A Messy Transition: Practical Problems With 32bit Addressing In Windows
by Ryan Smith on July 12, 2007 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Software
Other Problems, Other Solutions
Although for this article we are focusing on Supreme Commander, there are other games and applications that are already known to encounter this exact problem. Company of Heroes developer Relic has warned that this problem can occur, especially in conjunction with using Direct3D 10 mode and STALKER developer GSC Game World has also seen this problem. Both have gone so far as to ship the latest versions of their games with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag.
Although not an exhaustive list, we have compiled a list of recent games and applications and if they are flagged or not. Ideally every possible game and application that can run in to the 2GB barrier will be flagged so that it can be worked around without modifying the application directly itself.
| Large Address Aware Status | |
| STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl | 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 |
| . | |
The importance of the above applications and games being flagged is not just to avoid the need to modify the executable, but also because there is another solution to the issue we haven't talked about so far. 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.
However in order to maintain compatibility with older applications, Windows still keeps the artificial 2GB barrier in place to keep from triggering any bugs that result from the extra space. So even if we use a 64bit version of Windows, the offending application must still either be flagged by the developer or modified by the user if we want to get past the 2GB barrier.
This in turn is an interesting proposition for developers who may be looking at ways to deal with the 2GB barrier, but don't want to make the jump to having to program and support 2 versions of their executables and associated compiled code. Although as a 32bit application there is still the 4GB hard limit, flagging executables lets a developer keep a single package and is perfectly safe on both stock 32bit and 64bit installations of Windows. They can effectively buy another 2 years or so before they need to actually offer 64bit executables, and can direct users to install a 64bit version of Windows if they are hitting the 2GB barrier, instead of directing them to make the much riskier user space modification.
Of course this is not all roses. As we covered in our Vista performance guide, there are still some issues with Windows Vista 64bit, and Windows XP 64bit is even worse as a result of having been orphaned quickly after its release. For prospective 64bit Vista users, they will still find that driver support is not as good as with the 32bit version of Vista, and 64bit drivers may not be as stable as the 32bit versions. There are also still lingering concerns over application compatibility and performance.
Things have gotten better since we published our February article, but we're not ready to write them off completely yet. Users getting along with 32bit versions of Windows right now will find themselves in between a rock and a hard place as more applications and games start to hit the barrier - they'll either need to make the user space modification or switch to a 64bit version of Windows when neither of these is a perfect solution. This leaves the less imperfect but also less fun option of simply turning down the settings on any affected games. Lower settings result in lower user space usage and reduced chances of crashing, but in spite of the highest stability and compatibility offered by this option we suspect few users will actually opt for it.
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brink - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
it's a 2 prong solution for WinXP, you have to set a /3GB flag in your BOOT.INI file for the instance of windows you're booting. Additionally since Supcom doesn't have the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag, you have to patch the EXE using the tool mentioned in the article ((someone created a batch that uses the tool to patch the supcom exe, easily found in the official supcom forums)I mention this since the article doesn't really say how they did it (and they used Vista, which is another boc to contend with) Since HardOCP did a comparison a while back between supcom perf in XP and Vista, I've really only installed/used supcom in XP still. With our fix for a 4GB machine (the machine I regularly use still has 2GB, I just stay away from 81KM maps) XP has still remained stable, but we did have one crash in a 40KM map game on Gentleman's Reef.
I don't like the article's preference on FPS in Supcom, mainly because I don't look at Supcom as a FPS centric game at all. If you've played, you know when a slow computer enters the game (or you have 7 computers each with 1,000 units on a 81KM map) the in-game timer will start to crawl. 1 second of game time will take 2 seconds, or much much worse. It would have been approx 100x cooler if the bench was "it took this much before the timer started to skew".
jay401 - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
lol funny, now that I am paging through the article I see you mention this very issue. Good!jay401 - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
Well you didn't address the 'WHY' - why the game uses so much memory. Hopefully I provided a little light on that subject.Also on Page 5 none of your graphs are labeled as to what they are measuring. Please note if they're measuring fps, which is my gut but I'm not sure because they are unlabeled.
Thanks.
MadBoris - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
Although you are right in part, the lead engineer did mention the units are one reason for large memory consumption. (BTW, I had heard that they are all being/were rerendered for November). There is another issue beyond that though that becomes obvious. The initial virtual address space at the beginning of a game between a 20k map and 81k map is only about 150MB difference. But as unit count climbs, the larger map gap grows somewhat exponentially compared to the smaller. So something else is askew.
As Ryan mentioned the whys and wherefores aren't really the point, this issue is a global one and 2GB is a real hard limit now for games since we have the horsepower(CPU & GPU) for larger memory consuming texture maps, larger resolutions, yet the 2GB memory limit for a game is a definitive roadblock to forward progress so I am glad the issue is coming to the forefront.
As much confusion and fear there is on this /3GB subject for the laymen, this is still a great rabbit in the hat for us with 32 bit OS's if more driver writers get on the ball, fears can subside. Hopefully devs like Crytek can continue to push demand for 64 bit with a nice 64 bit Crysis patch too, and we can start making the transition leaving 32 bit behind as drivers/apps also make the transition.
I think articles like these help the cause.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
To be honest, we didn't address why because it really isn't relevant. Even if Supreme Commander was done perfectly in every way, the result would have been the same once it reached the 2GB barrier.gigahertz20 - Thursday, July 12, 2007 - link
They should have made Vista only 64 bit to put pressure on the transition.johnsonx - Friday, July 13, 2007 - link
The problem with going 64-bit only this time around is that there are too many 32-bit programs around that simply won't run on 64-bit windows. I have several myself that I depend on daily. They are slightly older programs that the developer doesn't intend to upgrade to be 64-bit, but that doesn't change the fact that I need them. If these apps didn't work with Vista because it was released in 64-bit only form, then I wouldn't be running Vista. Millions of others are (or would be) in this same situation, which would significantly harm Vista sales.If the next version of Windows were made 64-bit only, around the 2010 time frame, I think that would be quite reasonable. By then most 32-bit only programs will have been replaced or rendered obsolete.
I think Microsoft has handled the 32/64-bit issue correctly so far, for the most part. XP64 should have been ready sooner and should have been better supported though.
Related question for anyone who knows: I know retail Vistas include 32-bit and 64-bit on the same disc, and the user is free to install either. I also know that OEM Vistas include only the one version on the disc. What about the OEM keycodes though? Can you install a 64-bit Vista using the keycode that came with a 32-bit disc? Or has MS limited the keycode as well?
StygianAgenda - Thursday, June 5, 2008 - link
To answer your question about the Windows Vista Retail package, I have 2 copies of Vista Ultimate retail, and it was packed with 2 DVDs, 1 is 32bit, the other is the 64bit build.The set comes with a single key, and the key is bound to the 64bit version, so if you opt to use the 32bit version instead, you'll most likely have to call into Microsoft's activation center and manually activate your copy. I've had to do this 4 times now, due to hardware changes, because Vista detects system changes, so if you remove 1 or 2 boards and boot into Vista, the system will automatically de-activate. Now, granted, the call to MS was fairly painless, but it's annoying all the same.
Out of the 4 Vista systems I own currently (3 of which are laptops), I've had great success with the OS, itself. Unfortunately for me, the motherboard I've been using on my custom built workstation is flaky... I've done my research though (tonight), and might have a fix in the works, if it works, that is. Otherwise, I'll be ordering a new motherboard, and calling Microsoft yet again to transfer my license to the new configuration. By the way, they always ask "Is this copy running on more than one PC?". In light of all the hoopla over the licensing scheme in Vista, I would hope that no one is stupid enough to try to use a Vista Retail license on multiple PCs, because it'll cause all of them to be blacklisted. Oh, and the new Vista Enterprise edition is only available in lots of 25 licenses or higher, and requires a licensing server on the LAN with the deployed workstation licenses. It's either that, or expect to have a couple of extra hundred MB or so of net traffic from all of the Vista Ent. workstations checking in with MS everytime the systems are booted. Makes me glad that I also work with Linux very heavily, and all things considered, if Linux + WINE can run all of my criticle Win32 apps, then this will be the last Vista Licenses that I buy. I'll still keep Vista on my laptops, and I'll continue to run my XP workstations, and 2K3 servers, but MS is going to have to really do some impressive work to get me convinced to migrate to their next platform... such as maybe... a *real* 3D desktop... which is already available, stable and totally badass on Linux (check out Kubuntu + compiz).
(btw: Sorry if I seem like I'm on a rant here... no offense intended toward the readers, at all... it's just that when you work with OS's at the level that I do, after a while stupid mistakes made by OS vendors start to get beyond aggrivating.)
instant - Saturday, July 21, 2007 - link
And when we are talking about GAMES, how if at all is this relevant to the current discussion?x64 has been the way to go ever since it was released.
miahallen - Saturday, July 14, 2007 - link
That is incorrect, Vista x64 will run x86 apps without problem (so will XP x64), that's the nice thing about it. I ran x64 for quite a while, and ran almost nothing but x86 apps on it.The keycodes for x86 do not chnge for x64 installs...they use the same key. And the retail versions I bought did not have both versions on one disc, I had to order a x64 disc online (and pay $10 for S&H).