User blog:ScanianMoose/To 64-bit, or not to 64-bit?

Hey people,

just wanted to notify you of this blog post by one of the Subnautica devs:

>> To 64-bit, or not to 64-bit? 

The gist is that Subnautica currently still runs on 32-bit systems, which represents only a tiny percentage of the players and which limits the memory usage to 4 GB. The game already pushes beyond the limits of this RAM maximum, which results in frequent crashes and which requires the developers to "dumb down" all mechanics in the game in order to make it playable, sacrificing gameplay for the sake of a small minority of players, many of which weren't supposed to buy the game in the first place as per the minimum requirements listed on the Steam Store page.

If the 32-bit standard were to be abandoned in favour of 64-bit, the vast majority of players would greatly benefit from this. It would result in less frequent crashes and the developers would be able to vastly improve the mechanics of the game.

Another thing that is currently happening is the transition from the Unity Engine 4 to the Unity Engine 5. This will also allow for better gameplay, but it has been shown in the past that this engine also has some issues with 64-bit.

Hopefully, the transition to Unitiy 5 will soon be completed, and the 32-bit standard abandoned.

Cheers!