32 v 64 Unix
 

Hy all, I recently got up an EQEMu server on 32 bit Debian with the kernel "bigmem" that allows for access beyond 4 gig ram. Works.

Then I read somewhere that there is a performance degradation with that kernel. So for funzies, I re-did another Eqemu server on 64 bit Debian. Not too much trouble since they are both in VMWare anyway.

My question is... is there an advantage to 32 v 64 bit specifically for EQEMu servers? Because....while both can run, I'm not seeing a huge difference in speed, and I'm wondering if 64 bit is going to add compatibility issues moving forward. Is EQEmu all 32 bit in any case? Anyone else running either, and found a benefit to one vs. the other bit level? Would love to hear some opinions. ^_^

Ignore this post.

At the moment, not really. You'll have 64-bit addressing for RAM, but the compiler optimizations for 64-bit are currently disabled for stability reasons. So, while it'll be compiled for 64-bit Linux, it won't be optimized for it. IFAIK, there is intent to correct it to allow EQEmu to compile and run correctly with the basic optimizations enabled.

I use 64-bit because my box is 64-bit and everything else is 64-bit. I can't think of there being any advantages to using 32-bit over 64-bit. If anything, I would say that 32-bit is closer to dying out and losing support than 64-bit is. That's not to say it's going to die out soon, it's just closer to dieing out than 64-bit is.

Optimizations are only disabled for a few select files.

In general, there's very little difference between 32 or 64 for this project. Use what makes you happy and don't worry about it.