I understood that PAE enables an application to address 1GB extra over the 2GB limit. Windows XP, as far as I know, has a 2GB limit on how much memory can be allocated to a given process - which is evident when you use application such as ZBrush and try to work with, say, 8 or ten million polyon models.

According to this page  certain application can be made "aware" of the extra available RAM. I may be reading it wrong, I've just read it helps with certain memory-intensive apps such as ZBrush.

In fact, since the Pentium Pro ( who is a very old ), processor are 36 bit ... PAE allow the use of the full 36 bits range on 32 bits OS... what happen with PAE is that the address range of material begin after the 4 gb limit OS limit... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366796(VS.85).aspx

For the 2gb limit, a other switch is used... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb613473(VS.85).aspx ... this lead to 3gb for application... if i good remember, one of the first software to use these option fully was photoshop...

By the way, actual processor are not real 64 bits processor... the address range is 48 bits... planned range for future processor is 56 bits...

One details... for application be able to use the 3gb application range, the application need to be compiled with the linker flag /LARGEADDRESSAWARE when building the executable... very simple operation for Ironclad/Stardock since they have the source code...

About PAE, it is not only related to the processor... Hardware devices should be DAC-capable or 64-bit capable with LME drivers; otherwise, the device will function as "legacy" 32-bit and will be double buffered, with lower relative performance. Not really a problem for today computer but it was a problem when PAE was released log time ago... by example, old graphic card driver was not able to use address over the 4gb limit...

By the way, this is not really on topic, it is more a OS issue... Stardock/Ironclad cannot ask user of Sins to begin modify their boot.ini ( XP )  or registerkey ( Vista ) for allow their game to run at the top performance... never forget that the majority of computer's user don't know how work a computer, how work a OS, how to tune it... The standart Joe gamer will not understand what is PAE or 3GB... The standart Joe gamer have already difficulty to understand why they need to upgrade their driver, how to open a zip file, where to copy a mod, how to show they hidden folder, etc... Stardock/Ironclad cannot afford to loose these Joe gamer for please the hardcore gamer/modders... it is these numerous Joe gamer who allow Stardock/Ironclad to earn enough money for survive...

sure it is! its just that you only get to use 48 bits for memory addressing.

bits actually refers to the length of the integer registers.

If what you say is true, there is no 64 bits Microsoft OS... All Microsoft x64 OS use the LLP64 data model : 16 bits short, 32 bit integer, 32 bit long, 64 long long, 64 pointer....

Linux/Unix OS use the LP64 data model : 16,32,64,64,64 bits ...

Only HAL OS using the ILP64 data model : 16,64,64,64,64 bits ... have a real 64 integer unit...

There is a big difference between what a hardware can and cannot ... and what a OS can and cannot... since game is based on the hardware and OS, only common thing can be used... So, for the time being, forget about 64 bit integer with Windows, Linux, MAC, OpenSolaris, etc ... operating system...

yes, these limits need to be increased. The mesh one seems to be the biggest issue, however there are some other important ones also listed above.

Don't think so... but it is maybe the reason why the 3th expension was canceled... no more working room for create a last expension... 

thsis is an idea that probably will not be in sins/entrenchment/diplomacy, but would help with sins2

ie seperate the textures from the meshes ie the texture and size are  controlled from the entity, that way mesh IS ONLY the shape, and can be used by MANY items eg suns, large planets, meduim planets,small planets & moons, and can have several factions that have completely different textures, but the same basic shape.

the main penalty that I see is greater difficulty in alligning the texture to the meshes, but with for example 1 mesh for 4 suns, 6 colonisable planets, the gas giants, it would save at least 10 mesh locations in this example, but would require a re-design of the engine so is unlikely to happen in sins/entrenchment/diplomacy.

harpo

Not really since UV are stored in the mesh, texture align themself... scale up or down in a proportional way is not a problem too...

I don't think these guys are declaring fix sized arrays for this kind of data when they load up the game, lol, you can see they use vectors when you crash the game for example. (heh, "Mr C++, give me an array of exactly... Oh - why not eh? ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS *cough* sorry, I mean bytes").

The real reason you can't just go change numbers willy-nilly is that you don't want to mess with dependency. (or you may encounter face-melting bug horridness, however bad the coding practice it still happens when time needed > time avalible).

I doubt there would be any real problems if they put the numbers up to silly levels, but that requires MOAR TESTING I guess.

Brad has often said that Gal Civ will scale to take advantage of the ever increasing capabilities of the PC, I would think/hope that philosophy would influence projects that he is involved with.

Yes, Gal Civ – Sins two different games, two very different engines but the philosophy ought to transcend the engine.

I don't think rendering should have an issue with the number of stuff loaded into memory. Whatever an engine does, it can only render something which actually exists in the game world. Meshes loaded into memory but not present in the game world should not affect rendering performance at all, unless the engine does some crazy stunt like "behind the scenes" rendering, which would be ridiculous since it serves no purpose.

So yeah, I don't think extra meshes would impact the application footprint that much, especially when compared to how much mem goes for textures.

I guess the do a sprintf (cheap, really ) - it would explain the syntax. It's the easiest way to do it, but once u have a termination problem ( no null termination ) you would read (and "execute") the wrong memory adress and your program crashes. so, better not touch it!

And Yes, Up the Limits!!! Especially meshes, textures particels and WEAPONS PER SHIP!