December 15 Livestream Recap

JuliusBorisov

Hello again!

We've prepared a summary of today's stream for all of you!

http://blog.beamdog.com/2017/12/december-15-livestream-recap.html

rede9

What did they say about IE games 64bit on PC at 46:15? They are not sure they did a conversion but it matters only for Apple compatibility?

Thels

So... what's the status of SoD? Is it going to be on 2.5 together with the other games? Or will we have to stick to 2.3 to play that?

lefreut

rede9 said:

What did they say about IE games 64bit on PC at 46:15? They are not sure they did a conversion?

They said that the 2.5 codebase supports 64 bits but on Windows @TrentOster was not sure which version they ship (I checked, 2.5 still is 32bits).

It's mandatory for iOS. 64 bits allows to use more than 8GB of RAM but it's not really useful for an IE game.

AndreaColombo

The thing I don't get is—maintaining two separate code bases (32bit and 64bit) seems counter intuitive, as it requires twice the amount of work (you need to do stuff on your 32bit code base, then replicate the same stuff on your 64bit one.)

Granted, I'm no programmer and there's a fat chance I'm missing something; but from the outside, it looks like double work for nothing.

lefreut

@AndreaColombo you do not need separate code bases for 32bits and 64bits. You only need to ensure that the code does not assume one or the other. After that, it's only a flag when compiling the code to choose between 32 or 64.

It's a lot of work to update a code base that was not written with 64 bits in mind (which unfortunately was the case for the IE engine). But it's relatively easy to write a new program from scratch that support both.

kanisatha

Thels said:

So... what's the status of SoD? Is it going to be on 2.5 together with the other games? Or will we have to stick to 2.3 to play that?

I too would like an answer to this question. I've been putting off playing SoD for the 2.5 patch.

JuliusBorisov

SoD is not a part of the 2.5 beta, and according to what Phillip Daigle has said during the livestream the work on it will happen after the 2.5 patch is released for BG:EE, BGII:EE and IWD:EE.

Thels

So... The 2.5 patch is going to 'solve' multiplayer by bringing all games across all platforms up to the same version... If you do not buy SoD.

I'm confused now. Considering this patch is missing features that were either promised or clearly essential for the sake of getting all the versions in line, why aren't the versions brought in line? Even for a single playthrough, we have to be in different versions?

Effectively, if we want to play through SoD, we'll have to stick to 2.3? Also, how is that going to work on Steam and GoG, where SoD is not a separate installation, but a DLC upgrade?

ThacoBell

My guess is that SoD is going to get special focus as bringing all platforms up to parity includes getting SoD on IOS and tablet. (The filesize restriction thing).

kanisatha

Thels said:

So... The 2.5 patch is going to 'solve' multiplayer by bringing all games across all platforms up to the same version... If you do not buy SoD.

I'm confused now. Considering this patch is missing features that were either promised or clearly essential for the sake of getting all the versions in line, why aren't the versions brought in line? Even for a single playthrough, we have to be in different versions?

Effectively, if we want to play through SoD, we'll have to stick to 2.3? Also, how is that going to work on Steam and GoG, where SoD is not a separate installation, but a DLC upgrade?

Yes, exactly. I also have recently switched to having my EE games on Steam. So when my BGEE updates to 2.5 sometime in January, what happens to my SoD part which is a DLC for my BGEE game?

Also, will the 2.5 update work for SoD happen concurrently with the announced work on bringing SoD to mobile platforms, or even later than that?

JuliusBorisov

The answer to the SoD question --> here. Don't worry, everything will be alright!