well maybe it was retribution or the other expansion. me and another friend of mine both could not load the game in steam after turning off our page file. (i run an ssd and 8gb of ram) i agree that i dont feel i need a page file anymore but some software still needs it.
What was the last chip without x86_64 instructions? Intel finally went with x86_64 in 2006, and AMD beat them with the Opterons in ~2003. Would any machine from before this period be able to run Planetside 2? The real problem isn't 32 and 64 bit processors. It's the motherboard that often taps out at 4 GB, or more specifically, the chipset doesn't address more than 4 GB; in which case, why install a 64-bit version of operating system of choice? The push to 64-bit operating systems would have to come from MS. Apple doesn't have 32 and 64-bit flavors. x86_64 has legacy support. Win7 64-bit costs the same as 32-bit. Machines with x86_64 chips but are stuck with less than or equal to 4 GB of memory derive little to no benefit from more memory addressing, but don't suffer adversely from it.
that software you are talking, is basically specialized software "nasa stuff....lol....kidding", you know what i mean. from my experience, no pagefile = no problem = less stuttering possibility = small fastest load time = less HDD trashing = more utilization of memory = smooth gameplay stuff like this
Really its a matter of development costs. Programmers who know how to correctly use and optimize around fork/pipe commands tend to want two times the salary of average code monkey. Most companies just hire a ton of low level programmers (temp contract work) for development to pump out a project quickly, but only hire less than a dozen experienced programmers to act as supervisors. The goal is to pump out the product quickly with minimum development costs with little concern over quality (aka "The launch now, and maybe fix it later if it makes enough money" mentality)
We're discussing how PS2 detects memory and whether or not in counts pagefile as part of addressable space.
If it did, the whole "pagefile=2X RAM" would not have worked for people with 2GB of memory way back when 2GB was a lot... That said, Nikushimi is right. The engine is built on an older engine, which was built on an older engine, which was built on an older engine, which was used in Everquest?
I too think that it is unlikely for a non-64bit machine to be able to run Planetside 2 simply due to specs of that time, however, as you (EvilBlight) mention it is probably more the OS fault than the actual hardware. There are quite a few 64bit capable machines out there that run 32-bit Windows trying to get someone to reinstall Windows for a game would be pretty futile. In the XP era 64-bit was pretty rare; I never even remember seeing it for sale. Due to Vista's fear-factor, even if 64-bit was more popular it was never mainstream So the first time a normal consumer may have been likely to have a chance to get 64 bit is about 2009. Even so, fear of bad 32-bit backward compatibility has likely stopped adopters as well. So, yes 32-bit support is probably still a necessity.
Put simply.. cost vs requirement, but to be honest they have done a great job, the game looks great, runs well on older units and in my opinion is a good example of a successful launch. no doubt in 3 or 4 years time the development will be in place to re-vamp the graphics to comply with x64 and whatever revision DX is available for Micro$oft Windows WhateverMakesMoneyNowerdays, the game will shine once again. And lets face it, SOE have not had a great history with games, i understand that this now is the flagship of SOE and i do imagine that Smed will be putting all the resources he has available to him into the project, i just hope it flys instead of falls (unlike Star Wars Galaxies), only time will tell.
I decided to run it on a machine at the office to give it a whirl. XP64 was a horrid horrid system. Drivers were of course a mess but even simple software programs wouldn't work. Years later and x64 is still a hack for windows. Seriously when Microsoft's own web browser comes in two flavors on an install IE and IE (64 bit) you know there's something wrong. Not sure if this is the case with win 8 but I have no desire to give that a try.
Which would fall under the classification of bad programming. They released a 32bit version of the game, yet allowed the game to just run itself into the ground rather than keep a firm grip on its memory usage. Except in this example, 64bit does not necessarily serve as the miracle cure - if a game is not managing its memory usage properly, more RAM simply delays the inevitable. Firstly, once again, the current memory consumption of PS2 is a matter of poor optimisation. By definition, if a game is well optimised, it should not just keep gobbling up memory until it crashes - the game does not need to be rendered officially a 64bit product to make proper use of your hardware. Your grammar is a bit garbled here, but if you're saying "why not support both?" then sure, I'm with you. I'm not saying the game shouldn't support 64bit. I'm just opposed to the notion that it needs to be a pure 64bit memory-eating monster. Arguably, the ability to perfect the "old setups" is just as much an integral part of the PC experience - because the PC is an open platform that can be heavily modified, we are able to tweak and adjust both software and hardware to get the best performance out of what we have available. PCs evolve. We adapt them, improve them. And a big part of that evolution is perfecting what we currently have; this is why we overclock, instead of just replacing the CPU with something better. Simply buying new hardware at every opportunity is not the PC way. It is the console way.
I sort of disagree. A pc that is not 64 bit right now cause of its hardware setup, wont be able to run PS2 at all. This is not a p1 game we are talking about here, and even if it were, it would be nice to have a version that uses memory up to 20% more efficiently, EXACTLY because it is a monstrosity that requires a lot.
Chances are most present 32-bit OS machines have a x86_64 CPU and could be reinstalled as 64-bit: but aren't. Tacking on more memory is often a band-aid to poor optimization, but at some point you have to bite the bullet. If you have to spend a scarce amount of programmer-hours, perhaps it would go into optimization without reinventing the wheel.
