The GZDoom 3.3.0 survey's results

[Graf Zahl]

By now the percentages have stabilized to the point that an official news post can be made about it.
Until today we got information from 5700 users and I want to say "thank you" for giving us the info needed to move on with GZDoom.

So here's the important results:

57% of the reporting users use a graphics card which is DX12/Vulkan compatible.
34% of the reporting users use a graphics card which is at least OpenGL 3.3 compatible, i.e. it can use the modern core profile render path.
6% of the reporting users use a graphics card which only has OpenGL 2 support, i.e. has to be run in legacy mode.
8.5% of the reporting users have made a report for the software renderer
3% of the reporting users only made a report for the software renderer

A further breakdown of the 8.5% reporting use of the software renderer:

49% of these also reported using the hardware renderer with a DX12/Vulkan compatible graphics card.
40% of these also reported using the hardware renderer with a GL 3.3 compatible graphics card.
11% of these also reported using the hardware renderer with a GL 2 compatible graphics card.

Only 17 out of those 5700 users only reported running the game in pure software mode - that is less than 0.3%.

Distribution of operating systems is:

88% Windows
2% Mac
10% Linux

85% use 64 bit on a 64 bit system
10% use 32 bit on a 64 bit system. (This one's odd, I'd appreciate if some of these users can tell us why.)
6% use 32 bit on a 32 bit system
(duplicate reports bring this above 100%)


So there you have it. All things considered the average hardware being reported is a lot better than what we would have expected and this will allow us to focus development more on where the users are. What this clearly shows is that even among retro gamers that old feature-poor hardware is slowly being replaced.
So what does this mean for how GZDoom will develop? Watch the Blogs forum for the next few days, there will be an update about the current plans.

And now that the survey has run its course, prepare for a new GZDoom version where it will be deactivated again during the coming week. The survey has given us a lot of useful information but further reports do not seem to affect the numbers much more, the percentages have barely changed since last weekend.

[Lavender Moon]

I reckon most of the users of the 32-bit versions on 64-bit platforms are doing so because a lot of 64-bit open-source software back in the day was *way* more crash-prone. I have in the past run into an issue that only appeared in 64-bit GZDoom and not 32-bit GZDoom (which I reported and you fixed). Nowadays, more and more 64-bit software is being designed 64-bit first (such as Dolphin), leading to more bug reports and bug fixing on the 64-bit versions. The easiest way to get them to move over to the 64-bit executable would just be to slap "(Recommended)" after the 64-bit version's download link.

[Rachael]

I doubt (Recommended) is going to change anything. People do what people do and they're free to do it - we might wish they wouldn't do it but it's free software so they can do it if they want to and we're not in a position to tell them no.

However, there will eventually come a time when 32-bit builds will no longer be available. While that's not in the near future, it'll happen eventually. Those people will either sink or swim when that happens.

[m8f]

Or, https://zdoom.org/downloads page could check useragent and suggest a download "for your platform" by default (with an option to download whatever user wants, of course). Like https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/ does this, for example. Actually, this will be more convenient.

[Rachael]

That might actually be more viable.

[Graf Zahl]

I guess the problem is that people who hold a strong belief that 64 bit == bad are hard to convince otherwise, short of refusing to let them use the 32 bit version. Of course I wouldn't ever consider doing such things. I just wonder when the first mod comes along that no longer works on 32 bit...

But be it as it may, GZDoom is strictly 64 bit first. 90% of all testing is done in 64 bit, all optimizations are checked in 64 bit first, and there are known parts of the engine that are slower in 32 bit, most notably the software renderer and the VM - both areas where the lack of registers clearly shows.

[Matt]

How would one go about writing a mod that's 64-bit only? (not looking to deliberately do it, but...)

[phantombeta]

Make it use more than 4 GB of RAM. Instantly 64-bit only. (High-poly MD3 models with high-res textures can easily reach that much RAM)

[Graf Zahl]

That won't work because it'd crap out on lack of video RAM for most people long before it hits the system RAM limit.

[Armaetus]

I am one of the 32 bit on a 64 bit OS users. I have been using it for a long time because for my music I use BASSMIDI, which wasn't playing at all under the 64 bit version yet I have some other applications (Anvil Studio) not playing nice to use the soundfont feature because of it being 32 bit.

[Graf Zahl]

Well, I guess that library will eventually become inoperable if they do not upgrade their code to 64 bit, but that thing looks somewhat abandoned, having a 2012 date on its site.
Personally, I'd try to look for some replacement because using obsolete and apparently unmaintained technology in a system driver is an open invitation to problems.

[wrkq]

Using BASSMIDIDRV here with 64-bit GZDoom with no issues.

Note that the latest version is 3.1, from 2016:
https://kode54.net/bassmididrv/archive/
https://kode54.net/bassmididrv/bassmididrv.exe
https://github.com/kode54/BASSMIDI-Driver/

The 3.x series releases install both 32-bit and 64-bit driver, and work equally well in both.
Make sure to save your soundfonts somewhere outside of your Windows folder (to avoid the system32/syswow64 redirection).
After you use the the config tool to assign soundfonts (make sure to run it as admin) you can doublecheck if your settings have saved in C:\Windows\bassmidi.sflist (and for second instance, bassmidi_b.sflist).

G'luck.

[Armaetus]

Yeah, my problem I was using a really old version of BASSMIDI and I can live without Soundfont use in Anvil Studio. Soundfont works like a charm in-game in 3.3.2.