB memory.
Q u o t e: Hardware cursor and better opengl support would be nice. Better handling of textures would be nice too, since the game keeps crashing on systems with > 4GiB memory.
I didn't noticed that Wow crashes on my system that has 8 GB memory and Ubuntu 64bit. Maybe that has something to do with some particular hardware or something. So it is not global.
I would like for Blizzard to implement hw cursor in OpenGL mode of a game, too. :)
Q u o t e: When i found that previous thread was blocked I cancelled my subscription immediately.
I linked all 3 OpenGL mouse topics in reason box as explanation. Blocking posts and pretending the problem does not exist ? No thanks.
Looking at that thread and all the deleted posts from it, it was clearly locked because it'd pretty much degenerated into morons /bumping and /signing.
I've got the same problem with mouse in wine+wow+opengl setup( Ubuntu linux 8.10 for 64 bit ). And I am voting for fix this stuff. Besides, in MacOS version OpenGL cursor working perfectly and fast...
I've been playing almost since the launch of the game and I've seen how WoW has evolved during this past years. Despite sometimes we could like/dislike the changes of the game or the client, almost 99% of the changes where to make the game better and make our playtime better. Sometimes by adding content, sometimes by changing classes and sometimes by just improving our gaming experience with new things.
Since World of Warcraft is evolving into something better through the years, why not let the Windows users have something that is already implemented in the Mac client?
I'm also one of the lots of players that think that a full OpenGL support for WoW Windows client is a great improvement.
I've been playing since launch and have just recently switched to playing on Linux. The game runs great on Linux and I would be so happy to remain playing solely there, but just last night in Nax10 I caused at least 2 wipes due to the cursor being so slow that I could not move it to a unit frame fast enough. I have never had similar problems playing on windows.
Please implement this feature and make the game on Linux as enjoyable as on Windows!
I am having a great time with dumping windows, Kunbuntu is working great. But i get graphics corruption allot. Mostly when porting and flying across long distances. One loaded in a are things run smooth. Have been sending the crash dumps in.
More support for linux and derivatives would be greatly appreciated.
I guess you people at Blizzard probably crazy busy with Ulduar these days, and we are all looking forward to its release as well. Still it would great to know if you are ever going to implement this feature. It would vastly improve the quality of game play for many people. And I suspect there are a few people on the "fence" waiting for it as well.
I use OpenGL since I run the game via wine, and for most parts it works really well. Still me and a few guildes who run Linux would like to see this taken taken the last few steps. We are aware that we are a minority of the user mass asking for this, but still we ask.
