Readme.txt for Gothic II.

Contents:
-------
1. System requirements
2. Installation
3. Short introduction
4. Controls
5. Further additional keys
6. Possible problems with sound- and graficcards
I graficcards
II soundcards
7. Performance tuning
8. Support and updates
9. Error-Form
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1. System requirements

Minimum:
Windows 98/2000/XP
256 MB free memory (for Windows XP 512 MB recommended)
DirectX 7 compatible graphic card with 32 MB texture memory
CPU Pentium III 700 (or fully compatible) (1,2Ghz for 3d-cards without T&L)
2,2 GB free HD memory
DirectX capable soundcard
Recommended:
Windows 98/2000/XP
64 MB new generation graphic card with hardware T&L and a 24 bit z buffer
384 MB free memory
CPU Pentium III 1.2Ghz (or fully compatible)
2,2 GB free HD memory
DirectX capable soundcard with hardware 3d support
Optimal:
Windows 98/2000/XP
64 MB new generation graphic card with hardware T&L and a 24 bit z buffer
512 MB free memory (DDR)
CPU Pentium III 2Ghz (or fully compatible)
2,2 GB free HD memory
DirectX capable soundcard with hardware 3d support, (EAX prefered)
Mouse-wheel
Attention: Windows 95 and Windows NT (all versions) are not supported by GOTHIC
II.
It is urgently recommended to install the latest service pack under Windows 2000
.
2. Installation
Insert the installation CD and simply follow the instructions.
Please make sure that you have installed DirectX 8 or later. If you have not ins
talled
this version yet, the installer will ask you to do so at the end of the process.
Reboot, if directx was not up to date and simply doubleclick the GOTHIC II short
cut.

3. short introduction
The mine valley of Khorinis. The glorious days of the once productive mines in t
his
small seaside region were long over. Surrounded by the impenetrable magical barr
ier,
the slaves eked out their miserable existence in this apparently natural prison.
One brave man managed to burst the bonds of imprisonment.
Following his own call to freedom, he ventured deep into the subterranean temple
s.
Willing to do whatever was necessary, he went out to banish Evil and destroy the
magical
barrier forever. Spurred by the hatred of men long-suppressed, the prisoners str
eamed
trough the only pass to freedom.
No one in Khorinis had been prepared for this.
Too long had they lived under the deceptive notion of security granted by the ap
parently
indestructible magical dome. The small militia garrison could not put up enough
forces
against the onrush.
After numerous bloody clashes, many captives succeded to escape and found safety
in the
woods or rugged mountains of the surrounding countryside.
The steadily escalating number of raids in the vicinity of the town wall and the
bandits'
ever-increasing boldness seemed to paralyse the whole town.
Angered by the militia's inability to protect their farms, some of the farmers f
ormed an
alliance with the refugees, no longer willing to pay allegiance to the king.
Khorinis is facing an uncertain future.
Due to the farmers' decreasing production, more and more of the food deliveries
do not
take place, and the stocks diminish continuously.
The militia's might ends at the town gate.
Outside the town wall, nobody is safe from the bandits' armed raids.
There is war in Khorinis. A civil war.
But there is something else that could not be foreseen.
Evil is not dead, rearing its ugly head again.
But this time it is set on delivering the deathblow to humanity, and no one can
stop it.
No one?
4. controls
We tried to listen to our fans and changed the controls in certain situations:
- For many simple actions as for example for using or pick up items the ACTION
key is now needed ONLY.
- The trading interface has been improved
- An additional fight interface has been added
- joystick support has been added
- further optional keys have been added (see 5.)
The new "extended" fight interface is not activated by default as we think it
would reduce the experience to a too simple "point and kill" experience. We like
the old
GOTHIC I interface and think it is more challeging.
The new interface works without the necessity to press two several keys to make
a fight move.
Only while the new interface is activated in the game options, the new moves can
be configured in
the control settings.
- Key "Parade" : This key replaces the ACTION-BACK parade move of
the GOTHIC I interface
- Key "Attack Right": This key replaces the ACTION-RIGHT side-attack move of the
GOTHIC I interface
- Key "Attack Left" : This key replaces the ACTION-LEFT side-attack move of the
GOTHIC I interface
- Key "Focus-Lock" : This key forces the actual NPC to stay in focus until he i
s dead or unconscious.
While using the new "one key solution" your character will automatically rotate
to the next enemy unless
you manually press the RIGHT or LEFT key or move the mouse.

5. further special keys

It is possible to use further special game keys, which have to be enabled in the
file GOTHIC.INI
which resided in the SYSTEM directory.
We think that GOTHIC II would loose game-immersion if you activate them, so we l
eft them off by default.
Potion-Quickkeys:
These can be used if you enter a "1" for the setting "usePotionKeys" in the GOTH
IC.INI
ATTENTION: you can only change the default keyboard shortcut in the control opti
ons if you have activated
the new fight interface.
- Key "Mana Potion":
With this key the next mana potion in the inventory will be drunk immediately.
- Key "Mana Potion":
With this key the next health potion in the inventory will be drunk immediately.
Quick-Load/Quick-Save Keys:
If you enter a "1" for the setting "useQuickSaveKeys" in the GOTHIC.INI you may
enter F5 for quicksave
and F9 for quickload.

6. Possible problems with sound- and graficcards

I grafic cards
------------
If you experience problems with your grafic card, try first to install another c
ertified driver.
NVIDIA: www.nvidia.com
ATI: www.ati.com
MATROX: www.matrox.com
ELSA: www.elsa.de
Tested cards:
NVIDIA
------
GeForce 256, GeForce 2 MX, GeForce 2 GO, GeForce 2 GTS, GeForce 2 Ultra,
GeForce 2 Pro, Geforce 3, Geforce 4 :
No problems. [Version 6.13.10.3082]
ATI
---
Radeon (all types):
No problems.
FSAA may not work on the radeon 9700 (see GOTHIC.INI for details)
MATROX
------
Parhelia:
no problems
SIS
---
Xabre 400:
eventually Problems with flickering textures
Kyro II
-------
eventually Problems with flickering textures, slow

The following grafic cards are not supported by GOTHIC II. You may be able
to start GOTHIC II with some of them, but they will lack performance or detail.
all cards with 16 or less on-board texture memory
most elder on-board grafic cards.
NVIDIA: TNT2/M64, TNT2, TNT2 Ultra, TNT2 Pro, TNT and older models
ATI: Rage 128, Rage 128 Pro, Pro GL and older models
Maxtrox: G450, G400 and older models
3DFX: all cards.
VIDEOLOGIC: Power VR

II sound cards:
------------
Nearly all windows compatible sound cards should run with GOTHIC II. if neverthe
less
problems occur, you may proceed as follows:
1.) try to deactivate the sound to find out if your sound card makes trouble!
enter a "0" for the value "soundEnabled" in the GOTHIC.INI
2.) change the soundprovider in the sound settings to MILES 2d!
3.) update your drivers for your soundcard.

7. Performance tuning

End all background tasks. Programs which run in parallel can decrease
performance and stability of GOTHIC II.
Look for your harddrive to be defragmented. Fragmented HD's result in slow
data loading which results in poor framerate. Especially if you play with less
ram this becomes an important issue.
If your HD supports UDMA (almost all newer drives should support this), make
sure it is activated.
Please do not use realtime data compression tools as DriveSpace or RamOptimizer.
These tools also tend to make GOTHIC II unstable and slow.
Rules:
1) if you consider upgrading main memory: 384 MB or 512 MB instead of 256 MB w
ill
increase performance and loading times.
deactivate music and lower the visibility range in the game options to spare mem
ory.
2) CPU: if you own a good T&L grafic card and have enough memory a P3-700 should
be enough
for most game situations
lower the visibility range in the game options and deactivate wind and water eff
ects in the
extended options for better performance on low-end processors.
Please keep in mind that the DEFAULT value for 'Range of View' is 100% - you nee
d
an high-end system to be able to play with a higher range.
3) grafic cards: for extended particle effects and high resolutions a card with
good
fillrate capabilities is necessary. try to deactivate ambient particle effects i
n the extended
menu or lower the resolution for standard or low-end grafic cards
8. updates and patches:
The latest updates and patches can be found on our homepage www.piranha-bytes.co
m
or www.gothic2.com

9. ERRORFORM.TXT
- Which version of GOTHIC II do you play ?
(e.g: 1.29. can be found in the game menu) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Was has happened?
(e.g.:Crash during load of a savegame) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- CPU-Type ?
(e.g.:Intel Pentium 2000, Athlon, etc...) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Graficcard-type ?
(e.g.:NVidia GeForce 2 w/32MB) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Soundcard-type ?
(e.g.:Sound Blaster Live) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- how many main memory ?
(e.g.:256 MB) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Which operating system ?
(e.g.:Windows 98) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- which grafic cards driver version ?
(e.g.:Nvidia reference driver 30.82) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- error log of GOTHIC II after a crash (sehr wichtig)
(will be copied into the file SYSTEM/GOTHIC2.RPT after a crash) :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- other critic for GOTHIC II

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GOTHIC II: Readme.txt.