Other World Mapper (mapping software), feedback request and future changes

[Mark Oliva]

Other World Mapper is a 64 bit application (the Installer will install a 32 version if your system is 32 bits), so I'm not sure what you mean with saying it only allows 4GB of RAM use?

So far, I've installed only the demo version. It installs under 64-bit Windows 10 Pro as a 32-bit app. Is something going wrong there, or is only the full version a 64-bit app? If it will be available on a 64-bit basis, that, of course, will change our appraisal considerably. In that case, we obviously can use more than 4 GB of memory and the following point ...

Also not sure what other operating system advantages it denies use?

... would be moot.

[OWM]

So far, I've installed only the demo version. It installs under 64-bit Windows 10 Pro as a 32-bit app. Is something going wrong there, or is only the full version a 64-bit app? If it will be available on a 64-bit basis, that, of course, will change our appraisal considerably. In that case, we obviously can use more than 4 GB of memory and the following point ...



... would be moot.

It defaults to Program Files (x86) for the installation path for legacy reasons (first alpha builds were 32 bit), but the actual app is 64 bits. Simple check is creating a map that is 20k x 20k pixels and add a few elements to it, RAM usage per task manager will show more than 4GB.

We'll look into updating the install script so it will default to just plain Program Files if it's a new installation.

Thank you!

- Alejandro

[Mark Oliva]

It defaults to Program Files (x86) for the installation path for legacy reasons (first alpha builds were 32 bit), but the actual app is 64 bits.

It's clear that installing in Program Files (x86) does not define an app as being 32-bit. I have figured out what in my installation caused limited memory access. The process might give you some useful information. But maybe not, too, because I use protective software on our computers that probably isn't on most other users' machines.

1) I did not install the demo version as an administrator. I ordinarily do that when I install something, but I simply forget the step when installing the demo. I realized that right away, but since the demo seemed to run, I thought, Okay.

2) I used monitoring software to check performance. I opened the OWM demo and began piling 3rd party PNG symbols, each with a size of >100 MB, into the test map. Every time the memory monitor showed it was nearing 4 GB capacity, OWM crashed with a freeze. The monitor showed no noticeable change within the upper 60 GB of memory. There were no error messages. The program simply became inactive and the Windows 10 Pro task manager reported that OWM was not responding. I killed the dead session with the task manager.

3) The combination of the Program Files (x86) installation with the crashes at <4 GB memory usage led me to believe that I'm dealing with a 32-but app. I did no additional checking to see whether I was running on a 32- or 64-bit level.

4) Last night, I uninstalled the demo, manually checked for registry entries, erased those that were there, rebooted and installed the demo again, this time running the installation as an administrator. The issues described above no longer were there.

Conclusion: It probably is good to always run the OWM installation as an administrator. Others may not have problems with not doing so, but if such issues are going to occur, running installation as an administrator might prevent them.

Servus,

[Mark Oliva]

When placing mountains via the Along Path option it doesn't appear to allow the same "cycle" and "random order" options. That would be fantastic for doing mountain chains that didn't look so homogeneous.

I don't think it can do that either ... but the folks are looking for suggestions.

Servus,

[Mark Oliva]

Thanks to the Other World Mapper users who downloaded the VCC 1st alpha and sent us error reports in the last few days. Other than our spelling of "Cartographic" as "Cartgographic" in the Setup program, the errors all were in missing and wrong textures.

We've fixed that and have uploaded a second alpha version now. Those who want it and who haven't downloaded yet should go here:

https://www.vintyri.org/downloads/vcc_owm_alpha1.zip (430 MB)

Those who already installed the first alpha should go for this patch instead:

https://www.vintyri.org/downloads/vcc_owm_patch_1.zip (300 KB)

Updaters need to:

1. Unzip the file into a temporary folder. It contains a folder named Templates and a PDF file.

2. Read the PDF file to see how to install the patch.

The full Other World Mapper version of manual for the collection now is available too. It not only has installation instructions but also is chock full of information:

https://www.vintyri.org/downloads/Vi...OWM Guide.zip(PDF - 24 MB)

Where from here? We'll take this release through beta to full release and then issue one more product that will add dungeon material. After that, we'll look at whether there's enough interest to warrant releasing the rest of our products in OWM format.

Servus,