Best Compression Methods for 'Specific' Games. Q&A

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

What srep are you using for decompression?

cls-srep, srepinside or srep.exe? Use cls-srep.

For the mp3 soundtrack, use a mask (arc.groups)

arc.groups file (next to arc.exe

$mp3
*.mp3

-msrep+lolz/$mp3=mpz

mpz is mpeg audio compressor.

Can confirm I'm using cls-srep, I'm honestly clueless as to what the cause of the issue is, but this seems to occur exclusively with Unity engine titles for me, with this and "112 Operator" both having issues with decompression. I resolved the latter by splitting the title into 2 archives (2nd archive contained .assets & .resource files which I identified as the files failing to decompress), which I hope may also help with this title. I'll have a look at mpz, as I assumed gains from it were similar, if not identical to that seen with msc, and as such have never tried it to compress mpeg audio. I'll test out my botched solution attempt and report back in a bit.

[:( Sad8669]

Masquerade, i still haven't figured out my question and the problem i am facing is replied to your message. I would really appreciate it if you help a noob here.

[kj911]

The game Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow compressible to fit one CD size?? Use in last modern compression algorithms? Rare REPACKS smaller than 1GB's size, with original videos. My repack 981MB's size with original videos. The videos recompressed in smaller res/size, extra saved ~200MB's. (~770-780MB in full game.) Use Binkpack+reencoding these *.bik videos? Sound its compressibble better than FreeArc? (MSC or any more.)

Few Repacks/rip sizes found from net to comparison:

Repacks:
DODI (v1.31+HD Textures+WS Fix): 1005MB
Elamigos (Multi6): 1.79GB
WWRG: 1.1GB
R.G. Revenants: 924MB
CorePack: 776MB*

Fitgirl: not yet released.

RIPs:
DOPEMAN: 916MB

Scene rip hardly smaller sizes with extreme lossy compression. (~350MB.)

*Note: CorePack version with reencoded/ripped videos, aka lossy repack? Likely make in full lossless version.

[L33THAK0R]

Has anyone given "The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom" a shot? It's using the Vision engine but sadly I can't seem to find much information regarding how/if this engine handles unpacked container files, as well as the most space efficient compression techniques for it and it's container files. I was able to shave off a tiny amount, in language files (~200mb) bringing the total initial size from 5.69gb to 5.49gb. I used msc + xzlib + srep + lolz, but was only able to get it down to 5.30gb. I'll try again without msc, as it wasn't able to open the container (.bba) files during compression.

[L33THAK0R]

Hi all,

Been trying to figure out how to go about compressing "Prey" (2017 release) (Incl. Mooncrash and Pre-Order Bonus DLC). I'm using the GOG release which according to users and the "Prey" .pak decryption tool, the .pak files are already decrypted. Using

xzlib+srep:m3f+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000

I'm only able to get the title down 22.5GB, however other users smaller sizes are possible. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[pratikpatel8982]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

Hi all,

Been trying to figure out how to go about compressing "Prey" (2017 release) (Incl. Mooncrash and Pre-Order Bonus DLC). I'm using the GOG release which according to users and the "Prey" .pak decryption tool, the .pak files are already decrypted. Using

xzlib+srep:m3f+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000

I'm only able to get the title down 22.5GB, however other users smaller sizes are possible. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Telling the original size is much appreciated. He also used BPK which you didn't use. You never know what impact a particular compressor has on the size of the game.

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by pratikpatel8982

Telling the original size is much appreciated. He also used BPK which you didn't use. You never know what impact a particular compressor has on the size of the game.

My original size is 30.5gb, I didn't include the .bk2 videos as I plan to offer the end-user a choice between the original and encoded videos. All .bk2 videos result in a grand total of 1.46gb (uncompressed) so I don't think (though I may be wrong) my lack of BPK is an issue, unless of course there are additional video files within the .pak container files.

[pratikpatel8982]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

My original size is 30.5gb, I didn't include the .bk2 videos as I plan to offer the end-user a choice between the original and encoded videos. All .bk2 videos result in a grand total of 1.46gb (uncompressed) so I don't think (though I may be wrong) my lack of BPK is an issue, unless of course there are additional video files within the .pak container files.

As I said, you never know. I see only two options now:

1. Try again using bpk and see the results.
2. Or you can scan the game for various streams and create algorithm based on it.

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

Hi all,

Been trying to figure out how to go about compressing "Prey" (2017 release) (Incl. Mooncrash and Pre-Order Bonus DLC). I'm using the GOG release which according to users and the "Prey" .pak decryption tool, the .pak files are already decrypted. Using

xzlib+srep:m3f+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000

I'm only able to get the title down 22.5GB, however other users smaller sizes are possible. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Can you show your arc.ini?

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

Can you show your arc.ini?

My arc.ini is here. Thank you for offering to take a look at it, any help or advice means a lot to me! I should mention I've been using Tiny Compressor 1.4 to put together my conversions, as I'm not comfortable enough with my knowledge of this field to try out more feature packed alternatives such as DiskSpan.

[:( Sad8669]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

My arc.ini is here. Thank you for offering to take a look at it, any help or advice means a lot to me! I should mention I've been using Tiny Compressor 1.4 to put together my conversions, as I'm not comfortable enough with my knowledge of this field to try out more feature packed alternatives such as DiskSpan.

Don't worry because at first, i too was afraid to use DiskSpan. Since i was using UltraArc and it had less options but you have to try different things to learn and life is all about experiment ain't it?

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by :( Sad8669

Don't worry because at first, i too was afraid to use DiskSpan. Since i was using UltraArc and it had less options but you have to try different things to learn and life is all about experiment ain't it?

I suppose so, I've managed to add any compressors I've needed to my tiny compressor installs so far, and I haven't encountered any issues other than making sure my options/arguments/commands for the compressor in question are correct. My only limitation currently is the available compressor to choose to include in my setup.exe, as I'm using ASIS v7.2.0 (newer versions are giving me a hard time), but I'm confident in time I'll be able to add the appropriate additional decompression executables (not sure if that's the right term) when I'm required to (i.e. oodle compressors, and Razor's title specific tools).

[pratikpatel8982]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

My arc.ini is here. Thank you for offering to take a look at it, any help or advice means a lot to me! I should mention I've been using Tiny Compressor 1.4 to put together my conversions, as I'm not comfortable enough with my knowledge of this field to try out more feature packed alternatives such as DiskSpan.

I am a newbie myself and I will say diskspan_gui is very easy to use

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by pratikpatel8982

I am a newbie myself and I will say diskspan_gui is very easy to use

It's probably a placebo but I've found any large (5gb+) conversion with DiskSpan to take significantly longer compared to the same operation using Tiny Compressor. I'm not sure if the disk output sizes of DiskSpan change the length of the compression so could also be my lack of knowledge. I also prefer manually editing the "custom" input for tiny compressor in the arc.ini file but I'm a bit of an autistic **** honestly.

[kj911]

Analyze few compression methods the SC2 game. The Hungarian 1.31 version (with extra Multiplayer maps, size ~80MB's.) not compressible smaller than 890-900MB's sizes without lossy BIK reencoding. The game installed size its bigger than any localized releases.

Size differences, between Hungarian (Retail) and English (Steam/Uplay?) versions:

Full sizes: English: 1568MB, Hungarian: 2249MB

Video files: English: 321MB, Hungarian: 433MB
Sound files: English: 661MB, Hungarian: 760MB

Some game files recompressed use SREP+LOLZ (and any variants) compression methods, saving few thousand MB's. (Dat1-3+text.sfxdat, Orig: 250MB --> 235MB) Snd1/2 archive. Orig: 72.9MB --> 67.8MB. Biggest savings available from only the BIK videos. Orig: 375MB --> 309MB's size. Full savings, around ~90MB's. Original compressed packs size: 976MB (with SFX-modules. Total 6MB's extra size in 10 files. Raw Arc only size: 970MB)

Dramatically reduce the video files to smaller than 150-200MB's size required to fit the game into one CD. Files list its added from analyze the game.

UPDATE: Found old my recompressed BIK video packages these game. Any files repacked with LOLZ and any ones. I will finding enough 15-20MB extra data reduction to fit the game to one CD!

Videos: 141925kB (with BPK+LZMA compression. Unpacked size: 195920kB)
Binaries: 10911kB (without SFX module, the old archive)
Snd4: 162663kB (LZMA only)
Snd3: 105523kB (TTA+REP, its best results. MSC or LOLZ not better)
Snd1-2: 69498kB (SREP+LOLZ)
Data1_2_3_text (one archive): 240006kB (xZLIB+SREP+LOLZ, Unpacked size: 1040382kB)

Any extra files required 3241kB's space without installer. (Old installer size: 626kB) XT+LOLZ+CLS extra files required ~3MB's space in compressed format.