suddengunter's notes

How to run Gothic II (Classic / Night Of the Raven) on a Steam Deck

Intro

Gothic II was the first RPG I’ve played decades ago. I never completed that run: my computer literally died when me and my mates from Lee’s camp took a ship from Khorinis to fight big final battle. I lost my saves and never got back to the game. Couple of years ago I’ve beat Gothic I on a Nintendo Switch. I don’t have the Switch anymore and wanted to continue playing Gothic II on a Steam Deck, but, to my disappointment, the game does not have any of the updates or fixes done for the Switch - it does not even recognize the controller properly. So, let’s fix that.

Steps

  1. Install Gothic II from Steam library. In properties, make sure to set game version to use workshop branch. It’s some unfinished project from Piranha Bytes that was probably supposed to brind modern modding support and other nice things, but was never fully completed (so never released as a base version of the game). But it’s enough for us: it gives us few game patches, the ability to use Steam Workshop and mod launcher.
  2. Install the following required mods mods:
  • Unity patch - foundation used by other mods, nothing works without it;
  • zGamePad - adds gamepad support;
  • ninja - another foundation mod, I don’t think any of the other mods in my list depend on it, but it’s recommended to install it anyway. It’s mandatory for most total cover mods if you plan to use any.;
  1. (optional) Install the following nice-to-have mods:
  • D3D11 renderer - Gothic II engine used old DirectX and heavily relied on CPU for some graphical effects. This mod helps to move some of that load to GPU, improving performance and graphic quality. It also allows to use some custom texture packs and normal-maps, but I don’t use them myself so can’t recommend any;
  • FPS booster - optimizes some rendering effects in CPU-heavy areas like dense city areas (mostly noticeable with DX11 mod in modded cities, but still useful in base game);
  • Any other mods you want from the workshop/outside of it. Archolos and L’Hiver are very popular (mutually exclusive, pick one). I myself installed Gothic II Classic - original Gothic II from my childhood did not have Night Of The Raven expansion. This mod restores that original experience, if you want it. See Gothic II - Classic section below for more details on how to run it.
  1. Background music in game does not work without some tricks. See Sound fix section below.
  2. Launch the game and configure proper mod order in the mod launcher. [TODO: show]
  3. You are ready to play! Check out other sections below for other quality of life improvements.

Sound fix

[TODO: explain]

Performance

My graphical settings:

[TODO: screenshot]

I run game with 45FPS lock (on a steam deck level) and 12W TDP limit. Limit can be more aggressive, but Steam Deck is smart enough and it’s not like it always runs at 12W anyway.

zGamePad settings

By default zGamePad shows button prompts that can help you understand how to play with a controller. Once you’ve learned the controls, you can disable those prompts with the following steps:

[TODO: explain]

UI font size fix

Original font size is too small for my eyes, but there is an easy way to fix that:

[TODO: explain]

Gothic II - Classic

[TODO: explain]

References