64-Bit Servers and Clients Arriving Soon!

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Accendo, Nov 3, 2021.

  1. Accendo Guest

    [IMG]
    It's time to embrace the future here in the present.



    Greetings, Norrathians!

    We are excited to officially announce the long-awaited conversion to 64-bit Servers and Clients for EverQuest!

    You may be wondering, "Why is this important?" The answer is simply, with more available memory we can immediately decrease the "out of memory" client crashes. This update is going to allow for the utilization of more of the memory on your computer and on our servers. Currently, no matter how much physical or virtual memory is on your machine we are limited to using 4GBs of it. With 64-bit clients, we can in theory use up to 16 exabytes. The "out of memory" issue is statistically the number one reason we see client crashes right now. Additionally, this change allows for increased client and server performance by allowing us to load more into memory instead of relying on slow reads from a hard drive. Plus, this puts us on a path to have more and higher resolution art in the game.

    We will begin rolling out the new 64-bit update to Beta in the coming weeks, and at that time you will need to run a 64-bit Windows OS to continue participating in Beta. However, the 64-bit update will not be launching with the launch of the new expansion: Terror of Luclin. You will still be able to enjoy EverQuest's 28th Expansion launch without any interruption on live servers. After the launch of the expansion, we will be updating the Test Server about a month before the full launch to live servers. This release to the Test Server is currently targeted for early 2022. We want to make sure this transition is as smooth as possible, so these dates are subject to change in order to make sure we can provide you with the best possible update. LaunchPad will automatically update your client and you will be able to enjoy EverQuest in a new and improved way. It is just around the corner so stay tuned for the Beta and Test Server announcements!

    Officially, the sunsetting of the 32-bit client will take effect on the day that the 64-bit clients are released to the live servers. Because of this migration, we will no longer be able to support 32-bit systems. We recommend making backups of any INI files (or other customizations) in your client directory and upgrading to at least the minimum 64-bit specs as shown below:

    MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
    • OS: Windows 7 64-bit or newer
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400/AMD Athlon x2 4050e
    • Memory: 3 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8800/AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT or higher (comparison chart)
    • Network: Broadband Internet Connection
    • Hard Drive: 15 GB of free hard drive space

    OPTIMAL RECOMMENDED SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit or newer
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850/AMD Phenom II x2
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 260/AMD Radeon HD 4870 or higher (comparison chart)
    • Network: Broadband Internet Connection
    • Hard Drive: 15 GB of free hard drive space
    You can determine if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows on Microsoft's Support Site.

    This update is an example of how we here at Darkpaw Games are constantly dedicated to improving and innovating on your favorite game through key modernization initiatives. In the coming years, we are planning on more big projects like this and hope to be able to share some of them with you in the future.
    Aiko, minimind, Elyssanda and 20 others like this.
  2. Forcallen Augur

    Few questions.

    Will this improve the lag we see in raids?

    Will this allow for the debuff cap on mobs to be increased without creating more lag or other behind the scenes issues?

    Can we have housing item placement limit increased from 600 max to like 1200 now?
  3. Slasher Augur

    Is a month really long enough to test this big of a change ?
    Shindius likes this.
  4. Sancus Augur

    Thank you for your continued work on keeping this game running. As you consider options for future large projects, please prioritize the instance lag that has been aggressively persistent for years. It's the single largest issue for many of us playing the game and makes raiding an increasingly frustrating and unenjoyable experience. I hope the 64-bit changes provide some improvements, but my understanding is they will not fix the fundamental issues associated with the game's current server lag.

    The health of the raid game and the viability of new raid content depend on us actually being able to play through those raids properly, and that's not the case currently. Many people have quit because of it, and more will if it isn't addressed. It's frustrating going year after year without any meaningful progress on this front.
  5. Arctodus Elder

    Juicewrld likes this.
  6. Deux Corpse Connoisseur

    Can we update stack sizes to 5 or 6 digits now?

    Also can we get guidance on hardware? Particularly CPU & memory as many of your customers box. Rule of thumb is 4 GB RAM per client per computer I believe. Would that be the same with a 64-bit system as it uses memory better or ? I'll probably invest in a new laptop but want to buy something futureproof.

    I am thinking an i7 quadcore 32gb ram with 1tb SSD and a 4? gb nvidia card
    Rumm likes this.
  7. theonepercent Augur

    I for sure don't see that ending well.

    Maybe they'll consider giving everyone access to the beta for more time to test once it gets added there?
  8. quakedragon Augur

    So I usually play others games too.

    I notice other games I can play other games and it won't crash, but Everquest. If I say load up Diablo2 Resurrection and minimize EQ and go in and play Diablo2, EQ will crash instantly.
    Computer specs can handle me playing many different games so my computer isn't the issue.

    Hopefully, this change will allow me to play other games while I sit in GL waiting for someone to do MGBs, instead of crashing.
  9. theonepercent Augur

    Are you playing either game in fullscreen?
  10. quakedragon Augur

    yes, EQ is windowed the other game is fullscreen
    ResetDevice() failed

    Must be windowed only thing, I tried fullscreen, it didn't crash. But windowed it crashes right away. Also, I put the other game in windowed and EQ in full, the other game did not crash being in windowed mode playing another game in fullscreen.
    Shindius likes this.
  11. Gendor Journeyman

    Awesome! Thank you!:)
  12. Numiko Augur

    Next thing you will tell us that the game will finely recognize our CPU's have more then one core!!
    Juicewrld, Leerah and Shindius like this.
  13. theonepercent Augur

    Full screen forces exclusive use of the GPU, if you want to run more than 1 game at once run them all in windowed mode.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare, Shindius and Dre. like this.
  14. Nizune New Member

    My understanding is that there was a limitation on the number of races and classes that could be put into the game due to it being 32 bit (there are 16 races and 16 classes). Now that it is being upgraded to 64 bit, I wonder if it could be possible to see another race or class added in a future expansion.
  15. Xanadas Augur

    Will we zone any faster?
    Leerah likes this.
  16. Zanarnar Augur

    that limitation is due to the variable that holds races and classes being defined as an unsigned 4bit INT (which ranges from -8 to 7 signed; or 0-15 unsigned). Since they are poking all the code; I too am hoping they take the opportunity to fix all of these old decisions. It was great back in the day when we had slow connections and far less storage available, but those are no longer issues so....

    Here is to hoping :)
    Juicewrld, Leerah and Shindius like this.
  17. Aiona Augur

    Fantastic news! This makes a LOT of things possible... thank you Darkpaw Games <3
  18. Tour Augur

    Some would say it’s just conspiracy but I can’t help but notice the amazing coincidence in timing with this particular expansion and the upgrade. All these four armed Akheva everywhere … yeah, 64 bit upgrade to give them octuple-attack
    Svann2 likes this.
  19. Corpsefury New Member

    This might bring back falling damage for monitor users above 60hz!
    andrewkeim01 likes this.
  20. Slasher Augur

    I think people underestimate the memory constraints they have faced because of 32bit server and client.
    Aiko, Orangemilk, Leerah and 3 others like this.