Share Your best method
 

i made this thread so all fileforums users could share the best compression methods they have to help each other to find the best compression method
SHARE and also share your methods problems or compressores problems
but i can't help with reflate de-compression or even precomp sorry :D

:D their is no best method :D you simply try what is the most suited one for your game :) it's useless to use a one method for all
BTW
srep:m3f:a16:d1g+nz (nz with o/O will give you better ratio than xz/lzma2 with the same time if you used much ram & more threads )

for zlib I usually use ppx2 with precomp038 it's the fastest way until now
for pzlib you know it will be a good replacement for reflate & Antiz
but still using ppx2 with precomp038 faster than pzlib for individual files :D

i know i created this thread so everyone could share there methods and solve thier problems and learn something that's all :D

better to play with other tools like fp8 :D it's a zlib stream detector & an excellent compressor in the same time will be in next version of EGY_Compressor

update it soon :D

Need many updates & i have many sheets for the University don't have much time :( BTW I fixed the reflate & will included many things :D

i know it man education is time hungry when you have time text me so we work together 2 brains 4 arms :D

I think that it will be super helpful for new users to read a guide on each individual method, with examples.
Today all the info is scattered across dozens of posts in dozens of threads :(
That way people like me who really want to understand so they do better and contribute to this community back, can do so :)

already added to my future plans
to make guides

Thanks a lot.
I will be ever grateful!

i tried it and yes it's better than nanozip generally but moore slow :(

Extremely slow it detects each file type then compress it , you should use it for masks or in a lower compression profile

i don't use masks anymore because sometimes it gives bad compression ratio. like comressing game part part or folder splitter.compress all data with only one times is more better i think.

Haha man, if you have brain, then mask can atleast faster installation and many times better ratio. Just you need brain to use it ;)

for EX: a game like Syndicate 2012 I used precomp mask for only one file data type & it gave me around 47% Ratio instead of separate those files into another data :)
Masks is a good option if you intend to use one archive with different methods for similar types of data

how to used this method ???

msrep+a7a+exe2:d128m:fb128:mc1000

can anybody explain to me how the substitution works on arc.ini (to create more complex methods) the readme included with freearc is very confusing (it was automatically translated from russian.
For example:
what 5ccm2 means?
thanks
pd:i know i'm not sharing a method, but i cant find a more proper thread with the method substitution meaning.

I generally use precomp040+srep+delta+exe2+lzma. It depends on various games.

Depends on the game I am compressing, really.

A Game that has Zlib streams will compress far better with Pzlib+Srep64+xz.

I am not a fan of using Delta+exe2 because quite frankly I have seen it yield poor results compared to using straight up srep64+xz.

There aren't any general method that'll work with every game. Each game is different unless it's built on the same engine (Like Source Engine, Unreal Engine, etc.)

Unreal Engine games usually compress to 38%~50% in average for me.

I get great results with Pzlib+msc+srep64+xz when used with Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster, for example.

That's actually a mask that you've included in your code. Masks are useful if you are compressing the game in one huge bundle. The arc.groups file classifies certain files formats and will compress them in the method described in the arc.ini to achieve best possible compression.

For example, jpg files are referred to as $solid. MSR aka Precomp43 will be used to compress those, if found.

$void are files that're already compressed to the max, like videos. If .bik files are found among what you're compressing, it'll use Srep64 to compress them, as these files can't be compressed further. (though in my experience, srep64+xz helps to reduce the size a tad more)

$text is declaring the method that'll be used to compress text files.

;Timick Methods - lzma:a1:mfbt3:d400m:fb32:mc1000000:lc8
;FitGirl Methods - lzma:ultra:512m:a2:mfbt4:fb1024:mc10000:lc8:lp4:pb 4
;Fenixx Methods - lzma:177mb:normal:bt4:128:mc10000:lc8
;Best Methods - lzma:200mb:normal:bt4:128:mc100000:lc8

this line means:
- compress group $text with dict:p+lzp+ppmd:10:512mb
- compress group $wav with tta
- ....
- compress remaining files with ccm2

groups are defined in arc.groups file. i.e.

$exe
*.exe
*.dll
$text
*.txt
$binary
*.x
*.y
$default
*.z

means that exe/dll files will be placed in group $exe, txt files into $text, x/y/z and all unspecified files (denoted by $default) - in group $binary

arc.groups also establishes file sorting order for compression

hmm... let me share some simple my method used from Mini Compressor. :D