We require 64-bit binaries

FordGT90Concept wrote:
The only thing at the GPL is the EA Web Kit...which is basically a browser. Details here. And FYI: "EA WebKit supports Win32, Win64, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms."

Sims are "aware" of their surroundings including other Sims. That is what makes them require far more memory than units in an RTS game. Even when a household isn't loaded, The Sims 3 still runs an AI for each sim in the neighborhood.

I am a programmer and have been for a long time. Most of the programs I make are platform neutral (works natively on Windows x86, x64, and IA64). I've been running a 64-bit operating system since 2005.

On the programmer bit, I'm going to have to disbelieve you. If you were a real programmer, you would know why it is the aforementioned memory leak I've mentioned, and which has been confirmed by a number of other people (both modders and otherwise) after doing the necessary examinations of how the game runs, is such of a major problem instead of ignoring it every time I bring it up. You would also, if a real programmer, have read the part where I said "at least parts" and the bit on the EA site about it being the open source code used in their products, which was being released via the "as-is, no guarantees" method.

Then again, if you were a real programmer, you would also know how easy it is for some people to reverse-engineer source code from EXEs, specifically through decompilation techniques, and you would have realized that even if the source code were not shipped with the game, the modders would still have access to a version of it anyway. And, thus, that your entire claim they don't have access to it is proof you are not a programmer when the use of decompilers to get source code is being mentioned as part of programming classes, and was covered in one of mine (see, I'm studying programming, and I'm honest enough not to claim I am a programmer when I don't have the certification yet). And since, thanks to how helpful the devs have been in sharing what development tools they're using via Twitter, modders also happen to have access to generally the same tools as the devs...

Also, if you were a programmer, you would recognize that "supports a 64-bit platform" and "is a 64-bit program" are entirely different concepts. Especially since some of the internet protocols that support 64-bit platforms are 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, 128-bit, or otherwise; if all of those varying-bit programs didn't support 64-bit platforms, Win64 wouldn't be compatible with the internet. Seriously, this is stuff covered in beginner programming classes; and I mean that literally, since some of the programming classes I'm taking for my degree are beginner programming classes.

You would also have recognized how it is that EA neighborhoods, which tend to have only around a hundred sims with full AIs tracking them, would not be greater than RTS games, which can easily have as many as three or four thousand individual units the game must keep track of, in resource costs. Except that Sims 3 is well-known for having the optimization of the Hindenburg and memory leaks equal to the hole in the side of the Titanic, which means it costs vastly more in resources than it should. You can also see where there's been some attempts to patch the problems away. Of course, then again, you probably would have just reverse-engineered the source code using decompilation and read it for yourself; Twallan, IIRC, has access to a program that allows you to do that, and I'm pretty certain there's a few available at Mod the Sims.