Atomic Systems

NickG wrote:
Will 64 bit functionality apply to all existing routes?

The wording of the announcement implies that, but I'd be more inclined to read it as "all existing Kuju/RSDL/RSC/DTG routes"--in other words, Steam acquired routes.
Given that those routes are covered, by extension all other routes built using the same methods should fare the same, basically all that DTG can guarantee. It's not so much the data (routes, assets) the game uses but how that data is transferred to and from memory, and how that 'working set' is dealt with.

Gary
The greatest advance will be if DTG flag the new 64-bit version to use up to 8 TERABYTES of VAS to load into.
.dmp files due to VAS issues will be a thing of the past, and that 8 terabytes will lessen both invalid and hard page faults considerably (if the code re-write can take advantage of the new enlarged VAS).
pH

Providing one has the space on one's hard drive/SSD for 8TB one presumes?

This is certainly welcome and surprising news, it will be great not to have so many crashes and getting to the point when making a scenario when you are afraid to add any more AI traffic in case you push the sim over the edge.

I think it will breathe more life into the sim.

For me TS still has one big limitation, the dispatcher, especially with the problems it has pathing trains and the fact AI is very limited in the way is operates, shunting and running around is not really achievable, if they could fix the problems with the dispatcher it would really enhance the sim. TSW appears to have a much more able dispatcher as shown in the WSR, where AI engines runs around trains and having a service mode having a complete days services shows that it has a dispatcher which can cope. I think with more routes, especially if we get period routes then over the next few years TSW could become a great sim for railway enthusiasts not just jump in and drive gamers.

Peter

Not expected this and really exciting news. Not least because it really does underline the longer term commitment to TS20xx. Happy days.

This is great and exciting news. I'm looking forward to a more stable TS experience!

Reading the article I do however expect that initially, there will be new kinds of bugs and crashes as the 64 bit version of the code is being stabilised.

Also, I expect that some 3d party software may need recompilation to 64 bit, for such things as interfaces with joysticks and the RailDriver... As I believe that they need a special DLL in order to talk to TS. At the very least this DLL would need to be recompiled into 64 bit and I'm not sure where it comes from.

So there may be some initial stumbling blocks on release but I'm very much looking forward to this release.

--Tim

Peter, the despatcher works as it does because that's how it was written, it has nothing to do with it being 32 or 64bit. Any change to the functionality/how things behave in scenarios would have to come via an appropriate update to the game.
As I wrote earlier, let's not overhype the announcement and speculate (well, not too much anyway) about how much of TSW's features we'll get.

Furthermore, any change in the behaviour of the dispatcher will modify how existing scenarios perform. You would expect that it could only get better but DTG (and RSDL and RSC) have often declared that they shy away from such a situation. Just think of the number of scenarios that exist today.

If you write a scenario for the 64bit version and say it does allow you to run more trains then before,the 32bit version would crash,so backward capability would be gone anyway.

Another happy customer from Down Under. I look forward to trying it out, hopefully it will work properly.

mearle73 wrote:If you write a scenario for the 64bit version and say it does allow you to run more trains then before,the 32bit version would crash,so backward capability would be gone anyway.

This could potentially affect all those who, for whatever reason, do not upgrade from TS18 to TS19. It seems to me that scenario authors will need to specify on the download screen whether any new scenarios they upload are for the 32bit or 64bit version of the sim. It would then be for prospective downloads of the files to ensure, if they've not upgraded to TS19, that they only download scenarios written and tested on the 32bit version of the sim.

Ash

gptech wrote:Peter, the despatcher works as it does because that's how it was written, it has nothing to do with it being 32 or 64bit. Any change to the functionality/how things behave in scenarios would have to come via an appropriate update to the game.
As I wrote earlier, let's not overhype the announcement and speculate (well, not too much anyway) about how much of TSW's features we'll get.

Yes I know that!

My post was positive about the announcement of the 64 bit compatibility. I never made any suggestion that the despatcher was going to be improved (I doubt it ever will), I just highlighted that for me the despatcher was the one thing that still needed to improve and had it's limitations and that in TSW that element seemed to be improved and in the long term may appeal more to the serious railway enthusiast as well as the jump in and drive console user.

I was certainly not overhyping the announcement. I thought my post was pretty clear!

Peter

Not clear at all Peter; you highlighted a failing in the despatcher in a thread about the move to the 64bit architecture. Whether you intended or not, the impression was given that the failing would be rectified by the switch to 64bit. Remember that anything that gets written in threads such as this cand will and has, be repeated out of context, quite quickly moving from speculation to *known fact*
The move to 64bit may allow for easier implementation of tweaks to the game's functionality in the future, so all ages well.

Well it was clear to me and that is certainly not what I intended.

In fact I was trying to underhype it! I think some feel that this means that TS may carry on and TSW will collapse. I was just pointing out that whilst this is undeniably very good news, for me one as a scenario creator that one of the big drawbacks of TS is the very restricted despatcher and signalling system and that will remain and still hold back the capabilities of the sim.

Peter

mearle73 wrote:If you write a scenario for the 64bit version and say it does allow you to run more trains then before,the 32bit version would crash,so backward capability would be gone anyway.

In a way, we already have this situation now, but totally blurred because it is the same software. But many report troubles with all sorts of scenarios that can be run on other machines.

In other words, this "64bit-only" label could be attached to quite a few existing scenarios.

And yes, such a label would help those on average to lower end machines to find the scenarios that work for them more quickly.