Seeking Tweaking Help

Gothic 3 is an excellent game, however like most I am having crash problems. I need your help with tweaking suggestions for the US retail version. I would love to continue this game, even with its challenging bugs.

Some of my challenges seem unique. They are usually preceded by npc (named or generic) characters with floating heads (no bodies displayed). I am in the mid-40 level range, and would very much like to preserve my progress.

I should state first that I started my game using the demo, and loaded the demo save after purchasing the full version, so I could continue my progress. The crashes usually end up with a dump to the Guru.

The first such crash occured when I saw the floating head for Shakyar, The Desert Lion. I crashed when I initiated dialog with him. After that, I discovered that almost all the nomad and bandit characters have no bodies. Hashishim seem intact so far.

I have since also seen floating heads in Nordmar for named and unnamed npcs, and have also seen headless npcs in Myrtana. I did not see any headless or bodiless characters in the Nordmar monastery. Each appearance can cause a crash. If I do not immediately exit the area.

I am playing on a built pc running a professional retail version of XP SP2. The system includes an AMDX2 3800 CPU, 2GB Corsair RAM, BFG 7800 GTOC, and is assembled on an ATI A8N32SLI mobo. Here is what I have tried so far,

1. Reinstall DirectX from the Gothic 3 CD.
2. Shut down antivirus programs.
3. Set affinity for Gothic 3 to only one of the dual processors.
4. Set priority for Gothic 3 to High.
5. Defragment the hard drive.
6. Set video options to Medium.
7. Set video options to Low.

I see many more exotic tweaking suggestions in these threads, which involve editing some of the configuration files. It seems from the dates on these posts however, that this editing is related to the EU versions.

I should also state that the console can be activated, but displays only strange graphic representations of characters (small rectangles whose number corresponding to the number of letters typed). It can be shut down again without apparent damage. Some commands give the advertised results (such as teach all).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I look forward to your responses.

Originally Posted by PJParks
It seems from the dates on these posts however, that this editing is related to the EU versions.

Don't make that assumption - the US version has the same incorrect LOD and SpeedTree settings! Everything else should work as well - I haven't tried since I've been lucky with performance.

Thank you for your quick reply. Please explain LOD and SpeedTree. I am completely new to the internal language for the configuration files. Thank you again.

For these, go to the ge3.ini file in the ini folder in your game directory.

SpeedTree:

ResourceCache.u32SpeedTreeMaxMemUsage_High=1000000
…
ResourceCache.u32SpeedTreeMaxMemUsage_Medium=75000 0
…
ResourceCache.u32SpeedTreeMaxMemUsage_Low=500000

You'll initially find that the bold number is '100000' rather than '1000000'

For LOD:

;Global property for visual mesh lodding: 1.0f = default value > 1.0 use only for high end systems, < 1.0 for slower machines
Render.GlobalVisualLoDFactor=1.0

This is set to 0.01 by default.

The missing bodies/flying heads sounds for me like a problem with a demo-save, because (as far as I know) in the demo not all NPCs were in the world and you mentioned that this happens with Nomads, Bandits, and with (un-)nameds in Nordmar and some others in Myrtana…sounds for me that these "bodies" weren't in the demo and somehow with your saving from the demo you brought this problem to the mainversion!? Heard of some problems with the german version as well here :/

Thank you, txa1265. Any other common fixes I should make to the ini files would be very much appreciated. I will list the specific Guru error message when I get back into the Gothic world.

Thank you Obthic3. I think you are very likely correct. It seems that the errors occur in "new" areas with new npcs.

Is this repairable, or must I restart? I do hope that I can save my progress, but the game is good enough that I will restart if it gets me back into it. Thank you again.

Welcome to our forum!

Demo saves are not compatible. How could they, if the world includes only 10% of the content ?!
Often games don´t even like to find their own demo on a PC.
If you installed G3 while the demo was still present I would recommend you uninstall both, defrag the drive and install only G3. Then start over, or wait for patch 1.12, which should come tomorrow.

Furthermore stability problems are not normal, despite the claims certain reviewers like to make. Gothic 3 has sold several 100.000 copies. Constant crashes on more than a few percent of the PCs would cause riots in the official forums. Of cause the situation can still be improved, but there should be reasons if the game CTDs more than once every 5 hours on average.

Thank you Gorath. Based on some of your remarks, it seems that you may be involved in the development of Gothic 3. If that is true, please accept my sincere compliments to you and the rest of the development team for creating a world that is very fun to spend time in. Very challenging.

I have been playing computer games since 1968, and I enjoy the ones that have true individual characteristics. I look forward to the next patch. If it does not help me preserve my progress, then I will likely take a break from Gothic 3, uninstall, reinstall, and start over. From what I have seen so far this will be well worth the time. Well done.

Any further tips from you or other forum members for tweaking the ge3.ini file for use with an AMD X2 3800 dual core machine with 2GB RAM and a BFG 7800 GTOC would be very much appreciated. Even suggestions for in game modifications to the Custom graphics settings would be helpful. Perhaps a sticky with some of the most popular tweaks would benefit other users.

For those who are following this thread from its beginning, the error message I get from the Guru is contained in a dialog box labeled "Where is the guru?"

Gothic3.exe
caused a EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION
in module Engine.dll at 001B:300BE816
eCSphericalJointDesc:etTwistLimit()+483859 byte(s)

Thank you again for taking the time to read this post.

I think the Access violation problem is dealt with in one of the early threads here. You definitely can't play from a demo SG!! I've only ever had 2 CTD 's in many hours of playing!!

Thank you, Corwin. Yes, sadly, I now see the error in my ways. I should have started from a new game after I moved from the demo to the retail version.

I took one last look at my character's skills and possessions, moved the save file to another hard disk, and restarted. At least I can remember where I found a rare katana and a shiny new paladin sword in the wilds.

Thank you to all who helped with suggestions and diagnoses. If any members have tweaking suggestions for the ge3.ini file in the US retail game on a 2GB RAM 7800GTOC build, or in-game settings for Custom video choices, I would very much enjoy learning these.

The tweaking tips have been posted in the forum and in our wiki before. You shouldn´t really expect somebody else to spend his time copy & pasting them again.