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Voodoo 3 and Gothic
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RPGDot Forums > Gothic - General

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I know it says on the gothic site that there are slight performance issues with the voodoo 3, but for me its pretty unplayable. My system specs are 256 MB's RAM, 933 PIII, and a voodoo 3 2000 PCI. I know it would run if I bought another video card but I'm cheap, and I can run games with better graphics like Deus Ex and Max Payne w/ maximum detail. The game always freezes for me, usually right after a load. I just don't see the graphics in gothic as good enough to justify an upgrade. Namely in the Old Camp, my framerate drops to a stutter even with the graphics turned way down. I just made this post to warn any ppl w/ a voodoo 3 planning on getting this game, and also I am wondering if anyone who has a voodoo 3 finds this game playable.

I really wanted to play this game too, but I guess I'll just throw it aside and hope for a patch.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 2:02 am
 
Gorath
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Have you tried to type 'toggle frame' into the console to find out the exact framerate?
Second question, are there any visual problems?
Itīs hard to tell what causes the freezing. Generally speaking the problems with voodoo 3 cards were solved after patch 1.08h (your version is 1.08j).
Did you disable fog and scalevideos in the gothic.ini? Closed all programs before starting Gothic?

Btw., I support your warning.
Gothic needs a lot of RAM, also on the graphics card. A GeForce2MX 32MB is acceptable, a Voodoo 5500 good and a GeForce2 Pro 64MB excellent.

Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 2:37 am
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I just wonder if devs are getting sloppy or something, cause I see games w/ much better graphics, better textures, and bigger environments that don't require such horsepower. I think its a matter of sloppy code. I know rpg's are complicated, but I remember pumping everquest graphics all the way up on my old 233mhz PII w/ 64mb ram and a voodoo 3 w/o slowdown.

And I don't feel like opening the game to do a diagnosis, cause I know it won't help, but i can assure you the framerate dropped to 5-10 FPS. In a game so oriented in an action fighting engine, framerate problems can really kill the game.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 2:46 am
 
Gorath
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quote:

On 2001-12-29 20:46, Anonymous wrote:
I just wonder if devs are getting sloppy or something, cause I see games w/ much better graphics, better textures, and bigger environments that don't require such horsepower.


Is there an RPG with better graphics? I donīt know one. A comparison with FPSs would be unfair.
Itīs true the game doesnīt scale well. You either have stuttering or you donīt, almost independent of resolution and details. Some people here with a 1GHz machine with 512MB and a GeForce2 Pro can play Gothic at 1600*1200*32@max and still get the de facto frame rate limit of 20 fps.

To say it again for other people: Gothic needs a mediocre PC as of todaysī standards, or at least something close to it.

[ This Message was edited by: Gorath on 2001-12-29 21:07 ]
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 3:04 am
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Well i haven't playing an RPG since.... well everquest, and I do realize RPG's are much more complicated, but you cannot deny that there are better looking games (not rpg's) which don't require nearly the amount of horsepower. Wizardry 8's graphics are not much worse than that of Gothic, and the requirements aren't nearly as high. At this point I'm just venting...
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 3:15 am
 
Gorath
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Hey itīs okay. Can you still return the game and get your money back?

Sure, there are many games which look better than Gothic, but I said RPGs because of the combination of complexity (AI, stats, no. of NPCs, size of the area) and visuals.
Lets take an extreme example, the very mediocre shooter Alice. Alice looks amazing, especially the black&white chess kingdom, but it only has to control lets say 50 opponents, most of them donīt talk, and an area of 100% of Gothic. You get the point? Add the over the years brilliantly optimized quake engine to the lower needed ressources and you get very low requirements.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 3:33 am
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Yeah, thats why I mentioned wizardry 8 (even though i've never played it). I just really want to play gothic cause all of those "sleeper" people smoke weed all day. I tried to join them, but i got to frustrated. I just edited the .ini file and i think i'll take another stab at it, but I think I might have to exchange for wizardry 8 since it got better review scores.

But another example. Look at the new everquest expansion. You need a MONSTER of a machine to run that, but in the screen shots I really don't see that much of a difference graphicwise to the original. Its things like that where I get to think devs are getting sloppy since computer are so cheap these days. But I guess I have to consider all the ungraphical code that goes into a game.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 3:40 am
 
Gorath
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I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle. The nongraphical part is important and increases the hardware needs, but the programmers stop optimizing the code speedwize when they reach a certain milestone.

I also havenīt played Wizardry yet, but from what I heart I assume it will be very different to Gothic. Like 80% random roundbased combat, 15% char management and 5% the rest. I played Wizardry 7 for a short time. It had a tough learning curve, but the game had a great atmosphere.
It might be a good idea to exchange Gothic for Wiz8. Try Gothic again when itīs on budget and you bought a new graphics card for Morrowind.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:12 am
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I won't have a problem w/ morrowind cause that one is making its way to my xbox. I'm yet to see bumpmapping that can compare to my xbox on my PC. Can't wait for morrowind though. I hope that game is a lot better than both gothic and wizardry 8 combined, and it damn well better be w/ the delay.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:30 am
 
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Bumpmapping on the Xbox is the same as a Geforce 3, since they're practically the same hardware. Bumpmapping won't look any better on the Xbox than a PC with a Geforce 3 or even a GF2 if just dot 3 is used.

Try playing Evolva, the dot 3 bumpmapping in that game is incredible.

Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:41 am
 
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And that's why I said MY PC. I'm too cheap to go out and buy an expensive GF3, so for me, the bump mapping on my xbox is superior. That is why I will buy morrowind for xbox and not the PC. But, ya I'm sure some bump mapping must look real good on a high end PC w/ a GF3 at a high resolution.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:57 am
 
Gorath
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If I had one I would also go for the Xbox version. Nice effects, less trouble.
Post Sun Dec 30, 2001 5:04 am
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