You have an older computer and want to have fun with Gothic III - here we go:
You need:
2 GB ram or more (use dual channel technique if your motherboard supports this)
2 GHz CPU (AMD XP 2400) or better
a good 256 MB grahics-card ati x800 gto or better (at least shader model 1.4)
a good harddisk - raid is better
best tuning tip for all games (if you have the time)
fresh windows xp install + SP2
install the newest grafics driver (ati catalyst 6.9) (nvidia 91.47)
install Gothic 3 + DirectX9.0c + patch
if you have a second harddrive install your windows swapfile there
this article explains all about swapfiles:
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/Swapfile_Optimization/Swapfile_Optimization_01.htm
my tip:
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/Swapfile_Optimization/Swapfile_Optimization_17.htm
defrag the harddisks
Gothic detail settings:
everything on maximum
except for
vegetation-> low
shadows -> off = there are still there, but in low quality
DoF (Depth of Field) -> off at least for ATI x8xx cards otherwise black graphic errors can occur
my personal taste -> bloom off, too -> everything is more "natural" then
***
TFT-Tip:
If you have a high resolution TFT and want to play in the native resolution
with a smaller game screen use the option "centered timings" in the ATI control center. 1280x800 looks very good on a native 1280x1024 TFT for example and fps increase.
***
All I have heard so far about ram
512MB to low - playing is not fun
1,0 GB sufficient - you can live with it
1,5 GB satisfactory - the fun begins
2,0 GB good
Of cause this depends also on how much background processes are running -
deaktivate virus scanner, firewall, starforce, unneccessary starting processes etc.
The problem with not sufficient ram is: your computer begins to swap beween memory and harddrive and then a high end cpu and graphic-card will be thwarted by the hard-drive speed.
Conclusion:
ram is the bottleneck for Gothic 3
***
Don't overclock too much
Although it can be very compelling to overclock cpu-clock, front side bus, ram timings, gpu-clock especially on an older system ... this can result in random crashes in Gothic 3, because Gothic is very demanding in all categories at once.
For ati-cards the ATI-Tool
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ is the best overclocking tool.
***
Deactivate auto-update:
change the gothic 3 link to (right mouse click on the icon / select properties)
english:
C:\program files\Gothic III\Gothic3.exe
german:
C:\programme\Gothic III\Gothic3.exe
***
Deactivate starting logos
Delete all but one entries in C:\program files\Gothic III\INI\logo.ini with a text editor. One entry must stay, because Gothic need to initialize some video settings.
***
What is the "post processing" feature?
you can set post processing to
0: OFF
1: Bloom (german: "Überstrahleffekt") - shader model 2 is needed
2: Bloom and DoF = Depth of field (german: "Tiefenunschärfe")
I think shader model 3 is needed, on my shader model 2 ati card
I had black boxes around torches etc.
Shadows:
I don't miss them - and with shadows off I can set texture details to maximum and set the resolution to 1280x1024 on my older system - this was more important for me.
***
Another ati tip:
aktivate <Enable geometry instancing> in the ati 3d settings
this should help your cpu.
***
Another ati-tip:
Disable the Catalyst AI in the control center, so you can avoid some
strange effects like shining through crystals etc.