Gothic 2 DX11 patch

[Gord]

Some guy from the german World of Gothic forums is working on a DX11 patch for Gothic:

With this mod, I want to bring the engine of Gothic 1&2 into a more modern state. Through an own implementation of the DirectDraw-API and using hooking and assemblercode-modifications of gothics intern engine calls, I have managed to completely replace gothics old rendering architecture with a new one, which is able to utilize more of the current GPU generations power for rendering.
Since Gothic in its original state tries to cull as much as possible, this takes a lot of work from the CPU, which was slowing down the game even on todays processors. While the original renderer did a really great job with the tech from 2002, GPUs have grown much faster.

And now, that they can actually use their power to render, we not only get a big performance boost on most systems, but also more features, as seen below.

Features:

• Dynamic Shadows
• Increased draw distance
• Increased Performance
• HBAO+
• Water refractions
• Atmospheric Scattering
• Heightfog
• Normalmapping
• Full DynamicLighting
• Vegetationgeneration
• Hardware Tesselation
• Editor-Panel to insert some of the renderers features into the world
• Custom-Built UI-Framework based on Direct2D
• Updater, to make sure you are always running the latest version.

Here's the link to the (currently) latest thread:
Gothic in DX11 (World of Gothic Forums)
https://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/threads/1502591-D3D11-Renderer-für-Gothic-2-(alpha)-21

Screenshots and example videos are in the linked thread.

The project is quite far already, but still considered alpha, so expect stability issues and stuffies.

 

[SCO]

no

 

[Jools]

Hmmm, I don't really care much for this kind of stuff, and I honestly find it somehow pointless. I don't see much use in enhancing all of those feats, while the poly count and the models remain the same.

Besides, even in its original format, G2 remains a very pleasant game to "see", and the now-dated graphics just add to the nostalgia-value of the game itself.

Summing up: cool stuff and good effort but, no thanks.

 

[Metro]

Do any of these Gothic graphic mods see the light of day? I know there was one for Gothic 1 that's been in the works for 5+ years or so.

 

[Gord]

Well, apparently you can already download an alpha version which has the aforementioned features implemented and manages to otherwise render Gothic 2 faithfully to the original.
Too bad that it will probably help little with performance problems @large viewing distances.

 

[throwaway]

Turned on email notifications for this one. The reflection screenies they have look awesome.

Only visual enhancing mod I remember for G2 was a flaura (and mountain) ovehaul by Vurt and in the few screenshots it looked like it made a hell of a difference.

Shame you pretty much have to speak kraut to have any idea about whats going on with Gothic 1/2/3 modding since everything is burried in the german WoG.

 

[taxalot]

I like how it looks. Gothic 2 with new lightning effects and a high res texture patch could look as good as Morrowind does today.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Expected to see some bloom infested monstrosity but it actually looks p. good. Just some improvements that don't change the general feel of the game.

 

[Cadmus]

Expected to see some bloom infested monstrosity but it actually look p. good. Just some improvements that don't change the general feel of the game.

Yep, the screens looked really good, subtle and utilitarian. If I saw that screen without a comparison, I'd just think to myself: "Damn I don't remember gothic being that pretty"

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I'm usually suspicious of these things but Gothic looks like shit in that early-2000s 3D way so eh.

 

[ghostdog]

If they fix the performance problems with modern hardware, it would be even better.

 

[cherry blossom]

Ambient occlusion looks like dark fart and it screws dark/light visibility. Normal mapping looks overkill. Otherwise, I like the shadows and reflections.

 

[throwaway]

Ambient occlusion looks like dark fart and it screws dark/light visibility.

Isn't that always part of the deal with Ambient Occlusion? At least that effect is part of the reason I prefer Gothic's openworld to the onslaught of open world games we have now.

 

[cherry blossom]

I believe that stems from inexperience + lack of a firm grasp on the tech. I couldn't recall which but I recall very satisfying applications of AO in some games but it has poor results in a vast selection of others.

 

[Gord]

Keep in mind that it's still alpha and most effects are still being tweaked and improved.

 

[Lilura]

If they fix the performance problems with modern hardware, it would be even better.

I personally only have problems with G1, and gothic1_playerkit-1.08k + GothicFps-108 solves them.

Anyway, good to see the modders understand the concept of gamma.

 

[cherry blossom]

Some visual artifacts aside, I love the look of tesselation:

Spoiler

The rocky terrain in particular is a definite improvement, though it might make it harder to discern whether some terrain geometry can be climbed or walked.

 

[throwaway]

oh gawd
tesselation in my fucking gothic?


Why is it only for G2 btw? Is it just that that's the game the decided to pick?

 

[throwaway]

and something slightly a bit further from the vanilla

 

[Anthedon]

Is all of this stuff available yet?

 

[eric__s]

The lighting and water look fantastic but I'm really not digging the high definition textures. I think one of the most overlooked aspects of the first two Gothic games was its vibrant palette. A Danish person once taught me the word "hygge", which has no English equivalent but is somewhat synonymous with coziness or hominess. As an American, I'm sure my concept of hygge is far different from a Dane's, but Gothic's palette evokes my own idea of it. The colors, especially of the earth and forest, were so warm and rich, more similar to a 2D Amiga game than any contemporary 3D game. The HD textures have such low contrast and feel dreary; the changes to the town are baffling. Anyway, I hope you can upgrade to DX11 without those HD textures. Even though they look nice, the game loses something very distinct.

I'm glad that there are still people out there that care enough about the game to improve it like this.

 

[agris]

The lighting and water look fantastic but I'm really not digging the high definition textures. I think one of the most overlooked aspects of the first two Gothic games was its vibrant palette. A Danish person once taught me the word "hygge", which has no English equivalent but is somewhat synonymous with coziness or hominess. As an American, I'm sure my concept of hygge is far different from a Dane's, but Gothic's palette evokes my own idea of it. The colors, especially of the earth and forest, were so warm and rich, more similar to a 2D Amiga game than any contemporary 3D game. The HD textures have such low contrast and feel dreary; the changes to the town are baffling. Anyway, I hope you can upgrade to DX11 without those HD textures. Even though they look nice, the game loses something very distinct.

I'm glad that there are still people out there that care enough about the game to improve it like this.

That's a great point, but it could also be default dx11 shader implementations. There's likely no gamma / contrast / saturation settings dialed in, and is using straight 0s across the board. At least, I hope so.

 

[throwaway]

Just to be sure, are people referring to the changes in the first video or the second? If it's the latter it's entirely due to the L'Hiver mod which I'm also very sceptical about getting. I got just the rendered installed at the moment and the only change in the textures is that they look sharper (if you dislike it it'll only look like its got a layer or two of noise).

 

[Ivan]

So is this like the Witcher before the Witcher?

 

[Sykar]

So is this like the Witcher before the Witcher?

Not even close.