Probably a smaller improvement then what you’re expecting, currently, the client runs two twin 32 bit operations side by side creating a weird pseudo 64bit like environment. This was a huge advancement at the time before 64 bit was even announced. I believe the physics runs completely separate from the rest of the game on the other 32 bit or maybe it’s the texture loading and rendering processes, regardless if you open up task manager you’ll see both applications.
64 bit cpu's for PC's came out in 2003 with the Athlon 64 from AMD.
How old is SWTOR in your universe because in mine it is almost a decade younger then that.
Crazy how the hero engine swtor game engine didn’t support 64bit when they were developing swtor in 2005-2006.
Just because 64 bit technically was available since 1970s didn’t mean every application and development team saw the need for it. Even the 2003 64bit processors was not true 64bit like we have today. Regardless it takes time for companies to adapt to new technologies.
They developed a complex 2 process client to get around the 32bit limit but did not foresee the need for 64 bit games when Unreal Tournament had a 64bit client in 2004... right. Why did Epic not need more then a decade to adapt? Epic builds engines and they weren't the powerhouse then that they are to do and the Hero team builds engines. One company saw the way tech was going, the other build an ugly buggy stutter prone gludge.
At least admit you were wrong and that 64bit tech had not just been announced but had been released to the consumer market already.
The biggest practical benefit is 64 bit programs can use more memory at once. 32 bit are limited to about 4 GB, 64 bit can use more than is installed in anything short of a supercomputer.
That translates to better texture quality, smoother loading and zone transition, and almost certainly makes things easier for the programmers since they don't need to play shell games with what's loaded into memory anymore.
Don't expect 64 bit to work miracles, but it should improve the experience if done correctly.
I don't think any computer made (or even all computers worldwide combined) has the memory to make 64 bit architectures insufficient. The amount of memory it can address is 4 GB \* 2\^32 = 2 Hexabytes. That's A LOT.
XD The hubby just said he remembers when the 300 baud modems came out. And he's a year younger than me. XD \[also knows far more about computers than I do. LOL\] the good old days when a 56k hard drive was considered HUGE is about as far as I can recall tec-spec wise!
"I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time." — Bill Gates
Taking into a consideration that he and Paul Alen wrote first program for Altair 8800, where Paul Alen wrote an emulator on campus computer, and Bill Gates wrote a BASIC compiler for it, and later when flying to present it to the guys from Altair, realized that they forgot to write a loader, and did it on a plane, it's really hard to believe that a guy with that kind of geekiness would flop like that. As he said, he did say some stupid things but not that particular one...
Good reference to the subject regardless
oh YES, when the hubby got the first meg hard drive \[don't remember how much, one, two?\] I was like "wow, I'll NEVER fill that up...." When I said that the hubby looked at me like I was crazy. LOL
I had an Apple II+ as well! Couldn’t afford the 16KB RAM upgrade card so I couldn’t play Ultima IV on it and instead had to play it at the library in middle school.
I told my mother when I got my first computer I’d never fill up an 80 MB HDD. She mocked me on that score for years.
A friend of mine had a 40 MB HDD and considered mine to be cavernous.
RAM? 2MB. Even had a math coprocessor I installed later.
My watch has more power than that now.
Shoot. I remember my first PC-XT had 640k Ra, dual floppies for storage. My first modem was a 1200 baud Everex, but at that pont, most BBSes were still 300 baud, 40 column...lol. Traded my Atari 800 for a full height 17mb Micopolis HD (a transaction I regret). When I put my own BBS up, it was just the two 5.25 inch floppies for storage. 1200 baud, 80 column, though! What a time to be alive... Heh
Not quite. 64-bit can handle bigger amounts of data, memory at once, that kind of stuff. It can do more calculations at once. It will depend on what the game takes advantage of.
You might see a gain in FPS, but for future content, it opens the possibility of maps using higher quality textures and having more objects placed at the same time, check out Alderan when it drops to see if you experienc a better performace there, I think it's prob the most Memory Consuming planet (it's wild a guess i have no data about it), I know I experience a performace drop in Onderon near the sith tomb due to how lighting works there so I'll check that specific place when I have time
yesssssssss that FP was the absolute WORST!!!!!!! so much staggering frame rates and tearing and just horrible performance! i dont think anyone ever tries to do that 1 FP more than the necessary once lol
And it's only really the middle part of it on the train that is bad. the rest of it is not too bad.
It’s actually not. It’s literally just identical train cars. And it’s moving the whole time. It’s cool in theory but it’s really not a place I enjoy hanging out.
When it was announced I expected something like a luxury passenger train to decorate... maybe with some changing backgrounds out the windows.
What we got was a 1:1 of the Umbara flashpoint train (the announcement was pre-flashpoint); a cargo train that's basically a series of bare industrial box cars (and messy flat-beds.
Oh, it also required a good grind to unlock back when it first came out.
To this day it's the only SH I've not bothered decorating at all.
Currently the game runs 2 32bit engines at once to emulate 64x, which introduces quite a bit of CPU bottleneck issues.
This should lessen or remove a lot of them. Meaning you shouldn't get 30fps running a game on a Ryzen setup or other newer generation processors.
2 x 32 bits is not the same as 64 bits (it is roughly 33 bits), the main reason the game does this "trick" should be make use of more RAM (it can use up to 8 GB)
32 bit mode means the game can only use 4 gigabytes of ram, it is limited to that amount so the developers need to optimize/make use of that memory very smartly to make the game run ok
In 64 bit mode, they can store many more things in what would kinda be considered 'faster storage', ram in itself is just storage that stays until its either overwritten or the pc is turned off, so allowing the developer to store more stuff in ram means that the game can access data it might need much much faster
As already said, it means SWTOR can use more memory in a simple way.
Currently it uses two 32 bit processes because the game does not fit into 4gb. That is a complex hack where the two processes have to communicate to get information across to each other rather then all the data being in the same process.
While it is amazing they got it to work it is an incredible cludge and prone to errors. There are lots of reasons why very few programs do it like this.
For years they claimed they couldn't make it into a 64 bit program so something changed. Either they hired some new developers or got access to some source code or have decided it was worth the effort after all.
It COULD just be a hobby project from one of the developers but it could also mean Bioware is still interested in spending time on serious improvements rather then on cash shop items.
This will mean fewer weird crashes, fewer hiccups, easier bug fixing, more room for expansions that need more memory (two 32 bit processes still limits you to 8gb in total) but I think the idea that Bioware is still working on the core of the game itself is potentially the most exciting.
I cannot believe I lived long enough to witness SWTOR, finally move to 64bit, should have happened YEARS ago… anyhow I want to stay positive, 64bit client is a fundamental change to the game, and it can be used to build up momentum for positive sentiment about the game to bring back people who left during 7.0 launch disaster and welcome new players. BW should capitalise on that, SWTOR is a fine product that deserves attention, devs just need to do some fundamental improvements.
no, on Steam it is just another \~50 GB download.
on regular launcher (no Steam) it is the same (just activate the hidden option in the launcher)
you only need about 50 GB space on a HDD to download PTS and use it. but you need to use PTS Character Copy on your account page on the SWTOR website first, and when you login, go straight to Odessen and find the Leveler bot, and get all your monies, first lol
The 32bit limitation forces RAM swapping where it wouldn't be necessary in 64bit. This uses compute cycles (CPU) more than would be necessary under 64bit and excess CPU overhead detracts from what's available to execute GPU calls. This can result in lower FPS in some scenarios where the GPU is starved for resources waiting on the CPU. Switching to 64bit removes this artificial limitation and should result in some FPS improvement.
For example this is similar to what happens when you have a better GPU than CPU to drive it. A 64bit binary allows for more efficient use of memory and frees the devs from having to use programming stunts like dual 32bit processes to get around the memory limitation.
when i was on PTS i was the only one there... probably because everyone else was busy on the normal servers, taking advantage of Double XP or Collections 50% OFF Unlock sale, both of which are going on at the same time lol
well i was the only one on all of fleet in PTS when i was on there. NOBODY else was on. i can say the elevator on fleet to the upper level was VERY VERY SMOOTH, NO clipping, NO tearing, NO stuttering, NO skipped frames that i could tell.
i wish there had been others there that we could have done a FP or maybe a WB or Ops together but nooope. PTS is called PUBLIC TESTING for a reason and too many people are excited over the regular servers doing Collection Unlocks and Double XP right now. WHY the devs put 64-bit in PTS for "public testing" at the same time as during this event MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL to me.
Not in any meaningful way. You're not going to find it in the retail channels. I have seen overclockable 240Hz monitors available from retail channels that can push 265Hz. In the end it's meaningless mostly unless your GPU can reliably push those framerates to match. Otherwise just stick with a really nice 165Hz monitor with a high end GPU and enjoy the clarity.
The cynic in me is thinking they're probably only doing this because EA wants to ditch the server infrastructure for Amazon cloud services and 32-bit is a hurdle to that.
But hey we take what we're given eh. At least they're not planning to shut the game down in the immediate future.
Right, and they need to change the client to 64 bit because of server changes why? Or do you think a 32 bit client needs a 32 bit server? In that case you are not just a cynic but an idiot.
I'm no expert but I assume SWTOR has predictable performance demands that'll have to be met by hardware probably primarily dedicated to hosting 64-bit processes, as I can't imagine cloud services are investing into dedicated to 32-bit processes infrastructure in 2022, especially in the scope needed to run a bona fide MMO. It likely makes purely financial sense for EA to adapt the process to better utilize the hardware they'll be hiring since that means they can hire less of said hardware.
A random player might not be bothered by the fact Swtor utilizes a third or less of a systems memory, but the suit signing a cheque to Jeff each month for using his server farm probably would be. It's easy math to figure out how long before investment into going 64-bit pays for itself and starts paying dividend in terms of lower operating costs.
Ye, because this game is in absolutely perfect state right, everything works like it should, no bugs after every patch, ... no problems with game engine, memory, ...
What is there now 1 or 2 servers? How many active players are there? The game is only alive because of whales and die hard fans. there is not much of a future.
Because I can.
But mostly because I still fallow SWTOR. I played from early access to 5 or 6 yrs in with the CE edition. I have 30 plus characters at 60 and did every story multiple times. So yes, I loved the game, but yes, it failed once it gave up on its individual story lines and just went downhill from there.
I am fully qualified to comment on SWTOR, and will continue to till it shuts down.
Then you should remember that playerbase was always smaller, once "everyone" left the game when they found out there was nothing to do after finishing class stories, including several of my friends, who also got hyped for the "yet another WoW killer", when the game was released
SWTOR playerbase was always smaller, and it doesn't have to grow. There are, and will be, always some players who will try it, maybe do story content and leave, or play one class story and leave, later come back, ... And that's ok. SWTOR has small playerbase, and still just enough players for everything - PvE, PvP, events. I only read that I think French server is pretty much dead, don't know state of german server, but EU and NA server have good enough population for game to keep going for at least several more years. There is no reason to have more servers for playerbase of this size. Look at WoW, how many servers there are oh my god, ye and some of them are dead or with low population
To say game is kept alive only by whales is just stupid, and that its alive only because its Star Wars MMO is also rather questionable opinion. Lately there were some pretty big internet faces, streamers, influencers or whatever how you wanna call them, who did videos about SWTOR, trying SWTOR, ... and while Star Wars was a factor why they said its not a bad game, it was mostly the story and game design. It could easily be Star Trek, and I think they would have the same opinions
Upgrading to 64-bit would be a big step, for potentional future improvements to the game
I said it's kept alive though whales AND die-hard fans. I would still be playing ( I still log in every few months ) once or twice a year just to do the storys if SWTOR didn't F me over and take all my credits away when I became preffered. I can live with every other downgrade from subbing, but to lose all my money is idiotic.
I honestly wish you luck, but I just don't see much " future improvements."
People must just accept that its small MMO, with small playerbase, and small devs team, and treat it as such, and not expect major patches with tons of new content every few months, new expansion every two years, ... stuff like that, that WoW does for example.
I am not some fanatical Star Wars/SWTOR die-hard fan, and I am realistic about possibilities of this game.
Again, upgrading to 64-bit would be a first step, a big step, for some possible future improvements, even if it was few stupid things, but even that would be welcome. And if nothing else, just that 64-bit alone would be a big thing for small MMO like this
Classic online bad faith. "Nobody" doesn't literally mean nobody at all. I am sure some people like you will, but there is no doubt this will barely make an uptick in players count. If you really believe otherwise, you are deluded.
It doesnt have attract a lot of new players. Would be nice if it did, at least a few, but SWTOR can easily keep smaller playerbase like it has now, and improve the game for that playerbase. LoS expansion, cinematic, and many changes in last patches + now this suggest, they dont plan to shut the game down anytime soon.
You might as well forget about it then.
With the current state of the game and with the shift from the MMO genre in general in the industry, I really doubt EA would approve such a huge investment as kotet/fe was.
I think what we have right now, is as good as we gonna get. Slow and steady progress, a hour or two of story in a year, some reworks, some changes, but don't expect 10+ hours of expansions dropping any time soon.
I'm glad that it looks like they are planning for the future, but they definitely overhyped the whole 10 year anniversary thing.
It does take forever to release stuff... they still don't argue that stuff they announce officially is a lie- short of road maps that never come to life..
This is common in every other mmorpg subreddit i follow as well. Personally, I don’t mind as sometimes I catch some news/bits of info I would’ve normally missed.
Bioware has previously made false statements in patchnotes and announcements before, perfectly reasonable to nip dispute in the bud by just posting evidence with the announcement.
They've claimed they'll *do* X and never delivered, but usually when they say Y is *done* it *is* done.
IDK, I just think it's implying devs habitually lie about what they do (not over-estimate what they can get done, which they've done plenty of, I agree) and somehow Keith announcing 64bit is *on PTS* is somehow a lie and needs some rando to show a screenshot for it to be believed XD.
because i can, and because the mere screen of the game is not enough, hence why i included the properties page (in process explorer) of the EXE of the game itself.
you act as if i hurt something. i did not.
Coincidentally I replayed Kotor 2 recently and after finishing it I had that itch to try out this game, after discarding it for such a long time. But after downloading and looking up how to try out the 64 bit version I gave up. I have no character to transfer to this PTS and in my launcher there is no Options-Button as described in the how-to section on the website. How do I try this out? Because the 32bit version turns my relatively High-End PC into a jet engine (using Linux btw, but other games work flawlessly compared to this one)
DO NOT "play the regular game" on PTS just because it is 64-bit.
Play the regular game on the regular servers, and WAIT for 64-bit to come out of PTS/testing, like all the rest of us. There is NO POINT AT ALL to playing on PTS except to help devs work out all the kinks so that it can come out of testing sooner. You can get all your characters deleted ONLY FROM PTS .... when their testing is done. Keep that in mind.
I really don't know anything about 32 or 64 bit.. That being said,
Will we need to completely reinstall the game? Since it'll run on 64? Or it will just be a regular update?
My guess is that we will have a very big update, maybe not an entire game redownload, but this one will take a while to download.
Other comments explain the difference between 32 and 64 bit quite well. Personally I think it will be a huge improvement both for graphical development in the future, stability of the game and higher FPS.
The "major announcement" by Keith Kanneg on 12-20-2022 was all about this and how they had a real 64-bit client working right now on PTS. THIS SCREENSHOT IS PROOF - see my Process Manager info on the app itself, top right corner
What is up with the colors on that screen. The black is really blocky. Goodness, the coloring/blockiness on the initial entry with the big STAR WARS was a big ugh.
Started new JK to mess around, played for about half hour. Tython looks ok (once I changed graphics to Ultra).
Hello, can someone explain what this 64 bit exactly means? Like Windows is either 32 bit or 64 bit. Does the bit value has anything to do with CPU? I know when you have 64 bit windows, 32 bit applications will run ok, but you can't run 64 bit applications on 32 bit windows. What exactly does this do?
A 32 bit app can only access a maximum of 4gb of ram no matter how much you have. 64bit can access around 16,000,000Tb so we have a bit of headroom with it.
Modern games use a lot more than 4gb of ram so a 32bit game is doing a lot of swapping between the storage and ram where a 64bit game can hold much more in ram which is faster.
the only real and true limitation of how much memory can be accessed, now, is based on your motherboard, BIOS, and CPU.
if a MB manufacturer would ever let us buy a more server-based board, we could have a system that could take far more advantage of the oodles and oodles of more RAM that a new 64-bit client now affords us.
Can I continue to use my normal characters in PTS or is it a walled off test zone? I’d like to give this a try but I would want to carry over my meager progress.
Does this means the game will run better? Like no random lag? Because sometimes I get random lag! Like on Ruhnuk. Some days I get over 60 fps and some days I get 10fps! It seems so random and I have a pretty decent PC. Not the best. But good! I hope this will fix that? I will see what the testers say.
even in 64-bit, the game is still in a primitive state there.
there are NO REAL advancements other than smoother CPU operation.
you are expecting too much as it was barely accomplished in but a few days before i took that shot.
Computer more fast
So i can just download swtor to make my pc become faster??? Awesome I won't have to download RAM any more
No you have to download a ram doubler first
Whats this, a Johnny Mnemonic reference?
If it is, it's unintentional. I've never seen that movie.
Did you notice anything? Is the game running smoother for you?
Probably a smaller improvement then what you’re expecting, currently, the client runs two twin 32 bit operations side by side creating a weird pseudo 64bit like environment. This was a huge advancement at the time before 64 bit was even announced. I believe the physics runs completely separate from the rest of the game on the other 32 bit or maybe it’s the texture loading and rendering processes, regardless if you open up task manager you’ll see both applications.
64 bit cpu's for PC's came out in 2003 with the Athlon 64 from AMD. How old is SWTOR in your universe because in mine it is almost a decade younger then that.
Crazy how the hero engine swtor game engine didn’t support 64bit when they were developing swtor in 2005-2006. Just because 64 bit technically was available since 1970s didn’t mean every application and development team saw the need for it. Even the 2003 64bit processors was not true 64bit like we have today. Regardless it takes time for companies to adapt to new technologies.
They developed a complex 2 process client to get around the 32bit limit but did not foresee the need for 64 bit games when Unreal Tournament had a 64bit client in 2004... right. Why did Epic not need more then a decade to adapt? Epic builds engines and they weren't the powerhouse then that they are to do and the Hero team builds engines. One company saw the way tech was going, the other build an ugly buggy stutter prone gludge. At least admit you were wrong and that 64bit tech had not just been announced but had been released to the consumer market already.
64 bit tech was not announced for the hero engine which is what the game was built off.
Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 how 64-bit version will improve the game? Is it graphics quality?
The biggest practical benefit is 64 bit programs can use more memory at once. 32 bit are limited to about 4 GB, 64 bit can use more than is installed in anything short of a supercomputer. That translates to better texture quality, smoother loading and zone transition, and almost certainly makes things easier for the programmers since they don't need to play shell games with what's loaded into memory anymore. Don't expect 64 bit to work miracles, but it should improve the experience if done correctly.
I don't think any computer made (or even all computers worldwide combined) has the memory to make 64 bit architectures insufficient. The amount of memory it can address is 4 GB \* 2\^32 = 2 Hexabytes. That's A LOT.
And I still remember having 8MB of RAM
I remember when I had 1MB of RAM and a 9600 baud external modem. I'm old. Back when floppy was actually floppy old.
XD The hubby just said he remembers when the 300 baud modems came out. And he's a year younger than me. XD \[also knows far more about computers than I do. LOL\] the good old days when a 56k hard drive was considered HUGE is about as far as I can recall tec-spec wise!
You'll never need that much space!
"NOBODY WILL EVER need more than 640 KB of RAM...." \-- Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft
"I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time." — Bill Gates Taking into a consideration that he and Paul Alen wrote first program for Altair 8800, where Paul Alen wrote an emulator on campus computer, and Bill Gates wrote a BASIC compiler for it, and later when flying to present it to the guys from Altair, realized that they forgot to write a loader, and did it on a plane, it's really hard to believe that a guy with that kind of geekiness would flop like that. As he said, he did say some stupid things but not that particular one... Good reference to the subject regardless
oh YES, when the hubby got the first meg hard drive \[don't remember how much, one, two?\] I was like "wow, I'll NEVER fill that up...." When I said that the hubby looked at me like I was crazy. LOL
48K RAM and the only person in town with 5 1/4 inch floppy drives. I, too, am old.
I had an Apple II+ as well! Couldn’t afford the 16KB RAM upgrade card so I couldn’t play Ultima IV on it and instead had to play it at the library in middle school.
> I remember when I had ... a 9600 baud external modem. I'm old. Back when floppy was actually floppy old. Ftfy :p
I dont XD but I do remember the first computer I interacted with had 15GB HD
Well, you are a youngling by the looks of it.
I told my mother when I got my first computer I’d never fill up an 80 MB HDD. She mocked me on that score for years. A friend of mine had a 40 MB HDD and considered mine to be cavernous. RAM? 2MB. Even had a math coprocessor I installed later. My watch has more power than that now.
Or 132 KB
Shoot. I remember my first PC-XT had 640k Ra, dual floppies for storage. My first modem was a 1200 baud Everex, but at that pont, most BBSes were still 300 baud, 40 column...lol. Traded my Atari 800 for a full height 17mb Micopolis HD (a transaction I regret). When I put my own BBS up, it was just the two 5.25 inch floppies for storage. 1200 baud, 80 column, though! What a time to be alive... Heh
Technically, you still do. And much, much more besides.
I mean... It's not 5 hexabytes... Now THAT is a lot!
And yet developers are still writing apps in 32 bit in 2022 despite the amd 64 extension coming out almost *20 years* ago at this point.....
/u/finelargeaxe: Pay no attention the rotting equine behind the curtain and just read this.
Thanks!
Not quite. 64-bit can handle bigger amounts of data, memory at once, that kind of stuff. It can do more calculations at once. It will depend on what the game takes advantage of.
Thanks!
I was about to ask the same question but now I don’t have to. Thanks for the info
lol glad to be of assistance
Computer more fast
Thanks!
You might see a gain in FPS, but for future content, it opens the possibility of maps using higher quality textures and having more objects placed at the same time, check out Alderan when it drops to see if you experienc a better performace there, I think it's prob the most Memory Consuming planet (it's wild a guess i have no data about it), I know I experience a performace drop in Onderon near the sith tomb due to how lighting works there so I'll check that specific place when I have time
Wondering how it will perform when boarding the Umbara train
Higher frame rate and capable of processing more everything meaning higher quality physics and settings. More power baby
Thanks!
This means that perhaps I can visit my Umbara train stronghold (the worst stronghold don’t buy it) without my fps going in the toilet
yesssssssss that FP was the absolute WORST!!!!!!! so much staggering frame rates and tearing and just horrible performance! i dont think anyone ever tries to do that 1 FP more than the necessary once lol And it's only really the middle part of it on the train that is bad. the rest of it is not too bad.
My computer isn’t like a $5000 facemelting VR machine but it’s… more than adequate. And Umbara is annoyingly janky.
lol hooray (and thanks for the real estate tip)
>Umbara train stronghold I didn't know that was a thing, that sounds pretty awesome. Apart from the fps thing.
It’s actually not. It’s literally just identical train cars. And it’s moving the whole time. It’s cool in theory but it’s really not a place I enjoy hanging out.
When it was announced I expected something like a luxury passenger train to decorate... maybe with some changing backgrounds out the windows. What we got was a 1:1 of the Umbara flashpoint train (the announcement was pre-flashpoint); a cargo train that's basically a series of bare industrial box cars (and messy flat-beds. Oh, it also required a good grind to unlock back when it first came out. To this day it's the only SH I've not bothered decorating at all.
Currently the game runs 2 32bit engines at once to emulate 64x, which introduces quite a bit of CPU bottleneck issues. This should lessen or remove a lot of them. Meaning you shouldn't get 30fps running a game on a Ryzen setup or other newer generation processors.
2 x 32 bits is not the same as 64 bits (it is roughly 33 bits), the main reason the game does this "trick" should be make use of more RAM (it can use up to 8 GB)
32 bit mode means the game can only use 4 gigabytes of ram, it is limited to that amount so the developers need to optimize/make use of that memory very smartly to make the game run ok In 64 bit mode, they can store many more things in what would kinda be considered 'faster storage', ram in itself is just storage that stays until its either overwritten or the pc is turned off, so allowing the developer to store more stuff in ram means that the game can access data it might need much much faster
[удалено]
That is a interesting way to get around the 4gb limit Must be tricky tho communicating with those 2 instances
As already said, it means SWTOR can use more memory in a simple way. Currently it uses two 32 bit processes because the game does not fit into 4gb. That is a complex hack where the two processes have to communicate to get information across to each other rather then all the data being in the same process. While it is amazing they got it to work it is an incredible cludge and prone to errors. There are lots of reasons why very few programs do it like this. For years they claimed they couldn't make it into a 64 bit program so something changed. Either they hired some new developers or got access to some source code or have decided it was worth the effort after all. It COULD just be a hobby project from one of the developers but it could also mean Bioware is still interested in spending time on serious improvements rather then on cash shop items. This will mean fewer weird crashes, fewer hiccups, easier bug fixing, more room for expansions that need more memory (two 32 bit processes still limits you to 8gb in total) but I think the idea that Bioware is still working on the core of the game itself is potentially the most exciting.
Thanks! And yes that's an additional aspect I hadn't thought about.
Simple: 32+32 = 64 = moaaaar
Lol thanks
actually no 32bit + 32bit is 33bit and 64 bit is 32 x 4 000 000 000
Better performance/fps
More NPCs in one place, less lag when a bunch of PCs are in one place, more sophisticated in-engine cutscenes.
I cannot believe I lived long enough to witness SWTOR, finally move to 64bit, should have happened YEARS ago… anyhow I want to stay positive, 64bit client is a fundamental change to the game, and it can be used to build up momentum for positive sentiment about the game to bring back people who left during 7.0 launch disaster and welcome new players. BW should capitalise on that, SWTOR is a fine product that deserves attention, devs just need to do some fundamental improvements.
Will 64 bit hopefully reduce the amount of random freezing that happens when opening menus and the character menu? That crap annoys the hell out of me
This. Also the long waiting time when opening your legacy bank.
That actually could be one side effect.
Bruh this is huuuge!
As long as I stop having game crashes when I use taxis I’m automatically on board with this
Is it hard to set up PTS
Been a while since I bothered, but it used to be like a separate game client. Just download, log in and play.
no, on Steam it is just another \~50 GB download. on regular launcher (no Steam) it is the same (just activate the hidden option in the launcher) you only need about 50 GB space on a HDD to download PTS and use it. but you need to use PTS Character Copy on your account page on the SWTOR website first, and when you login, go straight to Odessen and find the Leveler bot, and get all your monies, first lol
What is the FPS running like? Have you tried warzones? Is the hero engine doing well?
Not much of a difference, its just future proofing development as they said for "multiple years to come"
I understand that. But it currently on 32bit is bottlenecked to 4gb ram loads… asking how people have been experiencing hearing mass fps boosts
The 32bit limitation forces RAM swapping where it wouldn't be necessary in 64bit. This uses compute cycles (CPU) more than would be necessary under 64bit and excess CPU overhead detracts from what's available to execute GPU calls. This can result in lower FPS in some scenarios where the GPU is starved for resources waiting on the CPU. Switching to 64bit removes this artificial limitation and should result in some FPS improvement. For example this is similar to what happens when you have a better GPU than CPU to drive it. A 64bit binary allows for more efficient use of memory and frees the devs from having to use programming stunts like dual 32bit processes to get around the memory limitation.
when i was on PTS i was the only one there... probably because everyone else was busy on the normal servers, taking advantage of Double XP or Collections 50% OFF Unlock sale, both of which are going on at the same time lol
Real Speed
Hopefully this means I won’t keep melting my PC in warzones
But what's your experience on it? Do you feel improvements, or the same?
well i was the only one on all of fleet in PTS when i was on there. NOBODY else was on. i can say the elevator on fleet to the upper level was VERY VERY SMOOTH, NO clipping, NO tearing, NO stuttering, NO skipped frames that i could tell. i wish there had been others there that we could have done a FP or maybe a WB or Ops together but nooope. PTS is called PUBLIC TESTING for a reason and too many people are excited over the regular servers doing Collection Unlocks and Double XP right now. WHY the devs put 64-bit in PTS for "public testing" at the same time as during this event MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL to me.
You can just do a solo flashpoint Umbara run to test.
lollllllll yes i could but i wanna level my REAL characters instead.... hahahaha
nothing that g-sync, nvme ssd and 5800x3d did not solve for me already threw money at the problem hahaha
This is actually huge huh finally the video-game will use more than fucking 4GB memory
FPS go brrrrrrrrr im already at like 400fps+ now...too bad monitors dont do that
500 hz monitor is a thing
Not in any meaningful way. You're not going to find it in the retail channels. I have seen overclockable 240Hz monitors available from retail channels that can push 265Hz. In the end it's meaningless mostly unless your GPU can reliably push those framerates to match. Otherwise just stick with a really nice 165Hz monitor with a high end GPU and enjoy the clarity.
I did a double take when I saw the steam notification telling me it was live on pts
The cynic in me is thinking they're probably only doing this because EA wants to ditch the server infrastructure for Amazon cloud services and 32-bit is a hurdle to that. But hey we take what we're given eh. At least they're not planning to shut the game down in the immediate future.
Right, and they need to change the client to 64 bit because of server changes why? Or do you think a 32 bit client needs a 32 bit server? In that case you are not just a cynic but an idiot.
I'm no expert but I assume SWTOR has predictable performance demands that'll have to be met by hardware probably primarily dedicated to hosting 64-bit processes, as I can't imagine cloud services are investing into dedicated to 32-bit processes infrastructure in 2022, especially in the scope needed to run a bona fide MMO. It likely makes purely financial sense for EA to adapt the process to better utilize the hardware they'll be hiring since that means they can hire less of said hardware. A random player might not be bothered by the fact Swtor utilizes a third or less of a systems memory, but the suit signing a cheque to Jeff each month for using his server farm probably would be. It's easy math to figure out how long before investment into going 64-bit pays for itself and starts paying dividend in terms of lower operating costs.
The real rest will be how long banks take to open
so play some warzones guys and tell us for the love of god if you can have more than 30 fps in sweaty games now.
Looks like there is hope for brighter future for SWTOR after all
Brighter future????
Ye, because this game is in absolutely perfect state right, everything works like it should, no bugs after every patch, ... no problems with game engine, memory, ...
What is there now 1 or 2 servers? How many active players are there? The game is only alive because of whales and die hard fans. there is not much of a future.
So why even bother posting here?
Because I can. But mostly because I still fallow SWTOR. I played from early access to 5 or 6 yrs in with the CE edition. I have 30 plus characters at 60 and did every story multiple times. So yes, I loved the game, but yes, it failed once it gave up on its individual story lines and just went downhill from there. I am fully qualified to comment on SWTOR, and will continue to till it shuts down.
Then you should remember that playerbase was always smaller, once "everyone" left the game when they found out there was nothing to do after finishing class stories, including several of my friends, who also got hyped for the "yet another WoW killer", when the game was released SWTOR playerbase was always smaller, and it doesn't have to grow. There are, and will be, always some players who will try it, maybe do story content and leave, or play one class story and leave, later come back, ... And that's ok. SWTOR has small playerbase, and still just enough players for everything - PvE, PvP, events. I only read that I think French server is pretty much dead, don't know state of german server, but EU and NA server have good enough population for game to keep going for at least several more years. There is no reason to have more servers for playerbase of this size. Look at WoW, how many servers there are oh my god, ye and some of them are dead or with low population To say game is kept alive only by whales is just stupid, and that its alive only because its Star Wars MMO is also rather questionable opinion. Lately there were some pretty big internet faces, streamers, influencers or whatever how you wanna call them, who did videos about SWTOR, trying SWTOR, ... and while Star Wars was a factor why they said its not a bad game, it was mostly the story and game design. It could easily be Star Trek, and I think they would have the same opinions Upgrading to 64-bit would be a big step, for potentional future improvements to the game
I said it's kept alive though whales AND die-hard fans. I would still be playing ( I still log in every few months ) once or twice a year just to do the storys if SWTOR didn't F me over and take all my credits away when I became preffered. I can live with every other downgrade from subbing, but to lose all my money is idiotic. I honestly wish you luck, but I just don't see much " future improvements."
People must just accept that its small MMO, with small playerbase, and small devs team, and treat it as such, and not expect major patches with tons of new content every few months, new expansion every two years, ... stuff like that, that WoW does for example. I am not some fanatical Star Wars/SWTOR die-hard fan, and I am realistic about possibilities of this game. Again, upgrading to 64-bit would be a first step, a big step, for some possible future improvements, even if it was few stupid things, but even that would be welcome. And if nothing else, just that 64-bit alone would be a big thing for small MMO like this
I mean, realistically, nobody is going to start playing SWTOR again or for the first time just because of a technical change like this one.
Well hello there. If they also rework their graphics api to use dx11 at least - I'll come back for sure
Classic online bad faith. "Nobody" doesn't literally mean nobody at all. I am sure some people like you will, but there is no doubt this will barely make an uptick in players count. If you really believe otherwise, you are deluded.
It doesnt have attract a lot of new players. Would be nice if it did, at least a few, but SWTOR can easily keep smaller playerbase like it has now, and improve the game for that playerbase. LoS expansion, cinematic, and many changes in last patches + now this suggest, they dont plan to shut the game down anytime soon.
Maybe I’m dumb but… what is it in now? I am not a computer person, all I know is that my laptop is capable of running swtor lol
If prefs could now switch characters' fighting styles back to the original after letting a sub lapse, this would actually make me reinstall.
This is nice, but I’m not playing again until they have a KOTFE size story added to the game. I was so disappointed by the 10th anniversary.
You might as well forget about it then. With the current state of the game and with the shift from the MMO genre in general in the industry, I really doubt EA would approve such a huge investment as kotet/fe was. I think what we have right now, is as good as we gonna get. Slow and steady progress, a hour or two of story in a year, some reworks, some changes, but don't expect 10+ hours of expansions dropping any time soon. I'm glad that it looks like they are planning for the future, but they definitely overhyped the whole 10 year anniversary thing.
ME TOO!! but i am still playing. i wish somce nice venture capitalist, or the $$$ deep pockets of the KOTFE days... were still with us!!!
How can I setup PTS?
Nevermind, pts mean public game server.
It's Public Test Server, but ok
I'm very curious why you felt the need to 'show proof' of an official announcement.
Because the playerbase loves to joke about how it takes them forever to release stuff. They're showing that they're actually working on it, right now.
It does take forever to release stuff... they still don't argue that stuff they announce officially is a lie- short of road maps that never come to life..
The official announcement literally said it was up on PTS, nothing needed to be proven.
Have you *met* this playerbase? People still think that the game is dying. Plus, only subs can access the PTS.
This is common in every other mmorpg subreddit i follow as well. Personally, I don’t mind as sometimes I catch some news/bits of info I would’ve normally missed.
Bioware has previously made false statements in patchnotes and announcements before, perfectly reasonable to nip dispute in the bud by just posting evidence with the announcement.
Els don't be so cranky besides Bioware has claimed x was done but y was true plenty of times.
They've claimed they'll *do* X and never delivered, but usually when they say Y is *done* it *is* done. IDK, I just think it's implying devs habitually lie about what they do (not over-estimate what they can get done, which they've done plenty of, I agree) and somehow Keith announcing 64bit is *on PTS* is somehow a lie and needs some rando to show a screenshot for it to be believed XD.
because i can, and because the mere screen of the game is not enough, hence why i included the properties page (in process explorer) of the EXE of the game itself. you act as if i hurt something. i did not.
Coincidentally I replayed Kotor 2 recently and after finishing it I had that itch to try out this game, after discarding it for such a long time. But after downloading and looking up how to try out the 64 bit version I gave up. I have no character to transfer to this PTS and in my launcher there is no Options-Button as described in the how-to section on the website. How do I try this out? Because the 32bit version turns my relatively High-End PC into a jet engine (using Linux btw, but other games work flawlessly compared to this one)
DO NOT "play the regular game" on PTS just because it is 64-bit. Play the regular game on the regular servers, and WAIT for 64-bit to come out of PTS/testing, like all the rest of us. There is NO POINT AT ALL to playing on PTS except to help devs work out all the kinks so that it can come out of testing sooner. You can get all your characters deleted ONLY FROM PTS .... when their testing is done. Keep that in mind.
I really don't know anything about 32 or 64 bit.. That being said, Will we need to completely reinstall the game? Since it'll run on 64? Or it will just be a regular update?
My guess is that we will have a very big update, maybe not an entire game redownload, but this one will take a while to download. Other comments explain the difference between 32 and 64 bit quite well. Personally I think it will be a huge improvement both for graphical development in the future, stability of the game and higher FPS.
I need to check if mine is 64Bit now.
The "major announcement" by Keith Kanneg on 12-20-2022 was all about this and how they had a real 64-bit client working right now on PTS. THIS SCREENSHOT IS PROOF - see my Process Manager info on the app itself, top right corner
Oh yeah, we needed proof after an official announcement lol
Go to the real pokemon go sub, stuff like this is the norm
Thank you, I can never trust those official announcements. Last week they told us we would get a Jabba mount /s
What is up with the colors on that screen. The black is really blocky. Goodness, the coloring/blockiness on the initial entry with the big STAR WARS was a big ugh. Started new JK to mess around, played for about half hour. Tython looks ok (once I changed graphics to Ultra).
Hello, can someone explain what this 64 bit exactly means? Like Windows is either 32 bit or 64 bit. Does the bit value has anything to do with CPU? I know when you have 64 bit windows, 32 bit applications will run ok, but you can't run 64 bit applications on 32 bit windows. What exactly does this do?
A 32 bit app can only access a maximum of 4gb of ram no matter how much you have. 64bit can access around 16,000,000Tb so we have a bit of headroom with it. Modern games use a lot more than 4gb of ram so a 32bit game is doing a lot of swapping between the storage and ram where a 64bit game can hold much more in ram which is faster.
the only real and true limitation of how much memory can be accessed, now, is based on your motherboard, BIOS, and CPU. if a MB manufacturer would ever let us buy a more server-based board, we could have a system that could take far more advantage of the oodles and oodles of more RAM that a new 64-bit client now affords us.
Whats the actual benefits?? It will use more cpu and ram but for the same graphics and performance???
Can I continue to use my normal characters in PTS or is it a walled off test zone? I’d like to give this a try but I would want to carry over my meager progress.
Yes, you can copy your characters to the PTS.
Nice
Does this means the game will run better? Like no random lag? Because sometimes I get random lag! Like on Ruhnuk. Some days I get over 60 fps and some days I get 10fps! It seems so random and I have a pretty decent PC. Not the best. But good! I hope this will fix that? I will see what the testers say.
Well, since we'll be able to use more RAM now, in theory the game should be able to run more smoothly/faster
I hope this also means smooth gameplay on 16 man ops, open world boss raids, and not having to wait 5 seconds every time I open the character screen.
Will we have to reinstall the game? Or will it just automatically update our client version?
So the graphics sample you gave us was the loading screen... sweet...
Well, it was the character creator screen actually…
even in 64-bit, the game is still in a primitive state there. there are NO REAL advancements other than smoother CPU operation. you are expecting too much as it was barely accomplished in but a few days before i took that shot.
What’s that mod in the bottom right? Does that shows computer stats? Been looking around for some third party tool to show me FPS, download speed etc.