Re: XSI 6 Foundation in 64bit?

["Chris Trimble" <trimbo(at)gmail.com>]

Unless you absolutely need the extra RAM, my advice is not to run 64-bit.  I did it for a year at work and it caused far more problems than it's worth. 

 

 * 32-bit shell extensions won't work (like being able to right click for Winzip, Xbox neighborhood extensions, etc.)

 * NVidia debugging tools kill your machine if you try to use them on 64-bit (at least they did for me)

 * Mixed .NET and x86 applications won't work if the .NET code wasn't specifically compiled to run on win32 instead of "AnyCPU"

 * Microsoft has a new signed driver requirement on 64-bit Vista, but not 32-bit Vista.  So expect the driver situation to continue to stink on 64-bit.

 

There generally is no speed difference between 64-bit apps and 32-bit apps running on Windows 64, though 32-bit apps run really well on 64-bit machines with a lot of RAM.  Each 32-bit app can get 2G to play with.

 

Is XSI compiled with /LARGEADDRESSAWARE ?  If so, you can use the /3GB flag on 32-bit windows and make more RAM available to it.  Maya is compiled with this flag.

 

 - C

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Kent Bowling

To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM

Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:59 AM

Subject: Re: XSI 6 Foundation in 64bit?

I wonder if that's changing a bit though. I own Foundation 5.11 currently. I just put together a Core 2 Duo for my home machine, and I'm considering buying a 64-bit version of Vista once it's released. This is my home machine which currently only has 2GB, so the address space isn't really the primary motivation at the moment.

I assume that XSI Foundation 6.0 32-bit Windows version will run on Vista 64 (at some point after Vista is released, I won't get you guys to commit to supporting unreleased OS's or anything ;)), but the 64-bit version would probably run a bit faster on a 64-bit OS, correct? I'm not sure what mechanism is used to run 32-bit software on 64-bit OS's, but I would guess there's a performance hit.

I guess my point is 64-bit OS's will probably start to become more "mainstream" in part because of Vista 64 and people being more likely to have a 64-bit processor (Core 2 Duo's etc.).

-Kent

On 11/17/06, Luc-Eric Rousseau <lucer(at)softimage.com> wrote:

Tim, I apologize if I misjudged your situation;  usually the requests for Foundation in 64-bit come from people who are planning to upgrade massivly their home machine, and sometime they do not know that the 32-bit version of applications work equally well on them, or exactly what the 64-bit will cost to fully utilize.  I apologize if this isn't your situation.  The current licensing limitations of XSI are necessary.  Foundation is possible because of Essential and Advanced, so there will continue to be significant advantages to go for Essential, and that indirectly benifits the Foundation community.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Leydecker
>
> Hi Luc-Eric,
>
> > Tim, if I'm not mistaken what's happening is that you're
> 'pimping your PC' to
> > 64-bit and want to have everything running in 64-bit.  But
> >really, the 32-bit
> > version will run at full speed on it, and 99.9% of the CG
> industry is still working
> > on 32-bit.  It's only only if you're in need >of more than
> 3 Gig of RAM for XSI
> > only that you need 64-bit.  I would say that you're
> prepared to invest in all of
> > this cool new >hardware, you should also be be prepared to
> upgrade above the
> > entry-level version of XSI and get the Essential version of XSI.
>
> I tried hard not to sound offensive in my last e-mail,
> my plea focusing solely on getting a beneficial situation for
> most users - be it students, Linux users or windows32bit guys.
>
>  So please, forget about my urge for a 2D/3D Lighting tool,
> that would be a pretty selfish request reserved to pro-users.
>
> Cheers
>
> tim
>
> P.S: I don´t pimp my computers, btw. They run fine with Maya
> for years...

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