Gothic 3 Gothic 3 Exception Access Violation Error

jaguar10

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I just bought Gothic 3 after having played Gothic 2 Gold several times which I loved. I can't get Gothic 3 to start. After installing & pressing start I get a box that says Exeption Access Violation in module engine.dll at 001B: 3016D673. I then downloaded the newest patch 1.12, I think and it still wouldn't work.

I have a 3 year old Gateway computer with a 915 G Intel chipset and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900. I updated the drivers last year. I've been playing other games on this computer for years and I've played Gothic II Gold with no problem. I don't have an add-on graphics card like Nvidia. I'm not a tekkie and after reading all about all the bugs in this game I would have no idea how to change ini files, etc. unless I get specific instructions on how to do this. Is there a way to fix this bug or do I need to go out and buy a new graphics accelerator thing? Please help a 53 year woman who loves the Gothic games. Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
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Hi,

if it´s still possible I would suggest you return the game.
Onboard graphics is generally very slow and not fast enough to run games. Even if a game works it´s unlikely you will get the maximum visual quality.
A graphics card upgrade on a 3 year old PC is a bit tricky. We need the exact specification to give you precise advise whether or not it´s worth the effort.

Gothic 3 needs a solid graphics card with shader technology 1.4, 2 or 3. Intel 915G is probably incompatible because it only supports older shaders. Even if you could make it work the chip is certainly far too slow.
The higher the shader version the more sophisticated visual tricks the graphics card can render. It should be obvious that there´s no reason to buy anything below SM3.0 (or even shader 4.0 for the same price) nowadays. Most 100$ cards should be okay - if they fit into your mainboard.
Furthermore G3 needs 1 GB RAM, runs okay (!) with 1.5 GB and likes 2 GB. It´s really not fun with 1 GB or less. RAM is less of a problem than the graphics card - RAM prices are at an all-time low.
A CPU with 3 GHz or equivalent is fine. 2 GHz are tolerable.

Did you play the first Gothic? If not, try the demo to find out if it works on your PC. The game is a 10$ download directly from Piranha Bytes.
 
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Thanks very much for the info. I was afraid of that. What info do you need to give me advice on a new graphics card? I haven't played the first Gothic yet but planned to. Happened to find Gothic 3 in my local thrift store in brand new condition so since I loved playing Gothic 2 so much thought I'd give it a try. I briefly looked at my BIOS this morning & I have 512 Ram which on the box says is sufficient. I've played all the Myst games, Dreamfall, Fate, New Bard's Tale, Gothic II, etc. on this computer with no problems so was hoping Gothic 3 would work as well. Thanks.
 
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The Media Accelerator 900 is not that bad (Shader 2.0), but it has only 128 MB ram in combination with only 512 MB main ram Gothic 3 is not playable on your computer.

from the link:
Intel GMA 900 utilizes system memory for both system and graphics usage, balancing both usages for optimal performance.

This is the problem with your system and Gothic 3.

I recommend 2GB RAM (75 €) and a decent graphic card:
ATI x850XT 256 MB Ram (90€) or better.
 
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Thanks very much for the info. I was afraid of that. What info do you need to give me advice on a new graphics card? I haven't played the first Gothic yet but planned to. Happened to find Gothic 3 in my local thrift store in brand new condition so since I loved playing Gothic 2 so much thought I'd give it a try. I briefly looked at my BIOS this morning & I have 512 Ram which on the box says is sufficient. I've played all the Myst games, Dreamfall, Fate, New Bard's Tale, Gothic II, etc. on this computer with no problems so was hoping Gothic 3 would work as well. Thanks.

These are all older games. HiddenX´s infos show that the onboard graphics chip isn´t that bad, it´s only relatively slow. Fast enough for 2 year old games but not really an option for new ones. Stand-alone cards are often 10 times as fast. Onboard graphics solutions are made for office PCs, not for gaming.

G3 with 512 MB is more or less unplayable. When the game came out several players made performance tests. 1.5 GB RAM is the point at which it gets fun because the stuttering gets away - and 2 GB is still an improvement!
Practically your PC is below G3´s minimum requirements because the graphics card uses a significant chunk of the 512 MB. So practically you have much less.

Further infos needed:
Do you have an Intel Pentium 4 or an AMD Athlon 64 and how fast is the chip?
Does your mainboard have an AGP or a PC-Express slot to plug a graphics card into? Alternatively the exact mainboard name would be helpful. It´s possible you can find such info on the invoice or in the mainboard manual. You can also open the case, use a flashlight and look for a cryptic name in relatively big print. It´s typically located between 2 of the expansion slots. You can see an example in the following picture. Here the name is printed above the memory slots. The typical location would be vertically between two PCI or AGP slots, maybe where the "CE" logo is.
If you open the case please have a look at the power supply too. How many Watts does it have?


The Media Accelerator 900 is not that bad (Shader 2.0), but it has only 128 MB ram in combination with only 512 MB main ram Gothic 3 is not playable on your computer.

[...]
I recommend 2GB RAM (75 €) and a decent graphic card:
ATI x850XT 256 MB Ram (90€) or better.

The ATI 8xx series only supports shader models up to 2.0. Disqualified!
Finding a solid card for 100 bucks should be possible though.
 
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I used to own a Gateway myself in the 90s when they were still doing business in Europe. Finding info about the mainboard was a nightmare. Gateway is usually using Intel OEM mainboards that you can't buy at retail. Also, the system manuals are very often made for an entire series of PCs. The information will be roughly corresponding to what you have inside your box but there can be differences.

So... if I were you, I think I'd just call Gateway and ask them if your system can be upgraded with an AGP or a PCI-Express graphics card and what kind of card they would recommend (with regards to the installed power supply).

Secondly, ask them what type of DDR-RAM the system needs (PC-2100 which equals DDR 266MHz, PC-2700 which equals DDR-333MHz or PC-3200 which equals DDR-400MHz) and what the maximum amount of RAM is that the system will accept.

Then you can report the results back to us and we'll tell you what to make of it :) .

Alternatively (and I think this would really be the best option), you could go to a small local system builder/service/repair shop and have those guys check the upgradeability for you. For a small fee of -say- about $20 they should be able to tell you what exactly can still be done in regards to upgrading the graphics card and the RAM.
Then, if they manage to come up with an upgrade plan, you could order the components through them and you'd have a "guarantee" of sorts that your upgrade will/should work. At least you could hold them accountable if something goes wrong.
Just be sure to check/compare prices online before ordering the upgrade to make sure that you don't get to pay an "elderly lady bonus" on your order :biggrin: .
Some shops still unfortunately try that sort of crap on unsuspecting older people. I had an older (almost 80 years old) customer myself just this past weekend who was offered a EUR 1100.00(!!!) telephone from some guy who fixed his ADSL line.
 
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The ATI 8xx series only supports shader models up to 2.0. Disqualified!
Finding a solid card for 100 bucks should be possible though.

It's really good enough for Gothic 3 - I'm still using a X850 pro :) - but you're right cards with Shader model 3 should be available for 100 bucks. All newer NVIDIA cards have shader model 3.
 
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Thanks for the info guys!! I went out today and bought another 512 of Ram just to see if it would work. It didn't!! Still getting same error message. I looked under the general info tab on my computer and it says pentium 4CP 3.00 GHz, & it also says I have 0.99 GB of Ram (?). Shouldn't I now have 1 GB since installing the new ram? One question - when I restarted computer I did not get a new hardware detected notice - is that supposed to happen when you install new memory? Just want to make sure I installed it correctly.

I have several slots to add upgrades; in fact I did have an add-on graphics card at one time but I returned it because I had to keep changing my screen resolution all the time. I still have one empty slot for more ram and about 3 other smaller slots for graphics cards, etc. We have a MicroCenter store nearby and that's where I went to get the RAM - only $36.99. They said if that doesn't work to come back & we can look at new video cards.

Thanks for your help & suggestions. Guess I'll have to try a new video card next.
 
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That's normal that you don't get a new hardware detected notice when installing new RAM. It's not part of the plug & play stuff and doesn't need a driver so it's just "there" after you boot up. And the reason for 0.99GB is that your graphics on-board chip still "steals" its 128MB memory from the main system memory so that is OK as well.
A P4 3GHz is not too bad by the way. Now all you need is a decent graphics card (need to check whether your slot is AGP or PCI-Express) and maybe another 512MB of the same type or even 1GB.
 
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@jaguar10

and don't forget all the usual stuff:

a) latest drivers for graphic card, sound card, maybe motherboard
b) latest directx 9 drivers (June 2007)
c) deaktivate background processes like anti-virus software
d) install the game with administrator rights
e) tweaks
f) Gothic 3 wiki
 
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HI,
Guys im getting the same Exception Access Violation Error as jaguar10 does and my system should support it completely i have and amd athalon 64-bit 3400+ 2 ghz chip with 1 gb ram and nvidias geforce4 ti 4200 128mb card and this is the first game that has ever given me this kind of error that i remember and ive been playin games forever i just got this game, also i downloaded the most updated drivers for my video card and directx still pops the error every time i try to play the game it goes though 2 cinemas then pop so please either email me at eagledragon4@juno.com with gothic 3 in subject title or post a response here and i will be checking back to see thnx.
 
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I think I had to install a fix for using a 64 bit system that came with the game. Did you do that? There's also a dual core fix as well!!
 
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Welcome to our forum! :)

Your graphics card is not compatible. GeForce 4 cards only support shader model 1.3 but shader model 1.4 is the minimum requirement.

Apart from that your card is far too slow and 1 GB RAM is not enough for fluent play.

Time to invest ~150 bucks in another GB RAM and a new graphics card. Will make your PC much faster. ;)
 
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If thats the case then why is it that minimum requirements do not state that? and as far as the dual core fix the dvd disc had that fix and i ran it but still nothin. Thnx guys i will be getting a new vid card soon and ram for my comp is a little cheaper.
 
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Deep Silver´s European version said the following:

CPU 2 GHz
Windows 2000/XP/XP64
1024 MB RAM
4,6 GB Hard Disk Space
128MB 3D Directx 9 Pixel Shader 1.4
DirectX 9.0c

Recommended specification:
CPU 3 GHz
Windows 2000/XP/XP64
1,5 GB RAM
4,6 GB Hard Disk Space
256MB 3D Directx 9
DirectX 9.0c


The US publisher decided to cook his own soup.



The 150 bucks I mentioned included both RAM and graphics card. Make sure the card has SM 3.0. Everything upward of a GeForce 6600GT will be okay.
G3 scales until 2 GB RAM, so don´t go for 1.5 GB.
 
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problem installing G3 cant seem to find help plzzz help

ok when I try to install the game pressing install on my computer it says that I t cannot find file setup.exe. but when I press install or run program the install shield wizards starts and after some time it says


Feature transfer error
Feature: Gothic III
Component: DataSubDirs
File: F:\GothicIII\_compiledMesh.pak
Error: Incorrect function.

plz help
 
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If your DVD drive is "F" then i think there is a problem with either your DVD drive or the game's DVD..
 
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ok when I try to install the game pressing install on my computer it says that I t cannot find file setup.exe. but when I press install or run program the install shield wizards starts and after some time it says


Feature transfer error
Feature: Gothic III
Component: DataSubDirs
File: F:\GothicIII\_compiledMesh.pak
Error: Incorrect function.

plz help
Have you got other games with problems as well -> DVD drive, if not the DVD itself. So when you just bought it, there should be a law in your country specifying you can return the broken DVD.
 
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You should mail tech support and post in the official forum. Increases your chances. ;)
 
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