OpenGothic Starter

A cross-platform GUI launcher for OpenGothic, the open-source Gothic game engine reimplementation.

Quick Start

Overview

• Discovers installed Gothic mods from your system/ directory.
• Auto-detects Gothic version (Gothic 1, Gothic 2 Classic, Gothic 2 NotR).
• Launches OpenGothic with UI-configurable flags.
• Uses Gothic-local save directories:
  • no mod: Gothic/Saves
  • mod run: Gothic/Saves/<MOD_NAME>

Requirements

• A Gothic installation (Steam or GOG) with a Data/ and system/ directory.
• OpenGothic binary (Gothic2Notr(.exe)).
• OpenGothicStarter release artifact for your platform: https://github.com/versable/OpenGothicStarter/releases

Platform Runtime Dependencies

• Windows: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) if missing on your system:
  • Direct download: https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x64.exe
  • Official page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version
• Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): wxWidgets GTK runtime (wxGTK 3.2), for example: sudo apt install libwxgtk3.2-1 || sudo apt install libwxgtk3.2-1t64
• macOS: wxWidgets runtime via Homebrew: brew install wxwidgets

Install Steps

1. Download the OpenGothicStarter release artifact for your platform from: https://github.com/versable/OpenGothicStarter/releases
2. Locate your Gothic installation folder (Data/ and system/ must exist).
3. Typical locations:
   • Steam (Windows): C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gothic II
   • Steam (Linux/Proton): <SteamLibrary>/steamapps/common/Gothic II
   • GOG (Windows): C:\GOG Games\Gothic 2 Gold
4. Download OpenGothic binaries:
   • Releases: https://github.com/Try/OpenGothic/releases
   • Latest AppVeyor builds: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Try/opengothic/history?branch=master
5. Extract both release ZIP archives into your Gothic system/ directory.
6. Start OpenGothicStarter from the same system/ directory.

Windows First Launch

• Current release binaries are not code-signed.
• Windows may show a Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warning on first run.
• To continue: click More info -> Run anyway.

macOS Data Extraction

If your Gothic data is from GOG installers, use the Offline Backup installer files and extract with innoextract (or follow Mac Source Ports extraction guidance): https://www.macsourceports.com/faq/

Place extracted game data where OpenGothic expects it, commonly under: ~/Library/Application Support/OpenGothic

First Launch Behavior

• If Gothic version is detected, launcher stores it in: system/OpenGothicStarter.ini
• If detection fails, launcher asks you to choose Gothic version once and stores it in the same file.
• Language selection uses system locale by default.
• Language can be changed from the Settings dialog.

Mods

• Install mods with their normal installer/process.
• The launcher auto-detects installed mod .ini files in Gothic/system/.
• Use "Start game without mods" for vanilla runs.

Runtime Layout

• Launcher: Gothic/system/OpenGothicStarter(.exe)
• Engine binary: Gothic/system/Gothic2Notr(.exe)
• No-mod working directory: Gothic/Saves
• Mod working directory: Gothic/Saves/<MOD_NAME>

Developer Setup

Build Requirements

• CMake 3.16 or higher
• C++17 compatible compiler
• wxWidgets
• gettext tools (msgfmt, xgettext, msgcat) for localization checks

Runtime Requirements (for local testing)

• OpenGothic engine binary (Gothic2Notr(.exe))
• Original Gothic game files (Data/ and system/)

Platform Dependencies

Debian-based systems

sudo apt-get install -y libwxgtk3.2-dev

macOS

brew install wxwidgets

Windows

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg C:\vcpkg
C:\vcpkg\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
C:\vcpkg\vcpkg.exe install --triplet x64-windows

cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cmake --build build --config RelWithDebInfo --parallel

Build From Source

git clone <repository-url>
cd OpenGothicStarter
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cmake --build build --parallel

Debug Build

Linux / macOS

cmake -S . -B build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DOGS_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS=ON
cmake --build build-debug --parallel

Debug builds on non-Windows automatically enable AddressSanitizer in this project.

Windows (Visual Studio + vcpkg)

cmake -S . -B build-debug -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake \
  -DOGS_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS=ON
cmake --build build-debug --config Debug --parallel

Development Workflow

Formatting

This repository uses clang-format with the checked-in .clang-format.

./scripts/format.sh

Pre-commit Hook

Enable repository-local hooks:

git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks

Localization Checks

The i18n checks require gettext tools:

• msgfmt (validate .po catalogs)
• xgettext and msgcat (validate .pot sync against source strings)