64 bit Windows build

[Raymond]

The majority of our users on Windows 7 or higher now have systems capable of running 64-bit applications, so please also offer a 64 bit 0 A.D. build for Windows.

WHY: Google release Chrome for 64 bit Windows that allows to have estimated 25 % more speed. You can also optimise for newer instruction sets that are found in newer processors (Intel Core 2 Duo: the smallest 64 bit processor).

chrome blog: ​http://blog.chromium.org/2014/06/try-out-new-64-bit-windows-canary-and.html

[Raymond]

Any chance to see a 64 bit Windows build with optimization for newer processors?

[sanderd17]

We discussed this, and it's unlikely it will give a big speedup, except for system calls. As we don't do a lot of system calls (and most of them happen during loading), the speedup wouldn't nearly be as good as for a web browser.

The only reason to go for 64-bit would be that we can use more memory. This might be needed in the future but we won't investigate time into porting just yet.

Of course, if someone works on it, and the result isn't slower than the current game, it's a valid patch and should be committed. That's why we haven't closed this issue.

[historic_bruno]

At any rate, I think we should wait until we move to git, because we will split the precompiled Windows libs to their own repo (likely SVN, see #1814). Then we can add the 64-bit versions of all the libs over time, without forcing everyone to download them. It will increase maintenance and build/release/testing complexity to some extent. At the same time, I would like to get the different Windows lib builds streamlined so we can basically run a single script, useful when upgrading our autobuild compiler or something - it's a rather painful disjointed process right now (see #864).

I doubt there will be much noticeable improvement, other than our crappy big screenshot feature that allocates a huge chunk of memory, it might work more reliably :) So it should be a low priority, but something to think about it, it would be an interesting project for someone who wants to get into the game build process for Windows.

[Raymond]

any updates?

According to ​http://feedback.wildfiregames.com/static/cpucaps.html :

Users has 96.4% a x86-64 processor in 2014!

[Vladislav Belov]

The OOM problem only grows, and that affects rendering as well.

Also some Vulkan features and debug tools don't work for 32-bits.

[Stan]

Push back

[Vladislav Belov]

In 27810:

Removes WInit module completely. Refs #2611

Comments By: phosit

Differential Revision: ​https://code.wildfiregames.com/D5085