Latest Steam update unfortunately ruined this game adding a number of bugs and gfx glitches, without improvements or bug-fixes to the game. This is a guide to reinstall pre-update version and make it run faster and better then ever with some patches.

Improvements over current std Steam version:

• much faster and video refresh looks visibly smoother (some locations in 1920x1080 now pass from 48->79 fps, up to 130fps in exteriors), and even at the same fps as before will look visibly smoother
  
• fixed all known bugs (flickering water puddles, textures turning black, face textures issue at ultra settings)
  
• stable

You can choose 2 methods... but the principle is quite simple: a) roll-back to legacy version (there are no fixes nor improvements anyway in current Steam broken build, so you loose nothing), b) apply patches to the installed legacy version.

(Small donations 💰 to buy and fix some more games are welcome from my profile page)

⚠️ BEWARE: some mods (not my simple cloud and rain ones) are known to crash the game in specific locations! Please, don't blame this guide but remove those mods and retry! Read also in the comments some known problematic mods...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.13.0604-legacy-driver.html
Install PhysX Legacy drivers in addition to std PhysX drivers. It is required and a common issue for noobs having problems to run this game on today's hardware.
... and disable any previously applied compatibility fixes (run as admin, in WinXP compatibility mode etc.) or hacks you tried before!

With NVidia Profile Inspector[github.com], set:

2 - Sync and Refresh
• Frame rate limiter V3 = 60 (it's fine for this game, and rock-stable...)
  
• Maximum pre-rendered frames = 3
  
• Vertical sync = Use the 3D application setting

5 - Common
• Threaded optimization = On

It's very important to force mandatory "Vertical sync = Use the 3D application setting" to benefit from much more fps than forcing usual V-Sync or Adaptive.

Just to be sure, backup first your savegames found in "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4"

1. before you install it, choose Properties from Steam UI game icon and select from the Beta tab: "legacy -" to download pre-buggy version. 👉🏻 Remember: you MUST switch to legacy beta BEFORE you apply the following patches! Install the "legacy" game and wait 'till finished.
2. take an hex-editor like 'HxD[mh-nexus.de]' and edit 'Arcania.exe' as follows (hex address: 1st column = original byte value > 2nd column = byte patched, comment)*:

As an alternative you can use 5, 6, 7, 8 for the cores patch above, not 8, 8, 8, 8... works fine too with good frame rate and smoothness.

It seems many users have some problems in finding byte at $D36 to modify for the >2GB patch, so here is a screenshot (using HxD free hex-editor, on the OLD LEGACY EXECUTABLE):

⠀
If you still have problems finding the correct bytes to change for Large Address Aware (>2GB) patch you can use many different tools, like good old 4GB Patch tool (NTCore) https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371 for noobs.

Enjoy the game running MUCH better! 👍🏻

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⚠ WARNING: CRASH! 💣 ⚠

You MUST run the game from Steam, NEVER double-clicking Arcania.exe directly or from a desktop shortcut to the exe or it will crash, probably because of too old additional DRM SecuROM, mitigated when launched from Steam client.

0. Download the patch from:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wp8t7MzS2QNUdHwXu7dGG8jwbiGh1Uzq
1. before you install it, choose Properties from Steam UI game icon and select from the Beta tab: "legacy -" to download pre-buggy version. 👉🏻 Remember: you MUST switch to legacy beta BEFORE you apply the patches! Install the "legacy" game and wait 'till finished.
2. then uncompress patch archive contents into the game directory with 'Arcania.exe' (usually "...\Steam\steamapps\common\Arcania Gothic 4").

Then start the ArcaniaFix.bat script from the archive to automatically patch the game exe.
03/01/2024 Update: better to change thread-pool-bit="2" -> "3" at 00987A33 (follow manual guide above!)

N.B.
This will apply the patch for a 8 cores CPU (or more). It WON'T work on dual cores or less, so in this case see first method (point 3 above) and reduce core number from 8 ($38) to 4 ($34)

Please, apply this fix for Lost Planet 2 (to download a fake dinput8.dll to be used in the same dir of Arcania.exe. May not work under Linux.) if your CPU has >6 cores...
https://steamproxy.com/app/45750/discussions/0/3192488348509998059/

Enjoy the game!

If mouselook moves too fast, read my other fix here:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=859607442

Today I played the game again (Win11, Realtek HD Audio (ALC295 chipset)) and found audio was very low in general even when maxed out.

FIX:
Edit "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\gamesoundsettings.xml" like this (adjust volumes as you wish):

or whatever you prefer. You can just change "global_volume" to "3.000000" for example.

It seems Microsoft ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up another game with recent Windows 11 24H2 updates (current date: April 2025. I'm sure this game was working fine a few months ago)... so here is a workaround fix to play this game in borderless fullscreen, since it now fails to open in fullscreen exclusive.

1. edit "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\ArcaniA - Gothic 4\videosettings.xml" and change this line as follows:
   <Attribute name="fullscreen" type="bool" value="false" />
2. download this .sdb file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApMUGr0cuN39hI9AKnV8sfcYsX2saw?e=4pzylx created with official MS Compatibility Administrator (32bit) tool, and apply it from an admin command prompt (CMD):
   
   sdbinst.exe -q "ArcaniA - Gothic FULLSCREEN workaround.sdb"
3. launch the game and set your fullscreen resolution, but DON'T UNTICK under video settings "Windowed mode"

🔖 You'll still be able to adjust brightness, saturation, contrast under Video options.

Solved. Now the game will run again, but forced in windowed borderless fullscreen.
ATM it seems the only possible workaround unless MS will fix the OS compatibility with this game.

NOTE: the .sdb is created to patch the legacy exe, file version v1.1.0.1433, so you have to apply the guide fix first.

jptch.exe copyright is owned by Joris Heirbaut
http://jojodiff.sourceforge.net/