World of Warcraft

What works

Everything tested works:

- Game installs and loads.
- Logging in
- Character selection/creation
- Server selection
- Adjusting in-game settings
- LFR Raiding / LFD dungeons
- Auction house

Installation from Battle.net works (of course, this means you need to get it running through wine first...)

Update through Battle.net works.

What does not

Performance and frame rates are and clipping is below par.

I could navigate in-game to the Store, but attempting to close transactions leads to a blank page. In Windows you will see a page with banking details.

Multiple errors entering world / zoning / moving outside, making the game almost unusable:
A Streaming error has occured. (WOW51900322)

Some locations were effect worse than others, for example, Oribos that was un-loadable. this made some character unplayable, the game not staying connected for long enough to do anything. Flying from flight point was patience testing and required many relogs as did hearthing.

Some graphical artefacts; for example, on the map: a bright green bar along the bottom, the Dragonflight campaign heading graphic missing(in the flyout Quest List), leaving a bright green bar. Also present in the minimap (for example, in the Venthyr faction hall in Sinfall).

Command line variables for starting WoW:

env WINEDEBUG=-all DXVK_LOG_LEVEL=warn STAGING_SHARED_MEMORY=1 STAGING_WRITECOPY=1 __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 WINEPREFIX="%WoW prefix%" wine "Standalone WoW folder on ext4%/Wow.exe" -d3d11

Tested with new install, scanned and repaired, fresh WINEPREFIX, latest Wine Staging 8.3 for Debian, updated NVIDIA drivers, v525.89.02. No addons, default graphics option except Workarounds.

Workarounds

winecfg: Windows is set to version 10; CSMT disabled.

Graphic Quality: 4

Ambient Occlusion Type: ASSAO

FidelifyFX CACAO produced a grid like effect and rough black outlines around all graphic assets.

DXVK is almost a required addition, performance issues are insignificant with it. DXVK requires the following .dll overrides set in winecfg:
- d3d11 (native, builtin)
- d3d10core (native, builtin)
- dxgi (native, builtin)
- d3d9 (native, builtin)

What was not tested

- PvP systems

- In-game Voice Chat

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Nvidia
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

The need for DXVK in itself justifies a Silver rating, but the disconnecting and overall degraded performance dictate a lower score.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
32GB RAM
Asus ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super

Kernel: 4.9.0-279-antix.1-amd64-smp
Nvidia 396.24
DE: Xfce 4.16.0