64 bit version of RF2 is critically needed now!

Discussion in 'Technical & Support' started by Uzair, May 27, 2014.

  1. Uzair

    Uzair Registered

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    Hi ISI,

    I am a very loyal fan of your sims, since F1 2002. I feel like you lost your way with RF2 until recently. When I purchased RF2 (lifetime) license last year it was with trepidation since all the screenshots and videos until then had shown the visual to be bland and flat, looking appropriate for a game circa 2003 but not 2013. Now however you have stepped up the game significantly, with recent cars and tracks being stellar, and the graphics component of the RF2 engine also much improved.

    However there is a HUGE bottleneck right now, and that is the RF2 executable being 32-bit. This means that the game can't allocate more than 3.7 GB memory. If this game were being launched 5 years ago that would have been (almost) ok. But now RF2 will be launched in 2014 at the earliest, and will be alive for several years. Already we are hitting the memory limit, as you may be aware from the many crash reports on the forums due to "unable to allocate memory" error message people get. The very nature of your work - highly detailed tracks and cars with very high-resolution textures - means that loading even a reasonable number of cars onto a track is impossible. When I select more than a couple of car mods and try to load a track I consistently get the "unable to allocate memory" message. Given the long planned lifespan of RF2 and that modders will doubtless release even higher detail cars and tracks at some point, it is going to be impossible to run RF2 for anything other than single-spec races.

    The solution obviously is to compile the executable as 64-bit. I know it might not be a trivial task, involving changing the way memory management is done within the engine, but I feel that the ability to allocate a large memory space is going to be crucial for RF2's success. Frankly it is not very good that a cutting-edge sim to be released in 2014 has such a small memory limit, and is still in 32-bit, considering that a serious sim should allow more technical freedom and capability.
     
  2. Adrianstealth

    Adrianstealth Registered

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    hiya, do you think it will improve anything?

    see my system specs I have a stack of ram etc,
    but when Iracing went 64bit it made zero difference,
    I didn't give me not even +1 extra fps

    was a tad disappointed as previous to the Iracing update 64bit really sounded great
    ( ....on the basis that 64 is double the amount of 32 so it sounds better )
     
  3. Max Angelo

    Max Angelo Registered

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    It is no matter of fps performance, but about the ability to overpass the 3.7 GB limit.


    I think ISI are well aware of the "issue" and they are working so to release the 64 bit version soon as possible.
     
  4. hexagramme

    hexagramme Registered

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    You say it will be launched..? Last I checked it is already launched.

    Sendt fra min LG-E400 med Tapatalk2
     
  5. Adrianstealth

    Adrianstealth Registered

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    ok good for what ever it will do, I take it then that the full 3.7gb allocation is sometimes maxed out then ?

    if it's possible to know ?
     
  6. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    32bit is limited to 3.7gb but if you go 64bit the limit is 16EB. :)
     
  7. Uzair

    Uzair Registered

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    As Max Angelo says, the purpose of 64-bit is not necessarily to improve performance, but allow large memory size usage. 32-bit is limited to 3.7 GB, which is too low for a modern simulation.

    Also, the RF2 engine is still DirectX 9. If they moved to DX11 that would help improve performance, maybe help with the stuttering as well given the CPU overhead of the older DirectX.
     
  8. ORA-Oldie

    ORA-Oldie Registered

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    When the HistoriX mod was released for rF1, they included a 4GB patch for people running W7 64bit systems that you applied to the rFactor.exe and which allowed the system to use more RAM when running the sim. So, I applied the patch to RF2 as well, and have had no issues so far with memory.

    Might be worth a try perhaps ?

    You can download it from my Mediafire account.. http://www.mediafire.com/download/y916bdwfpgk1w1d/rF_Patch_For_Win7_x64_systems.7z
     
  9. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    I remember that one, yes.

    Could you please explain again how to do that? There was something with / " * or some kind of signs and they had to be in the right place ;)
     
  10. Max Angelo

    Max Angelo Registered

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    rF2 is already flagged so to use 4 GB, but the effective available memory per process, in DX9, is about 3.7 GB.
     
  11. Valter Cardoso

    Valter Cardoso Registered

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    And the problem will be bigger while time goes by.
    Bigger and heavier mods and tracks......like comparing rfactor 1 mods/tracks from 2007 and from 2011.
     
  12. Woodee

    Woodee Registered

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    Anyone feel like this?

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Scott Beck

    Scott Beck Registered

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  14. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    Yes, that tool works on Win8. But it isn't needed on rF2 because the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag is already set right out of the box. rF2 on a 64bit OS is limited to 3.7GB. If LARGEADDRESSAWARE wasn't set it would be limited to just 1.6GB. When rF2 goes 64bit it will basically have no memory limit at all. Theoretical limit of 16 exabytes. :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 28, 2014
  15. Scott Beck

    Scott Beck Registered

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    Thank you for the answer.
     
  16. Valbuena72

    Valbuena72 Registered

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  17. Woodee

    Woodee Registered

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  18. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    Depends what content you use. It will crash with enough AI opponents and a recent car and track as it'll run out of mem. OP is quite correct, it is needed.
     
  19. osella

    osella Registered

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    It is needed for sure, and it's great to hear that ISI is working on it :cool:

    With some combos you can already run out of memory with rf1. Some mods will use as little as 2gb with 104 cars (on less demanding tracks), but some can go over 3.6 with just 60 cars.
     
  20. Fraggon

    Fraggon Registered

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    So who told you ISI is working on a 64bit client? Tim just agreed that it's needed.
     

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