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That's exactly my point, Tynan. I am trying to find out whether it would be worth going completely over to 64-bit. Maintaining two code lines is a hassle, but if everyone is not living in the dark age of computing (i.e.: is using 64-bit and not 32-bit), it would be worthwhile to migrate the code and completely drop 32-bit. The limitations of 32-bit are well known, the largest of them being memory addressing, but the value of being able to work with an unsegmented, flat memory model and discard tons of legacy 32-bit library code is immense, among other things.

As for the stability, longbyte1, that's what happens when you just transfer code over and don't optimize it, don't blame 64-bit for slacking devs. 64-bit code is cleaner and by nature easier to maintain stability with if you put equal effort into it (on the part of both the Unity devs and the KSP devs).

I just want to know if it's doable. I would make my own eventually, because after all, it's never "just right" unless you do it yourself.

Something I've thought about for other games before, but never seen done, is the ability to install parts of the game like they were mods and manage them through the mod interface.

For example, if you're not much for tactical combat, you could choose between a simple tactical interface and a more advanced one, though both would be parts of the game rather than mods (other mods that changed the tactical interface would still be supported of course).

Another example would be trading. Let's say you really want your rimworld to be totally isolated, you could turn off the "travelling merchant" spaceships and instead activate a more complicated on-planet trading system (either included in the game or modded in).

Why only if you have 50? Some people never want that many, but would still like to have automatic wardrobe changing.

Yes! Disease (and blight) from random events leave me flat, as they are both things that can (irl) be prevented or at least mitigated with proper precautions.

"Let's hope so" - nameless thug from VtmB game

Most artists I know are never happy with their work, so maybe a big debuff if it's crappy, a smaller debuff if it's not too bad, a tiny debuff if it's good, and a small buff if it's really great.

Oh, damn, I've been operating under the misconception that the game was the potatos and the mods were strawberries.

Cremating as a craft..wow, that is mind-blowing

I wonder if that could be mixed with sculpting, nice gold urns that you could set in a trophy room to show off how many enemies you've destroyed, or put in your colonist rooms to remember fallen friends, both "beautifying" the rooms.

Try this, just as an experiment...

Large room, closed and roofed over, lit by Sun Lamps, no hydroponics, equal sized growing areas for each type of tree. I'm doing that now with cotton, strawberries, potatos and medicinal herbs.

What if you used sun lamps to make the trees grow at night? I am already running an indoor farm (without hydroponics) to grow potatos, strawberries, medicinal herbs and cotton and they grow just fine day and night. Even in winter if memory serves...but that may be due to not remembering whether my biome allows year-round growing. It IS snowing outside, that much I remember.

I don't even know what the difference between the two is. But why would should RimWorld be restricted to just one of the two, and not both?

The difference (simplified) is more bits = more processing power, but only if the CPU supports it.

Both is harder to maintain since there are different code optimizations, etc that go into it.  It's much more productive for Tynan to create/improve/fix than for him to spend time fiddling with compiler options.

Personally, I'd rather see support for multiple cores over 64-bit.  I think that would be a bigger benefit, would benefit more people, and wouldn't break compatibility with 32-bit platforms.  (Just my opinion.  I'm a nerd, but not necessarily the most informed one.  Correct me if I'm wrong.)

There hasn't been a CPU that doesn't support 64 bits in a long time, at least a decade. The sticking point for the longest time was getting people to upgrade their OS, but that's less of a problem now as most gamers have 64-bit OSes and some games (finally) are coming out as 64-bit simply because they are so huge that 32-bit could not possibly provide the memory space for them to run in. And there's the fact that most games are made for console and either ported or co-developed for PC (if they come out for PC at all), and the new consoles are 64-bit now. The reason I posted this as a poll is that being an indy game, the Rimworld fan base likely has a larger segment of people still using 32-bit OSes. If that number is large, it would be seen as a betrayal of that segment. And as you said, maintaining both 32-bit and 64-bit versions is a real pain in the behind.

I am already pushing 1.25GB of RAM when I make a 400x400 map and this is just in alpha.



The AI is going to require complicated code that uses large data matrixes to make it both good AI and fast. The graphics are relatively simplistic compared to fully rendered 3D environments, but the more you can keep in memory at once, the less you will have to load on an as-needed basis.

Multiple cores will be a necessity for Rimworld if the AI is to go much further, both because the AI code is already causing game pauses in alpha 8 and because better AI is going to be required. Not just what's coming in alpha 9, but all the way through to final release.

One of the BIGGEST differences is actually memory addressing.  32-bit applications can only use 2 GB of memory.  Even 'shinier' game by bigger studios are stuck with this ... Ironclad Studios' Sins of a Solar Empire very much comes to mind.  It can and will keep gobbling memory as each civilization in the game builds more ships, more memory is consumed, and the vast majority of crashes experienced by players in SoaSE have been a result of hitting the 2 GB memory limit.

While Rimworld might not seem like a memory-intensive game, the memory limit inherently limits how many units can be on screen as well as keeping track of the gameworld.  If the game were 64-bit, the maps could be much larger and there could be much more units (though I'll grant Rimworld is the sort of game where you don't necessarily want thousands of units, I like how it tends to convey a sense of /these are your people, they are individuals with their own stories and not clones of a pre-fab military unit/.  Still, options for bigger maps are better.

The CPU is a consideration, but I consider it secondary.  As grinding and frustrating as it is for the game to slowdown, I think outright crashes are even worse -- and potentially hitting the 32-bit memory limit will cause it to crash.  I agree, I don't think there's much sense in making even simple games for 32 bits anymore.  I am, however, not a developer.

You've almost got that right. 32-bit programs running on a 32-bit OS can address as much as 3GB of RAM if both they and the OS are configured correctly (depending on hardware mapping). Everything else is more or less accurate.

One big advantage with 64-bit OSes, even with 32-bit games, is that (with sufficient physical RAM) give the game an isolated 4GB block of RAM to run on while the OS code runs in its own memory.

On a side note, one big problem with asking a question like this is that there are a LOT of gamers that have no clue how to even determine whether they have a 64-bit CPU, a 64-bit OS, or even how much RAM they actually have. I may have to make another post to explain how to do that in nontechnical terms so that the less nerdy among us can check their machines.

*bangs head on desk*

I could swear I read "tomatos" instead of "tornados" the first time I went through that list.

Why not something like this, repeated uh...repeatedly (god, that was redundantly redundant) as often as necessary?

cWc
WTW
SSS

I've always subscribed to the idea that if "realism" gets in the way of gameplay, it's not a good thing, but if it enhances the gameplay, it's a good thing. Making colonists have to run to get into their armor to be able to fight would be great for realism, but would detract from the game a little, so it puts me on the fence (much good, a little bad); however I'd probably end up not liking it in the end.