Windows 64-bit may be a requirement for some future EA games

[DrFiishy]

HA...windows 8

ill rather go for Dos then

 

[Foxi4]

I would have no objection, if there is a solid, technical reason to require a 64-bit OS environment

Is effectively doubling the lenght of the bit word used and the fact that the application will no longer have to be artificially launched in a 32-bit mode and go through various stages of a compatibility layer like many games nowadays do a solid, technical reason for you?

We started off with 2-bit computers. Do we use 2-bit computers nowadays? Rarely if at all, even calculators are mostly based on cheap 8-bit chips. 64-bit is the future, we should embrace it and get used to it, it's about damn time this technology is put to full use.

 

[Need_Blocks]

I think this is an okay idea, it would help more people embrace 64 bit

 

[Themanhunt]

64-bit is the future, the near future at least. If more and more players move their shit to 64-bit, hopefully this will get those still on 32-bit to move on.

 

[notmeanymore]

If it's true, it's a step in the right direction. I hate the separation of 64-bit and 32-bit we've had as of late. It's about time we phase out 32-bit.

 

[PsyBlade]

x64 cpus were introduced over 9 and common 7 years ago.
The spec is available since 12.
I think that was more than enought time for everyone to do the switch.
Most gamers likely have already their third or forth x64 capable cpu.

 

[Fishaman P]

IMHO, anyone who isn't running 64-bit needs to upgrade. Even my grandmother is running 64-bit!

And I would also highly recommend that you upgrade to Windows 7, not 8.

 

[Satangel]

IMHO, anyone who isn't running 32-bit needs to upgrade. Even my grandmother is running 64-bit!

And I would also highly recommend that you upgrade to Windows 7, not 8.

QFT.
4GB of RAM is so sexy, and Windows 7 is even sexier

 

[Youkai]

Well lucky i myself never actually had 64bit windows installed but two of my friends had they they happily downgraded to 32bit even thaught it meant the loss of some usable ram.

So many programms be it legal or illegaly obtained do not work propperly or at all with 64bit windows and i still can't understand why because as you said there was more than enough time to get experience with 64bit systems.

MANY Programs?
On my Laptop there was only ONE Program (from around 2002) which refused to install, but with some minor modifications it worked. Even if it didn't worked there are many other options like Compatibility Mode or Virtual Machines to get it running.
You have more Problems using a 32Bit Windows today because there are already some Programs out there for x64 ony like some Adobe Products (e.g. Premiere). And who really downgrades his Windows to 32Bit, even with a loss of RAM: Just go away and install Windows 3. I mean there are so many Programs everyone still uses that aren't working today because it's a 16-Bit Application.

Well one of my friends got a CAD programm from School which didn't want to work at all even thaught it was 64bit version and not even Internet Explorer or Chrome propperly worked on that weird 64bit windows 7 version that was preinstalled on his computer ... hell i could hardly go online with any browser ... after a while i tried 2 other CAD and 2 CAM programms i "got" and noone of them worked.
After installing Windows 32-bit i got all the programms again and all of them worked like a charm. Maybe it was because of that preinstalled Windows but hell when not even the Internet Explorer works that should be very embarrasing for MS.
(we had a similiar problem with a Laptop that same guy bought a year ago ... still hardly anything working as it should, many many errors and such)
And another friend had many "older" programms that might as you said be to old, but he still did need them so he gave the new pc back and used the old one a while ...

Not exactly sure about a normal 64-bit Windows but the ones i dealt with were totaly horrid


And not sure what games actually need 4GB of Ram but with my 2GB i never had any problems yet, and i think i will stay with 32-bit windows as long as i can or at least as long as i won't find out that maybe a Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is "normal" and not broken like these super market versions ...

 

[Slowking]

haha windows 8. not after what i've read and heard about it.

-another world

You mean the immediate boost of performance and the possibility to disable Metro if you're a traditionalist? Try the consumer beta before you establish your opinion, it's pretty cool once you get used to it.

Microsoft has said repeatedly that you won't be able to turn of metro.
That is probably a strategy to boost their phones, since those have the same interfaces. If people see phones of which they already know the interface from their desktops they will get those, right? Wrong, because nobody in their right mind will get metro on their PC. It's a dealbreaker for me and everybody that I've spoken to.

I can only hope for Microsoft, that there will be a hack to disable Metro. Otherwise nobody will get 8.


@Topic
Makes sense. This new engines probably wouldn't run on 32 Bit Processors anyway. The only ones that are still out there are weak as hell.

 

[Foxi4]

haha windows 8. not after what i've read and heard about it.

-another world

You mean the immediate boost of performance and the possibility to disable Metro if you're a traditionalist? Try the consumer beta before you establish your opinion, it's pretty cool once you get used to it.

Microsoft has said repeatedly that you won't be able to turn of metro.


(...)

I can only hope for Microsoft, that there will be a hack to disable Metro. Otherwise nobody will get 8.

Metro UI can be enabled or disabled by changing a value in a single registery key:

Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Key: RPEnabled 1 (change to 0 to disable Metro)

It's really not rocket science, and even if you don't know how to do it, there's this magical button on the UI called "Desktop", guess what it does?

 

[Jehuty25]

Doesn't effect me since I'm already using 64-bit. It's pretty annoying (to me) having so many 32-bit programs on my 64bit PC so the more developers who start to embrace 64bit, the better imo.

 

[Rydian]

Well lucky i myself never actually had 64bit windows installed but two of my friends had they they happily downgraded to 32bit even thaught it meant the loss of some usable ram.

So many programms be it legal or illegaly obtained do not work propperly or at all with 64bit windows and i still can't understand why because as you said there was more than enough time to get experience with 64bit systems.

The only programs I've run into that don't work on 64-bit windows are ones that modify the way windows works, such as firewalls... and for those, the ones that don't work on 64-bit are generally outdated anyways and there's competitors that do more, better.

• My school is using Windows 7 and I was personally tasked with installing various editions of the Auto* programs, all sorts of CAD things for stuff like buildings, pipes, roadways and such... it surprised me how many editions they had to target all the CAD tasks that are done nowadays. And you know what? They all worked just fine. I didn't need to do shit except run the installer and enter the keys.
  
• IE and Chrome work on every copy of Windows 7 I've encountered (barring third-party modification). You specifically mention the preinstalled copy was "weird". There's your problem?

Try using normal copies of things.

I would have no objection, if there is a solid, technical reason to require a 64-bit OS environment.

• Programming and support costs time and money. The more configurations you need to do this for, the longer it takes and more problems are likely to crop up.
  
• As Foxi pointed out, 32-bit programs running on 64-bit windows currently run through the WOW64 compatibility layer.
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
  And this is a real problem related to the limit of 32-bit integers in modern systems.

But you're only screwing yourself if you arbitrarily limit it so. For example, see Microsoft trying to require Vista for Halo 2, when we all know that game does not require DX 10-class graphics.

The problem with releasing DX10 games is that DX10 is not backwards compatible with DX9 and below... so any game that can be hacked to work on DX9 and below (or natively works on both, such as the first Crysis) is...

• A - A game with both DX9 and DX10 rendering engines, meaning both versions had to be coded and tested, meaning a longer development time and higher cost.
• B - A game using DX9 with the ability to run DX10 shaders on top (such as Crysis), which eliminates some of the strain on development, but is a bigger strain on the computer running it (again, crysis is the example).

Microsoft has said repeatedly that you won't be able to turn of metro.

For Windows 8 desktop, or the tablet edition (RT)? They're separate products.

 

[NekuSoul]

...Well one of my friends got a CAD programm from School which didn't want to work at all even thaught it was 64bit version and not even Internet Explorer or Chrome propperly worked on that weird 64bit windows 7 version that was preinstalled on his computer ... hell i could hardly go online with any browser ... after a while i tried 2 other CAD and 2 CAM programms i "got" and noone of them worked....

You said it: Preinstalled! Those never work how they should with all those Crapware already installed. Even heard of a PC sold at MediaMarkt which is more or less completely unuseable because of it's preinstallation of Windows 7.
And yes, there is some old Software that won't run on Windows 7, but mostly it's because the Software is too old that it doesn't get supported anymore. But you can still run it via XP-Mode (VirtualPC, AFAIK Professional only) or any other VM-Software like VirtualBox or VMware.

 

[Rydian]

VMware being free and available on the home editions of windows as well, to boot.

 

[SS4]

64 bit eh..... does that mean they are finally gonna release a new Call of Duty instead of the same game thats been reskinned 6 times lol

Or are they talking about a real new game

 

[Foxi4]

64 bit eh..... does that mean they are finally gonna release a new Call of Duty instead of the same game thats been reskinned 6 times lol

Or are they talking about a real new game

There's nothing wrong in re-using an engine that's simply "working just fine" - they constantly improve upon it. I can't even begin to enumerate games that were released on the Build Engine, Quake Engine, Quake II Engine or the famous Unreal Engine (1).

 

[Gahars]

If this is the case, I get the reasoning behind it. Accomodating players without 64 bit just gets more and more difficult over time; a jump forward like this is inevitable.

It still sucks for the people who have to update their PCs or get left behind, of course, but at least they have a fair heads up.

 

[Foxi4]

If this is the case, I get the reasoning behind it. Accomodating players without 64 bit just gets more and more difficult over time; a jump forward like this is inevitable.

Oh c'mon - I sincerely doubt that anyone who hasn't got an x64 CPU is even running Windows 7, let alone 8, nor do they play "contemporary" games simply because their rigs are not capable of running them anyways. The architecture is really wide-spread and unless people still use 7+ year old rigs this isn't that much of an issue.

 

[purechaos996]

I honestly have a hard time believing 54% of PC gamers don't run a 64-bit OS. PC gamers (such as myself) are the first to brag about how much better our technology is, or how much better PC gaming is. If you want a machine with over 4gb of RAM (Which is like standard nowadays, I think even most pre-builds come with 8gb) you need a 64-Bit OS to utilize it in the first place. I don't see a problem with it personally. Windows 8 on the other hand....Just no.