Quote:
Originally Posted by merc4ulfate
I never understood the need for LAA. I have used SH on 32 and 63 bit OS and never had an issue.
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It's not so much which 32 or 64 bit OS you're using, but how much RAM memory your computer has
AND, the amount of memory the game has access to. Not all memory your computer has is used by the game. The stock SH4 game is limited to using less than 2 gig's of memory, no matter how much memory your computer may have. This is ok as long as you don't use too many mods that don't pay attention to how much memory it takes to display things.
For instance, when mods don't pay attention to their created image memory size, the game becomes bogged down....using too much memory of the less than 2 gigs allowed by the game. How does the mods new images do that? By either making the mod image larger than the original (instead of having a stock 64x64 pixel size image, it's made into a 512x512 pixel size image) or, there are MipMaps added to the image when there's no need to have them added. These are just two ways a modded game will increase the need for more memory usage over a stock game. TMO, RFB, are notorious for adding memory hogging images to the stock game causing additional memory shortages.
Put a large convoy of ships, plane fly overs, explosions, into the mix and the game can literally come to a stop.
LAA forces the stock game to use more than the 2 gig's maximum memory, set as the "standard amount" in 2003 (the game engine for SH4 is the same as SHIII). The difference in which 32 or 64 bit OS systems used is in the amount of extra memory the game will have added once LAA is added. A 32 bit OS gains 1 additional gig of ram memory for the game. A 64 bit OS will use a total of 4 gigs of ram memory for the game. Either way, it's an improvement over the stock game usage of available ram......no matter how much ram memory your computer may have. Don't fool yourself in thinking that having a cutting edge 12 gigs of ram is going to keep the game running smoother than a computer having 3 gigs of ram. It won't. The limitation is in how much the game has
access to, not the total amount of ram memory in your computer.