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Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

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Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned > Guides > Berto's Guides

43 ratings

Gabriel Knight 3 - Several Fixes

By Berto

Gabriel Knight 3 is one of my all time favourite games, so as you can imagine it's heartbreaking seeing the state of complete neglect it is drowned on by everyone responsible. This is an old game, it went through a development hell at the time so much of the tech behind it is completely outdated, so running it nowadays is a challenge. As a matter of fact, nowadays it's impossible to run it if you don't mess with it as It asks for a CD when you first boot it up! That's only the first of many issues unfortunatly, but it's telling of how the publisher simply ignores it and doesn't offer the simpliest of support.

Unfortunatly, nowadays this is not a popular game, so I'm afraid it will become close to unplayable in the future. I'm no tech savvy so the support I can do is minimal. This guide is just a compilation of fixes I found scatered on the web and all the praise have to be directed the real heroes that managed to create and share these fixes, I'm just a compiler :)

Edit: I bought a Deck and to be quite honest the game runs quite well there and it's easier to setup to a point I'll recommend playing there instead of a full blown desktop. Just follow this guide by user noam.mor: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248920963

Award

Created by

Berto
Offline

Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

23 Aug, 2020 @ 8:35am

10 Sep, 2024 @ 3:18am

1,749	Unique Visitors
21	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Issue number 1 - Game doesn't run "Please Insert CD1"

Issue number 2 - Game crashes

Issue number 3 - Flickering graphics

Issue number 4 - High resolutions and widescreen

Comments

Issue number 1 - Game doesn't run "Please Insert CD1"

Fix number 1 (Source GOG.com) - This didn't work for me.

To bypass this CD check, please download the GK3.zip file from HERE [files.gog.com] here:

Once downloaded open the GK3.zip archive, you should see a GK3.exe file inside.
Copy the GK3.exe file to the game's directory (the default game directory is ...Steam\steamapps\common\Gabriel Knight 3\GK3).
A GK3.exe file should already be present.

When asked if you'd like to replace the file, say yes, and trying playing the game one more time.

Fix number 2 (by Steam user Frungi ) - This worked for me.

You'll need to download any .ISO file. The game needs to detect a CD drive. Just DOWNLOAD THIS [tinycorelinux.net] and open it. You'll need to open this every time you turn on the PC (at least in my case).

Issue number 2 - Game crashes

In some cases the game might crash straight away in Gabe's Room, or experience instability along the way. The best solution is downloading dgVoodoo and simply copy the exe. and dll's into the game folder. Since I got a (false) virus warning through Chrome, I'll attach my copy of it here.
dgvoodoo website [dege.freeweb.hu] - Don't use Chrome
My reupload [gofile.io]

Issue number 3 - Flickering graphics

Gabriel Knight 3 engine is a mess. Yo'll have to disable "incremental rendering" in the graphic options. Nope, there's no other way.

Issue number 4 - High resolutions and widescreen

The game is limited to only three 4:3 resolutions (640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768). You can change to higher and wider resolutions with the following fix, however I couldn't go higher than 1280x1080 (got a "not enough frame buffer memory is available" error), might be different for you, try it out.

WARNING: Beware that further down the line you'll encounter a game-stopping bug related to the ingame laptop (called SIDNEY) that wont work if you're running resolutions higher than the standard ones. The trick here is reverting back to any of those vanilla resolutions when you open SIDNEY for the first time, then you can go back to your higher resolution again. To be quite honest with you, I recomend playing the whole game in 4:3 1024x768 vanilla. It's more stable and a smoother experience.

Change resolution - Source WSGF [www.wsgf.org]
1- Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sierra On-Line\Gabriel Knight 3\Engine .

2- Edit the decimal value of these keys :
(default) = yyyy
Screen Height = yyyy
Screen Widht = xxxx

Where xxxx is desired width & yyyy is desired height.

(default) and "Screen Height" MUST have the same value.

15 Comments

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TPKfi 2 Dec, 2024 @ 10:09am

The reason the games are as they are is because the creators lost literally everything when they released the remastered version of Gabriel Knight 1. Activision gave them a permission to make one GK game. They wanted to make a sequel. They said no. Make a remastered one first and if it does well, we will see. So they invested everything from their ranch to money. And the game flopped. They still very much want to make GK4 but it's increasingly unlikely

Berto [author] 26 Oct, 2024 @ 5:40am

You and me! I even started a personal project of mine in Unreal Engine to try and recreate Rennes-le-Chateaux but... well I don't have time and skill to complete such a task :D

Pummicloud 20 Oct, 2024 @ 7:53pm

i would love GK3 Remaster this game was my jam for detective games and would love upgraded engine and grafics for this game. sry for bad english i am from finland

i have ibs 24 Dec, 2023 @ 6:44pm

you are wonderful <3
may the schattenjager return soon (bc that cliffhanger was just cruel, jane)

GKnight 7 May, 2023 @ 10:43am

Thanks for the instructions!

The "dgVoodoo" software saved my day and my gaming experience.

nauvoo 9 Mar, 2023 @ 8:46am

GK3 is my fave GK and I love em all - I pray for a remaster.
Ty for this.

QueenSlayer 👑 14 Jun, 2022 @ 8:38am

You're welcome, I love when these helpful guides are created. I wouldn't have been able to play certain games otherwise.

Berto [author] 14 Jun, 2022 @ 12:00am

Thanks! I'll update the link when I get back home!

QueenSlayer 👑 13 Jun, 2022 @ 5:52pm

When I click on the link provided it says "NOT FOUND" , so I Googled and DGVOODOO has a new version as DGVOODOO2

Frungi 13 Jun, 2022 @ 1:32pm

What can you tell me about dgvoodoo?

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