[Odysseus]

I'm not saying the following is a miracle solution, but it solved all the crash problems I experienced. I hope it works for you, too! What I did:

1) When I finally received the game, both patches (1.7 and 1.8) were out. I thus installed the game followed by both patches.

2) I went into the Gothic III/ini/ge3.ini file and changed the following value:

ResourceCache.u32SpeedTreeMaxMemUsage_High=

In the original file : 100000 (one hundred thousand)
I changed it to: 1000000 (one million)

This is not a tweak, it's obviously a bug that the patches don't correct.


3) I launched the game. I accepted the "High" details options proposed. I didn't change anything.


4) I noticed that the game crashed regularly. More often than not, after 1 or 2 hours game play. And not always when saving/reloading, but quite randomly. I got several error messages regarding Memory problems.


5) I then dowloaded this little Memory Manager program:

http://magic56.free.fr/rambxpfr.html


Sorry, I know it's in French, but it's quite easy to use. Click on "Telecharger" to download, then install it.

Don't worry about configuring it!


6) Prior to playing Gothic 3, I close all the opened programs, including Antivirus, firewall, etc.

I don't bother about programs running in the background. What matters is that there is no open windows (of other programs) and that all the icons next to the clock (bottom right hand) relate to programs that do not run.

7) I then run RAM Boost XP. After a few seconds, the reduced green icon goes on the task bar and indicates the percentage of available free RAM.

Right-click on the icon, then click on the option : "Optimiser la RAM".

Wait a few seconds until the program reclaims RAM.

8) Launch Gothic 3!


As I said, this worked for me. So far, I have been playing during the last 3 days without a single crash. And long gaming sessions, too, saving (F5) every 10 minutes or so.


The only hitch I still have is that the game tends to slow down/freeze for a few seconds whenever I enter an area full of NCPs or animals (such as deers).


My system:

Pentium 4 3.2MHz
2 GB RAM
Windows XP SP2
nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT

[WernerTWC]

THX for sharing your experience, added to the FAQ.