How to improve Gothic 1 to enjoy it in 1080p

[Azureguy]

If you can get the game to run, it's still stuck in a small resolution, 25 FPS and no true 16:9 aspect ratio. In order to change that, you need patches and tolls from World of Gothic. I've put all tools into one zip archive for your convenience so all you have to do is to install it and have fun

Gohtic 1 - Improvement Tools

The archive includes a ReadMe file that explains each step. Since many programs are in German language, this should help you to install all these fixes successfully. The ReadMe also is formatted so that you don't need to scroll all the time.



And in case you're still struggling with running the game at all, here are all known solution. it is advised to use these steps in the order shown here. If you're lucky it works already after step 2, otherwise good luck with the other two steps.

• Go to the Gothic/system folder, right-click on the Gothic.exe file and set the compatibility mode to "Windows XP - Service Pack 3".
• Uncheck the box at the "Enable Steam Community In-Game" option under Properties - General
• Follow the instructions described here.
• Try out the "kill rundll32.exe" trick described here.

For me personally, the first step was sufficient - I was using the German-language version though. I was trying out step 3 at the English-language version and it worked as well, but couldn't test the improvement tools because I screwed up and had to reinstall the game and used German this time around.

Edit: Found a fifth solution step right here.

[NebulousNite]

Thanks for the tips. I just installed Gothic, and immediately had horrible lag issues. Changing compatibility mode fixed the problem!

I'll have to take a look at the other information you provided.

Thanks!

[P3ndula]

Lenovo G570 ATi HD6370M Windows 7 64bit

1) Vanilla install.
2) Ran dx8 install from DirectX 8.0 dir in game folder.
3) Installed Azureguy's Gohtic 1 - Improvement Tools. Video editing takes a while.
4) XP3 compatability mode / Run as administrator

Works fine. Laptop only. Can't play the top titles at the moment so it's a chance to play through the oldies in my steam collection.

[JValden]

Thanks a bunch!

After installing these mods I got gothic 1 working just fine in high-res and high quality on my Win7 64-bit laptop!

I've played for around 30 minutes and didn't run into any performance issues, startup issues or anything major gameplaywise anymore.

I'm loving the game, controls take a second to get used to, The voice actors may ham up their lines pretty badly and there may be some camera issues, but it doesn't really bother the gameplay.

Great fix!

[Redspirit]

Thanks for that tool, it's really usefull.
Also, thanks for tips, Gothic is now running fine on Win 7 64-bit after first two and "kill rundll32.exe" tips!

[Kuroha]

Just a note, you don't need to do the whole kill rundll32 thing.

Just go to the run menu, type: "shell:games" (without quotes), click the options button, and then uncheck the two boxes at the bottom. That fixes the problem permanently.

[kercheblitz]

First off, THANKS to the OP for the great resources. So helpful!

Game is running fine, but I can't seem to get any 1920 X 1080 choice in the video settings, even after installing/running all the patches. The highest it goes to is 1600 X something-or-other. Is there a way to force 1920 X 1080?

Thanks again!

[Azureguy]

@kercheblitz: I'm not sure how the patch works myself. It sets up 1920*1080 for me automatically since this is the maximum resolution my graphics card supports anyway, and my desktop is of that resolution as well. I guess you're not supposed to set up anything in the options menu and just enjoy the results, whatever they may be :P
In other words: If you don't already have 1080p resolution in-game even though your computer supports and uses it, then you've done it wrong.

Don't worry though, you can still change all other options in the menu and the game won't crash, just don't touch the resolution option just to be save.

[lenskip]

any way to make the text bigger?

http://imgur.com/iL11S

[Thegreenthing16]

Worked great for me, thanks!

However when the game launches it no longer says the game is running through Steam, and thus the time played is not recorded. Is there a way to fix this without adding it as a non-steam game (doesn't record time played)?

[Azureguy]

Originally Posted by Thegreenthing16

Worked great for me, thanks!

However when the game launches it no longer says the game is running through Steam, and thus the time played is not recorded. Is there a way to fix this without adding it as a non-steam game (doesn't record time played)?

The PlayerKit (first installer in my improvement tools package) provides a custom exe, and even if you start the game through Steam it still starts the custom one and Steam doesn't regocnize it.
I'm afraid there's nothing you can do about it, the tools require the custom exe after all.

[Shin]

Thank you for taking the time to put this together. In my case the Gothic_I_VideoFix (after trying to guess which german buttons meant continue) failed to do the conversions due to being out of memory (Vista64/16Gb) and the game failed to run with a D3D error.

Guess I get the real retro-gaming experience

[Azureguy]

Originally Posted by Shin

Thank you for taking the time to put this together. In my case the Gothic_I_VideoFix (after trying to guess which german buttons meant continue) failed to do the conversions due to being out of memory (Vista64/16Gb) and the game failed to run with a D3D error.

Guess I get the real retro-gaming experience

You can always skip the conversion process by clicking "cancel" on each conversion progress window. This way the videos won't be converted and remain their native size, but you still get the resolution and aspect ratio fix. In fact, aborting the conversion process while installing the videofix is the only way to show the original videos in their native resolution, they're not upscaled at all. (the unpatched version of Gothic 1 upscales the videos as well, whereas the videofix converts them to Full HD for those who don't tolerate any black borders at all while playing the game).
So as long as the computer won't crash within the first 5 to 10 seconds of starting a conversion process, you should be able to do this workaround.

I wish I could provide an alternative that doesn't force the video conversion, but this fix is the only one that can get you 1080p resolution. There exist a separate aspect ratio patch, but I don't know if it unlocks 1080p in the video options.

___________________________________

Edit: Only noticed the thing with the D3D error just now. I've searched for a solution and found something, but it's German. Here's a quick translation for you:

PLEASE NOTE that the tips were written down in 2004, so any graphics driver-related solution should be obsolete by now. Unless you actually use a computer from 2004/2005 and have an ATI card, don't use them.

• 1) Sometimes the game is unable to start in fullscreen mode due to GPU drivers, specific graphics cards, DirecX, Windows or a little bit of each. The exact cause is unknown.<br>A solution is to change the resolution manually in the "Gothic.ini" file (found in the "systems" folder). Try out anything BUT the current resolution set up in the file.
  Another possible workaround is to change the desktop resolution (recommend for 32-bit systems).
• In your graphics card options (Direct3D settings) search for "Enable table fog emulation" and activate it.
• Uninstall your current graphics card driver and install another version.
• If all else fails (and have an ATI card), do this: uninstall catalyst driver, then restart, uninstall DirectX (by using DirectX Eradicator), then restart, install DirectX 8.1 as provided with Gothic II, then restart, install Catalyst 3.9.

The D3D error seem to be related to old cards in general. In the strange case that you have such an old card with Vista, here are some tips from the good old days:

• In case you use Radeon 7500/8500 User or GeForce3, you can apply Patch 1.08k. Gothic 1 is version 1.08j by default, but this is a specific patch made for these cards only and cause problems if everything else.

• Try out changing from 32-bit to 16-bit and turn off Anti-Aliasing as well as anisotropic filtering.

[Azureguy]

I have good news to everyone who wants to play Gothic 2 as well: I finished Gothic 1 and searched for improvements tools for that game as well. To my surprise, Gothic 2 works without any tweaks - no steam overlay issues, no compatibility set to Windows XP required, no nothing. Looks like after Gothic 1 and 3, Gothic 2 is a well-made game

For those of you who still want to fine-tune the game, there exist a videofix tool as well as an aspect ratio patch. The video fix will make 1080p permanent and it won't reset, and optionally you can convert the videos or leave them as they are. The aspect ratio patch will optimize the cameras and whatnot for 16:9 an 16:10 resolutions.

Unlike the Gothic 1 version, videofix tool for Gothic 2 lacks the aspect ratio patch and must be installed separately. It is still required th install this one since it's the only way to get 1080p resolution permanently. Although you can change the resolution in the Gothic.INI file manually and it will work the first time you start the game, it'll reset to the default 800x600 resolution once the game has been closed, so you would need to change the resolution each time. To prevent this, the videofix is needed.
Remember that you can skip the video conversion process and left the videos untouched by simply clicking "Cancel" on each conversion process window that shows up.

As for the aspect ratio patch, here is a comparison: unpatched, 4:3 - patched, 16:9.
As you can see, the Field of View definitely is expanded, but it's not a world of difference.
The aspect ratio patch will also change the main menu background image so it'll be stretched in it's native 4:3 aspect ratio with black borders. The loading screens are supposed to be stretched this way as well, but I couldn't see a difference. Maybe they already are in the appropriate aspect ratio format and didn't need any changes to begin with, so the program left them untouched. I honestly don't know, but as if loading screens would make a big difference for immersion anyway :P
If you don't want to apply this change, simply uncheck the lowest box during the installation process (uncheck "Startscreen-Patch").

___________

One last thing to all new players of Gothic 2: The game's main menu music won't fade if you start a new game or load a savefile immediately after you've started the game. In order to prevent your first 5 minutes of the game to be screwed, wait for about 20 seconds and then start a new game so the sound of the video isn't played together with the main menu music.

[tutumaster]

Hello guys,

The game launches fine on my computer but i have an huge issue : the framerate sucks hard ! It's between 20 and 25fps except when I look the sky. The game is on XP SP3 compatibility mode and no extra mods were added. Does somebody have the same thing ?

My computer's specs :
Phenom X4 II 955 @ 3.2Ghz
8GB RAM
GTX470
Win7 64bits

All the recent games run fine on this computer, why Gothic performs so badly ?