I think this solves the problem with less design blinking (Solution 3 attached).

EDIT:
Taking advantage of the topic, if anyone has a solution to my problem, let me know.
The caption 'Информация' of secondary windows using VCLStyles + Botva2 are not displayed correctly in languages that use Cyrillic characters such as Russian.
P.S: If you use TForm, the VCL design is not applied to the title bar.
https://i.imgur.com/0A4ldoP.png
This is an old bug that CIU has, and despite many attempts I still haven't been able to solve it.
If anyone has a solution, please share.

I'm pretty sure you have to use encoded unicode characters (#$xxxx), but I am not sure if you can use them in a CustomForm title.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't work (I tested directly: #$0420#$0443#$0441#$0441#$043A#$0438#$0439).
It is some internal bug in VCLStylesInno.dll that causes conflict with the Botva2.dll library (GDI PLUS).
To prove this you can just comment the line "Img := ImgLoad(...." (Disable GDI+ loading) and recompile the script and the caption will be displayed correctly.

StyleSHE + Cyrillic
 

@Cesar82

In order to practice, I try to implement the SHEstyle from your Light Installer Script (LIS).

Is this the same behavior that you (or KaktoR) explained with VCLstyle...
>>> if I use StyleSHE with "Russian", so I have to do it with language codes... (#$xxxx)?

> Sample attached.

https://i.postimg.cc/K8GVQb5K/Unbenannt.gif

Replace two files and try russian language

:) it`s working, thx :)

It's nice to see that the more experienced members don't give up on still helping other users like me.

I only went to see after sharing that the wizardform background doesn't load color, it only works partially.
This library is from Githhub, maybe someone can adapt and correct it so that it works correctly in inno setup.

oh, you're right.
Because of my anticipation, I overlooked this... :D
Anyway, first of all, thank you very much.


After research, some interesting links (when someone will look for solution):

https://www.skinsharp.com/htdocs/en/ (API Documentation on Website)
https://github.com/CodyGuo/skinh/blo...r/SkinHelp.txt

www . autohotkey . com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=5841 (#2 SkinSharp)
www . autohotkey . com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=116251
www . github . com/samfisherirl/autohotkey-v2-GUI-skins

I would like to ask for help, advice, or something similar.

Until now, I used IsTool to create the installer, I know how to use it. IsTool was enough for me, until the size of the games was around 10-20 GB, but for today's 80-100-150+ GB games, IsTool's LZMA2 compression is not enough.

How can I, - if at all - create a setup file (Setup.exe) for my compressed game using the DiskSpan GUI, if my goal is to make the installer as simple as possible? I don't need a fancy installer, I don't want background music, pictures, etc. just a simple Setup.exe that I can combine with the .bin files created by the DiskSpan GUI to install the game.

A mystical question: Does anyone have any idea where to find the old "Netopsystems FEAD Optimizer/Dynamizer" or "NOSSO/iNOSSO" compression programs? Hacked "NOSSO" is only suitable for compression benchmarking and repackaging of "Adobe AIR Installer" installers. If the LZMA part could be replaced with LOLZ, what would it be capable of?

The hacked "NOSSO" is available at encode.su

UPDATE: Added few old Netopsystems documents from old my and web archives, many PDFs still not available from encode.su site uploads.

And uploaded demonstration package from repackaged Adobe AIR Installer. (v50.2.4.1)

Original installer: https://airsdk.harman.com/assets/downloads/AdobeAIR.exe
Size: 5.85MB

NOSSO package: https://www.upload.ee/files/16755387...S_SFX.zip.html
Size: 4.45MB (zipped: 4.43MB)

NanoZip 0.09a with nz_cm results: 4.66MB
WinRK3.1.2 PWCM/800MB -> 4340kB, with 2047MB and many max. settings resulted in size 4329kB

And added hacked NOSSO package.

Is there any guide on what the command syntax is for lolz?

There seems to be nothing that I could find that shows the required syntax for using lolz for compression and decompression (of single or a few files) manually (instead of running scripts/batch files).

I'm guessing the command syntax is something like -

lolz [compress|decompress or, encode|decode or, something similar] -options input output

There is documentation for the options available for lolz, but no apparent documentation on the commands and on the order of inputs and outputs?

Can someone please clarify what are the available compression and decompression commands, and confirm the order of file inputs and outputs (is it input output, or is it output input?).

Thank you.

Using FreeArc, this is the syntax, for LOLZ, in the "arc.ini" file:

To unpack, you need this (arc.ini):

+ cls.ini:

This is the default usage mode as shown above.

If you want to compress manually, you basically have to copy the above command from the "Compression Methods" line and modify it a bit.

For example: lolz:dt:d320m:fba4096:mc32:ldmf1:mt1
Rewrite to: "lolz_x64.exe" -dt -d320m -fba4096 -mc32 -ldmf1 -mt1 datafile.arc packedfile.lolz

To unpack: "cls-lolz_x86/x64.exe" packedfile.lolz datafile.arc

The use of the "cls.ini" file may be omitted in this case.
I hope I got the question right...

Thank you very much for your detailed reply!

Your information is very useful and basically answers my question.

Thanks again!

^^
The official lolz documentaiton is here:
https://krinkels.org/resources/lolz.264/

Trying to precompress a png image using xtool (2020 version) using the command -

and trying -

In both cases the outputs were only slightly larger than the original!?

For preflate option, 3642461 bytes to 3642579 bytes

and for reflate option, 3642461 bytes to 3642578 bytes.

Why only a slight increase in file sizes? Is there something I'm missing in the commands?

png image here

You do something wrong for sure.

Thanks. But what is the correct commands to expand the png file using xtool (2020)?

Note that this is a manual input via command line and not part of a script (yet).

Your command line looks all correct.

Thanks for the verification of my command line command syntax.

However, how does Kaktor get a larger file output, whereas my outputs are only slightly larger than the original file?

Kaktor using different version of xtool? Using different settings/options?

Can someone please explain?

Thank you.

Here is what I use

Thanks for the details, but maybe I'm still doing something wrong?

I'm using xtool version 0.8.7.

My manual translation of your script format command and options for manual input within an elevated command box were now -

Again, to be clear, I'm inputting the commands and options directly/manually within a command box and executing the commands immediately by pressing the enter key. I am not running a script, and I'm not creating/adding anything to a (*.ini or *.bat) script at this time either.

Unfortunately I'm still getting hardly any improvement in output file size.

Input 3,642,461 bytes, output 3,642,578 bytes.

So how is it possible to get output of 13,362,043 bytes?

No idea, I use command line too and it works fine for me:

I have attached my working files below + a bat file if you want to have a go:
https://www.upload.ee/files/16621022/Test.7z.html

I tried but I cannot make it to work with normal cmd too. Only dsg is working lol. I will look tomorrow. Most likely I just made something wrong.

I have xtool.exe in my PATH so I can use it from any command line window. Maybe that affects something.

Thanks for this!

I downloaded and installed your copy of xtool.exe and preflate_dll.dll to a temporary directory for testing (D:\test).

My original xtool.exe and associated files are located within the C:\xtool directory.

PATH to the original installation of xtool (C:\xtool) was added to the Environment Variables.

PATH to D:\xtool was NOT done to avoid conflict between my original version of xtool and this downloaded version of xtool.

I compared both xtool.exe and preflate_dll.dll files from my original installation (C:\xtool) to the same files within the test directory (D:\test). Both files match precisely.

I ran a manual command line test (xtool precomp -mpng+preflate -d1 Hint.png Hint.png.xtool) for the test directory version of xtool, and it successfully expanded the Hint.png file to Hint.png.xtool to 12,858,367 bytes!

I then ran another manual command line test for xtool.exe in the D:\test directory. Followed by a manual command line test for xtool.exe in the C:\xtool directory. Outputs from this test was different. Refer to enclosed screenshots for details.

This is the contents of the temporary test directory D:\test

test contents

This is the contents of the original installation directory C:\xtool

installation contents

This is the result of xtool.exe test from the temporary test directory D:\test

xtool test from test directory

This is the result of xtool.exe test from the original installation directory C:\xtool

xtool test from installation directory

Tried to attach screenshots directly, but result was very messy layout! So had to upload screenshots to image server instead (sorry).

The results for the xtool.exe tests are different as can be seen in the screenshots. So despite the two xtool executables (xtool.exe) being exactly the same, their outputs do not match!?

It should be noted that the preflate_dll.dll file for the original installation is located within the _libraries sub folder of C:\xtool ie located here - C:\xtool\_libraries.

Further comments, please?

Do you have set the xtool option for custom path in arc.ini? I don't think you can set this option directly from command line.

If you are referring to the arc.ini file located in Freearc here - C:\Program Files (x86)\FreeArc\bin , then no I haven't changed anything in arc.ini.

In any case, I rarely use Freearc or Arc at the moment.

How does changing the arc.ini content help with running xtool properly from the command line?

@brispuss
Ah, there's your issue.

XTool is inherently a command line tool, Razor made xtoolui.dll for quick testing.

So, in your C:\XTool folder, you will see the ui load because xtoolui.dll is present. This dll is not a dependency to xtool.exe so you can move/delete it and then xtool.exe will function only in console mode.

Furthermore, you need the library for precompression to be in the same folder as xtool.exe in order for precompression to work. XTool won't read/search the _libraries folder for compression libraries.

So, by having xtool.exe and preflate_dll.dll in a single folder, you will have working precompression. Same goes for zlibwapi.dll for zlib, hif2raw_dll.dll+raw2hif_dll.dll for reflate, libzstd.dll, liblz4.dll etc..... all need to be in the same folder as xtool.exe for those codecs to work.

Thank you very much!!

I was coming to the same or at least very similar conclusions as you have after carrying out more tests. I was about to post my findings and comments something similar to yours, but you bet me to it!! :)

I have deleted the GUI files xtoolui.dll and xtoolui.ini. Moved all the codecs from the _libraries sub folder to the main folder with xtool.exe (C:\xtool\).

So, for now, xtool seems to be working as expected. I just have to be extra careful about inputting the correct parameters for xtool to function properly!

Attempting to Compress MP4 Files
 

As per the title, I'm trying to compress MP4 files, but I'm having difficulty in getting any compression of the files so far.

From searches here, it appears that SREP should be used first followed by LZMA for final compression. SREP settings as per posts at this forum could be -a2 -m5f -l512. Unknown what setting(s) used for the LZMA compression.

How to achieve best possible compression of MP4 files please?

Using SREP, LZMA, and/or other precompressors/compressors?

And what settings should be used (in general) for compressing MP4 files?

Process MP4 files via Freearc? 7zip? or what?

Thank you.

Sample MP4 video enclosed for testing.

Test Video

^^
Videos don't compress well, so just use srep. Anything more is wasting time.

The only video type that compresses only kind of well is bink videos (bik, bk2) because there is a specialised tool for it (bink_pack).

Other video formats, mp4, webm, avi etc etc etc all just use srep.

Uhm, MP4 videos are already compressed, at least the video stream.

Thank you for the comments.

Until a specific compression tool for MP4 comes along, I'll have to use SREP.

Any particular or best options to set for SREP like -m3f or -m5f etc etc? Or do the options depend on the actual encoder used for the MP4 container?

^^
There will never be a specific tool for mp4, as kaktor said the video is already compressed.

OK.

Suggested SREP settings?

^^
-m3f is fine.

Try it find FAILSAFE methods? (ignored many srep errors during decompression.)

Trying use internal LZP compression faster than lzma and betterly compress, incompressibble data or use very strong compressors. Likely LOLZ or RAZOR. This two compressors very goodly compress hardly compressibble data than others. (avg. 0.5-1% to upto 2-3% or better.) Default srep settings = bigger results this sample file. Try l32-64 settings need more memory from biggest datasets and not guaranteed failsafe decompress, except minimally better ratio. MSC/BPK/OGGRE not enhance ratio/compress the data.

Few quick test results added in TXT-file. (zipped)

Thanks for the detailed tests!

Yes, it seems at this time from doing some testing myself now, that Razor compressor seems to give the best compression result so far!

FreeARC Command Line Usage
 

Partly in relation to compressing MP4 files, I'm experimenting with the command line version of FreeARC (Arc.exe) and using additional (pre)compressors in association with Arc.

For example I've tried this manually entered command -

but get error message -

"Arc: user error (Unsupported compression method or error in parameters: srep)"

Srep executable (srep.exe) is located next to arc.exe within the same directory.

And arc.ini (located within same directory as arc.exe and srep.exe) has an entry for srep as follows -

So what is wrong with the command to run srep via freearc?