Elite: Dangerous 32 vs 64 bit
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This is basically the same discussion that has been here -> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34251
My previous post probably went to a moderator queue... I just noted that this is an old discussion... Most people reply with something along the lines of "64 bit wouldn't give any advantage because the game doesn't need the extra memory space"....
Well, that's just ridiculous. There are other advantages that a 64bit execution pipeline offers beyond a greater memory address range. Specifically, the 64 bit instruction set. The only real reason to use a 32 bit instruction set right now is to target the largest audience possible. I'm of the personal opinion if you don't have a 64 bit computer then upgrade asap. But, look at history. How long were companies still putting out 16 bit apps when the 32 bit processors came out? It's all about money and maximizing the target audience, but eventually, you just have to dump the lower echelon in order to appease the higher echelon. It's all a matter of what will maximize profits.
But just to recap, the answer to the question of "why not 64 bit?" is not because of memory; it's because of money, if anything, whether it is intentional due to target audience, or it started as money constraints with licensing and tools and such.
Well, that's just ridiculous. There are other advantages that a 64bit execution pipeline offers beyond a greater memory address range. Specifically, the 64 bit instruction set. The only real reason to use a 32 bit instruction set right now is to target the largest audience possible. I'm of the personal opinion if you don't have a 64 bit computer then upgrade asap. But, look at history. How long were companies still putting out 16 bit apps when the 32 bit processors came out? It's all about money and maximizing the target audience, but eventually, you just have to dump the lower echelon in order to appease the higher echelon. It's all a matter of what will maximize profits.
But just to recap, the answer to the question of "why not 64 bit?" is not because of memory; it's because of money, if anything, whether it is intentional due to target audience, or it started as money constraints with licensing and tools and such.
Do consoles, MacOS etc use 64bit?
Firstly, it's important to clear up the main misconception about ED: it isn't 'only 32bit'. It's all about CPU-processing efficiency.
The game executable is compiled as 32bit for, as correctly surmised by yourself, the larger target audience. All 64bit users can run 32bit, as can of course native 32bit users. Star Citizen is often mentioned as being 'better' because it will be compiled 64bit thereby ruling out 32bit users. SC had to due to their memory requirement of 4GB+ RAM; ED doesn't as it barely passes 2GB RAM usage.
As has been mentioned by FDev's team in previous threads, there are many portions of ED's internal code that use 64bit calculations and datasets, for the increased accuracy. There are also portions that only use 8bit and 16 bit, heck even 1bit (true/false). The bit requirement is purely dependent on the necessary function of the respective code. Star Citizen - as well as most if not all software applications - also uses this approach.
Some CMDRs question why ED isn't native 64bit throughout, thereby taking advantage of the 64bit instruction-set processing of these past few generations of CPUs. However, if the command a software engineer needs to run only requires an answer-accuracy of say 8bit, then 56 'bits' of that CPU-cycle/thread could be wasted - if multiple commands cannot be simultaneously grouped together to fill the cycle/thread. Alternatively, a '64bit command' will be split into two 32bit ones, thereby requiring two CPU cycles/threads to complete. Most game engine code/commands employ a much greater proportion of 32/16/8/2 bits accuracy compared to 64, likely around a ratio of at least 10:1. So overall performance and efficiency is achieved using a hybrid code/command structure as opposed to "native 64bit" throughout. The benefits of a CPU's 64 bit instruction set are far outweighed by the hybrid model.
Meanwhile, note that even modern-day GPUs only process commands in 32bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_(microarchitecture). Consequently, DirectX and OpenGL are mostly 32bit, as are Windows "64bit" versions. Therefore any claims that a game is "fully 64bit" is total hogwash
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blah blah blah blah.
Most likely, it's because the devs are more comfortable with 32 bit.. and since ed is so incredibly low impact, why bother learning something new. Pure and simple.
and ed is a very, very, low impact game. there's just
Please see existing thread here...
64bit or 32bit ED
...which has been going a while (2013-2015 ;
So folks can skip from one FD staff post to the next, here's one of the early ones in that thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5902&p=168247&viewfull=1#post168247
Click on FD icon, top right, to read all staff contributions.
[edit]I also remember reading that FD has an internal 64-bit build of ED to play with. Can't find the reference at present, though.
64bit or 32bit ED
...which has been going a while (2013-2015 ;
So folks can skip from one FD staff post to the next, here's one of the early ones in that thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5902&p=168247&viewfull=1#post168247
Click on FD icon, top right, to read all staff contributions.
[edit]I also remember reading that FD has an internal 64-bit build of ED to play with. Can't find the reference at present, though.
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