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Starting a game
If you use GOTHIC-MODs, then you should stop using the program gothic.exe for starting Gothic, and use the program GothicStarter.exe instead. This program is a part of MOD PLAYER-KIT. The GothicStarter does not care if you also use the Gothic.exe, but by using GothicMODs without GothicStarter the collisions between different MODs can happen. The GothicStarter can prevent these problems (as long as the instructions in the
Documentation about GothicMODs are obeyed).
Therefore, create a shortcut to the GothicStarter.exe, which is in the Gothic SYSTEM-directory. All installed MODs (as well as the original game) can be started from the GothicStarter. In addition, GothicStarter offers some useful options.
Altogether, there are three versions of GothicStarter. There is a combined version for G1, a player version for G2 and a developer version for G2. At the start all GothicStarter versions analyse the
GothicMOD-INI files, found in the SYSTEM directory. Then they display installed MODs in a list.
Version for Gothic I
For Gothic I exists only one version of GothicStarter, which is to be used by both players and developers. The Starter is a part of the G1-Playerkit.
Starting a GothicMOD
A GothicMOD usually consists of two files (see also the
Documentation about GothicMODs):
- An archive (GothicMOD-VDF), which contains the MOD data and resides in directory [GOTHIC]/data/modvdf. But do not be surprised if occasionally some of these GothicMOD-VDF files (ending .mod) appear in directory [GOTHIC]/data. GothicStarter automatically takes care of this.
- An INI-file (GothicMOD-INI), which contains important informations, file paths and options. GothicStarter will look for this file (with the ending .ini) in the SYSTEM-directory of Gothic.
At the beginning the GothicStarter searches for the GothicMOD-INI files in SYSTEM-directory and analyses them. Then it shows the installed MODs in a list. Now choose the desired MOD and click the button "Start Gothic".
Options
The GothicStarter also offers some useful settings:
- no music: Similarly as with the nosound-option, with this checkbox you deactivate the musicsystem.
- no sound: With it you deactivate the soundsystem of Gothic. Then it is not possible to reactivate the sound from the game. This option is recommended only for obtaining a (small) speed boost at starting and running Gothic, when testing a MOD. Possibly it may also help to locate problems with a sound card.
- start in a window: For testing Gothic and particularly for simultaneously observing the zSpy (see the Documentation for zSpy) it makes sense to start Gothic in a window. During the game you can "windowize" Gothic by pressing the key F3 while in devmode ("Marvin-mode").
For giving further parameters to Gothic at start, use the input line "
Parameters". If you want to enter more than one parameter, you must separate them with spaces.
Here are some useful parameters:
- -devmode: GOTHIC will start in devmode (the console is available)
- -time:xx:xx: Specify a starting time for the beginning of a game. For example, to specify that the time at game start should be 16 o'clock, give -time:16:00 for the parameter.
- -nomenu: The game will be started without menu. Useful for quick testing of a small level. Disadvantage: one press on ESC and the game will end.
Except for the actions under MOD Development, all other settings of the GothicStarter will be saved.
Actions and extended options
Further settings are hidden behind the
MOD Development button. Please note that these options affect the performance of Gothic more or less negatively and should not be activated for normal gameplay. However, for the creation of GothicMODs they are necessary, depending upon situation.
There are 4 possible actions:
- reparse all scripts: Script-files (*.src, *.d) must be parsed and linked into DAT-files in order for Gothic to use them. The action "reparse all" takes care of this. At the start of GOTHIC the game will look for all source-files (*.src), which are specified in GothicMOD-INI, and parse them into up-to-date DAT-files. For error diagnostics you should simultaneously (as also by all other actions) run the Spy, as well as having the SpyLogging activated.
- autoconvert data: When activated, Gothic will convert "raw" files (for example TGA) on demand, when there is no converted version (for example TEX) available. For example, if you change a TGA-file and delete the corresponding TEX-file in Compiled-directory before starting GOTHIC the next time, then the game will create the fresh TEX-file just before the first occasion when it needs to use this texture. Unfortunately this does not work for multi-textures (see (ZenGin documentation for textures)?). If you have changed such texture, for example a face- or body-texture, you must use the parameter convert textures!
- convert all: This option forces Gothic to completely convert all raw data in GOTHIC-directory. With it you can therefore convert all textures, meshes and animations (TGAs, 3DS, ASC) into the Gothic-internal formats (for example TEX, MRM, MAN, etc.). The converted files are placed in corresponding COMPILED-directories (see also the Documentation about GothicMODs for this). Use this option before publishing your MOD to ensure converting of all changed raw files into compiled form.
- convert textures: This option works similarly as "convert all", but only on the textures.
Further possible settings are:
- process physical files on disk first: Usually the game ignores files on the hard disk, if it can find them in a VDF-file first. This option forces Gothic to look for files on the hard disk first, and only after that fails, in the corresponding VDF-files. This way it is possible to test changed GOTHIC-data, contained in the original VDF-files, without having to assemble an updated MOD-VDF every time.
- zSpy-Messages: This menu specifies the precision with which Gothic outputs its activity in zSpy. See also the Documentation for zSpy.
Starting the Spacer
One option was not mentioned yet: you can also choose which application will be started. In the menu "Application" you may select either "Gothic" for the game or "Spacer" for the world-editor. The Spacer should also be always started from GothicStarter. Before you click on the Start-button, you may want to change the application in the Application menu. (The text of the Start-button changes accordingly into "Start Gothic" or "Start Spacer".)
Player version for Gothic II
This version of the GothicStarter (GothicStarter.exe) is to be used by a player of MODs. It allows only starting a chosen MOD. Since there is no Playerkit for Gothic II, the modifications must include this Starter.
Developer version for Gothic II
This version of the GothicStarter (GothicStarter_mod.exe) is to be used by a developer of MODs. It offers practically the same functions as the Starter for Gothic I, but has a bit nicer GUI and is in German (G1 version is in English).
Developer version of the Starter offers the following options, which are described in detail under G1 section of this document:
- Skripte parsen: reparse all scripts
- Fenstermodus: start in a window
- Musik deaktivieren: no music
- Sound deaktivieren: no sound
- Texturen konventieren: convert textures (Before using this option, you should remove all unchanged TGAs from the _work\Data\Textures directory! Otherwise this procedure takes a long time and can even lead to crashes.)
- Daten konventieren: autoconvert data
- Alles konventieren: convert all (Before using this option, it is recommended to remove all unchanged raw data from their corresponding directories.)
- VDFS physikal. zuerst: This option (in G1 called process physical files on disk first) is unfortunately no longer supported. So this checkbox is always disabled and you can ignore it.
