64 bit Terragen this year?

[rkphelps]

I've rebuilt my Computer and plan on installing Windows 7 Professional 64 bit when released later this month. I know Terragen 64bit is being worked on, but is it going to be released soon? or are we looking at 6 months to a year or more.

The reason I'd like to know is I am planning on buying the windows 7 oem 64bit version for around $130.00 (U.S.) and the oem versions don't include the other bit version. If it's going to be quite some time before the 64 bit Terragen is released I may decide to buy the Windows 7 Upgrade version for around $199.00.The Upgrade versions includes both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the Windows 7 operating system.

Anyone know the Time line?

I may just just decide to Dual boot with Windows XP for 32bit apps and Windows 7 for 64bit apps as I'm not sure there is a lot of advantages going to the windows 7 32bit version because it doesn't seem to be a lot faster than XP.

My New Computer Build:

1. Cooler master ATCS 840 Full Tower Case - $185.00
2. PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910 watt PSU - $177.00
3. Asus P6T WS LGA 1366 Core I-7 Motherboard - $275.00
4. Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz quad core processor - $212.00
5. Crucial Ballistix Tracer Memory 6GB (2gbx3 kit) DDR-1333 - $157.00
6. Plextor PX-880SA SATA 24x CD/DVD Writer - $50.00
7. Adaptec 29320ALP-R 320 SCSI Raid Controller - $99.00
8. Intel SSD 80gb Hard Drive - $267.00

[mhall]

What about the version of Windows 7 that has a full version of XP with it, so you don't have to dual boot, but can simply run the program "in XP" on the desktop via virtualization? I believe that's in the Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise versions.

Just a thought ...

~Micheal

[RArcher]

Is there a particular app that you need a 32 bit system for?  I've been running Vista 64 for quite a while now and I have yet to run into any program that doesn't work fine with it.

If you do go with 64bit you will notice an immediate improvement using the 32bit version of TG2 as you will go from having around 1.7gb of RAM available up to 3.7GB or so.

[Henry Blewer]

The XP mode is only for compatibility. It is not really an emulator. I think it's main function is so Microsoft Works works.

[PorcupineFloyd]

Why do you need a 32bit system to run 32bit apps if XP-64, Vista-64 and 7-64 all run 32bit apps just fine out of the box? Go 64 if you can, you won't loose anything and you can gain some now and even more in the future. Especially if you're relying on graphics software.

If you really need to run something that refuses to run in Seven, then, as it was pointed out in this thread - you can do so in Seven in "XP mode" which is essentially a virtual machine with XP SP3. It should do it's job pretty well as I even heard people flashing Samsung Omnia custom ROMs via Seven's "XP mode" and such flashing requires special modem drivers to be installed exclusively on XP.

[mhall]

njeneb,

From what I have seen you can either run an application in XP mode - in which it will have a full XP look to it's window, but be just that - a window on the desktop (but still running in a virtual XP environment). Or you can run a full instance of XP as you would with any other virtualization solution with a desktop in a window.

From the sounds of it, it's a lot more than just getting MS Works running ...

However, I haven't tested it myself, but all of the reports I've read on it have been positive and none have mentioned any sort of limitation on what you can do with it.

The only limitation is that the CPU has to support hardware level virtualization and you need a couple of gigs of extra memory.

Do you have a reference on your information - I'm just curious, as I would like to have all of the data.

Regards,
Micheal

P.S. Here's one article on it ...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10229125-56.html

[rkphelps]

Thanks guys for your reply's, I didn't know that 32bit software would run in the 64bit OS. If Terragen and other 32bit similar software will run in windows 7 64bit then I'll get the windows 7 professional 64bit OEM version.

Thanks

[PorcupineFloyd]

I've been using Vista x64 and I'm testing Win 7 x64 right now and I haven't had a single problem with 32 bit applications so far. Speed loss is really minor - it shouldn't even reach 1% in configuration you proposed. And of course - in 64 bit system you get more room to play with in terms of available RAM. Especially with 8 cores

I've been doing some rendering on 2 cores, generating terrain in L3DT on third core and playing Open TTD on fourth core without any problems on my Q6600 so I bet you won't see any glitches too.

[jo]

Hi,

Yes you can run TG2 and other 32 bit apps just fine under 64 bit Windows. In fact I use 64 bit versions of Vista and Windows 7 without any problems.

As to TG2 64 bit support, it has been pushed back a bit due to a big change in the next release but we will get stuck into it once that release is ... released.

Regards,

Jo

[Jack]

64 bit doesnt run all apps
i cant run my zen manager on 64bit or my wirless dongle as it only has 32bit drivers and they don't work on 64bit so its not as easy as just switching to 64bit as not every app works on it
i would have a 32bit and 64 bit dual boot

[PorcupineFloyd]

It's a problem with lack of drivers then, not a matter of supporting or not supporting 32 bit on 64 bit platform.

It would be a good idea to do some research in terms of drivers availability prior to installing 64 bit system. Most mainstream components have 64 bit drivers, but some don't and with others you have to experiment with Vista drivers (in case of Win 7). I have run onto some problems when I was trying to install Vista x64 on my X51RL laptop which doesn't have x64 drivers at all, but that shouldn't be the case with your configuration. However, if you use apps similar to what wetbanana said - it's good to do some research first to know if they will work or not.

[Henry Blewer]

It was a couple months ago that I read this, but most XP games will not run or run poorly in Windows 7. The article was on CNET. I guess my days in Oblivion are numbered.

[neuspadrin]

It was a couple months ago that I read this, but most XP games will not run or run poorly in Windows 7. The article was on CNET. I guess my days in Oblivion are numbered.

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/5739-windows-7-pre-rtm-game-compatibility-list.html

According to this list, most things will work, as they should. Some even were tested in both x64 and x86. Basically only super old games start to not be compatible anymore (but you could easily run them in a virtual machine). As for game performance, some games will have dips in performance, some will have improvements.  Thats just how it goes.  And as windows 7 is out for a bit longer performance will probably increase a little in patches and as new drivers come out.  But often by "not as good performance" they are talking 3fps loss on crysis 1920x1200 super graphics while still running a VERY decent fps.

[PorcupineFloyd]

Take a look at this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/virtual-xp-virtualbox,2418.html#xtor=RSS-182

It's rather fresh article about XP mode.

[matrix2003]

I don't think that a dual boot will be necessary anymore, we have found every driver we need so far, and if the Windows XP Model works like this article suggests, then you should be able to run most everything.  I know some games can be a little picky, and there seems to be some sacrifice in system performance with the virtual mode, but on a fast computer with 6 gigs of ram how much would you really be sacrificing.  I would hope that no-one is going to install 64bit pro operating system on a piece of crap computer.    (some I'm sure will try though)      -  Bill .