A Messy Transition: Practical Problems With 32bit Addressing In Windows
by Ryan Smith on July 12, 2007 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Software
Final Words
As we wrap things up, we'll reserve a few words for game & application developers who are working on projects that will hit the barrier. Supreme Commander is extremely disappointing in how it handles running out of addressing space. Ideally we'd like for it not to crash, but realistically we'd settle for just an error message pointing out that it hit the 2GB barrier so that we could quickly reach a solution. Otherwise seemingly-random crashes tend to be one of the hardest problems to resolve as a user. Developers need to take care here to offer some kind of warning when the 2GB barrier is the problem; not everyone is or will be well read on the subject or have the time to diagnose it, when it's actually an easily solvable problem.
Getting back to the point at hand however, we feel that this is only going to be the tip of the iceberg. As games and applications continue to come out that push the boundaries of computer hardware and run afoul of the 2GB barrier, these problems will only pick up in pace. For many power users this experience will be a common occurrence, and for most it will be a frustrating experience.
We're at the front end of a messy transition, one that may not end for several years. Today, 32bit games will hit the 2GB barrier, and tomorrow games with support for large addressing will hit the 3GB/4GB barrier. Not until 64bit versions of games are ubiquitous will we be completely through this transition, and that will still be a few years away.
Until that point, stories such as these will continue to be told as users unknowingly hit the 2GB barrier. Developers need to be doing a better job at handling the issue via better crash reports, but our inner cynic says that they can't be solely in charge of the matter. So it will be up to users to diagnose their own problems and take the appropriate action, be it switching operating systems and/or modifying executables. A little knowledge in this regard can go a long way.
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nullpointerus - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
64bit versions of Windows(i.e. XP and Vista) do not suffer from the traditional 2GB barrier, as all the kernel mode addressing is usually moved to well above the confines of the limited 32bit addressing area. As such, these versions of Windows don't need to have their space allocations adjusted for an application to gain access to more addressing space, bypassing the instability and any possible performance problems that occurs as a result of making this adjustment.I used 64-bit Vista for a while but just couldn't deal with the BSOD's and other wierd behavior that would happen with 4 GB RAM installed and the BIOS memory hole option set. For example, the nVidia SATA drivers (3 updates on Windows Update alone) for my board would BSOD on every boot when the BIOS memory hole option was enabled, and the PVR-150's driver would randomly corrupt itself and turn into a green/garbled slideshow:
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=...">http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=...
I wish the 64-bit driver developers would get off their butts and fix this stuff.
gersson - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
Large Address Aware Statusit says, "STALKER: Oblivion Lost"
Ryan Smith - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
I'm not sure I see what the problem is. Could you go in to more detail?gersson - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
You meant to place 'Stalker' cos there is already an entry for oblivion and 'lost' (I assume you mean 'lost planet')Read like this:
Observe first line:
STALKER: Oblivion Lost Yes
Lost Planet No
Company of Heroes Yes
Supreme Commander No
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Yes
Battlefield 2142 No
Call of Juarez DX10 BM No
World of Warcraft No
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion No
Photoshop CS3 Yes
Dreamweaver CS3 No
DigitalFreak - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
No. Stalker had the working title of Stalker: Oblivion Lost...gersson - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
hmm ok, didn't know that -- but you can see how I had arrived @ my conclusion :-PThe Boston Dangler - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
the game was released as STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. no biggieRyan Smith - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
Fixed. I keep forgetting they changed the name.grant2 - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
So this game will crash reproducably when using a large map, with many players, and many units.And GPG released it like this? Either their QA department is rather incompetent, or management were buffoons to ignore such an obvious error.
Very disapointing!
EODetroit - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
I've been hoping Anandtech would take memory issues more seriously for a while now, glad you're getting your teeth into it for real now!"Unfortunately Windows Vista reverted to a non-accelerated desktop at this point, preventing us from capturing a screenshot of the exact memory readouts or the error message."
Use a camera!