• @sugar_in_your_tea
    link
    English
    1
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Yup. It could be limited to 2GB depending on the software (e.g. some programming languages/platforms need the top bit to be clear, which halves the 4GB limit). I don’t know about Skyrim in particular, but 2GB and 4GB are both quite limiting for the game+mods.

    With 64-bit, the game+mods can use basically as much memory as it wants.

    • @Varyk
      link
      English
      111 months ago

      That’s super interesting. So as all of our computers have been kind of switching over to 64-bit, has the whole modding community been moving over to 64 bit as well? Well they must be.

      I’ve been blown away by some of the mods I put on the elder scrolls and fallout games, far grander and expansive than I would expect a mod to be able to improve a game, so maybe some of those are 64-bit.

      I think I’m going to look into that. Thanks again

      • @sugar_in_your_tea
        link
        English
        111 months ago

        It depends on the game of course. 32-bit games restrict mods to 32-bit address space because they share the same process. Modders don’t really get to choose, unless they do something funky like start a separate process to hold memory or something.

        • @Varyk
          link
          English
          111 months ago

          Got it, makes sense. That is such an interesting world, all these people devoting so much of their time and energy to these projects that must be almost unanimously passion projects

          • @sugar_in_your_tea
            link
            English
            1
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            Yup, which isn’t that different from Lemmy and adjacent apps.

            • @Varyk
              link
              English
              111 months ago

              Oh yeah that’s a damn good point. I had never heard of the fediverse until Reddit shut down third party apps, then I left that day and I like this place much better, but I still don’t understand pretty much anything about it.

              • @sugar_in_your_tea
                link
                English
                111 months ago

                It’s both simple and complex.

                Think of each instance as a service like Reddit. Each has its own users, communities, admins, etc. If you want to look at a community on another instance, you can ask your instance to start listening for new posts and whatnot, and then your instance will have a copy of that community. If you then post to that copy, your post will be sent to the original community so other people can see it.

                Anyone can make their own instance and access all of the content across all of the lemmy instances. Think of it like making your own cable TV service, where you can access all of the channels available and even make your own channels to share with others. A lot of people aren’t willing or able to make their own, so people in the community make some available for others to use. But someone has to pay for all of that server space, so some instances ask for donations, and others limit how many users can use their instance.

                And then you get to apps. There are several mobile apps, like Jerboa, Thunder, and others, and these are by and large passion projects. If you wanted, you could get involved and submit changes that the maintainer could accept and include in the next build of your favorite app (I’ve done that). Or if there’s a core lemmy feature you wanted, you could contribute to that project.

                It’s a cool project where anyone can help out, and success or failure of the project doesn’t depend on a company finding a way to profit from it, but from people being interested in working on it.

                • @Varyk
                  link
                  English
                  111 months ago

                  Thanks for the breakdown, I understood the basic structure all right, although I didn’t really understand how the communities were able to see each other across instances, but thinking about it is public broadcast channels. Makes sense.

                  I think my brain gets it, but I have to just internalize it for a while until it makes intuitive sense to feel comfortable floating out here in the fediverse.

                  I appreciate the explanation, it does help me kind of pull things together from the hints I’ve been getting from context clues as I read posts and comments and updates here.

                  • @sugar_in_your_tea
                    link
                    English
                    111 months ago

                    Yeah, it’s certainly a very different concept vs other social media apps.

                    The coolest thing, imo, is that it’s all open source software, so if you ever wanted, you could mess with it and host it yourself. The biggest benefit is that other people can review the code, so nobody is going to be able to add in malicious code like spyware, ads, trackers, etc, without someone noticing, assuming you trust the instance you’re on. Many of the apps are also open source. The downside is that since it’s a community driven project, unless you build it, you’ll just have to wait until someone picks up whatever feature you request.

                    One thing to be aware of is that all the data is open, including votes, so if someone can tie your Identity to your account, they’ll be able to know everything you’ve contributed and voted on. And if someone sets up an instance, they can have it never delete anything. That’s a double edged sword, so just be careful.

                    If you have any questions, I’m happy to try to answer them.