Gothic 2 Lag

[GothicFighter]

Got this weird problem. Gothic 2 drops to ~ 10FPS when I exit Xardas's castle. If I turn "reflection" off it gets better but when I get into a large area it lags again and I have to lower the view distance to ~100%. It's not the PC's fault, all the other games are running just fine.
Using Xp SP3, specs are on the sig.

[NCONiall]

Theres loads of threads on that I had the same problem and a similar computer as you and it lagged but odd thing was when I intsalled the expansion pack everything was normal . Did you install the Ironkeep patch that might work other than that I think you need to edit one of the strings in the config but you might as well just wait for one the more smarter users to reply :)

[GothicFighter]

I've installed Gothic 2 Gold(so it has the expansion). I've also installed the IKS Patch and the other patches. Still lags:(.
edit: perhaps if I set the affinity of the CPU to only 1 core it will work. Please try this as I've just unninstalled Gotrhic 2 :p

[NCONiall]

I've installed Gothic 2 Gold(so it has the expansion). I've also installed the IKS Patch and the other patches. Still lags:(.
edit: perhaps if I set the affinity of the CPU to only 1 core it will work. Please try this as I've just unninstalled Gotrhic 2 :p

I can't the game is a bit wierd, it does what it wants, currently its running fine I set it to one core only but still had the same performance, I heard you need to edit values in the config file do a search on the forum you might find something.

[GothicFighter]

I can't seem to find anything in the forum. Gonna search on...

[GothicFighter]

I really want to play the game... Anyone?

[Maladiq]

Try and double the cache values in the ini reffering to memory. Like this:

zTexCacheOutTimeMSec=240000
zTexCacheSizeMaxBytes=32000000
zSndCacheOutTimeMSec=10000
zSndCacheSizeMaxBytes=60000000

EDIT: I can't remember if these were doubled the last time i installed the game.

[GothicFighter]

I will install the game right now and try that. Hope it helps!
edit:Nope, it won't work... I'll try to change the other values and report back.

[GothicFighter]

Now I ran into another problem... I've reinstalled the game. When the game start the intro videos are lagging and when it finally reaches the main menu, it simply stays at the image with the 3 water mages and there is no menu whatsoever...
I've reinstalled lots of times but the problem is still there...
Help...
EDIT: And if I stay long enough, I get a nice error:
X: XD3D_InitPerDX: Can't create D3DX context ! Error: DDERR_UNSUPPORTED

[Larisa]

EDIT: And if I stay long enough, I get a nice error:
X: XD3D_InitPerDX: Can't create D3DX context ! Error: DDERR_UNSUPPORTED

Read this about the nice error:
http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?p=1646462&#post1646462

[GothicFighter]

It doesn't work... Could it be because my resolution is 1080p?

[Larisa]

It doesn't work... Could it be because my resolution is 1080p?

Have you tried with various resolutions? (Must be accepted by your video card/monitor I guess)

[GothicFighter]

Just great... The game won't start anymore. I click the game then the loading mouse shows up. It disappears after a few seconds. If I look in Task Manager I can see Gothic2.exe @~7MB memory usage and low CPU usage. It has happened before. It's weird because I haven't changed anything...

[Larisa]

Maybe an antivirus/firewall prevents it from loading?

[GothicFighter]

It can't be. It worked this afternoon :dnuhr: Reinstalled it again and no luck...

[Maladiq]

Just great... The game won't start anymore. I click the game then the loading mouse shows up. It disappears after a few seconds. If I look in Task Manager I can see Gothic2.exe @~7MB memory usage and low CPU usage. It has happened before. It's weird because I haven't changed anything...

Close other programs. I had that problem when I used XP and left the yahoo messenger opened.

[GothicFighter]

It works! Thanks a lot! Now I'm gonna see what's with the video lag and error.
edit: I'm soooooo stupid. When the game would still lag, I have selected "Windows 95 Compatibility mode" and when I've uninstalled the game I thought it will remove this... A few seconds ago I thought I'll try to run with compatibility mode on and when I've reached the compatibility tab, what do I see? It was already selected... I've deselected it and now the game starts good.
I'm an idiot :P

[Dimus]

@ GothicFighter:
Low FPS in G1 and G2 - it is well known bug of ATI drivers. There is a lots of information from Technical FAQ (http://forums.ag.ru/?board=gothic&action=display&s=0&num=1192576961) taken from AG.ru forum (translation to English):
Common problems of videocards ATI Radeon X1xxx-HD4xxx series (possible and HD5xxx too) on Windows XP:
At installed videocard ATI Radeon and driver versions above 6.1, in Gothic and Gothic 2 are observed strong FPS dropdowns (up to 5 frames per a second) in a some places of the world. This problem is present at all driver releases since Catalyst 6.2. Apparently, ATI doesn't want to fix this bug. The given problem is characteristic for Windows XP only, in ATI drivers for Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is fixed.
Possible solutions:
- Add in boot.ini /3GB key (for systems with 4 GB RAM though will probably work and with a smaller RAM size).
- For videocards X1xxx series install Catalyst 6.1 or more older.
- Replace an ATI videocard with any from nVidia.
- Play on Windows Vista or Windows 7.

The reason of low FPS may be in virtual storage misuse, in particular a video memory, therefore before game start it is necessary to occupy a video memory part.
Possible solutions:
Number one:
• Download the Parallax Mapping demo (http://developer.amd.com/downloads/ParallaxMapping.zip) and start some windows expanded in the full screen. Number of windows depends from the resolution: 1024x768 - 12 windows; 1280x1024 and 1680х1050 - 9 windows; 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 - 7 windows (actual for videocards with 512 MB a video memory, for cards with 1 GB probably it is required in 3 times more, for 256 MB in 2 times less).
• Collapse all windows and start a game (the game resolution should be same with the desktop resolution, in another case the videocard will release video memory occupied with a demo and FPS will not raise).

Number two:
• Download Video Memory Stress Test (http://nvworld.ru/files/downloads/utils/vmt.zip) program.
• Create a shortcut for vmt.exe with parameters 256 /Lang:English, for example:
"C:\Program Files\VMT\vmt.exe" 256 /Lang:English
• Start this test with following settings:
Continuous test, Log errors, File log,
Test type: DirectX, Test set: Small, Device: Primary video driver, Surfaces size: 1024x1024, Ignore color bit mask
• Minimize test window and start Gothic II.

Attention: Video Memory Stress Test besides a video memory also loads one CPU core.

[GothicFighter]

I don't really understand the explanation:dnuhr: I have to open 7 instances of ParallaxMapping-D3D9.exe and then run Gothic II? I did like this and the game was lagging even more...

[Dimus]

I don't really understand the explanation:dnuhr: I have to open 7 instances of ParallaxMapping-D3D9.exe and then run Gothic II? I did like this and the game was lagging even more...

Strange. This metod looks a bit irrational, but it works (it seems that not for all). For example, for user who gave this hint, FPS rises from 18 to 40:
http://s43.radikal.ru/i102/1004/fb/3e3e94481db2t.jpg (http://s43.radikal.ru/i102/1004/fb/3e3e94481db2.jpg)http://i060.radikal.ru/1004/bd/a980537c1c6ct.jpg (http://i060.radikal.ru/1004/bd/a980537c1c6c.jpg)
Did you tried to minimize all windows of demo before start Gothic II?

[GothicFighter]

Yup. I'm gonna try with a smaller number of apps and report.

[GothicFighter]

Nah.. tried opening only one and tried opening 10. The same result...The weird thing is that if I disable reflections the game runs great until I reach another area. Can I try that GPU stressing thing instead of the parallax thing?

[Dimus]

Can I try that GPU stressing thing instead of the parallax thing?
Yes, you can try it.
- Download Video Memory Stress Test (http://nvworld.ru/files/downloads/utils/vmt.zip) program.
- Create a shortcut for vmt.exe with parameters 256 /Lang:English, for example:
"C:\Program Files\VMT\vmt.exe" 256 /Lang:English
- Start this test with following settings:
Continuous test, Log errors, File log,
Test type: DirectX, Test set: Small, Device: Primary video driver, Surfaces size: 1024x1024, Ignore color bit mask
- Minimize test window and start Gothic II.

Attention: Video Memory Stress Test besides a video memory loads also one CPU core.

[GothicFighter]

When I've pressed the Start button on VMT it said that "Your card can be not compatible with this test!". I've ignored this and opened Gothic II. Guess what..It works! No lag at all, only occasional stuttering from the CPU load.
Thanks a lot!
Now, is there a way to change to 1920x1080 resolution from the in-game menu and the world won't look fat?

[Onisuzume]

1090×1080?! What is that for weird resolution? :dnuhr:

[GothicFighter]

Sorry:p It's 1920x1080.

[Dimus]

Now, is there a way to change to 1920x1080 resolution from the in-game menu and the world won't look fat?

Try to change in the Gothic.ini file value of parameter:
extendedMenu=1
After this manipulation you can select in the in-game menu much more resolutions.

[GothicFighter]

Done this. Now the people are looking fat

[Dimus]

Done this. Now the people are looking fat

Fat NPCs in the wide screen resolutions isn't a fatal bug. After talk with somebody fatness changes to normal before next game reload. Some guys trying to make script patches to change default aspect ratio (4:3) for the wide screen resolutions, but I can't saw a normal solution yet. Therefore I prefer to ignore this problem.

[GothicFighter]

Okay. I've talked to Xardas and now everything's fine. Instead of VMT, which wouldn't work normally because my video card was not supported, now I use Unigine Heaven Beanchmark. It loops that benchmark in the background and Gothic 2 runs smooth!
Someone should Post this solution in the Technical FAQ.