Newbie Question Thread

[KaktoR]

Why not just go to your browser history and search there all links from this forum? I mean you know that it was a week ago, so just search by links which are visited least 7 days ago.

[brispuss]

The document I was reading I believe it was on my computer. I think I downloaded this document quite some time ago, so I would have to look on my browsing history maybe quite a few months back, maybe a year ago(?) and not look just for a week.

[Masquerade]

^^
Could you mean how to spot compression algorithms with your eyes? That's an archived link in the Tools for Repacking thread.

[brispuss]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

^^
Could you mean how to spot compression algorithms with your eyes? That's an archived link in the Tools for Repacking thread.

Thanks for your suggestion. But this was not the content of the document.

I believe the document discussed the various types of (pre)compressors and related software for use with certain file types. It went into some detail as to which was the most appropriate software to use for the file types to be processed and perhaps suggested software settings as well.

[brispuss]

xtool supposedly is capable of handling (all) files compressed with zlib. JPEG files are usually compressed via zlib I believe, but xtool seems incapable processing the JPEG files?

Precomp, by Christian Schneider, is capable of processing JPEG files, but xtool is not for some reason(s).

Can someone please explain why xtool can't process JPEG files (properly)?

Thank you.

[KaktoR]

There are xtool plugins for JPG images

brunsli
Streams: 42 / 42
Time: 00:00:00 (CPU 00:00:01)

Size: 20.9 MB >> 16.0 MB

Done!!!

packjpg
Streams: 42 / 42
Time: 00:00:02 (CPU 00:00:06)

Size: 20.9 MB >> 15.3 MB

Done!!!

jojpeg
Streams: 42 / 42
Time: 00:00:16 (CPU 00:00:36)

Size: 20.9 MB >> 14.2 MB

Done!!!

precomp intense
Compressed 43 files, 21,960,949 => 17,766,251 bytes. Ratio 80.90%
Compression time: cpu 0.02 sec/real 2.01 sec = 1%. Speed 10.91 mB/s
All OK

16.94 MB

[brispuss]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I'm looking into this now and will run some compression tests.

EDIT: Compression test results -

(Pre)Compressors       Commands/Options            Compressed Size     Compression Time
     
Original 183 jpg files size - - - - - - - - - >    32,620,858

razorx                 xtool precomp -mrazorx      32,687,179                    31.001
xtool + lolz(std)      -mzlib+reflate              32,526,487                   135.073
xtool + lolz(std)      -mzlib+preflate             32,526,388                   132.572
xtool + lolz(std)      -mreflate                   32,525,512                   136.298
xtool + lolz(std)      -mpreflate                  32,525,336                   132.941
xtool + lolz(std)      -mzlib                      32,524,854                   132.349
precomp + mcm          -cn -brute + -x13           26,888,771                   226.509
precomp + razorx       -cn -brute + -mrazorx       26,817,498                    32.449
brunsli                                            26,740,253                     4.243
precomp + nanozip      -cn -brute + -co            26,669,251                    14.942
precomp + nanozip      -cn -brute + -cO            26,668,630                    14.602
precomp + nanozip      -cn -brute + -cc            26,662,387                   169.879
xtool + brunsli        -mbrunsli                   26,633,426                   100.867
precomp                -cl -brute                  26,631,038                     9.895
precomp + lolz(slow)   -cn -brute                  26,624,723                    31.563
precomp + lolz(std)    -cn -brute                  26,622,527                    33.496
lepton                                             26,350,606                    14.776
lepton-slow-best-ratio                             25,920,088                    17.905
xtool + packjpg        -mpackjpg                   25,850,839                   100.766
packjpg                -np -p                      25,826,134                    10.584
xtool + jojpeg         -mjojpeg                    25,678,421                   105.765
jojpeg                 c                           25,016,673                   129.041
fp8 v6                 -8                          24,445,243                   255.514

Note: lolz(std) means options for lolz as defined in arc.ini file. And lolz(slow) means options for lolzslow as defined in arc.ini file.

[CrownRepack]

Hey guys, im new to repacking and compressing, i learned quite a few stuff here myself by reading, i just want to know what is the most used/relevant compressor tool now? is it DiskpanGUI or etc etc...? Please suggest the most updated and best compression tool for that does FreeArc, Thanks

[Masquerade]

^^
DiskspanGUI is probably the best bet.

[kj911]

Still available special offset-shifted file compare tool??? (File sizes differ smaller than 1KB.)

Read two file started in predefined text or hexa code to file ends.. (Ex: Two WAV files compares, compressed non-standardized tools or etc...)

Quick example (not available the offset-functions):

"fc /b start=data file1.wav file2.wav" or "fc /b start=64617461 file1.wav file2.wav"

start -> start offset reading from two comparable files, reading to file ends, ignoring previous bytes before the offset value. With(in/out) added extra switch, "end=0" aka read files to file endings or "end=X" read files to "X" offset points. (reading two files before file ends.)

A similar question was asked here, almost ~20 years ago: https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=8523

[KakiDev]

Where should I get started if I want to compress a game and have no indea what the best tools for it are? Looking at the Tools for Repacking thread there are LOTS of tools to try, are there any I should prioritize trying, or just take the few hours to go through all of them and see what does the best?
Thanks in advance

[KaktoR]

First you have to know what data you are dealing with.

From there on you have to know what tools you have to use.

However you can always ask here what game you are working with, then users will probably tell you something about it.

[KakiDev]

Well, I'm mostly dealing with renpy games (renpy is an engine for building visual novels), looking at one game right now its 90% jpg, mp3 and webm files, webm files make up nearly 50% of the game size here. I want to avoid lossy compression, so no reencoding.

So I guess I'd need to know what the best tools for webm, jpg and mp3 are as they make up 98.8% of the game together.

[KaktoR]

webm are already compressed files. Nothing you can do except for reencoding.

mp3 are already compressed aswell, but for this there are several tools to compress them further without reencoding (packmp3, mpz, 7z mp3 plugin (power archiver)).

jpg the same, but here aswell we have some tools like packjpg, brunsli, jojpg, precomp, lepton.

[zuryki]

I started a few days ago, and I'm using DiskSpan_GUI with the Light Installer Script. I've done some experiments, and everything is perfect.

While searching for an efficient method to compress the game Mad Max:
https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...74&postcount=5

Upon inserting the data from the above link:

-------------------------------------------------------- CONVERSION DATE 2024/07/20 --------------------------------------------------------
02:00:48 - You have chosen the DVD5 type for the media size.
02:00:48 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
02:00:48 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
02:00:48 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool
,t4
+srep_new+lzma
02:00:48 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1b-01.bin was: srep_new+lzma2
02:00:50 - Compression initialized on 20/07/2024 at 02:00:50.
02:00:51 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.
02:00:53 - Archive Data1a-01.bin creation error.

Summary:
FreeArc 0.67 (March 15, 2014) creating archive: Conversion_Output\Data1a-01.bin
Compressing 79 files, 34,125,862,912 bytes. Processed 0.0%
ERROR: write error (disk full?) in compression algorithm xtool
,t4

Data1a-01.bin
List to filter included files:
*.arc

Data1b-01.bin
List to filter included files:
*.*

This site is a goldmine. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?