Newbie Question Thread

[sailwhist]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

lolz compressor is slow, yes. However you can speed up the process by using some options for it, for example utilize all your cpu cores.

Example

lolz:mtt1:mt12

12 = number of cpu threads. If you have more or less cpu threads, change the number.

As for the installer, you have several choices here. There are some installers which are compatible with diskspangui. You can find supported installers in the diskspangui topic, I think it is the second or third post in the topic. However you can also use diskspangui itself to unpack the archives. Just copy diskspan_gui.exe in the same folder where all the created archives are and run it.

But, where do I set options for threads? I had to abort the process since it shown me 10 hours estimated time and it was ascending more and more. I just copypasted these and started compression: https://pasteboard.co/4orsQiqonK2O.png
I don't think 24 GB game should be compressing to a 13 GB for 10+ hours

[KaktoR]

It will look like this in the settings:

Data2.Method1=xtool:mzlib+srep+lolz:mtt1:mt12|0

However you can set it directly even in the GUI aswell by type it manually or select one of the presets for lolz:
https://i.imgur.com/xMp4E29.png


* All possible options for the lolz compressor can be found here: "Resources\FINAL\LOLZ\Options.txt"

Time for compression mostly depends on your hardware, especially how fast your cpu and ram is, and of course of the input data and used settings. So there is no way to telling you how long compression will take if no one write the time and his pc specs.

[sailwhist]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

It will look like this in the settings:

Data2.Method1=xtool:mzlib+srep+lolz:mtt1:mt12|0

However you can set it directly even in the GUI aswell by type it manually or select one of the presets for lolz:
https://i.imgur.com/xMp4E29.png


* All possible options for the lolz compressor can be found here: "Resources\FINAL\LOLZ\Options.txt"

Time for compression mostly depends on your hardware, especially how fast your cpu and ram is, and of course of the input data and used settings. So there is no way to telling you how long compression will take if no one write the time and his pc specs.

After adding these settings to .ini file, now it is compressing as it should and percentage of progress goes up, last time it was just stuck at 10% and time showed 10 hours, now its 1:30 hours estimate and it looks like it is working. https://pasteboard.co/QPptA0Q6bKIw.png
Thank you, I hope it'll work.
BTW, what's wrong with Imgur? It's not opening any links, just shows it like that: https://pasteboard.co/rE3HCJIzwHaM.png

[sailwhist]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

It will look like this in the settings:

Data2.Method1=xtool:mzlib+srep+lolz:mtt1:mt12|0

However you can set it directly even in the GUI aswell by type it manually or select one of the presets for lolz:
https://i.imgur.com/xMp4E29.png


* All possible options for the lolz compressor can be found here: "Resources\FINAL\LOLZ\Options.txt"

Time for compression mostly depends on your hardware, especially how fast your cpu and ram is, and of course of the input data and used settings. So there is no way to telling you how long compression will take if no one write the time and his pc specs.

So, compression finished and now game size is 16 GB.
https://pasteboard.co/5nJo8MUxm2vF.png
https://pasteboard.co/DGBaecrwauDc.png
But why? It should've been 13 GB.
It also splitted in some weird directories with a lot of files, is that the way it should be?
https://pasteboard.co/X9L5I0DVeYRe.png
I tried making an installer via your utility ASIS and I didn't understand how it works, I putted these directories in DECOMRESSOR folder and ran script Create_setup.dll and it just started a whole process of compressing files again and I don't know if I did everything right.

[KaktoR]

Imgur is working here. Check if the site is blocked by your AV, ISP, browser extensions or whatever.

PS: GTA4 compression test from me

 15:56:44 - Overall input size: 30.93 GB
 15:56:44 - Overall output size: 13.48 GB (Ratio 43.58%)
 15:56:44 - Overall conversion time: 00:58:27

 16:08:51 - Overall decompression time: 00:11:52

I used LZMA-MT instead of lolz.

Edit:
Here is my configuration. With this you should get 13GB with LZMA-MT or less if you use lolz (probably).

Data1.Name=Data<game><data>-01.bin
Data1.Method1=msc+srep+LZMA-MT|0
Data1.InclText=*.rpf

Data2.Name=Data<game><data>-01.bin
Data2.Method1=xtool:mzlib+srep+LZMA-MT|0
Data2.InclText=*.img|*.wtd

Data3.Name=Data<game><data>-01.bin
Data3.Method1=bpk|0
Data3.InclText=*.bik

Data4.Name=Data<game><data>-01.bin
Data4.Method1=srep+LZMA-MT|0
Data4.ExclText=*.img|*.rpf|*.bik|*.wtd

As for the first archive I applied srep+LZMA-MT after msc because I found out that all of the files contain raw audio (msc do a good job here) and some other files aswell, so use srep and a compressor of your choice afterwards.

As for the file splitting: You have to select the "~ Unlimited ~" tab in the options on the bottom.
https://pasteboard.co/Zqx0UiosFqJ1.png

Edit 2:
As for the ASIS installer: you don't have to copy anything. Open Settings.ini and make your settings there, like game name, game size and so on, disable or enable options you want (see included help file located in "Help\Settings.txt"). After this you just open "Script.iss" with Inno Setup 6+ and compile the script (maybe you can just run "Compile_Script.bat" if you don't want to download and install Inno Setup). Then copy Setup.exe to the compressed game files which diskspangui created and then you can unpack/install the game with the Setup.exe.

[kj911]

The DEMO test package from my multithreading DLZ compressors, using MTX/clsw.exe combo.... (See pictures from package.)

Compression use MTX, within more threads without any problems.

Decompression/testing don't work with MTX-only usage, required CLS wrapper, and user interactions, pressed many "clsw.exe" crashed messages before starting any decomp/test process..
Any idea from fixing? Try it PMT? Any?

My precalculation in has fast CPU's probably capable 200+ MB/s decomp/testing speeds. (SSD or NVME drive only with more RAM.)

[Masquerade]

^^
But why? LOLZ is better and natively multithreaded.

[Yee]

Can someone please help. when using

[External compressor:lolz]
header = 0
packcmd = "lz\lolz_x64.exe" {options} $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp

I get

WARNING: bad section [External compressor:lolz] in C:\Program Files (x86)\FreeArc\bin\arc.iniarc: user error (Unsupported compression method or error in parameters: lolz)

What am I doing wrong?

[kj911]

Noob questions: Some various "Disk Spanning" methods, will make spiltted DVD5/any size setup*.bin files, streamable exctracting during installation progress, whole get next disk sequence, without copying splitted *.bin files to is-xxxx.tmp dir joining to one big archive before extraction process?? Aka no need extra temp space from installations?

Example: setup1.bin.001-003 files have 10GB size. (contains 30GB data.)
aka1: extract from directly the archives to installdir, req. 30GB hd space or
aka2: joined to one big 10GB file extra hd space + 30GB installed --> 40GB hd space required?

Three disk spannig methods/cls-filters available. The best? (From stabilty.)

Another questions: Previous years downloaded from forums and looose in last time, not found the F-Done 0.01 applications the site. Available or deleted?

[awxcigin]

1. How do I get into repacking games, like I have a game downloaded, where do I start form?

2. What tools do I use as a beginner?

Sorry for asking this noob of a question.

[Masquerade]

^^
You can use DiskspanGUI to compress your game and extract the archives you make.

[Tmills]

Hey, i'm new and trying to learn. Is there a guide to the methods in DiskSpan gui?
SREP
LOLZ
Zlib
Xtool 2020 reflate
Xtool 2020 preflate
LZMA2
what are they best at and what are the pros & cons of each?
what file types are they used for?
how do i know what file types a game uses etc?

[-tara]

Hi Tmills

Heres what the methods listed are:
SREP (LD Deduplicator)
LOLZ (Final Compressor)
Zlib (I'm guessing this is XTool's implemintation of zlib, that is a Precompressor)
Xtool 2020 reflate (Precompressor)
Xtool 2020 preflate (Precompressor)
LZMA2 (Final Compressor)

I'm going to shortly explaing what these do.

SRep removes duplicates in files you feed it, it's very quick.
Lolz and LZMA2 are final compressors and they always go at the end of a method chain, they compress data that was previously fed to Precompressors or SRep.
Lolz is very slow on compression, but it's upside is faster decompression compared to LZMA or LMZA2, while LZMA/2 are a lot faster in compression but a little slower when it comes to decompression. (Lolz gives better ratio compared to LZMA/2 aswell)

Typical chain of methods when it comes to game data (excluding media) is SRep+Lolz/LZMA/LZMA2.

However sometimes you can encounter game data that is already compressed, this is where Precompresser come in, during compression you place them in the beginging of the chain, what Precompressor you use depends on what algo the game is compressed with.
For example if the game is compressed with zlib, you use a Precompressor that utilizes zlib decompression (like XTool zlib/reflate/preflate) which one of those you use depends on how they preform, they have tiny differences in speed/ratio, however they all decompress zlib.

Typical chain with precompression is XTool+srep+lolz

I skipped over loads of info in order to keep my replu consise, but this should be good enough for a beginer

Hope I Helped

[ravikant]

Originally Posted by Tmills

Hey, i'm new and trying to learn. Is there a guide to the methods in DiskSpan gui?
SREP
LOLZ
Zlib
Xtool 2020 reflate
Xtool 2020 preflate
LZMA2
what are they best at and what are the pros & cons of each?
what file types are they used for?
how do i know what file types a game uses etc?

Use this tool to find which method of xtool to use

Generally use Xtool(zlib is also included) + srep + lolz/lzma [LZMA is faster but usually makes the output size a bit larger]

[ravikant]

I need to know more about xtool reflate/preflate and what it actually means

Why lzma compresses my files quickly while lolz takes lot of time

why do precomp gives better results than xtool on my old games