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[konjad]

Would it be much work to make a 64 bit version of Dwarf Fortress? It could speed up how the game works on computers with 64 bit operating systems, it is known that the game slows down on many computers when a large fortresses are built. Consider making 64 bit version, I'd especially be happy for 64 bit linux version and that would also make me no longer downloading 32 libraries for my 64 bit system just to play dwarf fortress.

[Kogut]

Would it be much work to make a 64 bit version of Dwarf Fortress?

Yes

[Angel Of Death]

I'm fine with how it currently is. It runs good on my 64 bit system.

[Niseg]

64 bit system generally help you access  more memory. 

To make DF run better it needs code optimizations.

[Jeoshua]

Actually, making the game nominally 64 bit, and giving it 64 bit integers instead of 32 bit ones, would be pretty trivial, akin to just search-replace int32 to int64.

Doesn't mean it would do anything different, tho.  Making the game ACTUALLY 64 bit, through and through, would take quite some work.

[NW_Kohaku]

Unless Toady can find a way to optimize some of the code, however, eventually, as more and more memory-consuming systems are added in, we might be moving into territory where 64 bit memory makes sense, just from the standpoint of being able to use more than 2 gigs of memory without a crash to desktop, which can occur right now if you have a large enough embark. 

Other than that, 64 bit doesn't really help much.

[sockless]

From an email to Toady (also about why it isn't open source:

I've discussed the 64 bit stuff with Baughn, and as I understand it
  I'd have to repartition my computer and work through a bunch of
  compile errors.  I don't have time for that at this point, though it
  might happen later, the next time I have to reinstall windows,
  perhaps, which is on the same machine.
 
  DF is my sole source of incoming, and I'd be assuming a massive risk
  by releasing the source.
 
  Tarn

[Jeoshua]

AHA!

We don't have Multicore of 64 bit... why?

Because Toady hasn't upgraded himself, yet!

This explains everything!

[Blade Master Model 42]

AHA!

We don't have Multicore of 64 bit... why?

Because Toady hasn't upgraded himself, yet!

This explains everything!

So to get Multicore of 64 bit, we throw a bunch of money at Toady so he has the funds to upgrade his computer, right?

Note to self: Donate. Donate LOTS.

[Kogut]

So to get Multicore of 64 bit, we throw a bunch of money at Toady so he has the funds to upgrade his computer, right?

Note to self: Donate. Donate LOTS.

Fixed

[Jeoshua]

  I Typo'd

All hail! The Multicore of 64-bit! Beware it's deadly dust.

[Darkweave]

I doubt Toady would take kindly to people saying "Here, have some cash, but only if you do these updates that I want". That road doesn't lead to a nice place.  16x16 embarks would be lovely but not until we'd be able to run them at more than 50FPS after the first few years. I wonder if DF will be finished before we all own quantum computers...

[NW_Kohaku]

I doubt Toady would take kindly to people saying "Here, have some cash, but only if you do these updates that I want".

Isn't that exactly what the "animal donation drive" was about?

People basically paid Toady money on the explicit agreement that it would mean animals that they had sponsored would be put into the game?

Legally speaking, that's a contract.  That was a business transaction.  Money was paid in agreement for a service.

[Darkweave]

I doubt Toady would take kindly to people saying "Here, have some cash, but only if you do these updates that I want".

Isn't that exactly what the "animal donation drive" was about?

People basically paid Toady money on the explicit agreement that it would mean animals that they had sponsored would be put into the game?

Legally speaking, that's a contract.  That was a business transaction.  Money was paid in agreement for a service.

The difference is that was something he decided to do, I doubt he'd appreciate people e-mailing saying "Do this and I'll give you $X".

[Starver]

Isn't that exactly what the "animal donation drive" was about?

People basically paid Toady money on the explicit agreement that it would mean animals that they had sponsored would be put into the game?

Legally speaking, that's a contract.  That was a business transaction.  Money was paid in agreement for a service.

As I read it (and I must admit I missed the original call-to-arms, even if I was in a position to have donated) it was more a "I'm going to put some more animals in, of some kind or other.  For a little dosh, I will put in the animals you suggest.

As and when he goes "I will be developing some enhanced system-specific variation, of some kind of other..." and he accepts money on behalf of one or more people towards the end of producing a 64-bit build (whether or not he directly uses that money to give him the 64-bit system on which to build/test it), he would be as obligated to do as the OP suggested.  But I don't think he's done that.

Personally, I don't get the fuss about 64-bit platforms.  Yes, you can use more memory at once (registers for addresses of individual memory locations and larger page-sizes now being double the size/square of the original number of addresses, however there are other ways of doing that, and you'll find that when trying to store exactly the same data in memory (except where specifically packed to avoid this) you end up using twice the amount of space, so you need more memory!

I don't think DF is regularly in danger of breaking the memory limit (typically 3GB, IIRC, at least under certain schemes of memory management).  As said, there's other optimisations (code cycles for pathing, for example) that I would rather put down cold hard cash to happen, if I was confident that there was a particular target solution that Toady would accept my sponsorship of (and for which I had the spare cash at hand).