Gothic II

Gothic II

Developers   Piranha Bytes

Publishers   Atari   JoWood Productions   Nordic Games

Engines   ZenGin

Release dates Windows November 29, 2002

Gothic

Gothic	2001
Gothic II	2002
Gothic II: Night of the Raven
Gothic 3	2006
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods	2008
ArcaniA: Gothic 4	2010
ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif	2011

Key points

For Windows 8 apply the fullscreen border fix (not needed for the GOG.com version).

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums for game series

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys
Steam		Gold Edition.
GamersGate
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Retail		DRM: SecuROM and SVK Protector disc check.

Version differences

The Gold Edition is a complete edition which includes the Night of the Raven expansion.

Downloadable content (DLC) and expansions

Name	Notes
Night of the Raven	Sold separately or in the Gold Edition.

Essential improvements

Patch v1.30 / Add-on Patch 2.6 (German retail)

The latest retail patches for the German version are Patch v1.30 for the base Gothic II and Add-on Patch 2.6 for the Night of the Raven expansion. All English versions and German digital distribution versions already include the latest patches.

Skip intro videos

Change playLogoVideos setting Edit gothic.ini Change playLogoVideos=1 to playLogoVideos=0 Save your changes. The game will now go directly to the main menu when launched.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\system\GOTHIC.INI

Save game data location

	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saves

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
GameSave Manager		Gold Edition.

Video settings

Video settings.

Graphics option	Option	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Field of view (FOV)		For a wider (but still locked) FOV see Widescreen resolution.
Windowed		Works with limitations; see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Works with limitations; see Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See Anti-aliasing (AA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Force in the graphics card control panel.
High frame rate		Use the Windows 8 fixes on Windows 8 and newer.

Widescreen resolution

Gothic II only natively supports 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, and 1440x900.

The widescreen mod below makes the game Hor+ instead of Vert- and lists most widescreen resolutions.

Use widescreen mod (recommended method) Install Gothic II Gold or Gothic II and the Night of the Raven expansion. For the GOG.com version rename Gothic.exe to Gothic2.exe. Install Report-Version: Gothic2.exe 2.6.0.0 Install Gothic 2 NOTR : Patch for wide screens, then go to the Gothic II system folder and run it. Choose your resolution and apply it; if it isn't listed choose one with the same aspect ratio. If your resolution wasn't listed open Gothic.ini and change zVidResFullscreenX and zVidResFullscreenY to match your resolution.

Set resolution manually (alternate method) Edit Gothic.ini Find extendedMenu=0 and change it to extendedMenu=1 Set zVidResFullscreenX= and zVidResFullscreenY= to the width (X) and height (Y) of your resolution. Save your changes and launch Gothic II. NPCs may look fat in widescreen resolutions. Talking to an NPC will fix this until the next time you load a save.

Windowed

Task-switching may cause repeated Tab ↹ input when you return to the game (simply press Tab ↹ again to make it work normally).

Task-switching during video cutscenes will crash the game (there are only a few of these).

Change zStartupWindowed setting Run the game at least once. Edit gothic.ini Change zStartupWindowed=0 to zStartupWindowed=1 Change scaleVideos=1 to scaleVideos=0 (otherwise videos render in the corner of the screen). Save your changes.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

See Windowed for the limitations of this mode.

Set up borderless fullscreen windowed mode Install the Fullscreen border (Windows 8) fix, even if you aren't on Windows 8. Set zStartupWindowed=1 in Gothic.ini (see Windowed). Set your desktop resolution in-game. Gothic II should now display as a fullscreen borderless window.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Set zTexAnisotropicFiltering in Gothic.ini Open Gothic.ini Change zTexAnisotropicFiltering=0 to zTexAnisotropicFiltering=1 and save your changes. This is only an on/off setting; if it doesn't work or you want a higher setting, force it in the graphics card control panel.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Set zVidEnableAntiAliasing in Gothic.ini Open Gothic.ini Change zVidEnableAntiAliasing=0 to zVidEnableAntiAliasing=1 and save your changes. This is only an on/off setting; if it doesn't work or you want a higher setting, force it in the graphics card control panel. Forcing a higher setting in the graphics card's control panel may cause black videos (sound but no picture).

Input settings

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus		No cursor; buttons and wheel work but can't change settings.
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Set in Options, Game Settings, Invert camera.
Controller
Controller support		Limited native support; see Controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Can't map camera controls or axes.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Set in Options, Game Settings, Invert camera.

Controller support

Set enableJoystick in Gothic.ini Open Gothic.ini. Change enableJoystick=0 to enableJoystick=1 and save your changes. Some axes are not be detected and some inputs cannot be set to controller axes, e.g. camera controls.

Audio settings

Audio settings.

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sfx and music.
Surround sound		Set Speakers to Surround.
Subtitles		Enabled by default; set in Options, Game Settings.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		Set sound provide to Creative EAX 2.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	CC	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish				Available only in local retail release, Muve and CDP.pl.
Spanish

Network

Use Gothic Multiplayer mod for multiplayer (requires Gothic II Gold or the Night of the Raven expansion).

If the installer can't find the game copy Gothic.exe to Gothic2.exe (see Mods can't find Gothic II).

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Dedicated		Dedicated server software available for Windows and Linux.
Self-hosting
Direct IP		gmp:// URLs do not connect to IP addresses.

Issues fixed

Black videos (sound but no picture)

This is caused by forcing anti-aliasing. Either method below will fix this.

Disable video card anti-aliasing Open the graphics card control panel. Set anti-aliasing to Application-Controlled. Apply the changes.

Disable video scaling Edit gothic.ini Change scaleVideos=1 to scaleVideos=0 Save your changes. Videos will now display centred.

Fullscreen border (Windows 8)

Gothic and Gothic II show a window border in fullscreen mode on Windows 8.

The GOG.com version already includes this fix.

Apply the fix Download the Gothic and Gothic II fullscreen border fix. Extract it anywhere and run install.bat. Both Gothic and Gothic II will now enter fullscreen mode correctly (you do not need to restart your computer).

Poor performance

Gothic II may have a low frame rate on Windows 8 and later.

Apply necessary fixes Install the Gothic and Gothic II Windows 8 fixes. Gothic II should now have better performance.

"C: maximum texture size is lower than 32" error

This error happens if Gothic II isn't able to automatically change to 32-bit color mode.

Change zVidResFullscreenBPP setting Edit gothic.ini Change zVidResFullscreenBPP=16 to zVidResFullscreenBPP=32 Save your changes and run Gothic II again. It should now be able to select the resolution correctly. If it still can't detect your resolution, try setting it manually (see Widescreen resolution).

Can't Alt+Tab (GOG.com)

The GOG.com version prevents task switching to avoid some potential issues (e.g. crashing during FMV cutscenes).

Remove GOG.com fix Open Programs and Features (appwiz.cpl). Find and remove the GOG.com Gothic 2 entry. If you are using Windows 8, install the Gothic and Gothic II fullscreen border fix. The game will now allow you to task switch at any time.

Constant Tab input after Alt+Tab

After task switching the game may constantly repeat Tab ↹ input; press Tab ↹ again to stop this.

Mods can't find Gothic II

Some mods expect the game executable to be called Gothic2.exe.

Copy Gothic.exe to Gothic2.exe Go to the installation folder. Go into system Make a copy of Gothic.exe. Rename the copy to Gothic2.exe. The mod should now see the game correctly.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium II 400 MHz	Pentium III 600 MHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2.6 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM	64 MB of VRAM