Gothic 3 Unofficial Info Thread

[Crafty35a]

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Well, that's wonderful as I have a Samsung DVD drive. Should I not even open the box then and send it back?

From everything I have read, Gothic 3 does NOT use Securom. (Other than Cubby's speculation) You should be fine!

 

[deadseasquirrel]

As I mentioned above, I absolutely loved Gothic2. I put so many hours into it and never got bored (as I did with Oblivion). When I read that they were releasing it across the pond a month before US, I was initially bothered. But with NWN2 being released in 2 weeks, it works out well for me. Not that I expect to like NWN2 more than G3... it's just that my son had such a ball playing NWN1 with me on the LAN (and with his friend) and I know that we'll be doing A LOT of that again real soon, which would greatly cut into my G3 play time.

So, while not by my design, I'll end up getting around to G3 after the US release + another patch or 2.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Crafty35a

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Well, that's wonderful as I have a Samsung DVD drive. Should I not even open the box then and send it back?

From everything I have read, Gothic 3 does NOT use Securom. (Other than Cubby's speculation) You should be fine!

Actually, now that I search Google, a lot of sites state that Gothic 3 is using SecuROM:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&...B%22gothic+3%22+%2Bsecurom&btnG=Search

If there is anything contrary to that, I'd like to see it. I do know that atleast the latest version of Gothic 2 released in the US did not work with Samsung drives, because I have the game and I had a Samsung dvd drive (game bought this past summer). And searches around the internet revealed this to be a common issue for people and in all situations they stated having a Samsung drive as well.

Maybe a newer version of SecuROM works with Samsung drives, I don't know.

 

[Hadsus]

I shot off an email to Gogamer saying basically I have a Samsung drive, I've read these popular drives have problems with the copy protection and if I can't run the game I expect you to make things right with me. At least I have something on record before the fact. My Sammy drive is one of the newer ones in a new conroe system (see sig) so I expect the game to work. If not I'll expect something in return.

 

[Mem]

Hadsus:It works in both my LG DVD burner and Samsung DVD-ROM drive,just tested it.

 

[Hadsus]

Alrighty......thanks for the heads up.

 

[Hadsus]

Got the UK version in my grubby hands today. Installed and patched without incident......thankfully SecuROM didn't choke on my Samsung DVD player. Spent 30 minutes or so with the game so far. As far as first impressions go, they are very positive. Melee is handled this time by the mouse and seems to work relatively well. The atmosphere is outstanding....just like the previous Gothic games. Voice acting is good and so is the music. Widescreen is indeed supported. I report some other thoughts later.

 

[Mem]

Widescreen is indeed supported. I report some other thoughts later.

Why would I lie .


Game update:I have seen some collision glitches where some mobs are half stuck in a cave wall ,still no crashes as such while in game,Gothic 3 is more of a resource hog then Oblivion IMHO,graphics in Gothic 3 look sharper then they do in Oblivion which I actually prefer.No real killer bugs as suck.There are a lot of quests etc .. in this game which you can do when you feel like or even decide not do them,open gameplay of the game is great.


I hate the loading times of main game and quicksaves, but hey price you have to pay for a good game I guess.


One tip(maybe minor spoiler ,so don't look below).
There seems to be specific teleport stones somewhere around most towns, so try and find them, saves you walking back to the towns,think I have found about 5 or 6 so far.I'm still enjoying the game and would say I like it better then Oblivion for sure,nothing like having the classic Gothic feeling back from the old days.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: Mem

Widescreen is indeed supported. I report some other thoughts later.

Why would I lie .


Game update:I have seen some collision glitches where some mobs are half stuck in a cave wall ,still no crashes as such while in game,Gothic 3 is more of a resource hog then Oblivion IMHO,graphics in Gothic 3 look sharper then they do in Oblivion which I actually prefer.No real killer bugs as suck.There are a lot of quests etc .. in this game which you can do when you feel like or even decide not do them,open gameplay of the game is great.


I hate the loading times of main game and quicksaves, but hey price you have to pay for a good game I guess.


One tip(maybe minor spoiler ,so don't look below).
There seems to be specific teleport stones somewhere around most towns, so try and find them, saves you walking back to the towns,think I have found about 5 or 6 so far.I'm still enjoying the game and would say I like it better then Oblivion for sure,nothing like having the classic Gothic feeling back from the old days.

Quite a few people on various forums are reporting a memory leak problem which ultimately causes heavy paging and out of memory errors when attempting to save, even with 2GB of RAM. Hopefully ths is something they can fix with the next patch.

 

[skace]

I got my copy, wahoo

 

[Mem]

Quite a few people on various forums are reporting a memory leak problem which ultimately causes heavy paging and out of memory errors when attempting to save, even with 2GB of RAM. Hopefully ths is something they can fix with the next patch.

I have notice if you play for a long time without loading a save point it slows a down a little,it is not bad ,but if you save and reload seems to be fine.

The AI could be better in some places since the Orcs tend to stand around even if you kill one in certain places, they only challenge you if you get close to them.It is not a perfect game but very playable and enjoyable IMHO.

 

[flexy]

this game is freaking aewsome...i have to admit i never played oblivion (because i i thought my system is too old for it)...so i only saw someone playing it many times and cant compare it to oblivion.

But Gothic 3 is awesome, i tweaked my XP system down a LOT....eg. i only have 5 or so of the most essential services running and disabled EVERYTHING, viruschecker, mbm5 etc...which gives me roughly 820 MB free ram upon booting in XP ! Mind you i only have 1GB of Ram !!

I play on medium but "object details" on high....and there are SOME occasional stutters....but its very well playable. Mind you 1GB is the MINIMUM required to play it.

Awesome how you can just walk around in the wildernis...and right now i am on hunt around Cape Dun. Everything is life-like....eg. deer runs away from you...or you see wolf fighting deer etc...i am VERY impressed. Day/Night cycles....Rain....and i only saw a FRACTION of the game since i am still in a very early stage.

VERY GOOD RPG-feel to it.


I wish i had 2GB of ram and a better gfx card than my old X850XT...but as said its definitly playable .

HIGHLY recommended....but if you want it - DO get at least 2GB memory total..or tweak your system EXTREMELY if you only have 1GB.

Edit: It looks GOOD already....i dont even DARE to wonder how it might look with a super-high-end card (X1900XT and up)...or R600 when it comes out...and then use chuck-patch driver AND use ANTIALIASING and (now the kicker)...ADAPTIVE ANTIALIASING......i think i would **** my pants !!!

 

[ArchAngel777]

Flexy,

What resolution?

 

[Hadsus]

I'm running 1680X1050 with details maxed. There is no AA or AF adjustments in game though the game could use it. Graphics are good but there is still some jagginess and distant graphics are blurred quite a bit. Frames run fast for me but I still get the feeling that the code could have been optimized more. Technically, I think the graphics are better in Oblivion, but the world is more lifelike and immersive in G3.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
Flexy,

What resolution?

AA777,

1280x1024.

I get 35+ FPS on average even with lots NPC going on, lots of vegetation...eg. in the woods or in a village....often up to 50+ FPS, depending. VERY playable. The occasional stutters are more of a problem than the actual FPS...but still good for my specs.


mind you: X850XT, OLD All on medium, object details at MAX.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: flexy

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
Flexy,

What resolution?

AA777,

1280x1024.

I get 35+ FPS on average even with lots NPC going on, lots of vegetation...eg. in the woods or in a village....often up to 50+ FPS, depending. VERY playable. The occasional stutters are more of a problem than the actual FPS...but still good for my specs.


mind you: X850XT, OLD All on medium, object details at MAX.

I don't remember where the X850XT ranked in terms of performance, but if I recall correctly, it was one generation behind the 7800 GTX. That gives me somewhat of a way to gauge performance. I run all games at 1280 X 768, so I am hoping the performance is pretty decent on my system.

Time goes by so fast... I purchased my 7800 GTX over 1 year ago and it only feels like a month has went by. That is the good news, because the wife won't let me upgrade for another year, so I sure hope this thing lasts me yet another year!!! Heres hoping!

Thanks for the info.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: m21s

Originally posted by: Mem
One Gothic 3 owner has posted the readme file of Gothic 3.

11. Copy Protection
The copy protection of this game requires the installation of drivers ? they are installed automatically during the installation of the game. These can be uninstalled completely by executing the file Support\DrvSetup.exe on your disc. For more details please visit the following URL: http://www.tagesprotection.com/main.htm?page=5.5.htm

I dont like the sound of that.
Sounds similar to starforce.

Think the US version will have this on it?

Well that blows... i'm definitely not getting it for the PC then. Any plan for the 360 or PS3?

 

[skace]

FYI on copy protection. It is deffinitely not like Starforce. I'm not even sure if I had to enter a CD key. It deffinitely didn't require a reboot though and no weird front-ends came up before the game.

 

[Hadsus]

Originally posted by: Hadsus
I'm running 1680X1050 with details maxed. There is no AA or AF adjustments in game though the game could use it. Graphics are good but there is still some jagginess and distant graphics are blurred quite a bit. Frames run fast for me but I still get the feeling that the code could have been optimized more. Technically, I think the graphics are better in Oblivion, but the world is more lifelike and immersive in G3.

This guy is an idiot......there are AF settings in the custom menu. (I'm pretty sure its AF but it could be AA).

BTW, for those who care about the bugaboos, I've had two hiccups the past couple of days. One corrupt save file (couldn't exit the game without task manager) and one crash to desktop.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Originally posted by: Hadsus
I'm running 1680X1050 with details maxed. There is no AA or AF adjustments in game though the game could use it. Graphics are good but there is still some jagginess and distant graphics are blurred quite a bit. Frames run fast for me but I still get the feeling that the code could have been optimized more. Technically, I think the graphics are better in Oblivion, but the world is more lifelike and immersive in G3.

This guy is an idiot......there are AF settings in the custom menu. (I'm pretty sure its AF but it could be AA).

BTW, for those who care about the bugaboos, I've had two hiccups the past couple of days. One corrupt save file (couldn't exit the game without task manager) and one crash to desktop.

Both probably due to a memory leak.

I have one question about the game itself, though: What happened to the Orcs? In Gothic 1 & 2 they were skull-faced and hulking, intimidating beasts. The orcs in this game bear no resemblance to the Orcs of old. Any explanation for this jarring discontinuity?

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: Hadsus

Originally posted by: Hadsus
I'm running 1680X1050 with details maxed. There is no AA or AF adjustments in game though the game could use it. Graphics are good but there is still some jagginess and distant graphics are blurred quite a bit. Frames run fast for me but I still get the feeling that the code could have been optimized more. Technically, I think the graphics are better in Oblivion, but the world is more lifelike and immersive in G3.

This guy is an idiot......there are AF settings in the custom menu. (I'm pretty sure its AF but it could be AA).

BTW, for those who care about the bugaboos, I've had two hiccups the past couple of days. One corrupt save file (couldn't exit the game without task manager) and one crash to desktop.

LOL, I almost railed you for that comment until I noticed the posters... LOL...

 

[Mem]

BTW, for those who care about the bugaboos, I've had two hiccups the past couple of days. One corrupt save file (couldn't exit the game without task manager) and one crash to desktop.

I have had two crashes so far(very recently) since Saturday,think it is due to a memory leak.There is an option to disable anisotropic filtering in options,so it is "AF" Hadsus is on about.

I'm playing as a rebel which is fun killing the orcs and freeing the towns.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Can the game run fast on my X1800XT?

 

[Mem]

Can the game run fast on my X1800XT?

Yes if you are prepared to drop resolution down/tweak custom settings.

 

[Mem]

I found this info at Gothic forums, on next patch update.

German Krawall has posted a new interview ( http://www.krawall.de/artikel.php?s=c&artikel_id=22340 ) with JoWood Producer Michael Paeck. The highlights are...

- The next patch will be released in under 5 - 6 weeks.
- He stumbled into one of Krawall's "traps" and revealed in reply to a question about what they would like to improve in any future versions of Gothic that there will be an add-on. When asked to confirm that the add-on is indeed in development, he realized his mistake and went back to the official line of "we're evaluatig a bunch of options" but he more or less confirmed it by accident.
- He commented on the poor performance of the game engine. He said that there is a bunch of leftover stuff in there from all the extensive testing that they did when they were evaluating technologies to squeeze the entire game world into memory.
- The game has sold very well so far. A second production run is currently en route so any places where the game has sold out should be able to restock soon.
- The rest of the interview is pretty much just PR blah-blah as he tries to talk himself, PB and JoWood out of any responsibility for the rather poor state of the game.
The project's complexity is solely to blame, he says . An example he gave is that after any substantial bug fixing, they need to recompile the entire world which is a process that supposedly takes a full 11 hours.

Link.