As you may or may not know, I have a thread going regarding Threads that crash during the middle of a render (
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=4569.0). Anyway, I theorized that this issue may involve some kind of 32 bit memory limitation that I'm running into during the render. freelancah tried a render that had been previously failing on 32 bit windows and that apparently completed on 64 bit windows. As a result of that test, I've decided to upgrade my 64 bit ready system to Vista 64 and give Terragen 2 a try.
Calico asked me to post an update on my progress moving to 64 bit Vista including application compatibility. So, I'm posting it here to take it out of the other non-related topic. Anyway, here's my status so far.
I've ordered all of the parts I need so far: 8 GB of memory (max out the system) and a copy of Vista Home Premium 64 from Tiger Direct. It should be here by Thursday. Barring any unforseen circumstances, I should have the system up and running on Saturday. However, note that it isn't a straight upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit. As far as I can tell, it requires a fresh install including all apps. So, I fully expect it to take most of Saturday to get everything (apps and the OS) reinstalled and all my projects recovered.
I'd like to make the system dual bootable back into 32 bit in case I have any difficulties getting the 64 bit version working. But, I'm not yet sure if that's possible.
Calico also asked about application compatibility. I have not yet worked with 64 bit windows. However, I do know that older 64 bit Windows would not run 32 bit apps. According to what I've recently read on the net, Vista 64 does run 32 bit apps (it must have some kind of emulation layer for these types of apps). The question, though, is how well do they run? I won't know that until I get it installed. See
http://www.realtime-windowsserver.com/os_features_troubleshooting/2008/08/yes_you_can_run_32bit_applicat.htm for more details. The one thing that is mentioned is that 64 bit Windows does not support the very old 16 bit app subsystem, so those 16 bit apps will only run under 32 bit Vista. Of course, you could run VMWare and host 32 bit Vista under 64 bit Vista to get the 16 bit app compatibility. While VMWare is a good emulation system, it does lack some graphics support for higher end apps. But, you probably won't find many 16 bit apps that fall into that category.
Thanks.
--
Brian