Gothic 3 on new PC == slideshow

[BillSeurer]

I just built a new PC (see below) and am trying some older games that ran but not well on my older rig. I got to Gothic 3 and its performance is terrible, just a few FPS. This ran OK albeit with some settings scaled back on my older machine so I don't understand what is happening. Some newer games and a few older ones I tried run fine on the new machine so it isn't something fundamentally wrong.

Does anyone know of a consolidated list somewhere of Things To Do To Get Gothic 3 running ok? I searched and found a bazillion tips all over the place many of which are contradictory.

Thanks for any tips!

Gothic 3 with 1.12 patch and community patch 1.6

MB: ASUS P5E3 PREMIUM/WIFI-AP @n LGA 775 DDR3 Intel X48 ATX Intel
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz
Video: DIAMOND 3870X2PE31G Radeon HD 3870 X2
Disks: multiple Western Digital Caviar SE 500GB SATA 3.0GB/s as a RAID
Memory: Crucial 4GB kit (2GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-8500
OS: Vista 64

 

[Gorath]

Try it with CP 1.52. The latest version disabled all multithreading. Going back to XP is also a good idea.
Do you have a Creative sound card?

 

[BillSeurer]

Why did 1.6 disable multithreading?

Anyway, as I was trying various combinations of suggested .ini settings I stumbled across a suggestion to replace the Gothic3.ttf file with any other Windows true type font. I did so and now the game works fine. What the heck?

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

This is one of the most bizarre bug solutions I've ever encountered.

 

[BillSeurer]

I dunno why but the font was it. Are some fonts actually code or something?

 

[Gorath]

Why did 1.6 disable multithreading?

Spellbound found out it was the reason for many technical issues. So they disabled it.

Anyway, as I was trying various combinations of suggested .ini settings I stumbled across a suggestion to replace the Gothic3.ttf file with any other Windows true type font. I did so and now the game works fine. What the heck?

Weird.
If it´s not already in the G3 optimization thread in the G3 forum you could add it. Maybe other people have the same problem.

 

[Dantre]

I had that issue too, which I fixed by renaming that gothic3.ttf file. I agree, that's probably the strangest thing I ever had to do to fix a bug.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

@Dantre: Vista, too ?

 

[gaboru93]

oh yea... long live vista (sarcasm)

 

[Pladio]

What did you rename it to ?

 

[Dantre]

@Dantre: Vista, too ?

Yup, Vista. How did you guess?

What did you rename it to ?

What I renamed it to doesn't really matters. By renaming the file to anything else than its normal name, the game will not find it, and use some other font instead which apparently doesn't cause the slowdown.

 

[ToddMcF2002]

I wouldnt be too quick to blame 64 bit Vista. I'm running an 8800GTX with 4 gig of RAM on Vista Ultimate (64 bit) and Gothic 3 plays perfectly. I've jacked up all the view distances and cache settings as well.

The only issues I've experienced were Nvidia driver crashes, but only in LOTRO at this point. Once every few days, so I'm living with it. Its always the WHQL driver that does it.

 

[BillSeurer]

I actually copied a new font from the installed windows ones and renamed it to gothic3.ttf.

 

[BillSeurer]

I wouldnt be too quick to blame 64 bit Vista. I'm running an 8800GTX with 4 gig of RAM on Vista Ultimate (64 bit) and Gothic 3 plays perfectly. I've jacked up all the view distances and cache settings as well.

Hey, could you share your .ini settings? I looked around but didn't see any "tuned for 4GB" sets. I fiddled around manually and inland things look pretty good but along the coast looking out to sea shows some weirdness.

 

[Gorath]

On WoG is a thread with a collection of inis for fast PCs with 2-16 GB RAM. Unfortunately only in German.

 

[gaboru93]

16GB RAM?? omg I gotta see this!!

 

[BillSeurer]

How different are the settings in the German version (e.g., are they named the same)? My German is pretty rusty but I can probably figure it out.

 

[Gorath]

Shouldn´t be that much of a problem. The German options are in the same order and in most games use a mix between German and English.

The modified inis go way beyond the stuff in the options menu though.

 

[BillSeurer]

Can you provide a link to the thread?

 

[Gorath]

http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?t=287998&page=3