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Arcania: Gothic 4

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
ArcaniA: Gothic 4
ArcaniA: Gothic 4 cover
Developers
Spellbound Entertainment
Publishers
2010-2011 JoWood Productions
2011-2016 Nordic Games
2016-present THQ Nordic
Engines
Vision 7[1]
Release dates
Windows October 12, 2010
Reception
Metacritic 63
IGDB 64
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres RPG, ARPG
Themes Fantasy
Series Gothic
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Arcania: Gothic 4 on HowLongToBeat
Arcania: Gothic 4 on IGDB
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Arcania: Gothic 4 guide on StrategyWiki
Arcania: Gothic 4 on MobyGames
Arcania: Gothic 4 on Wikipedia
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Gothic
Gothic 2001
Gothic II 2002
Gothic 3 2006
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods 2008
Arcania: Gothic 4 2010
Arcania: Fall of Setarrif 2011
Gothic Playable Teaser 2019
The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos (unofficial mod) 2021
Gothic 1 Remake TBA

Key points

Poorly optimized, even with modern high end hardware the frame rate dips occasionally below 60 FPS regardless of graphical settings.[citation needed]

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Requires online activation
 SecuROM 7, SecuROM PA, and SecuROM DFA DRM activation and release date check.[2] Use the latest patch to remove DRM.
Windows
Amazon.com
DRM details are not known
Windows
GamersGate
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Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
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Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
 Free demo: steam://install/65520 (allow Steam client popup).
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Rename/delete intro videos[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Data\Video.
  2. Delete or rename JWD_Logo.wmv, Nvidia.wmv and SB_Logo.wmv.

Patches

Final Patch (2011) removes SecuROM DRM and fixes various issues.

Performance tweaks

Make a backup copy of the file modified here.
Modify configuration files[3]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Data\configuration.
  2. Open ProcessManager.xml.
  3. Look for the ThreadConfig platform="PC" cores="1" section, change the cores value to the number of cores of your CPU.
  4. Save the file and close it.
  5. The following steps are optional:
  1. Change all thread-pool-bit values to "1".
  2. Change all memory-synchronized values to "true".
Edit game exe to force multithreading

Follow this guide on Steam to fix many bugs like black facial textures or buggy water puddles, and to improve smoothness and FPS up to 200% in some locations on modern PCs:
Arcania framerate fixes and improvements (Steam guide)

Enable Xbox UI

While using the Xbox UI accessing the game options will make the game crash, so either make sure you're happy with your settings or temporarily switch back to the PC UI while you access them.
Enabling the Xbox UI will allow you easier navigation through the game and the menus while using a controller, however it has to be switched to every time you open the game.
Enable cheat menu[4]
1. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\input.xml.
2. Go to the end of the file and add the following before the </inputs> line:
	<Input command="cheat menu" >
		<Key code="41" />
		<Activation type="first active" />
	</Input>
3. Save the file and close it. This will bind the cheat menu to ~.
4. Open the game and load a save or start a new game. Press ~.
5. Go to the Toggle XBOX/PC Interface option, choose Xbox 360 and hit the back button.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\*.xml
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39690/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\*.sav
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/39690/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

General graphics settings.
General graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.
Advanced graphics settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
Multi-monitor
 
 See the WSGF entry for two possible methods.
Ultra-widescreen
 
4K Ultra HD
 
Field of view (FOV)
See the WSGF entry.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Can be forced through driver control.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Can be forced through driver control.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Xbox 360 controller supported.
Full controller support
Can be toggled through the cheat menu.
Controller remapping
Requires editing a configuration file, see Controller remapping.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Requires editing a configuration file.
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Controller remapping

Edit input configuration file[5]

1. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\input.xml

2. The file will contain the current mappings for both controller and keyboard. To remap the controls, simply search for the action you want to remap and change the Gamepad name section of each action for the button you want it to use, for instance, to jump with the A button, change the jumping section to:
	<Input command="jump" >
		<Gamepad name="a" />
		<Gamepad active="false" name="left shoulder" />
		<Activation type="first active" />
	</Input>
3. The Activation type value represents how to read the button press, first active means tap, active means hold, and first inactive means letting go of the button.
4. Save the file and close it.

Notes

You have to run a game at least once, in order for it to create configuration files.
If you hit reset on the in game control options, the contents of this file will be replaced with defaults, including the xbox controller sections.

Invert controller's Y-axis

Edit input configuration file[5]
1. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\inputsettings.xml
2. Search the attribute with the name invert_gamepad_y and change its value to true like so:
	<Attribute name="invert_gamepad_y" type="bool" value="true" />
3. Save the file and close it.

Notes

You have to run a game at least once, in order for it to create configuration files.
There are additional options that can be modified in this file, such as inverting X-axis.

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, read important hints here. Note: Profile works slightly different to the add on, and can be used as an alternative profile.

Issues fixed

Game won't start

Game has several problems launching especially with 64-bit Windows 7 installations.
Regular fixes, PhysX-, Audio- and AV-related fixes[citation needed]
  • If using Steam version verify game cache, try disabling Steam overlay and manually installing re-distributables.
  • If having Nvidia GPU try copying cudart32_*.dll and cudart64_*.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common to <path-to-game>[6]
  • Install the NVIDIA PhysX Legacy System Software and then try same thing as above.[7]
  • If using Windows 7 N/KN install WMP.
  • Try to set sound quality to 24 bit/16-bit, 48000 Hz.[8]
  • Make executable use Windows XP SP 3 compatibility mode and start in administrator mode.
  • Add installation folder to your antivirus exclude list or as last resort try to uninstall it.[9]

Stuck in jungle level

It is possible, if you go back to the jungle level, to get stuck in it. There are two ways to get around this issue.
Jumping back fix[10]
  • Go south to the ledge near the monastery next to where Bartur is standing.
  • Unequip your weapons.
  • Equip one of the movement speed increase runes (Either Rune of the four winds or Rune of the seven winds).
  • Run back into the ledge and jump.
Cheat fix[10]
1. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\input.xml
2. Go to the end of the file and add the following before the </inputs> line:
	<Input command="hero teleport" >
		<Key name="Q"/>
		<Key name="control left" active="true" />
		<Activation type="first active"/>
	</Input>
3. Save the file and close it.
4. Open the game and load your save.
5. Press Ctrl+Q, this should put you into hero teleport mode. Use the regular movement keys to move around and control the direction by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse. Note that not all assets are rendered while in this mode.
6. In this mode you can move without impairments, so simply go wherever you wish and press escape to exit.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Shader Model support 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX

System requirements

Windows[11]
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz
AMD Athlon II x2 2.8 GHz		 Intel Core i7 3.0 GHz
AMD Phenom II x4 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 9 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX
DirectX 9.0c compatible 		Nvidia GeForce GTX 295


Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/39690/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (39690) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References