Gothic II Demo

[mat]

well at least the german demo is out: http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1038972012/

[Alistair]

I cant download this right now... any (spoiler-free) comments on engine, performance, AI..?

A.

[mat]

looks similar to Gothic 1 (same engine) but they have upgraded it a bit (better textures)

its still 99% CPU dependent (on my PC [Athlon 1800, GF4Ti] 2x FSAA and 4xS FSAA is the same speed) and need lots of ram (512 MB recomended)

AI... i like it (its basicly the same from Gothic 1)

but there are some bugs in it (if you can read german you can see them here (http://forum.jowood.de/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=132)) and they are working on a (or some?) patch(es)

overall it feels like Gothic 1 with better (easier) controlls (and since i love Gothic 1 thats definatly something good)

[nate240]

I just finished playing the Gothic 2 demo and have to say that I am very impressed. I was first introduced to gothic 1 about a year ago and I was in awe of how alive/seemless the environment seemed; but after finishing Gothic twice, the game didn't really "wow" me any more, even though it was still fun. After playing the gothic 2 demo today, I can say that I am again "wowed." The texture detail is much greater, the amount of foliage and small detail is incredible, and the performance seems to be very similar to gothic 1.

As for the changes I noticed relating to actual gameplay. The AI seems somewhat smarter now. I used to be able to get the animals/people to attack me one at a time, but no more; if they start out in a pack, they attack in a pack, making killing off tough enemies harder. The control interface can be setup similar to the first gothic, which I liked, but there are some minor differences with the inventory setup that will take me a while to get used to.

As for performance, I have an 64MB R8500, XP1900 on a K7S5A, and 512MB PC133 ram. I have all the details set to max(View distance 300%, textures, 16xAF, etc). I initially played in 1280x1024 and it was smooth until I got inside the city, so I then changed the res to 1024x768 and am getting very playable framerates in all locations. I think I will end up trying 800x600 w/4xAA like I played Gothic 1 and see how it goes.

Overall, I am can't wait for the english version of this game, and even if your not an RPG fan you should definently give this game a try, although you might want to wait for the english demo if you want the best initial experiance with gothic 2.

[Alistair]

Hi Nate,

Would you mind posting a bit more a performance? When you were running at 1280x1024, I take it you had you had no AA on?

A.

PS: People say the demo actually runs a lot faster than the real thing, annoyingly. Defeats one of the purposes of having a demo in the first place...

[nate240]

Hey Alistair,
I went and installed fraps and here are my results:

Location: near the grinding wheel in the city(lowest fps)

1280x1024x32....16xAF................Low FPS=8
1024x768x32......16xAF................Low FPS=15..........playable
800x600x32........16xAF................Low FPS=18..........playable
1024x768x32.......16xAF...4xPAA...Low FPS=12-15.....playable(barely)
800x600x32.........16xAF...4xPAA...Low FPS=14-18.....playable

Location: right outside the city gate facing the farmers fields(lowest outside FPS)

1024x768x32......16xAF....4xPAA....Low FPS=10-11
800x600x32........16xAF....4xPAA....Low FPS=15-19....playable

After trying all these modes I'm kinda torn as to which I like better, 1280x1024, or 1024x768 w/4xAA. I think I will have to get a new card by the time the game is available here in the states so I won't have to choose. :)

[Alistair]

Cheers.

I'm in the same boat. I suspect its time to retire the GF2... dont know if I could get away with a 9000 pro, or if its big brother is necessary...

It actually looks like youre fairly CPU limited, dont you think, which makes sense, given how much Gothic has going on...

A.

[jvd]

athlon xp 200+ r9700pro , 1gig of ddr2700

1600x1200 16aniso and 4x fsaa i get about 15fps low. at the grinding wheel

[nate240]

Hey jvd,

I don't suppose you could up a pic at those settings could you? I'm curious to see what it looks like. Oh, and are those the settings that you play it at, is it smooth?

[Gollum]

Just placed my order for Gothic 2, looking forward to finally play it, the original was my candidate for personal game of the year in 2001 and I finnished it 3 times (once with each faction, each time a different character class). :D

The reviews so far suggests its just as good or even better than the first, so its a no brainer for me to purchase! I only hope MOO3 doesn't get delayed again, or the whole package I ordered will get delayed with it...

nate, thanks for posting those performance numbers and the lows are very interesting, but I'm also curious what your average FPS are like as well if you don't mind?

[jvd]

nate , if you could send me saves of where ever you want me to benchmark , i will do that later today , right now i'm in ac but should be back up by 5ish (alantic city ) I don't play at 1600x1200 , i play at 1024,768 . that is the sweet spot for my cheap sylvania 19inch monitor. It is playable at that though

[Alistair]

If they ever relese the SDK for Gothic II, which is still in question, Im going to implement a version of the street-activity-slider seen in both Outcast and the Nomad Soul. I.e. Im going to let people choose how many non-essential characters they want milling about. I think (I havent tested this) that this will reduce the CPU load substantially in places which are heavily trafficked by default.

A.

[jvd]

ack i just noticed that i have my old email up . jvd81@optonline.net is my new one. it wont let me change it on here though ... oh well :-)

[nate240]

jvd you've got mail

[jvd]

right back at you nate.

[jvd]

Oh for anyone if there is a demo or a game and you want to know how well it will run on a radeon 9700 and xp2000+ let me know i will try and grab you pics