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

[Dragonis40]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

Don't use XLolz - there's absolutely no need for it to exist. Lolz decompression speed through cls-lolz plugin is imensely quick and already much faster to the point where your limiting factor is the speed of your storage medium, not the algo.

Your decompression speed will be limited by any precompressor you have used and what algo it's trying to recompress. I think you were talking about CyberPunk 2077, right? That game uses Oodle Kraken compression and XTool is working it's ass off to compress that for you as quick as possible.

I'm talking about Cyberpunk 2077. I've used Oodle Kraken (the one you can find into bin\x64 folder) to compress most of .archive files. I've also noticed two of them can be decompressed and files inside can be compressed with other methods.
Of course I've used Oodle Kraken file for decompression as well.
For decompression, I've used cls-srep, cls-lolz, xtool_2020, precomp and something else to compress decompressed .archive files.
I'm still unexperienced in compressing and decompressing world, but how can Fitgirl version be 200 mb smaller then my final compressed .bin file and taking almost 20 minutes less (installation time) then mine?

[Masquerade]

OK now you've completely lost me. The archives are already compressed with kraken. You use the precompressor (XTool) on them. There's absolutely no need to use precomp here. It's not needed.

[Dragonis40]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

OK now you've completely lost me. The archives are already compressed with kraken. You use the precompressor (XTool) on them. There's absolutely no need to use precomp here. It's not needed.

Let me better explain: I've used precomp only for "Bonus content" files, not for .archive ones. Two .archive files, once decompressed, give better compression result rather than original .archive files. That's the reason why I've decompressed two .archive files.

[Masquerade]

Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator

xzlib+srep+lolz/$jpg=brunsli

• 3.2GB ---> 1.5GB

[L33THAK0R]

Whats the best method for processing unencrypted UE4 ".pak" files? I've tried just applying xtool's zlib+reflate / oodle codecs but whilst the streams are picked up I always have issues decompressing, with the archives being reported as corrupted. I used to just process the pak's by unpacking and compressing the loose files but with larger titles this isn't very efficient for the user's disk I/O and with some titles I'm investigating currently (such as "Phantom Doctrine"), seemingly random files fail to decompress, pushing me to investigate again into packing the compressed ".pak" files as they're originally presented instead.

[L33THAK0R]

Also quick second question, has anyone else had issues with using AFR on AnvilEngine 1.0 titles (or whatever the engine was named prior to AnvilNext)? I'm getting some ".forge" titles being processed with a warning at the end of processing them with AFR: "WARNING! In file found corrupted LZO-streams. Check your data!" and I have to manually test each files or a batch of files to determine which produce this error. packing the files that produce this error separately to the ones that don't results in a consistent successful decompression however the size is inflated due to them not being de-duplicated together. Currently affected titles that I've noticed are "Assassin's Creed" "III", "Black Flag", "Freedom Cry" & "Rogue". I'll note that I've been using AFR v0.0.1.9, using the "-vr" parameter as well as Srep v0.392, since other versions have produced issues with the "*.forge" files from my experience.

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

Also quick second question, has anyone else had issues with using AFR on AnvilEngine 1.0 titles (or whatever the engine was named prior to AnvilNext)? I'm getting some ".forge" titles being processed with a warning at the end of processing them with AFR: "WARNING! In file found corrupted LZO-streams. Check your data!" and I have to manually test each files or a batch of files to determine which produce this error. packing the files that produce this error separately to the ones that don't results in a consistent successful decompression however the size is inflated due to them not being de-duplicated together. Currently affected titles that I've noticed are "Assassin's Creed" "III", "Black Flag", "Freedom Cry" & "Rogue". I'll note that I've been using AFR v0.0.1.9, using the "-vr" parameter as well as Srep v0.392, since other versions have produced issues with the "*.forge" files from my experience.

I don't know where your "problem" is exactly now. You can ignore the AFR message about corrputed LZO-Streams. This just means that some streams aren't compressed with lzo, use another codec or lzo version or whatever else. Just ignore it.

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

Whats the best method for processing unencrypted UE4 ".pak" files? I've tried just applying xtool's zlib+reflate / oodle codecs but whilst the streams are picked up I always have issues decompressing, with the archives being reported as corrupted. I used to just process the pak's by unpacking and compressing the loose files but with larger titles this isn't very efficient for the user's disk I/O and with some titles I'm investigating currently (such as "Phantom Doctrine"), seemingly random files fail to decompress, pushing me to investigate again into packing the compressed ".pak" files as they're originally presented instead.

I took your example "Phantom Doctrine" and it works fine with xtool+srep+lzma, so... ?

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

I took your example "Phantom Doctrine" and it works fine with xtool+srep+lzma, so... ?

Ah cheers, maybe it's lolz then thats acting up, I'll definitely have to do a bit of testing I reckon, thanks for testing it on your end!

Originally Posted by KaktoR

I don't know where your "problem" is exactly now. You can ignore the AFR message about corrputed LZO-Streams. This just means that some streams aren't compressed with lzo, use another codec or lzo version or whatever else. Just ignore it.

Ah alright, I'll definitely give recompressing with another codec a shot, since that might be whats messing things up on my end, honestly cant think of what else it could be considering I'm getting decompression issues when just packing with afr+srep (to test).

[KaktoR]

There is anvil plugin for xtool, you should give it a try.

[hwang4]

Masquerade , thank you for your help!

Finally , I found the right oo2core.dll!

oo2reck (7) + srep+ lolz

23gb ------> 16.6gb

[KaktoR]

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous
Enhanced Edition

 10:58:21 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:munity,lz4hc,l12:lz4_193+srep_new:1+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000
 10:58:21 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1b-01.bin was: srep_new:1+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 10:58:22 - Compression initialized in 01.10.2022 at 10:58:22.
 10:58:23 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.
 12:46:03 - Moving Data1a-01.bin file to media folder.
 12:46:04 - Starting Data1b-01.bin archive creation.
 12:59:09 - Moving Data1b-01.bin file to media folder.
 12:59:10 - Compression finished in 01.10.2022 at 12:59:10.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 12:59:10 - Getting size of the game: Pathfinder - Wrath of the Righteous
 12:59:10 - » Installation folder size: 37.88 GB
 12:59:10 - » Data1a-01.bin file size: 14.17 GB
 12:59:10 - » Data1b-01.bin file size: 3.85 GB
 12:59:10 - » Compressed game size: 18.02 GB (Ratio 47.58%)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 12:59:10 - Overall input size: 37.88 GB
 12:59:10 - Overall output size: 18.02 GB (Ratio 47.58%)
 12:59:10 - Overall conversion time: 02:00:38

[KaktoR]

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection

I made this as a test and showcase with use of quickbms + bink patching. In this case use of quickbms is possible because game files are not compressed (or at least not seem).

Steps:

1. Make Backup of original archives (Data\movies_*.meg)
2. Unpack original archives (Data\movies_*.meg) with quickbms
   

   for %%f in ("MOVIES_*.MEG") do quickbms_4gb_files -d -o -Y petroglyph.bms "%%f"

3. Compress binks and make patches (bink_pack.exe, bink_unpack.exe, hdiffz.exe, hpatchz.exe)
   There are some bk2 files which even bink_unpack.exe has problems with, so patch size is same as original size (416mb diff size). Take care of them.
4. Null unpacked bk2 files (fill contents with zeros)
5. Reimport nulled bk2 files with quickbms into original archives (petroglyph.bms)
   

   quickbms_4gb_files -w -r petroglyph.bms "input .meg file" "input folder containing nulled bk2 files"

   Before reimporting you have to separate all the files in the unpacked folders, you only need bk2 files for reimporting
   Tbh I don't know if quickbms has a option to just import defined file types lol
   Remove Data\movies_*.meg.bak files if there are any (quickbms creates these files I guess)
6. Delete all (nulled) bk2 files, so you have just compressed binks and patch files + nulled .meg archives left
   These nulled .meg archives have a compression ratio by nearly 0%, so don't mind the size of these (14.8 GB -> some KB)
7. Compress the game
8. Include required files in Installer or game folder (before compress the game)
9. Let your Installer run a batch file to do it's job after extracting all files (example batch)

Installation/batch stuff will take some time, .meg archives are crc perfect at the end.

Results:

 15:11:02 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: srep_new:1+4x4:b64mb:lzma:ultra:64m:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:35:12 - Overall input size: 36.90 GB
 15:35:12 - Overall output size: 15.67 GB (Ratio 42.47%)
 15:35:12 - Overall conversion time: 00:24:08

Results without quickbms + bink patching stuff:
https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...postcount=1772

[Wanterlude]

Terra Invicta (v.0.3.18)

XTool (Unity plugin + liblz4 1.9.3)+srep+lolz

Compressed 979 files, 20,418,359,013 => 7,908,853,159 bytes. Ratio 38.73%
Compression time: cpu 149.16 sec/real 9259.21 sec = 2%. Speed 2.21 mB/s
Overall conversion time: 02:34:21

19.02 GB => 7.37 GB

[angeldarkRS]

Originally Posted by Wanterlude

Terra Invicta (v.0.3.18)

XTool (Unity plugin + liblz4 1.9.3)+srep+lolz

Compressed 979 files, 20,418,359,013 => 7,908,853,159 bytes. Ratio 38.73%
Compression time: cpu 149.16 sec/real 9259.21 sec = 2%. Speed 2.21 mB/s
Overall conversion time: 02:34:21

19.02 GB => 7.37 GB

What specs your PC/Laptop?