Hey, i have a very strange issue, after installed and played the game already(!) without other issues than the common stutters, it stopped working, even starting at all around a week ago! - i didn't changed anything inbetween, and the expansion forsaken gods still runs!

What i tried so far:
restarting the system
reinstalling the game (several times already)
reinstalling video driver (sadly no update available for this particular system, but it did run before and the expansion still runs without problems!)
deleting registry entries (then reinstall)

ofc backuping the config and savegames and delete them to let the game regenerate it was one of the first steps i did, but i found out i haven't even played with the ini settings yet! xP

The gothic3.exe starts with 12-16MB RAM usage (depending on compatibility options, i tried them all!) and then nothing happens - even 10min later!

Oh, and i deleted shader cache, tough that happens every uninstall anyway! xP

So, what the hell i can do now unless resetting the whole system?
(btw, are there any error logs i could check?)

Open the folder x:\...\Gothic 3\ini and open the file ge3.ini. Search for Render.DisableShaderCache=false and set this option to true save the file and start the game. The setting will disable shader-cache creation which prevents the game from starting when enabled.

Thank you for the Tip, but it didn't work for my case - i let it sit there for 10Min - no changes in RAM usage!
Also Shader Cache is enabled in FG expansion, and that game is still running fine, i also doubt that it's an ini issue, as the game didn't even shows a splash screen - the exe just starts with it's 12-16 MB in RAM and does nothing!
I checked Execution Prevention already and even disabled it with an Offline Reboot - still no reaction - i found a strange WER (Windows Error Report) about it, but that didn't told me anything new, other than it's categorized as "Non-Critical" - so i think the only solution is to terminate this stupid windows again and reinstall the image -.-#
(maybe i use this opportunity to use Linux and Wine now, as i experimenting with Linux on another system already and that NEVER gave me strange issues! (And has some User sided Error reporting that mean something! - not that strange error codes and hide the issues policy microshit is doing!)

You should be aware of the fact that Forsaken Gods is a stand-alone sequel to Gothic 3 done by a different studio. This is why, just because FG can successfully instantiate a shader cache, the same must not be true for the main game.

I would suggest you try the proposed fix and see what it does. If indeed Gothic 3 in its latest revision isn't capable to create a shader-cache, which you should notice by alt-tabbing out of the black-screen, where you should then see a message window telling you that Gothic 3 is trying to create the cache which can take quite some time. Clicking on the dialog button or closing it with the cross should cause the process to stop responding. If it does, try and change the .ini setting to prevent the game to create a cache file.

The only other thing you could try is to add the main and sub-task running to your exception list in both the antivirus and anti-malware program, as well as to add an expection to your firewall. The latter isn't strictly necessary as i don't think Gothic 3 ever asked to be allowed to establish an internet connection.

If it still doesn't work all you are left with to do is to contact the team providing the community patches and updates and tell them that your copy doesn't work.

ah, there lays the issue - you didn't understand the issue - the game did NOTHING - if i wouldn't check taskman i wouldn't notice it has even executed! ;-)
the issue was that from one day to the other, the game suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason! - i would bet it's some strange windoof shenanigans again, as after a refresh install of the Image, all started working again, including the game! (still, it was the only thing that stoped working in the first place - and i run much more demanding programs and games off of this machine!)

(and as a sidenote, i wrote "but IT DIDN'T work for my case", i did even moved the already created shader cache to another location despite the game should ignore it when we tell it explicitly to ignore it, but you'll never know what dev's are actually programming! (often enough seen options in their documentation that didn't change anything at all xP)
My english is certainly not the best, but not that bad that one could make an U out of an A! ;-)

Still, thank's for your time & effort, have a nice one! :-)