I am quite interested by the 64-bit question, and here are my thoughts/questions related to it.
Firstly, although I have not to date come across the memory cap that was present in Classic, would that be removed as a result? And also would there really be a massive speed increase from 64-bit?
I can see the value of 64-bit, especially as no new machines seem to ship as x86 any more (and about time too) - and in terms of resource utilisation, but on the other hand would there even be a big gain. I may be a bit behind with games etc., but as far as I'm aware very few commercial games are released in 64, examples I run are Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and GTA IV - all of which are I'm fairly sure only 32.
I suppose the plus of a 64-bit product is that it would also be future-proofed, even mobile devices are heading that way. On the other hand you would loose the DBP heritage (as it were), and as you say it would slow the product right up - I could see this making a lot of pledgers dis-satisfied with progress (though maybe if the Con-Kit was released for the current setup while the upgrade was in progress people would still be occupied), also if exclusively 64, it would effectively phase out Windows XP users, I expect there are still a few out there, but maybe it is time to let go of 2001 tech
[ Says the person running NT 4 on a PIII with tape drives
]
The thing is, if you were going to spend all that time re-writing the engine, why not throw in a few more 'up-to-date' tech, e.g. Direct X11
I would personally support the move to 64-bit - but I'm not sure that its an immediate priority. I know there have been a lot of really nice community levels, so maybe a bit more towards a more functional engine before such a change is implemented (but then I suppose that only increases the workload).
Mac Pro 2014, Windows 8.1 Pro, OSX Mavericks. 3.7Ghz Quad Xeon CPU, Dual AMD D500 GPU's (6GB GDDR5 VRAM), 12GB System RAM, 512 GB PCI-E SSD
