FantasyGrounds_x64.exe?

[Gix]

Is that -actually- a 64 bit version? Can it allocate more than 4gig?

Or should I ignore it and return to my sad I have 64Gig of ram but can use only 4 hole?

[Bidmaron]

Yes, it uses 64 bit address space. However, it has some kind of very fatal bug if you mask images that basically makes it unusable if that feature is vital to your games. Other than that, I haven't heard any problems with it, but there really hasn't been that much testing on it.

It is experimental, back up often if you use it....

[LordEntrails]

Also be aware that it is unsupported. Moon has made it available, but has not, and does not, have time to support it.

So, it's completely use at your own risk, and you can report your findings with it in the FGU thread (?), but don't expect fixes for any in the near future.

[Gix]

Aw man!

[Trenloe]

Don't report findings/issues with the x64 version in the FGU thread. I'd recommend reporting any specific issues with the x64 version in the House of Healing as normal.

[Moon Wizard]

The status is as Bidmaron and LordEntrails mentioned above. I’m tracking the issues, but no development resources are assigned at this point.

Regards,
JPG

[LordEntrails]

Don't report findings/issues with the x64 version in the FGU thread. I'd recommend reporting any specific issues with the x64 version in the House of Healing as normal.
Thanks for clarifying, I couldn't remember.

[MarianDz]

I find issue in 64 bit version.
When i switch through Alt+Tab. to another aplication for example pc translator, total commander, media player, etc... and back to opened FG it has problems with set of mouse cursor icons which it change to white default arrow or double sided arrow (used for windows resizing). And not to FG icons hand icon, special FG arrow or FG arrow for resizing window. 32bit doesn't have this issues.

[rbtmatrix]

I too have been experiencing the masking UI freeze. Funny thing is, while I was testing repeat-ability of the crash, and trying to determine the nature of it, I had one player confirm that although the area I attempted to unmask didn't unmask, any other interactions I attempted while my client appeared to be frozen still animated on his end. So I could drag pogs around, I could type in the chatbox, none of that updated on my screen, but it still occurred on the player side. This suggests it may be a display driver conflict. This fault also occurs when attempting to draw on a map or image and when placing arrows. It does not matter if I have anyone else connected, what modules I have loaded, or the source of the map/image (Custom or module).
I have also been experiencing the cursor error MarianDz reported above.
I really hope some dev time gets directed to the 64 bit version. Why have it if you don't support it? Using the 32 bit version I either have to limit the rules my players have access to, or I have to manually rotate my maps in and out of the folder to keep memory usage under the 4gb limit.

I am running Windows 10 pro x64 on a Ryzen 1700 in a B370F chipset board, with 16GB RAM, nVidia GTX 1060 3GB driver version 398.82

[LordEntrails]

...I really hope some dev time gets directed to the 64 bit version. Why have it if you don't support it? ...
It has been clearly stated by the devs that their are no plans to direct any resources to x64 until after FGU is ready.
It has also been clearly stated that the x64 version has been made available as a courtesy to users who wish to do some pre-beta testing to help identify issues for the devs prior to resources being directed towards it.
Also, it has been clearly been stated that if the availability of the x64 version becomes a problem, it will be removed.

To summarize, I think most of us would love a x64 version. SmiteWorks has made it clear that FGU is a higher priority than x64. The current x64 version is unsupported and is not intended to be used for actual game play.

EDIT: Oh, and the types of details you provided are great and exactly what I suspect the devs will want to have when they do assign resources to x64.

[MarianDz]

anyway if you find any "NEW" bugs for X64 version
write them into this thread (not start another one for them) please :)

[Skillkoil]

Just to add to bug reports for the devs. We attempted to switch everyone to x64 one day and found that anyone trying to connect via an alias could not get any connectivity to the server. We also had issues with the new ID ability for maps. If you tried to make an image unidentified and then share it to the group you would get a reocurring dialog box of errors. I didn't screenshot the specific error (to my frustration) but it should be easily recreated by devs when looking at it.

Thanks!

[epithet]

...
To summarize, I think most of us would love a x64 version. SmiteWorks has made it clear that FGU is a higher priority than x64. The current x64 version is unsupported and is not intended to be used for actual game play.
...
That's incredibly frustrating. It seems like FGU is almost vaporware at this point, since it's been "in development" for years without any kind of timetable offered to the end user community. Will it be this year? Not bloody likely, since the Kickstarter campaign to fund the last stages of its development hasn't even been announced. Next year? Maybe 2020? No one knows.
FG64, on the other hand, is a tangible product that just has a few bugs. I think that while it is true that "most of us would love a x64 version," I think it is perhaps more accurate to say that a lot of us wonder why FG didn't become 64 bit software years ago. Based on my experience with the FG64, there's really only the masking and cursor issues between the current release and a stable usable version, whilst FGU is still in the category of "maybe, someday."

[LordEntrails]

That's incredibly frustrating. It seems like FGU is almost vaporware at this point, since it's been "in development" for years without any kind of timetable offered to the end user community. Will it be this year? Not bloody likely, since the Kickstarter campaign to fund the last stages of its development hasn't even been announced. Next year? Maybe 2020? No one knows.
Understood, and why both SW and much of the community encourages people to think of, and to buy and use FG for what it is today, not for what it might be in the future.


FG64, on the other hand, is a tangible product that just has a few bugs. I think that while it is true that "most of us would love a x64 version," I think it is perhaps more accurate to say that a lot of us wonder why FG didn't become 64 bit software years ago. Based on my experience with the FG64, there's really only the masking and cursor issues between the current release and a stable usable version, whilst FGU is still in the category of "maybe, someday."
Masking and cursor are the only things that have been identified. I suspect once those are resolved other things will be discovered.

FG64 is also still in the "maybe someday" category. And given the developers comments that many of the FGC code relies upon libraries that have no 64 bit versions and developing such libraries or re-coding FGC to use different methods is resource intensive effort.

So, making a FGC64 version really doesn't make much business sense. Because it could require just as much effort as FGU, and then all that work would not be portable to FGU. Whereas Unity has 64 bit libraries already available. So, once FGU is available, a FG64 version is much less effort to develop and test.

The easiest way to not be frustrated is to not worry about what might be. And if/when such arises simple be happy for the new functionality.

[ddavison]

The _x64 version was released at my request. The x indicates that it is an experimental build. The point of the exercise is to determine how stable it is and to identify any errors that may help us isolate and correct the issue. Because Fantasy Grounds Classic and Fantasy Grounds Unity will both be available and supported at the same time, it is important for us to move FGC to a 64 bit platform to overcome one of the biggest hurdles we currently have - memory usage limitations of a 32-bit application. Some of the areas that have been highlighted as unstable currently are within the image masking and cursor areas. There may be a dependency to a library that we will need to research and replace with a 64-bit version. This is similar to how we have a LIVE, TEST and DEV build channel available. Any step-by-step instructions on recreating bugs or issues will help us recreate them internally and work towards providing a stable future release.

I'm personally encouraged that the # of issues for _x64 are as low as they are. Moon Wizard is much more cautious because those seemingly minor items could end up being a giant rabbit hole of research and development. We are working very hard towards a working Alpha build of FGU by the end of this summer. We were shooting for an internal date of end-of-August, but we are not there yet.


FGC works in 32-bit if you take steps to manage memory usage.
FGU getting released this year is critical to continued growth and momentum of Fantasy Grounds
FGC64 is a nice to have for the continued support of FGC going forward but it is not critical. We will work on it as time permits and I expect fully that it will be available before the end of this year but only after FGU launches its Kickstarter.

[rbtmatrix]

It has been clearly stated by the devs that their are no plans to direct any resources to x64 until after FGU is ready.
It has also been clearly stated that the x64 version has been made available as a courtesy to users who wish to do some pre-beta testing to help identify issues for the devs prior to resources being directed towards it.
Also, it has been clearly been stated that if the availability of the x64 version becomes a problem, it will be removed.

To summarize, I think most of us would love a x64 version. SmiteWorks has made it clear that FGU is a higher priority than x64. The current x64 version is unsupported and is not intended to be used for actual game play.

EDIT: Oh, and the types of details you provided are great and exactly what I suspect the devs will want to have when they do assign resources to x64.

It may have been very clearly stated, but not anywhere an average consumer could find. I did not know these things until after I made a post about it and was directed here, to a thread that doesn't show up when searching logically relevant terms with the forums search function.
As to the edit, that is from 30 years of beta testing experience. Oh how the world has shifted, I used to get paid to test games and other applications. No program I have ever tested was released with any critical, repeatable bugs. Now you have to pay to be a tester, and stuff gets released in unusable condition.

[ddavison]

It may have been very clearly stated, but not anywhere an average consumer could find. I did not know these things until after I made a post about it and was directed here, to a thread that doesn't show up when searching logically relevant terms with the forums search function.
As to the edit, that is from 30 years of beta testing experience. Oh how the world has shifted, I used to get paid to test games and other applications. No program I have ever tested was released with any critical, repeatable bugs. Now you have to pay to be a tester, and stuff gets released in unusable condition.

The shortcut that installs is for the 32-bit version which does not have any stability issues and is the recommended version for people running actual games.

[Nylanfs]

Oh how the world has shifted, I used to get paid to test games and other applications. No program I have ever tested was released with any critical, repeatable bugs. Now you have to pay to be a tester, and stuff gets released in unusable condition.

I blame the "Break it and Fix it" mentality and Agile programming mindset of programing companies since the late 90's.

At PCGen we have a LOT of unit tests and complicated test characters that we evaluate before even releasing a Alpha release. I'm convinced that most programming companies don't do all that much testing upon releasing.

Also the average customer wouldn't be looking for the x64 exe to run. :)

[rbtmatrix]

Also the average customer wouldn't be looking for the x64 exe to run. :) Touche.

[LordEntrails]

Also the average customer wouldn't be looking for the x64 exe to run. :)
Or even able to find the executable :)

[epithet]

... the average customer wouldn't be looking for the x64 exe to run. :)
I don't think you necessarily meant that as a compliment, but I'm taking it that way!

[epithet]

... We are working very hard towards a working Alpha build of FGU by the end of this summer. We were shooting for an internal date of end-of-August, but we are not there yet.


FGC works in 32-bit if you take steps to manage memory usage.
FGU getting released this year is critical to continued growth and momentum of Fantasy Grounds
FGC64 is a nice to have for the continued support of FGC going forward but it is not critical. We will work on it as time permits and I expect fully that it will be available before the end of this year but only after FGU launches its Kickstarter.



Thanks for that, Doug. Having a timetable, even if it is fuzzy around the edges, is great. I'm looking forward to the Kickstarter, and I'm ready for you to "shut up and take my money."

But don't shut up, I appreciate the communication.

[LordEntrails]

... Moon Wizard is much more cautious because those seemingly minor items could end up being a giant rabbit hole of research and development. We are working very hard towards a working Alpha build of FGU by the end of this summer. We were shooting for an internal date of end-of-August, but we are not there yet.

I want to know if Moon just decided he needs a vacation! Hopefully he's not beating his head against a wall!!

[lostsanityreturned]

Or even able to find the executable :)

This, oh my god this. I had two completely computer illiterate players recently (both a good 4-8 years younger than me too). It was was a really weird experience.

Also, you directed me to the wrong thread before ;) :P

[skj310]

Am curious to know, the x64 binary is no longer there with the 3.3.7 upgrade. Am guessing this is because it led to too much grief and therefore was pulled?

[Moon Wizard]

It led to many support issues, and raised another factor that had to be checked in every support situation. Given that the binary had known deficiencies and that it was not currently on our priority list to address, it made more sense to take it down than to leave it up. Plus, the changes we made in v3.3.7 resolve the majority (but not all) of the player-side memory issues.

Regards,
JPG

[skj310]

Thanks for the reply. Good to know.