could be crappy use of software protection too ;P

I'm totally discouraged :mad: ! JoW00d had been working hard on the protection of their game instead of making it work well enough! I was firstly surprised when I launched 1.1 version of g0thic3 and found it quite unplayable and now I see worse gameplay situation in 1.8 and totally f***ed up protection that was quite good without any changes... :confused:

Sorry for this kinda offtopic but I was waiting for a game-of-the-year-gothic3 and now I get this buggy shit that I can't even start without original cd/dvd that I simply CAN NOT get living in Russia and waiting for our national release in the end of 2006...

P.S. somebody (who knows at least smtg 'bout it...) tell me, how much should we w8 'til any fitting way to start the game w/o having the original dvd appears?

hmm you mean you haven't got the original (if you cant get it in russia, then im sure you could find it on ebay or some inet shop... really you don't have an excuse).. i can only direct you to the rules.. and advise you read them,,,
after that.. its up to the mods...

I can find one on e-bay and amazon etc. but neither european nor american shops/auctions has feature to deliver a dvd-box to me here. Sorry, but I know what i'm talking about. Here we do only have a pre-order ability atm...

actually, i have a friend studying in korea right now, and he found a few sellers who ship worldwide, including russia.

gone to offtopic... so post me these ones by PM if you can of course.. very interesting...

As it turns out, the vc8api.dll does work if you want to play without the DVD. I was able to play the game using these exact steps.

1. Download fixed image from GCW.
2. Install VirtualCD 8.0.0.4.
3. Look at the JPEGs in the fixed image archive, and configure your copy of VCD the same way.
4. Use VCD to create a new virtual CD, using your Gothic 3 DVD as a source. You need a Virtual CD image, not an ISO.
5. When it's finished, you wll be left with a new set of files. One file ends in VC4, such as GOTHIC3.VC4. Rename or move this file.
6. Move the fixed image file to the same directory as the new file set (GOTHIC3.VC6). Rename it to your filename from step 5 (GOTHIC3.VC4).
7. Fake-mount the image to your REAL CD drive using VirtualCD. Mounting to a virtual drive does not work. This might make the drive physically eject.
8. Move vc8api.dll from your VCD installation to your SYSTEM32 directory (c:\windows\system32\).
9. Prepare your old save-game if you want (read the 1.08 release notes).
9: Install the Gothic 3 1.08 patch.
10. Play the game.

This game still needs a lot of work to be playable.

Mind you, the copy protection and the game itself is definitely written by two separate teams and they can't give help to each other... ;)

Is there currently anyone working on a no cd/dvd file for the 1.08 patch ?

Nope, but actually, they should work hard at gameplay, shouldn't they? And now they're wasting time upgrading game's protection. Have u read what they told 'bout released Gothic 3? They admit the game is far and far from what they had been talking before the release date. But p1raniha (I written jow00d in that post so i meant p1raniha of course) isn't gonna stop work at their creation and looks like many patches are gonna be released for G3.

Actually nope. Raymer is that you? From the wDDg team, man? (PM)

Depends who wants to know. (PM'd back )

I've tried this exact method and it doesn't work for me. Anyone else get this working? If so, give a more in depth or detailed talk on how you did it.

I am pretty sure that method requires you to have a gothic 3 dvd to use to make a vcd from.

Nope, tried it both way...it works...
But u still need a savegame to start a new game...;)

Problem is, it wont start to begin with, I still just get the *Insert CD* error. I've followed the steps exactly.


***EDIT*** Alright I tried the steps again with a fresh install, and the VCD Method doesnt even work for the 1.7 patch for me. Any ideas?