Quote:
Originally Posted by Spexxos
I am also trying to get into the whole compression thing. In my case its primarily for compressing savegames. For that matter I would be interested in the current state of things aswell. I think a might be a bit ahead of you in my knowledge, JoeKkerr, and since I dont want to open up another thread with the same topic I am going to add my questions here. I am sure we both can benefit from this. Here we go:
1. What is DELTA and when to use it?
2. When to use what precompressor or any of the programs following? (precomp, srep, pzlib, ztool, xtool, PrecompMT, msc )
I have seen different versions of precompressors delivering different results. Sometimes older versions worked better than newer ones?
3. Why is FreeArc alsways the recommended tool? Depending on my files I got better results with also 7z (lzma2) and rar? Is it because of the ease of use for external compressors?
4. Whats are the benefits of xz? (In my unterstanding its just a container, am i right?)
5. Is there any benefit in using FreeArcs successor (FreeArcNext(?)?)
6. Most importantly: Are there any already written guides that I have missed that have answers to my questions?
Cheers
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precomp is used when there is a file already compressed (i dont know the technical word) . But a file that is , if you try freearc you wont get a good result because its already compressed with low level compression, this makes high level compression lose its effectiveness. Hence, precomp..deflates the file, i.e removes the low level compression and allows it to be compressed by high level compression freearc offers.
an example would be, try RAR ing a normal text file with medium compression, then 7zip that file, you wont get any good result.
now try taht with using precomp first or on raw text file without winrar.
last time i checked (which was a long time ago) LZMA (7zip) was better than freearc for text files.
That brings us to your next question, why freearc you ask ?
Some files get better compression ratios with Freearc , some with 7zip. Mostly its freearc hands down, but some game files like Assassins creed files get better result with 7zip. Depends on game