Arma and 64-bit

Arma will be able take advantage of more system memory. Therefore it can cache more textures, models, data in memory. This should make for smoother and more consistent performance for ALiVE and also for those that like long view distances (boooo! hisssss!) You won't get a significant FPS improvement though.

You have to setup launcher so that it loads 64-bit Arma, uses the 64-bit memory alloc and the system memory limit.

If a mod has 32 bit extensions, then it gets flagged as not compatible when trying to launch Arma. You have the option to override this, but 32-bit extensions wont work with 64-bit Arma.

If your mod has 64-bit extensions, then 64-bit Arma will automatically use them.

How does this affect ALiVE?

We're hoping that performance for ALiVE is improved and reduces the possibility of OUT_OF_MEMORY crashes.

Is ALiVE 64 bit compatible?

The current @ALiVE folder has the ALiVEClient.DLL that is 32-bit (and 64 bit since v1.2.7). Today the ALiVEClient extension is used for index mapping only. It is not used for either ALiVE mission creation or running ALiVE on your PC. If you are not doing map indexing then you do not need the extension.

In the future we expect ALiVEClient to be used for several roadmap items such as loading in-game intel pics to War Room.

What about @ALiVEServer?

@ALiVEServer is only used for mission makers and groups wishing to take advantage of our data features - AAR, Stats, Perfmon and Persistence. This is supported on dedicated servers only. However, it does rely on a 32-bit extension ALiVEPlugIn.dll (ALiVEPlugIn.so on Linux).

We have just released a 64 bit version of the ALiVEPlugin.DLL called ALiVEPlugIn_x64.DLL. We also shipped an experimental Linxu ALiVEPlugIn_x64.so file. Both shipped with v1.2.7.

When will ALiVE be fully supported with 64-bit?

Our aim is to support 64-bit shortly after Arma 3 dedicated server 64-bit exe is released on Arma 3 Stable branch.

In general faster FPS is down to:

1. A higher frequency CPU
2. A better graphics card
3. Higher frequency memory and mo'bo
4. Low latency and high bandwidth between ALL MP players and the dedicated server
5. Keeping active AI to less than 120 units at any one time and managing your ALiVE mission appropriately.

Faster loading times

1. Faster storage i.e. SSD
2. More bandwidth between you and the dedicated server

Reduction in texture/model "popping", better resolution for long view distances

1. 64-bit Arma engine utilising more system memory (greater than 2GB).
2. Faster storage i.e. SSD

Improvement in ALIVE
1. Moar volunteer developers!