Introduction

Last Updated: 05 May 2026 @ 10:33 CE(S)T

Welcome to the Colony!

Gothic and Gothic II are two of my favorite games of all times and I recently discovered that there are some very interesting mods for them out there which I’ve never tried. I know I’m like 10 years late with this realization, so sue me. Since I don’t have access to a Windows PC anymore (nor do I want to, but that’s another tale), I made this website to document running the games and all kinds of mods with all the quirks and weirdness on Linux. I hope you can make good use of it!

Show me your wares!

Eager to get started? Good.

Important

Before you skip to a specific installation script, please take the time to read the general instructions for them.

After you’ve done this you can proceed to install the vanilla versions or one of the countless mods. Good luck!

Where can I find…?

If you’re unsure where to start, I recommend you…

have a look at the tools section to get an idea of what you need to get going
proceed to the installation insctructions and choose what you want to install. Whether you want to stick to the vanilla versions as closely as possible or install all the mods you can is entirely up to you. This website can help you do either.
Use the search function! It works pretty well, you know!

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 21:24 CE(S)T

Tools

There are various ways to go about this whole endeavour. You can do everything manually from the command line with wine and winetricks which I don’t recommend. The reason is that there are great tools available for helping you set everything up that work very well.

By now there are so many app/game launchers that it’s not practical to maintain installation instructions for each of them. These include:

Requirements

Whatever tools you use, in order for playing Gothic you need to achieve the following:

Setup a Wine prefix
Install Windows DLLs into this prefix
Define DLL overrides

As long as you manage this, it doesn’t matter how you do this. The following two sections contain instructions for the two GUI applications that I have personal experience with.

Recommendation

Personally, I use Lutris for everything described here. It is not necessarily the best or most pretty tool but, to the best of my knowledge, it is the only one that has the capability of automating the game installation process via scripting which I find highly attractive (see installation instructions on this page for scripts).

If you care about this, I recommend you also use Lutris, otherwise, it really doesn’t matter.

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 21:24 CE(S)T

Bottles

The setup in Bottles is fairly straightforward. You add a new bottle (you can select gaming but I didn’t test whether it makes a difference) and start using it.

Install DLLs

You can find the necessary wine dependencies in the menu of the newly created bottle under Dependencies.

DLL Overrides

DLL overrides can be set up under Settings in the section Compatibility near the bottom of the available options. For installing Windows applications, just select Run Executable from the bottle menu.

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 21:24 CE(S)T

Lutris

You can choose to use an existing Lutris installer but in order to have more control over the installation you should choose to install a game fresh from a Windows executable. One nice feature of Lutris is its capability to run custom install scripts which can be used to automate the otherwise sometimes tedious install process. To do this click on Add Game in the top right corner and select Install from a local install script. Custom Lutris scripts for installing various versions of both games can be found below.

For a manual game installation you will need to consider a few things.

Install DLLs

In order to install wine dependencies you need to open up winetricks within the wine prefix. When you select an installed game that runs with wine you can click on the wine menu (arrow symbol next to the wine glass button) and select Winetricks. Then you need to select Select the default wineprefix and in the next menu ´Install a Windows DLL or component´

This can also be done from the command line like so (which necessitates winetricks being installed):

  WINEPREFIX=/path/to/prefix winetricks

DLL Overrides

DLL overrides can be added in two places. In the game settings (after you right-click a game and select Configure) in the Runner options tab. Scroll to DLL overrides and click on Add. The values follow the syntax of n,b for native, then builtin and vice versa accordingly.

The second place you can do this is when selecting Wine configuration from the wine menu (see above how to open winetricks). Select the Libraries tab and in the field New override for library enter or choose the appropriate value. After clicking Add you can then select Edit to select the value you need.

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 21:24 CE(S)T

Steam

On Steam you can use protontricks to install wine dependencies. Depending on how you install it, it is either called as protontricks or as flatpak run com.github.Matoking.protontricks in the case of a flatpak install. The latter is recommended on Steam Decks. You can, of course, create a shell alias to make typing the command less cumbersome.

Install DLLs

To install a dependency into a specific wine prefix you need the Steam ID of the game. For Gothic this is 65540 for Gothic II it’s 39510. You can now do

  protontricks 39510 directmusic

to, for example, install directmusic to the Gothic II wine prefix.

DLL Overrides

To add DLL overrides the most reliable method I found is to manually edit the user.reg config file sitting in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/$STEAM_ID/pfx/user.reg. You look for the section called [Software\Wine\DllOverrides] and edit the following lines according to your needs. To Add a new override you add, e.g.

  "ddraw"="native,builtin"

Of course you need to adapt the values to your needs. To disable an existing override simply delete the corresponding line. Don’t forget to save the file!

Installing Mods

Installing mods is, in principle, quite straightforward. You open up the Steam Workshop page for the relevant game, look for mods you want to install and hit “Subscribe”. Done. The biggest caveat is, in my opinion, that the Steam Workshop does not contain all available mods (not by a long shot) and also not necessarily the most current versions of the ones that do exist there, since it simply is not the source of truth for Gothic mods.

Once you’ve done this you need to go to “Properties” on the game, then “Betas” and then select the Steam Workshop Beta. This will enable a launcher where you can select the order in which mods are loaded, the language of the mod (if applicable) and more.

The biggest issue by far I had with going through Steam is that when I installed mods on top of the vanilla game (especially the D3D11 renderer and conversion mods) I consistently ended up with framerates of 15-20. I have not yet figured out why, if you have an idea, please reach out!

Of course it should be possible to install mods by manually copying the relevant files in place or executing executables in the respective Proton (i.e. Wine) prefixes but this is somewhat more cumbersome.

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 13:26 CE(S)T

Spine

Spine is a tool that makes installing and managing mods very easy. However, if you use it to install several extension or conversion mods, things can get a bit dicey, because they can easily end up breaking each other.

In principle, you could use Spine to set up just one extension or conversion mod to not have it interfere with others. In my experience, however, this does not work with the D3D11 renderer (see below) which makes it far less attractive.

Last Updated: 03 May 2026 @ 13:26 CE(S)T

OpenGothic

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this project. It is an open-source reimplementation of the game engine which means that you provide the game files yourself (still have to buy it, duh) but the engine does the rest. The best part is that it has a Linux build so you don’t have to go through wine to play (just once for installation).

There are several things to note:

The project is still in a pre-release stage so don’t expect a feature-complete or fully stable product
Gothic 1 is not officially supported but might run as well
Some behavior of the original game engine is not 100% reproduced
Most of the functional mods will not work because Ninja or Union are not supported (see here)
Not all of the extension/conversion mods will work (see here)
D3D11 renderers don’t work (although the game already looks nice OOTB)

If that doesn’t deter you, here’s what you need to do:

Install the base game with wine (either using the command line or any of the ways below)
Download a Linux build from here
- Alternatively, you can build the engine yourself, see here for instructions
Run the game by executing the given script and providing the path to your install of Gothic II: Gothic2Notr.sh -g /path/to/Gothic_2
- See here for additional options like directly loading a savegame or enabling ray tracing (if your hardware is capable of it)

Last Updated: 04 May 2026 @ 14:12 CE(S)T

Playing on the Steam Deck

Launcher

How you start the games depends on how you installed the game. I recommend the Lutris route with custom install scripts in which case you need to add the game(s) to your library as a non-Steam game.

The easiest way to achieve this is by using BoilR. You simply install it, open it up, select the game(s) you want to import (which usually happens automatically) and hit the “import” button. This adds the game as non-Steam game in your Steam library and enters flatpak as target command to run with specific startup arguments. This way the whole command looks something like this:

flatpak run net.lutris.Lutris lutris:rungame/gothic-ii-gold-edition

If you’re like me, you can then spend some time to add proper artworks, of course.

Note

Adding two instances of the same game (e.g. with different mods installed) will not work out of the box with this method because BoilR uses the GOG-internal game ID to create a run command which is then executed by Steam. To work around this you need to change this identifier. This can either be done when using an installation script ( edit the value of game_slug at the top of the YAML file) or after installation. Just select the game, click “Configure” in the context menu (right-click menu), go down to the Identifier, click the change button and enter something else. Don’t forget to hit Apply when you’re done.

If you installed a mod, you may find yourself facing a launcher in which you need to select the game (or mod) again to actually start. Luckily there’s a solution for this. You need to determine the name of the game or mod you’re playing from the base name of the .ini file that’s used. This is located in the system subfolder and may be named something like NostalgicEdition.ini for the Nostalgic mod. Once you have this you can can open up Lutris, right-click on the game, select Configure, and in the Game options tab you add the following to the Arguments field:

-game:$MOD_NAME -start

So for the Nostalgic mod this would become -game:NostalgicEdition -start. This will start the selected game or mod directly. You may still encounter the mod starter after starting the game but it will automatically disappear again.

Controls

zGamePad

Warning

As of October 2024 this mod doesn’t work properly out of the box, if the game was installed from another source than Steam. I don’t know yet why that is but somewhere between the in-game keybindings, Steam Input and zGamePad something happens so that button presses will trigger different reactions (e.g. jumping and opening the character menu) at the same time. I haven’t found a way to fix this yet but I may at some point.

In order to run the games smoothly on the Steam Deck or on a regular device with a gamepad you’ll want to install the “zGamePad” mod (see above). If you’re playing via Steam, it’s of course possible to map the inputs yourself which gets you most of the way to what zGamePad provides out of the box. I would not recommend this, though, because it’s a lot of hassle and still doesn’t provide some of the features the mod does, like quick access menus, seamless transition between strafing and forward movement (which is very nice to have) and situational keybindings (i.e. keybindings that depend on whether you are in a menu, in combat etc.).

Installation of the mod can be achieved by copying the following snippet into an installation script:

Controller snippet

script:
  files:
  # Copy this into the "files" section of your script
  - zgamepad: https://cloud.bfloeser.de/s/rimZDiWF3mFnHkK/download/zGamePad.exe
  installer:
  # Copy this into the "installer" section of your script
  - task:
      arch: win32
      description: Installing zGamePad
      executable: zgamepad
      name: wineexec
      prefix: $GAMEDIR
      working_dir: $GAMEDIR

Alternatively, you can download and run the installer manually. Note that this mod requires the Union mod.

Now you need to enter game mode and select your newly added game. In order for zGamePad to be utilized you need to select “Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad” as input method. You can configure zGamePad from the menu by selecting “Settings” and “Union & Plugins”.

If you installed via Steam directly and use the Workshop version of the mod, the zGamePad controller scheme should be preselected and you’re good to go out of the box.

I recommend familiarizing yourself with the controls (if you’re not already familiar) and then switching the control hints off in the menu since I find them to be pretty jarring (YMMV of course).

All the basic game functionality is covered by the gamepad inputs, however, if you installed mods that require additional inputs (like sprinting, torches, the item finder etc.) these need to be addressed separately. On the Steam Deck this is easily done by just using the back grip buttons. If you’re using a regular gamepad, you’ll need to consult the documentation for the mod.

Manual Mapping

If you’re not using zGamePad (see above) you’ll need to map the keys manually. Thankfully Steam Input is very powerful so it’s actually doable (for the most part). I won’t tell you what exactly you need to map where because it comes down to preference but I will give you an overview about the mappings I have in place. Note that some buttons are bound to two keys so you can perform different actions, e.g. depending on whether you have a weapon drawn.

In-game keybinding	Steam Deck button	Function
Right mouse button	B & Left trigger	“back” button, quicklooting, blocking
Left mouse button	Right trigger	used for fighting
Alt	X	jump and drop item from inventory
Ctrl	A	interact, in Gothic 1 I have a dual input of Ctrl and Return bound to this because Ctrl doesn’t work to choose menu items or dialog options
Space	Y	draw (and change) weapon
Delete	Left bumper	strike to the left and strafe left
PageDown	Right bumper	strike to the right and strafe right
Start	Esc
Left stick press	F5	quicksave
Right stick press	F9	quickload

You may need to ensure that the in-game keybindings correspond to the desired actions from within the in-game settings menu. For fighting I only use the triggers and bumpers because it suits me best. A few other things to note:

The right stick serves as mouse, the left stick is for running forward, backward and strafing left and right. This makes movement fairly intuitive.
The DPad is bound to the arrow keys. When I touch and hold the right stick an action layer is activated that changes the DPad bindings to Tab, N, B and T for inventory, quest log, character sheet and torch (see BetterTorches mod). That way I can use the DPad to select menu items and dialog options as well as navigate trade windows but also have a way to access inventory etc.
The left trackpad is a quick menu bound to the number keys from 1 to 0.
Back grip buttons are bound to sprinting, sneaking, item locator and such things.

This setup is quite satisfactory for my personal playstyle with Gothic 2. Since the controls of Gothic 1 are a bit more wonky (combat system and trading) a few adjustements need to be made there. I experimented with subcommands for Ctrl + arrow key for fighting but that always had drawbacks so I just went with pressing right trigger + DPad button. Trading in Gothic 1 is a mess and I didn’t even bother to figure out a good solution to keybindings here, I just accepted that it was weird.

Performance

As you’d expect the vanilla game can basically be run on a potato. With the D3D11 renderer, however, the hardware demand is actually somewhat noticeable and you need a decent GPU to handle the load. The Steam Deck is mostly up to the challenge, I did notice a bit of choppiness in certain locations in Gothic II (so far in Khorinis and the castle in the Valley of the Mines). You’re free to tinker with the settings to improve performance, of course. For extra battery life I recommend capping the FPS to 40 and setting TDP to 7 which also helps with frame pacing.

When playing more demanding mods like the various L’Hiver editions the TDP restriction won’t be playable so I recommend not turning that on.

Note

On several occasions I noticed that after playing a while (a couple of hours, I think) the framerate tanked and wouldn’t go up again. This only occurred when playing with the renderer. Restarting the game resolved the issue and unfortunately I haven’t been able to pin down the issue yet.

Now all that’s left to do is start the game and enjoy!

Last Updated: 04 May 2026 @ 22:42 CE(S)T

Installation Instructions

General Information

This section contains installation instructions for the base games as well as various mods. You can follow the steps manually or use one of the provided Lutris installation scripts.

Important

These scripts can be used as-is but I highly recommend adapting them to your liking. Especially in terms of functional mods which add a lot of quality of life features. In some cases I also added texture packs which may not be to your liking so it’s generally a good idea to at least skim through to see what a script does before you use it. All scripts are editable so you can change them and delete stuff or copy in other stuff before savin them to a file on your machine.

To use a script, copy its content into a file with a .yaml file ending. Then open up Lutris, press the button to add a new game, select Install from a local install script, in the opening window, select Browse... and select the script you just saved.

Caution

In contrast to Windows, file paths in Linux are case sensitive! Whenever you handle any paths in a script, double-check that all paths are spelled correctly, including capitalization, otherwise you will end up with unexpected results that will probably just looks like whatever you tried to do didn’t work.

Note

The scripts will install German versions of mods, if available, by default. If you prefer a different language you need to provide the respective executable files yourself.

Note

The scripts assume that the GOG version of the game is used. If you don’t have this version, you will need to adapt them accordingly.

Warning

If you link Lutris to your GOG account, the scripts will download the game from GOG by default. It will try to choose a language matching your locale. If this is not what you want (as is the case with me), I recommend you unlink your GOG account from Lutris, download the game version of your choice and provide it to the installer by hand when prompted. If you try this with your GOG account still linked, the installation won’t work for reasons I don’t understand.

Lutris Install Scripts

Last Updated: 05 May 2026 @ 02:46 CE(S)T

Vanilla

General

These instructions assume that you know where the game is installed. I used the GOG version throughout but I assume the same approach should work with the Steam version but I haven’t tested it.

Install the game in a wine prefix
Add necessary dependencies:
- directmusic
- MS Visual C++ Redistributable 2008 and 2010 (these are called vcrun in winetricks and vcredist in Bottles)
- For the Union patch (see below) you also need .NET 4.0 (found under dotnet40) which is highly recommended
Add DLL override for dsound and set it to “builtin, then native” (the exact wording or naming of the option depends on the tool)

This is sufficient to get the base games going. However, there are a few issues due to the games being old and a bit buggy, e.g. widescreen resolutions not being supported and the like. To fix this, it is recommended to at least install a few patches:

Gothic I

In addition to the steps described above it is recommende to install at least the following patches:

The community patch is marked as optional because, although it focuses on fixing story and script bugs, it is dependent on Ninja see here. Nevertheless it is recommended to install it due to its modularity and benefit.

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Gothic On Linux – A Comprehensive Guide