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

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by Snake288

Terminator Resistance
use this method
XTool 0.09
xZLib:c128mb,t8:zlib+srep:mem512m:l2k:m5f:a16+lolz :d256:mc1023:dtb1:tt4:mtt1:mt6:mtb256

I understand the method, no issues there. What I don't understand is why I'm getting CRC errors when I try to unpack the Archive.

[Snake288]

mausschieber working we thank him

Terminator Resistance [?xDVD5]

I used it when installing it no problem

[KaktoR]

@Masquerade

Try to pack with c128m,t75p and unpack with t2 or t50p. If this works try to increase thread usage

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

@Masquerade

Try to pack with c128m,t75p and unpack with t2 or t50p. If this works try to increase thread usage

Thanks for this, I tried a varitation of commands following your guide which was helpful. I settled on leaving out any extra options and just allowing XTool to do its thing.

Everything works now.

Also, do you know where I could find a complete ZTool config? Would it help in some games vs XTool, or should I always stick to XTool (since it succeeds ZTool)?

[panker1992]

xtool has significant bugs.
unfortunately it doesnt work with RE3 and some new games.
Zee hasnt update the project in a while and from what i know so far he has lost part or parts of the code

i had to use ztool for it

[devil777]

So incase of using zlib , dude you can use "PZlib".... it'll work... @masquerade

And I don't own Terminator Resistance

[Masquerade]

Total Unpacked Size: 1.95GB

Compression as follows:

• The following passage is required in Arc.groups:
  

  $wav
  *.wav
  
  $jpg
  *.jpg
  
  $raw
  *.raw

• All files:
  

  srep+lolz/$jpg=packjpg+srep+lolz/$wav=msc:wav=1:tak=9+srep+lolz/$raw=msc:raw=1:tak=9+srep+lolz

Total packed size using above methods: 676mb

[ZAZA4EVER]

ANNO 1800 Complete Edition (Eng/Multi8)
Remove Sound track + Support
Repack Size From 47.7GB To 19.78GB

Method on **data0.rda ---> data14.rda (maindata folder)

-mPzlib(zlib)+srep:m3f:a16:d1g+lolz:d128m:mt6:fba0: mc1023:gm20

Method on **data05.rda (maindata folder)

-mPzlib(zlib)+srep:m3f:a16:d1g+lolz:d128m:mt6:fba0: mc1023:gm20

Other Files Langs+bin Folder

-msrep:m3f:a16:d1g+lolz:d128m:mt6:fba0:mc1023:gm20

Zlib Checker V2.00 Results

data0.rda:
Found streams: 333
Duration: 1 minute 19 seconds
218 MB > 238 MB

data1.rda:
Found streams: 0
Duration: 16 minutes 6 seconds
4.42 GB > 4.42 GB

data2.rda:
Found streams: 30
Duration: 3 minutes 19 seconds
677 MB > 708 MB

data3.rda:
Found streams: 1
Duration: 59 minutes 19 seconds
8.47 GB > 8.47 GB

data4.rda:
Found streams: 0
Duration: 17 seconds
43.4 MB > 43.4 MB

data5.rda:
Found streams: 71
Duration: 3 seconds
25.1 MB > 2.81 GB

data6.rda:
Found streams: 30082
Duration: 19 minutes 21 seconds
8.54 GB > 18.0 GB

data7.rda:
Found streams: 266
Duration: 23 seconds
140 MB > 273 MB

data8.rda:
Found streams: 32
Duration: 56 minutes 36 seconds
10.8 GB > 10.8 GB

data9.rda:
Found streams: 0
Duration: 2 minutes 53 seconds
464 MB > 464 MB

data10.rda:
Found streams: 137
Duration: 2 minutes 26 seconds
511 MB > 2.72 GB

data11.rda:
Found streams: 2792
Duration: 11 minutes 25 seconds
2.39 GB > 4.57 GB

data12.rda:
Found streams: 380
Duration: 10 minutes 8 seconds
2.25 GB > 4.77 GB

data13.rda:
Found streams: 4991
Duration: 29 minutes 15 seconds
5.80 GB > 7.48 GB

data14.rda:
Found streams: 30
Duration: 5 minutes 10 seconds
1.01 GB > 1.10 GB

E:\ZAZA Source\Anno 1800\1\maindata: 
Found streams: 39145
Duration: 3 hours 38 minutes
45.7 GB > 66.8 GB

i want to thanks dixen , KaktoR , panker1992 for their comments of zlib problem . i learned from them
game stuck with xtool v0.9 , 0.12 x64 .. but works fine with xtool x86 v.12
but you dont get good ratio
Pzlib is stable and works fine with the game files
You must repack data05.rda sperated to unpack game files well

[KaktoR]

Could you send me a sample of this bk2 file?

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

Could you send me a sample of this bk2 file?

I messaged you but I'm not sure how I can see if it sent or not so here's the link just in case.

https://letsupload.co/3yy0f/BK2.7z - 300mb

There's varying sizes of files in there so you can get an idea of what came with the game. In total, there's 1.7GB of bk2 video.

[Masquerade]

Total unpacked size: 9.22GB

Compression as follows:

• *.bsa =
  

  pZlib3:e+srep:m3f:l512+lolz:dt:dtb1:dtw1:dtm1:dto1:dtd1:mtt1:mt4:d64m:fba4096

• *.bik =
  

  bpk

• *.wav =
  

  msc:wav=1:tak=9+srep:m3f:l512+lolz:dt:dtb1:dtw1:dtm1:dto1:dtd1:mtt1:mt4:d64m:fba409

• *.mp3 =
  

  msc:wav=1:tak=9+srep:m3f:l512+lolz:dt:dtb1:dtw1:dtm1:dto1:dtd1:mtt1:mt4:d64m:fba409

• Everything else:
  

  srep:m3f:l512+razor

Total packed size using above methods: 5.41GB

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

I messaged you but I'm not sure how I can see if it sent or not so here's the link just in case.

https://letsupload.co/3yy0f/BK2.7z - 300mb

There's varying sizes of files in there so you can get an idea of what came with the game. In total, there's 1.7GB of bk2 video.

Thanks.

I was able to pack them into a archive using binkpack, but the problem is that the ratio is always 100%. I looked through file headers and they are fine. So maybe some special codec or something, if it's even possible with binkvideo.

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

Thanks.

I was able to pack them into a archive using binkpack, but the problem is that the ratio is always 100%. I looked through file headers and they are fine. So maybe some special codec or something, if it's even possible with binkvideo.

Good to know I'm not going insane (yet)!

It's strange, because it's the only Saints Row game in the series that uses Bink2 instead of Bink. Maybe that's just because Bink2 wasn't around when the other games were made, but then why not make all of the video Bink2? There's still old Bink files in the game (2 .bik files).

[shazzla]

@Masquerade :
Srep+razor : whats the point ? Razor already dedups the data ! Use LOLZ instead of RZ. It compresses much better.

Mp3 : use MPZAPI with PMT. Much faster than MSC.
Use MSC when MP3 files are embedded in other files(stream).

BK2 : some bk2 files cannot be processed as bink with BPK (corrupts the archive). Compress them separately to check things.
Hope this was helpful.

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by shazzla

@Masquerade :
Srep+razor : whats the point ? Razor already dedups the data ! Use LOLZ instead of RZ. It compresses much better.

Mp3 : use MPZAPI with PMT. Much faster than MSC.
Use MSC when MP3 files are embedded in other files(stream).

BK2 : some bk2 files cannot be processed as bink with BPK (corrupts the archive). Compress them separately to check things.
Hope this was helpful.

Thank you for the points! I have found that srep+razor yields better results with misc small files and binaries over LOLZ. I don't know if this is true for all games, but I will start to test both srep+rz against srep+lolz.

I'll look into PMT, will it have a major effect on conversion size?