Posted October 04, 2020
high rated
The Gothic games have required quite a few steps in order to play them. Consider these two steam installation guides for G1 HERE and HERE. While there is still active development for patches and mods for the Gothic games in the German and Polish communities, the English community generally lags behind. As such, I noticed there's nothing here at GOG mentioning Spine, a tool to make it MUCH easier to play 1 or 2. Here are two quotes on the mod:
Go here for Spine:
https://clockwork-origins.com/spine/
After installing, go to Database and select the mods you're interested in. You can click on the install buttons right there, or go to the Info page to learn more about the mod you selected (and install there too). Because the list includes foreign mods, not all of them will have any English descriptions. Library will list the major mods you have installed, and for each you can select which patches and mini-mods you want (these sections will only appear if you launch Spine with an active online connection).
Here are some mini-mods I recommend:
Systempack (patch)
4GB Patch (to patch older games' exe files from 2GB to 4GB)
Better Torches (lets you (un)equip torches instantly by pushing T)
Riisis Alternative Font (there are two versions. This has font size 14, and there's a big font version with size 18. Each offers six different colors. Personally, I find blue too dark to read, purple and red difficult to read, and yellow is too close to white highlighted text. I strongly recommend green. I should also note that while Spine lets you install this, it doesn't offer color choice, defaulting to the pale yellow, so I recommend downloading and installing this mod manually)
https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1515805-G1-G2-Riisis-Alternative-Font
You can select the graphic mods that appeal to you, as well as the D3D11 renderer if you're feeling brave. The D3D mod runs the game in DX11, giving much better graphics, but also has the tiny risk of corrupting saves. You read that right, it MIGHT corrupt saves. Possibly. Maybe. It may also occasionally cause blackscreens, forcing you to save and restart the game. That's to do with the D3D mod, not Spine, so if you do use it, remember the cardinal rule of gaming: save often, save in different slots.
I have nothing to do with Spine, but I saw quite a few threads here of people overwhelmed or unhappy with all the steps needed to play Gothic, so I thought I'd make this thread. Hope it helps !
Spine is a modification manager for Gothic 1 and 2. It makes installation and updates of Gothic modifications much easier and has a huge library of modifications both for Gothic 1 and 2 in German, English and Polish language. The Russian modification list in Spine is not that big so far. It allows easy combination of several graphic patches with modifications without copying files manually or maintaining multiple Gothic installations. Spine also allows modders to use several new features like achievements, highscores and multiplayer.
Spine is written in C++ and uses the Qt framework for its graphical user interface.
... Spine is written in C++ and uses the Qt framework for its graphical user interface.
Spine is meant to replace the old GothicStarter by making the whole process of installing and playing mods easier than ever before. Using Spine you only need one folder for each Gothic version (one for Gothic and one for Gothic II) and not multiple if you want to play e.g. multiplayer mods. Besides that it’s easily possible now to install graphic patches or the D3D11 renderer and just use it with mods that are compatible, just by checking a check box in your library.
All you need is a new install of G1 or G2, and Spine. The mod will download and install whatever mods you want for you with just a click. Go here for Spine:
https://clockwork-origins.com/spine/
After installing, go to Database and select the mods you're interested in. You can click on the install buttons right there, or go to the Info page to learn more about the mod you selected (and install there too). Because the list includes foreign mods, not all of them will have any English descriptions. Library will list the major mods you have installed, and for each you can select which patches and mini-mods you want (these sections will only appear if you launch Spine with an active online connection).
Here are some mini-mods I recommend:
Systempack (patch)
4GB Patch (to patch older games' exe files from 2GB to 4GB)
Better Torches (lets you (un)equip torches instantly by pushing T)
Riisis Alternative Font (there are two versions. This has font size 14, and there's a big font version with size 18. Each offers six different colors. Personally, I find blue too dark to read, purple and red difficult to read, and yellow is too close to white highlighted text. I strongly recommend green. I should also note that while Spine lets you install this, it doesn't offer color choice, defaulting to the pale yellow, so I recommend downloading and installing this mod manually)
https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1515805-G1-G2-Riisis-Alternative-Font
You can select the graphic mods that appeal to you, as well as the D3D11 renderer if you're feeling brave. The D3D mod runs the game in DX11, giving much better graphics, but also has the tiny risk of corrupting saves. You read that right, it MIGHT corrupt saves. Possibly. Maybe. It may also occasionally cause blackscreens, forcing you to save and restart the game. That's to do with the D3D mod, not Spine, so if you do use it, remember the cardinal rule of gaming: save often, save in different slots.
I have nothing to do with Spine, but I saw quite a few threads here of people overwhelmed or unhappy with all the steps needed to play Gothic, so I thought I'd make this thread. Hope it helps !
Post edited October 04, 2020 by BlueMooner
