Thursday, May 24th 2012
EA-DICE Frostbite Titles in 2013 Will Require 64-bit Windows
While content-creation and media transcoding applications have transitioned to native x86-64 applications that can take advantage of large amounts of system and video memory, a similar transition by game developers has been rather slow. Very few PC games ship with 64-bit executables, as most games are ported from game consoles anyway, which have slim system requirements.
EA-DICE has been behind developing games that take advantage of the latest PC technologies (such as DirectX 11), and according to a lead developer and rendering architect with the studio, Johan Andersson, games that are driven by Frostbite engine, which are slated for 2013, will require 64-bit operating systems, these games will not run on 32-bit Windows, or in 32-bit mode, on 64-bit Windows, but with full-fledged 64-bit executables. The 64-bit address-space would allow games to take advantage of system memory over 4 GB, and more importantly, high amounts of video memory, as 2 GB and 3 GB become standard with performance-segment graphics cards.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p>We'll have Frostbite-powered games in 2013 that will _require_ a 64-bit OS. If you are on 32-bit, great opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8</p>— Johan Andersson (@repi) <a href="https://twitter.com/repi/status/204501258273427456" data-datetime="2012-05-21T09:17:54+00:00">May 21, 2012</a></blockquote>
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
EA-DICE has been behind developing games that take advantage of the latest PC technologies (such as DirectX 11), and according to a lead developer and rendering architect with the studio, Johan Andersson, games that are driven by Frostbite engine, which are slated for 2013, will require 64-bit operating systems, these games will not run on 32-bit Windows, or in 32-bit mode, on 64-bit Windows, but with full-fledged 64-bit executables. The 64-bit address-space would allow games to take advantage of system memory over 4 GB, and more importantly, high amounts of video memory, as 2 GB and 3 GB become standard with performance-segment graphics cards.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p>We'll have Frostbite-powered games in 2013 that will _require_ a 64-bit OS. If you are on 32-bit, great opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8</p>— Johan Andersson (@repi) <a href="https://twitter.com/repi/status/204501258273427456" data-datetime="2012-05-21T09:17:54+00:00">May 21, 2012</a></blockquote>
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
113 Comments on EA-DICE Frostbite Titles in 2013 Will Require 64-bit Windows
I know if EA attempted them I would be utterly disappointed.
But if lion head bought the rights .. well who knows...
You only have to look at diablo 3 sales to figure out if a game franchise is good why change it?
Windows are quite bad when it comes to compatibility in general.
I have encountered many programs (most of those were games) that are [!] less than 5 years old and are 32bit, yet fail on 64bit windows, or on Vista&Win7 in general. From this, quite ironic situations arise: if I want to run there programs/games, if I am on windows at that moment I have to boot into linux and use Wine. I suppose it is pretty ironic when I end up having to use Wine and run those on non-native platforms just because Windows rejects it's own native applications. (Should I remind that in Windows, some parts of it are 32bit exclusive (NOT talking about 16bit program support) - MS has pruned some things in 64bit versions? And that some valid 32bit programs fail to work at all without those? Ba**s.
[That is one of the reasons I love Wine - has much better compatibility with older code. Along with being able to run 16bit code on an 64bit OS. And do that with hardly any emulation involved, IIRC. =d ]
32-bit (4Gb space) 0x00000000 - 0xFFFFFFFF
64-bit (16EB space) 0x0000000000000000 - 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Edit: No, you're right, there are twice as many data registers. It's an optimization thing.
Also if you do a lot of bit manipulation, it means you can take more bits at once without going to SIMD instructions and their registers.
Anyway, the biggest gain is having more memory available, because having twice the registers does not affect a lot with the typical workloads, even in games. Although that was only tested with simple recompiles of 32 bit binaries to 64 bit binaries, both on normal aplications and games.
Then you can also tell all those people on dual core machine to upgrade aswell.
I've been the guy pushing on TPU for everyone to go 64 bit for so long now, its time we saw the industry take heed.
Im definitely going to run 64bit WIndows next build and probably have a secondary drive for 32 bit OS for games that refuse to run on 64bit
eidairaman1: i've never ran into a single game that wont run on a 64 bit OS.
Oddity is it runs at the right frame rate whether fast or smooth compared to the Re Launch of it this Last year (Seemed to have like a PAL frame rate)
Although I perfer Cod over anything greater than bF2.....
I prefer counter strike over COD although its looking aged....
I know my passinate hatred for EA has alot to do with not liking BF3.
And BFBC2 left a bad taste in my mouth....
If I wanted to paly a game where you need to lvl up for hours id play wow.
IMO BF 1942 excellent game everything else that followed is almost like a mod...Theme hospital and dungeon keeper the space quest series
There is a huge list of classics that won't run.
Although they are old one good thing is most have fan made 3rd party executables or loaders so they will work :D
Really? /facepalm
Every computer Ive interacted with on a daily basis [that is x86]for the last like... 2 years has been running x64.
more than 35% of gamer's computers are running 32-bit Windows. Nevermind all those gamers that never install Steam because they play strictly The Sims (from what I've seen, the majority are 3 GiB equipped laptops running 32-bit Windows).Try running a 64-bit application on a 32-bit operating system. EA is going to lose a lot of potential customers by not offering a 32-bit option--a lot more than they'll gain from switching to 64-bit (virtually none--who is going to buy a game just because it is 64-bit?). EA, of all the publishers, should know that people want their purchased software to work above everything else.