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

[kj911]

Best compression methods from Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl?? The game compressibble in smaller than 2-2.5GB's size? (with or without MP files. Multilang version installed size in has ~9.5GB's. Installer smaller than ~3.2GB with INNO only.)

Tested one gamedata archive file (*.db5), in few methods. This db5 archive contents extracted in specialized tools and extracted files compressed again into separated 3 archives and results its bigger than compress the one *.db5 file. Not understood!

File: gamedata.db5
Size: 677 500kB

CAB/LZX:21: 520 571kB
7z: 498 055kB
7z/PPMD: 529 581kB
SQX2: 492 547kB
DLZ only: 456 021kB
OGGRE+DLZ: 462 367kB

MSC only (BMP/DDSRAW/DXT=1): 550 356kB* (archive broken! Any data portions its missing??) --> Crunch in DLZ: 387 155kB (probably false...)
MSC only (DDSRAW=0, DXT=1): 677 377kB --> Crunch in DLZ: 478 327kB

Extracted the db5 file:

*.OGM: 68 290kB (6 file) --> DLZ: 59 064kB (Note: OGGRE+DLZ: 59 061kB)
*.OGG: 174 445kB (2052 file) --> OGGRE: 146 989kB
*.DDS: 446 886kB (1249 file) --> MSC+DLZ: 317 108kB / DLZ: 294 630kB
other: 908kB (17 file) --> MSC+DLZ: 103kB
__________________
Total: 690 528kB --> 523 264kB / 500 786kB (WTF!)

[Masquerade]

Overcooked! 2

xtool_unity+srep+lolz

7.9GB ----> 3.7GB

liblz4 v1.8.0 used for best ratio.

[Masquerade]

Prison Architect

• Paradox Launcher files ripped.
• All DAT files unpacked with WinRAR.

precomp:d0+srep+lolz/$ogg=oggre

670MB ---> 306MB

Thanks Nicolas Comerci for precomp STDIO fork.

[L33THAK0R]

Hey all,

I've been giving "Grim Dawn" a looksie and was wondering if anyone might be able to clear something up

FreeArc 0.67 (March 15 2014) creating archive: Data.arc
Compressing 1 file, 145,766,328 bytes. Processed   0%
Compressing 145,766,328 bytes with "C:\Compressor_Resources\XTool_2020\xtool_0.6.5\XTool.exe" precomp -mgrimTEST -c512mb -t95p $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp
XTool is created by Razor12911

Streams: 1396/14028
Time: 00:00:10 (00:00:36)
Memory: 160 MB (160 MB)

100%
Errorlevel=0
Compressed 1 file, 145,766,328 => 160,143,671 bytes. Ratio 109.86%
Compression time: cpu 0.09 sec/real 10.60 sec = 1%. Speed 13.75 mB/s
All OK

I've tried levels 1 - 9 so far and I only get maybe ~1 additional stream for each level increment, and I've tested essentially every version of LZ4 under the sun, (other versions only resulting in ~<100 streams being picked up), would anyone happen to know if its possible to pick up more streams or is it more likely that LZ4 was used very lightly and the other streams are inconsequential.

[KaktoR]

Sample?

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

Sample?

Ah whoops I forgot to attach it, within the following attachment is a sample, a BMS script to decompress "Grim Dawn"'s assets (since the native LZ4 stream detection fails to pick up any at all), as well as the LZ4 library I've found success with.

[L33THAK0R]

Hi all has anyone else had any issues with recompressing "Ghost Recon Wildlands" .forge archives? I've tried the following:

XTool 0.6.5 (Anvil) + Srep + Lolz

74,326,347,887 bytes -> 20,662,955,336 bytes

as well as

AFR v0.0.1.9 (v0.0.2.0a7 detects and seemingly picks up streams, but spits out an error code and fails to write to disk) + srep + lolz

74,326,347,887 bytes -> 21,147,452,370 bytes

I've had decent success with previous Anvil Engine titles (save for "Assassin's Creed III" (the original, I'm currently testing remastered)), however it seems like Wildlands is giving me a whole lot of strife. Attempting to decompress the XTool-based test yields an almost immediate installer crash, as does attempting to decompress the AFR test when using the CLS plugin or AFR v0.0.1.9 (the latter at least offers a "-11" error code instead of an unceremonious CTD) , however attempting to use v0.0.2.0a7 results in a partially successful decompression, however failure occurs around the halfway point. Has anyone else experienced any similar behavior, at this point I'm a bit reluctant to attempt any further attempts due to the write endurance costs resulting from this behemoth of a title.

[Masquerade]

I did Wildlands either last year or year before and had no issues with AFR.

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

I did Wildlands either last year or year before and had no issues with AFR.

I'm gonna give the EMPRESS release a shot, was originally basing my tests off the Steampunks release, fingers crossed I have better luck with it, out of curiosity, do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

Latest Edison version. P.S. don't discuss Warez on this forum - it's against the rules!

[Edison007]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

I'm gonna give the EMPRESS release a shot, was originally basing my tests off the Steampunks release, fingers crossed I have better luck with it, out of curiosity, do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

AFR versions above 019 are unstable. Crashed when using mt-unpacking.

[Razor12911]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

I've had decent success with previous Anvil Engine titles (save for "Assassin's Creed III" (the original, I'm currently testing remastered)), however it seems like Wildlands is giving me a whole lot of strife. Attempting to decompress the XTool-based test yields an almost immediate installer crash, as does attempting to decompress the AFR test when using the CLS plugin or AFR v0.0.1.9 (the latter at least offers a "-11" error code instead of an unceremonious CTD) , however attempting to use v0.0.2.0a7 results in a partially successful decompression, however failure occurs around the halfway point. Has anyone else experienced any similar behavior, at this point I'm a bit reluctant to attempt any further attempts due to the write endurance costs resulting from this behemoth of a title.

unpackcmd = xtool.exe decode --verbose $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

Try xtool in verbose mode to see what error message it produces.

I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

DataPC.forge

Tested 1 file, 10,925,907,848 => 8,042,348,544 bytes. Ratio 135.85%
Testing time: cpu 8.38 sec/real 238.37 sec = 4%. Speed 33.74 mB/s

[Cesar82]

Originally Posted by Razor12911

unpackcmd = xtool.exe decode --verbose $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

Try xtool in verbose mode to see what error message it produces.

I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

DataPC.forge

Tested 1 file, 10,925,907,848 => 8,042,348,544 bytes. Ratio 135.85%
Testing time: cpu 8.38 sec/real 238.37 sec = 4%. Speed 33.74 mB/s

I don't know if the extraction done by @L33THAK0R is being done on Windows 11, but I couldn't get lzo2.dll to work on windows 11, maybe I need a recompilation of the lzo2.dll library to make it compatible with Windows 11.
Also the old library zlibwapi.dll (from the old xtool) doesn't work, however the new library zlibwapi.dll shared with the new xtool works perfectly with Windows 11.

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Cesar82

I couldn't get lzo2.dll to work on windows 11, maybe I need a recompilation of the lzo2.dll library to make it compatible with Windows 11.

Originally Posted by Razor12911

[CODE]
I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

I'm so sorry for wasting your time lads, bit of backstory, I use a separate ASIS installation to test my archives, I'd just finished wrapping up my "Assassin's Creed" "Odyssey/Origins" compressions and was using the same setup.dll which didn't contain lzo2.dll, after updating the setup.dll archive decompression was successful with my xtool-based test.

[KaktoR]

A Plague Tale Requiem

*.dpc -> zlib