Windows 7

[justin1023]

Will V4SU work with Windows 7?

Justin

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Windows 7

We haven't gotten a chance to do any windows 7 testing yet here in the office. I am putting a new harddrive in my laptop which will have windows 7 on it, so once that gets setup I can tell you for sure. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be fine though.

[jrharvey]

Re: Windows 7

I havnt had a chance to mess around with windows 7 IN DEPTH but I will say that it seems that anything that runs in Vista will run on windows 7 EVEN DRIVERS!! Anything specifically designed to run in windows XP will also run in 7 through virtualization mode. I have had a chance to play around with it a little and it is quite nice and VERY snappy. Boot times are fast comparatively to vista and the overal AERO experience that I use to hate is actually quite nice now because its very smooth.

[thomthom]

Re: Windows 7

I'm using Win7 64 bit - no problems.

[justin1023]

Re: Windows 7

Thanks for the quick answers. I have just downloaded the release candidate and I really want to try it out. Mainly for the RAM (just bought 16G from newegg for $300) and to see how well it will multithread.

Justin

[jrharvey]

Re: Windows 7

Yikes 16GB? You do realize that Vray and sketchup top out at 4gb because its 32bit right? Even if you did buy a 64bit OS vray would still only use at max 4gb.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Windows 7

Nope...2 gbs. In order for a 32 bit program to top out at 4 gbs on a 64bit system it must be compiled with the Large Address Aware tag. As far as I know, SU is not compiled with that tag, so it will still be limited to 2 gbs of memory usage no matter where it goes.

[justin1023]

Re: Windows 7

Yes, but I can run other programs without worrying about running out of memory while I am rendering in Vray.

[jrharvey]

Re: Windows 7

Nope...2 gbs. In order for a 32 bit program to top out at 4 gbs on a 64bit system it must be compiled with the Large Address Aware tag. As far as I know, SU is not compiled with that tag, so it will still be limited to 2 gbs of memory usage no matter where it goes.

WOW I just assumed it would be since its a 3d modeling progra. Is it really not? What about the professional version?

[justin1023]

Re: Windows 7

Wouldn't it be more benficial to have V4SU to use or to be coded to use more than 2gb memory. Or does SU need to be coded the same way for Vray to use the same amount?

Justin

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Windows 7

Because we run within SU its on SU's shoulders to allow for more memory usage. Adding a 64 bit version is a big step, so I would be willing to "let that slide". The large address aware tag is a pretty darn easy thing to do, so its rather ridiculous that google wouldn't add it. As I said, I found nothing that says that they've added the large address aware tag, so I wouldn't assume that its there. If you do find something that says that they added it, please point me to a link. I'd like nothing better than to be proven wrong on this one.

[justin1023]

Re: Windows 7

ThomThom,

Do you find it easier to navigate through SU on large projects with a lot of poly's with Windows 7? From what I have been reading, the whole graphics memory allocation has been completely overhauled.

Justin

[jrharvey]

Re: Windows 7

Because we run within SU its on SU's shoulders to allow for more memory usage. Adding a 64 bit version is a big step, so I would be willing to "let that slide". The large address aware tag is a pretty darn easy thing to do, so its rather ridiculous that google wouldn't add it. As I said, I found nothing that says that they've added the large address aware tag, so I wouldn't assume that its there. If you do find something that says that they added it, please point me to a link. I'd like nothing better than to be proven wrong on this one.

Well I don't use sketchup any more but if they want to be taken seriously as a 3d modeling program then your right, it is kinda ridiculous. Like you said, going 64 bit is alot of work and could wait a bit but this is kinda sad since it is so easy and you don't have to rewrite the entire code to do it.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Windows 7

But SketchUp's goal is not to be taken seriously, its to be accessible. The problem is that SU's ease of use is confused for true functionality, which is certainly not the case. The reality is that SketchUp is a fairly immature platform with fairly limited capabilites and an architecture that doesn't lend itself to dealing with the situations that people put it through. Google really doesn't have any interest in addressing this because these don't do anything to its main goal of SketchUp's accessibility. I would be willing to bet that google makes more money, or at least a very significant portion of it, on the traffic that comes from SketchUp as opposed to the money that it gets from SU Pro licenses. Ultimately they've spent more effort on getting Google Warehouse, Google Earth, and all those different avenues set up and streamlined than dealing with the issues that their hardcore user base actually cares about. To me that either means that they're completely satisfied with the state of their product, or that they put their efforts where they generate the most revenue. Considering that Google has found ways to squeeze every dollar out of the web with out actually forcing you to pay anything, I think they have that way more figured out than 3D.

[thomthom]

Re: Windows 7

ThomThom,

Do you find it easier to navigate through SU on large projects with a lot of poly's with Windows 7? From what I have been reading, the whole graphics memory allocation has been completely overhauled.

Justin

I've not noticed much difference from XP to Vista to Win7. I feel it's more SU's architecture that creates the limitations than the OS.