SOLVED x64 Windows Runtime?

Neptune

Member
I'm wondering on what kind of game projects using x64 is necessary (recommended) and when it is just overkill (and stopping you from using a bunch of the great pre-existing DLLs that are created for x32 etc...)
Any information about the pros/cons and uses of the x64 is very appreciated :)
 
Well, from the tests I made, x64 is much faster (at least on my machine).
Aside from that, I have no idea if you have any "con" on modern machines if you don't enable it, as of today.
But if you want your game to survive the year 2038 int overflow bug, go x64 as recommended. šŸ˜‚
Seriously, you should probably just tick it by default and only untick the option IF compatibility bug is reported by your users
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
I'd say 64-bit is the future....but in reality 64-bit is the past, present and future all at once. It has been the standard for a pretty good long time now. I'm not surprised that @Slow Fingers reports it being faster because 32-bit applications as I understand it have to run in a sort of compatibility mode on modern 64-bit processors. The biggest pro it brings involves being able to access more memory, so for example you could have more sounds and sprites loaded at once before you get crashes. Pretty much all PC processors these days are 64-bit, though some people are still running 32-bit Windows. Those very few cases are the only reason you might want a 32-bit build.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
As a standard, I usually build for Windows x86, Windows x86-64, MacOS x86-64, Ubuntu x86-64, Ubuntu ARMv7, and FreeBSD x86-64.
  • libWebMPlayer (Marketplace) - Play WebM Video Files with OGG/Vorbis Audio, rendered to a surface for use in 2D and 3D drawing.
  • libDialogModule (Marketplace) - Display various Dialog Boxes for showing messages, get user input, selecting files, folders, colors.
  • libFileSystem (Marketplace) - File System Management functions with expanded functionality over GameMaker's default functions.
  • libBorderToggler (Marketplace) - Toggle the visiblilty of your game's window border, and it's as simple to use as it can possibly get.
  • libProcessInfo (Marketplace) - An advanced extension to execute programs from the shell and read process information from them.
Don't ask why I bother to port them to FreeBSD. :p
 
I'm not surprised that @Slow Fingers reports it being faster because 32-bit applications as I understand it have to run in a sort of compatibility mode on modern 64-bit processors.
Would make sense. Honestly I don't know all the ins-and-outs of x86 vs x64, but I do know for sure I could spawn in the neighborhood of 40-45% more instances before having lag with x64 enabled.
This is far from a micro-optimization, and doesn't even need refactoring. Free gas in the tank!
It's one of those things that if "Enabled" was the default options, we'd probably never hear about it.
 
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