Hi all,Ive been surfing and lurking in forums all over the place looking for better ways to do 3d work as many people do. Im working in Bryce and liking it alot and found it was very similiar to UT2004s editor in the way it uses booleans and primitives(anyone else make levels for that?). So I read a little info about 64 bit apps and decide to go looking for more info on the upcoming Vista/Win XP x64, and any 3d apps in general. To my suprise not alot of talk about 64 bit enabled programs anywhere, why???. I know that developers have to support it and all but hasnt 64 bit been out awhile on Macs and AMD 64 PCs. Is it that hard to develope for 64 bit, I mean Im reading in some apps as much as 200% (LW as much as 1000%) increase in renders. Content in games(x64 enabled) w/details cranked on high not losing any fps. Whats the deal. Am I the only one that wonders why 64 bit sounds like a secret... btw, Ive seen Bryce 5.5c on x64 PC(32 bit emulated)and no its not any faster but the OS seems twice as fast.

64-bit was not truly around so much when Bryce 5.5 was being created. When B5.5 was going through beta even Lightwave had not came out with their 64-bit version yet.

Now that 64-bit is even more prevelant, we are assuming/hoping that future Bryce versions will have support for 64-bit, dual cores, hyper-threading, etc.

Yes, Bryce will have to be optimized to take advantage of 64-bit. I believe any program does, from what I have read.

AgentSmith

Message edited on: 02/21/2006 02:16

I think not even 3dsmax 8 is 64-bit enabled? lol anyways, 64-bit will begin to break through in the future when our OS's are actually 64-bit enabled. When windows vista will be released and people switched to vista for a significant bit you'll probably notice more and more 64-bit enabled software comming out. I doubt bryce 6 will be 64-bit enabled yet, but maybe the next versions of professional apps will do more about it. I think btw that softimageXSI is 64-bit enabled... since that's what they tested the new boxx workstations with on CGtalk (and set the speedrecord with).

Thanks for replys. Its gonna be real nice when 3d goes all 64 bit, and fast too.I just wanted to add, is the reason that its not mainstream yet an OS issue, or developer, or do they totally have to rewrite the software?. IMO ,if it is a rewrite then we wont see apps doing 64bit for a few years as the user base for XP 32 is wide in use for these and $$ doesn't go cheap for those companys to rewrite. I think a port of software from 32 to 64 doesnt work or something or they would be putting it out quicker. MS is being cryptic with there Vista. With all the $$ Ive put into my upgrades I could have bought Softimage XSI. I forgot to even check their site for 64 bit stuff. Aahh, to much I want not enough money :>(. Im done upgrading for now, guess Ill have to wait and just work on improving my Bryce skills :).

64 bit systems are more hype then anything real for the average user (IMO). I know it's going to happen but I'm not going out of my way to get it (kinda like Intel Macs). Best; Dan

ah u know almost all of us here on this planet don't have enough money to buy everything we want ;) That's what economy was invented for haha Just save up again and see what u can buy in a while. If you're looking to go towards high-end apps, you can already get some practice with modelling in wings or amapi or truespace, mayaPLE, any software that's got free versions out there with magazines. You can use demo's, read up on theory and net things going on in the industry. And by the time u saved up enough to buy your copy of 3dsmax or softimageXSI or maya or such you'll have all this theory and already even some practice to your disposal which will make it easier to learn the professional app anyways. You'll find yourself looking at all the new tools going "hey, I know what this does!" even though u never used it before, just because you recognize the terminology.

It's the 'chicken and egg' problem; not a lot of apps are out for Vista, because Vista isn't out yet..;) As soon as they plant the goalposts in one spot, developers are going to be the first to get the 64-bit environment.

Well, there is an Windows XP 64-bit OS right now, but for myself even though I have a 64-bit cpu, I don't see a reason to upgrade as of yet since Bryce isn't ready for it, and I think I would rather have Windows Vista....like a year after it comes out so at least half the bugs are taken care of, lol. AS

It's the Spy-vs-Spy effect as well. Once everyone gets happy with 64-bit processors, the 128's will be out. and although few people are paying attention, the newer Cell processors (not to be confused with cellular!) make dual-core and hyperthreading and 64-bit phenomenon really unimportant. The PS3, a gaming device, is faster than most PC's in the world by itself!

The only programs I've used that use 64-bit pipelines are Photoshop and Maya. I noticed no RENDERING speed increase in either, but didn't go out of my way to benchmark it. One thing that I did notice was that Photoshop took a lot less time loading/saving and adjusting to changes with large (500MB+) files, which was nice...

A benchmark site :

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/processorsmemory/0,39024015,39189912-8,00.htm

And another on PCstats.com :

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1469&page=16

When it comes to actual hardware, the fastest PC's available (publicly) are the Boxx Apexx4's. They skip the Ahtlon/Pentium debate and go straight to the top, the Opteron, and are also very, very expensive. Check 'em out :

http://www.boxxtech.com/products/Apexx4.asp

I'm saying that without even trying one, I'm quite certain these machines would REALLY give Bryce some Lightning! Enjoy...

Message edited on: 02/21/2006 14:06

Actually those apexx 4's would not give bryce some lightning because bryce will only use one of the 8 processing cores...

Yet, if Bryce is programmed to use dual cores, problem solved. AS

yet it currently isn't dual-core or multiprocessor enabled :-P

Nope, for now we'll HAVE to stick to our vast network farms, lol. AS

Mac OSX is a 64-bit OS and there are many 64-bit programs that run natively on the 64-bit G5 processor. The biggest boost with 64-bit is that it can adress a vast amount of memory, many times that of 32-bit systems. For 3D it's not a huge deal except when rendering, as viewport performance it dependent on the GPU.

madmax, I seem to recall that OS X only has a 32 bit GUI though. Kinda cripples any 64 bit graphics app unless you want to do everything from a commandline. C4D has been available in 64 bit for quite a while (even Cinebench now covers 64 bit benchmarking).

I build PC's for my fmaily, friends a couple of clients. Mostly, I am buying mainstream mobo/cpu combo's from a store chain out here called "Fry's". Point is, almost every combo out there I now see is a 64-bit cpu*, almost impossible to find non 64-bit cpu's as THE combo package to buy. And, on the rise are 64-bit dual core cpu/mobo combos. This time next year, 64-bit and/or dual cores will be very commonplace, and with the Windows Vista coming out, B6 had better be optimized for it (all). *I really only build PC's with AMD cpu's. AS

It's mostly dependent on the market segment you're working with, but since bryce is in the low-budget segment I fear it'll not be 64-bit optimized yet.

Hope and wait. I wonder if DAZ themselves had to re-make their LW plugin, "MorphMixer" compatible with 64-bit, as Lightwave itself has went 64-bit?....... AS

Didn't bryce's lwo importer work only with older lwo versions? (I thought it did anyways)

Yup. I can't remember off the top of my head what version number is the cutoff.

can sympathize with you, AS..I've built all of my PC's, and even 3 years ago (the current unit, AMD 2000..;) the parts changed every three months. Kinda wondered how you could have a year's warranty on a system board if they stopped making it 6 months after it came out..;)
You get to a point with these 'monster' HD's (hey, my first system was a 286 with 2 30-megabyte HD's..who would ever need more than that?..;) that you have so much stuff, sometimes you wonder if replacing the OS isn't more trouble than it's worth..;)

Ugh, replacing harddrives...that's why I got Norton's Ghost. I have "imaged" my OS hard drive. So if my OS hard drive fails, or if just replace it altogether with a new one, I just put the image onto the new hard drive, and 15-20 minutes later, I'm back exactly where I last "imaged". :o) I've had pretty much all my family/friends buy it also, so when (and it is just a question of when) I have to re-build their OS & software after a virus crash, it is SO much easier/faster. AS

The only reason I need larger hard drives is backup for Bryce and graphics stuff, and once I can burn my info to a blu-ray (35 gigabyte) type of blank disk, I'll be a happy camper. And...I won't have the desire to go out and buy a 300-500 gigabyte hdd. Well, maybe not... AS

Yes, 64 bit should become popular with the release of Vista. I hope it doesnt slow things down with being to heavy needing monster CPU, GPU power. I see a pattern here, ..new OS...new computer hardware..rinse and repeat. Guess thats the way tech is. I too have always built my own computers (been that way since opening my first Atari box to put in new CPU). Just havent seen this amount of tech avalible and lots of people have it, just no support in apps, games. Like AS said, its hard not to find 64 boards, combos and such, and all my friends have had this tech for awhile now(Apple or PC).Long story short, just sounds like an average family car(32bit OS) with a Ferrari engine(64 bit cpu).

I'm trying to talk one of my friends into a combo right now; amd athlon 64 3500+, with mobo + cpu fan, $200 USD. It's an inexpensive beginning. AS

Yes sir , the combo deals are very hard to pass up. Fry,s is about 1 and half mi. from me and every time I walk in I see another deal I should have got :). I try now also to get Nvidia boards as they seem to be a little faster IMO from the Via boards Ive always had. Drivers maybe?( btw.. Im not brand loyal, just get the fastest I can afford)