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

[LILU]

CONVERSION DATE 2024.08.07 --------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 11:08:13 - You have chosen the DVD5 type for the media size.
 11:08:13 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 11:08:13 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 11:08:13 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1a-01.bin was: xtool:t90p:mkraken:mmermaid:core_2.9.10:lib_2:dd3+lolz:d107:mtt1:dtb1:mt12:dm34:gm00:mc1023:fba4096
 11:08:13 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1b-01.bin was: 4x4:b96mb:lzma:ultra:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000:96mb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 11:08:14 - Compression initialized in 07.08.2024 at 11:08:14.
 11:08:14 - Starting Albe1a-01.bin archive creation.
 14:29:46 - Moving Albe1a-01.bin » Albe1a-02.bin files to media folder.
 14:29:46 - Starting Albe1b-01.bin archive creation.
 14:30:40 - Moving Albe1b-01.bin file to media folder.
 14:30:40 - Compression finished in 07.08.2024 at 14:30:40.
 14:30:40 - Updating new files into the Setup.dll file.
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 14:30:41 - Getting size of the game: Last Whisper
 14:30:41 - » Installation folder size: 11,85 GB
 14:30:41 - » Albe1a-01.bin file size: 8,02 GB
 14:30:41 - » Albe1b-01.bin file size: 95,32 MB
 14:30:41 - » Compressed game size: 8,11 GB (Ratio 68.44%)
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 14:30:41 - Overall input size: 11,85 GB
 14:30:41 - Overall output size: 8,11 GB (Ratio 68.44%)
 14:30:41 - Overall conversion time: 03:22:25
 14:30:41 - Overall conversion discs: 2 DVD5
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[LILU]

 CONVERSION DATE 2024.08.08 --------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:25:36 - Deleting files from the output folder.
 18:25:36 - Files have been deleted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:25:36 - You have chosen the DVD9 type for the media size.
 18:25:36 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 18:25:36 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 18:25:36 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1a-01.bin (*.ucas *.utoc *.pak) was: xtool:t90p:mkraken:mmermaid:core_2.9.10:lib_2:dd3+lolz:d113:mtt1:dtb1:mt12:ldmf1:dm34:gm00:mc1023:fba4096
 18:25:36 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1b-01.bin (*.mp3 *.wav) was: msc_tak
 18:25:36 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1c-01.bin (*.bk2) was: xtool:c1792mb:mbk2:df20p+4x4:b96mb:lzma:ultra:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000:96mb
 18:25:36 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1d-01.bin (*.jpg *.jpeg) was: xtool:mjojpeg
 18:25:36 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1e-01.bin was: 4x4:b96mb:lzma:ultra:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000:96mb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:25:37 - Compression initialized in 08.08.2024 at 18:25:37.
 18:25:37 - Starting Albe1a-01.bin archive creation.
 20:11:57 - Moving Albe1a-01.bin file to media folder.
 20:11:57 - Starting Albe1b-01.bin archive creation.
 20:12:13 - Moving Albe1b-01.bin file to media folder.
 20:12:14 - Starting Albe1c-01.bin archive creation.
 20:14:34 - Moving Albe1c-01.bin file to media folder.
 20:14:34 - Starting Albe1d-01.bin archive creation.
 20:18:50 - Moving Albe1d-01.bin file to media folder.
 20:18:50 - Starting Albe1e-01.bin archive creation.
 20:19:50 - Moving Albe1e-01.bin file to media folder.
 20:19:50 - Compression finished in 08.08.2024 at 20:19:50.
 20:19:50 - Updating new files into the Setup.dll file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 20:19:51 - Getting size of the game: Creatures of Ava
 20:19:51 - » Installation folder size: 10,12 GB
 20:19:51 - » Albe1a-01.bin file size: 3,67 GB
 20:19:51 - » Albe1b-01.bin file size: 514,75 MB
 20:19:51 - » Albe1c-01.bin file size: 1,94 GB
 20:19:51 - » Albe1d-01.bin file size: 189,68 MB
 20:19:51 - » Albe1e-01.bin file size: 273,73 MB
 20:19:51 - » Compressed game size: 6,57 GB (Ratio 64.86%)
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 20:19:51 - Overall input size: 10,12 GB
 20:19:51 - Overall output size: 6,57 GB (Ratio 64.86%)
 20:19:51 - Overall conversion time: 01:54:13
 20:19:51 - Overall conversion discs: 1 DVD9
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[LILU]

 CONVERSION DATE 2024.08.09 --------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:51 - Deleting files from the output folder.
 15:04:51 - Files have been deleted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:51 - You have chosen the DVD9 type for the media size.
 15:04:51 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 15:04:51 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 15:04:51 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin (*.pak)was: xtool:c32mb:mue4:mkraken:core_2.9.10:lib_2+lolz:d127:mtt1:dtb1:mt12:ldmf1:dm34:gm00:mc1023:fba4096
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:52 - Compression initialized in 09.08.2024 at 15:04:52.
 15:04:53 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.
 17:55:24 - Moving Data1a-01.bin file to media folder.
 17:55:24 - Compression finished in 09.08.2024 at 17:55:24.
 17:55:24 - Updating new files into the Setup.dll file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 17:55:25 - Getting size of the game: Deathbound
 17:55:25 - » Installation folder size: 7,82 GB
 17:55:25 - » Compressed game size: 6,90 GB (Ratio 88.27%)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 17:55:25 - Overall input size: 7,82 GB
 17:55:25 - Overall output size: 6,90 GB (Ratio 88.27%)
 17:55:25 - Overall conversion time: 02:50:31
 17:55:25 - Overall conversion discs: 1 DVD9
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[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by LILU

 CONVERSION DATE 2024.08.09 --------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:51 - Deleting files from the output folder.
 15:04:51 - Files have been deleted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:51 - You have chosen the DVD9 type for the media size.
 15:04:51 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 15:04:51 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 15:04:51 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin (*.pak)was: xtool:c32mb:mue4:mkraken:core_2.9.10:lib_2+lolz:d127:mtt1:dtb1:mt12:ldmf1:dm34:gm00:mc1023:fba4096
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 15:04:52 - Compression initialized in 09.08.2024 at 15:04:52.
 15:04:53 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.
 17:55:24 - Moving Data1a-01.bin file to media folder.
 17:55:24 - Compression finished in 09.08.2024 at 17:55:24.
 17:55:24 - Updating new files into the Setup.dll file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 17:55:25 - Getting size of the game: Deathbound
 17:55:25 - » Installation folder size: 7,82 GB
 17:55:25 - » Compressed game size: 6,90 GB (Ratio 88.27%)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 17:55:25 - Overall input size: 7,82 GB
 17:55:25 - Overall output size: 6,90 GB (Ratio 88.27%)
 17:55:25 - Overall conversion time: 02:50:31
 17:55:25 - Overall conversion discs: 1 DVD9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess you don't really know what you are doing, right?

20:18:36 - Selected ARC method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:mkraken:core_2.9.5:dd3:l10,d128mb
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 20:43:21 - Overall input size: 7.75 GB
 20:43:21 - Overall output size: 6.13 GB (Ratio 79.09%)
 20:43:21 - Overall conversion time: 00:24:43

[Danziel123]

Hi everyone, may I ask if anyone knows the right compression method for the game railway empire 2? I have tried compressing using xtool:mzlib but the size does not change. here is the sample file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D_q...ew?usp=sharing

Thank you

[KaktoR]

Use reflate bro

[LILU]

 CONVERSION DATE 2024.08.11 --------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 09:55:59 - Deleting files from the output folder.
 09:56:00 - Files have been deleted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 09:56:00 - You have chosen the DVD9 type for the media size.
 09:56:00 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 09:56:00 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 09:56:00 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1a-01.bin (*.pak) was: xtool:t90p:mkraken:mmermaid:core_2.9.9:dd3+lzma2:d128m:fb273:lc4:mc1000000
 09:56:00 - Selected ARC/DS method for Albe1b-01.bin was: 4x4:b96mb:lzma:ultra:bt4:fb273:lc8:mc1000000:96mb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 09:56:01 - Compression initialized in 11.08.2024 at 09:56:01.
 09:56:01 - Starting Albe1a-01.bin archive creation.
 10:20:13 - Moving Albe1a-01.bin file to media folder.
 10:20:13 - Starting Albe1b-01.bin archive creation.
 10:21:17 - Moving Albe1b-01.bin file to media folder.
 10:21:17 - Compression finished in 11.08.2024 at 10:21:17.
 10:21:17 - Updating new files into the Setup.dll file.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 10:21:18 - Getting size of the game: Ratten Reich
 10:21:18 - » Installation folder size: 7,07 GB
 10:21:18 - » Albe1a-01.bin file size: 4,82 GB
 10:21:18 - » Albe1b-01.bin file size: 903,63 MB
 10:21:18 - » Compressed game size: 5,70 GB (Ratio 80.59%)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 10:21:18 - Overall input size: 7,07 GB
 10:21:18 - Overall output size: 5,70 GB (Ratio 80.59%)
 10:21:18 - Overall conversion time: 00:25:15
 10:21:18 - Overall conversion discs: 1 DVD9
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[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

I guess you don't really know what you are doing, right?

20:18:36 - Selected ARC method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:mkraken:core_2.9.5:dd3:l10,d128mb
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 20:43:21 - Overall input size: 7.75 GB
 20:43:21 - Overall output size: 6.13 GB (Ratio 79.09%)
 20:43:21 - Overall conversion time: 00:24:43

And yet he continues to clog up the thread all the same.

[Masquerade]

^^
No harm in learning, you need wind your neck in!! You too had to start somewhere and I don't see anyone else making frequent contribution to thread!

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

^^
No harm in learning, you need wind your neck in!! You too had to start somewhere and I don't see anyone else making frequent contribution to thread!

It's true there's no harm in learning, but posting sub-optimal results (in such large numbers to boot) is hardly worthy of commendation. Contributions of that nature shouldn't be encouraged in my mind, lest you wish to breed and normalise a culture of sub-par work.

[Masquerade]

^^
Look in the conversion index and you will see plenty of sub optimal results, why don't you go and correct them all since apparently you are now the judge and jury for what optimal results are?

And don't you dare suggest I encourage sub-par repacking, I take immense pride in the work and those who know me know I hate seeing messy and poor releases by other "repackers". Even I make mistakes from time to time. I also didn't see any commendation in my reply, only telling you to not act like a moron. You don't become a perfect repacker overnight and LILU will learn over time.

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

^^
Look in the conversion index and you will see plenty of sub optimal results, why don't you go and correct them all since apparently you are now the judge and jury for what optimal results are?

I have made a small impact on these sub-optimal results that you mention, but the truth is there's a disproportionately large number of titles that aren't that interesting to analyse and repack, and I've lacked the interest to tackle them. I'm by no means claiming to be a great repacker, of my current body of publicly available work (recorded at the time of publication for each), only 351/464 (75.64%) are record breakers (using other existing published results, with their choice of components as a base for comparison, and including lossless (if I made a lossy offering) to determine eligibility for record status), 27/464 (5.82%) are determined to be equal as a result of variance due to non-deterministic solutions used. Unfortunately then that leaves a massive 86/464 (18.53%) of published works being sub-optimal (largely due to either avoiding heavy compression, like for oodle titles for the sake of install-time, disproportionate (in regards to the install size of the title) additional read/write operations post-install, or a simple lack of ability to re-compress/decrypt assets) but you sure as heck won't find me posting those sub-optimal results here. I don't post the majority of my work here simply due to the fact there isn't much competition to encourage that sort of posting. I choose to just post the more interesting compressions that require specific tinkering to properly process, since I believe that's the sort of content that would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by Masquerade

And don't you dare suggest I encourage sub-par repacking, I take immense pride in the work and those who know me know I hate seeing messy and poor releases by other "repackers". Even I make mistakes from time to time. I also didn't see any commendation in my reply, only telling you to not act like a moron. You don't become a perfect repacker overnight and LILU will learn over time.

Your defense of his posting, at least to me seems to indicate you're supporting those practices, but hey if I'm misinterpreting that, I'm fine with admitting I'm at fault. In my eyes you can either support or condemn an issue, and I don't interpret this as the latter.

I fully support LILU in learning and striving to be one of the greats, but posting en masse a large swath of unhelpful and sub-optimal approaches for a variety of titles isn't helpful, least of all for future members who wish to learn. Asking specific questions, which might also be of assistance to future members is a much better approach, at least in my opinion.

I'll preface this last point, since you seem to be interpreting my comments as inflammatory that my goal is not to insult you or your friends, I'm just laying out what I see. I know you're part of a collective and I'm sure communication is tricky, but if I, by far a novice repacker is besting recent releases with very little effort, that doesn't indicate to me that you're as focused on achieving as optimal a result as you seem to be claiming to pursue.

Finally can I just ask you cool it with the insults? It's not very productive to conversation, and only results in escalating tensions, which I'm sure nobody wants.

[KaktoR]

To add something actually usefull to the discusion here and some information to the user LILU...

If using DSG you can add a additional parameter to xtool command line like ":lib_#" which just tells DSG to use another oodle library which might work better than the other which is actually the same version but not the very same version (if you know what I mean). To specify this a bit more, we can just take oodle library v2.9.10 for example. Currently we have two libraries of this version. The second one (named here as "core_2.9.10\oo2core_9_win64_2.dll") is a "leaked" library from the oodle SDK, which was never shipped by any game actually. This library will achive much better results then the other v2.9.10 library (in this case "core_2.9.10\oo2core_9_win64.dll"). This is simply due to the fact that the leaked library from the SDK has significant changes and some games were compiled with this specific library, so the other library doesn't work well simply because of the library code changes. But this also means that using the second library version inflationary does not give you automatically better results for games which were compressed with the first library. So this goes in both directions.

Included libraries in DSG are stored here: Resources\Win64\ADDONS\Libraries\Oodle\Oodle_Libs. 7z
There you can also see for which libraries you can use the additional parameter ":lib_#" (# = oo2core_#_win64_#.dll)

I suggest to use XToolUI (xtool.exe + xtoolui.dll) to test around with game files and different libraries so you know which library is the optimal to use. Some time ago I wrote some informations for beginners about this case. You should read this
https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...2&postcount=23
https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...8&postcount=24

[KaktoR]

Alan Wake 2
v1.1.1

 17:04:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:maw2:dd3+4x4:lzma
 17:04:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1b-01.bin was: xtool:dd3:l10,d128mb
 17:04:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1c-01.bin was: xtool:lm:c1500mb:mbik:mbk2:df20p
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21:36:36 - Overall input size: 132.08 GB
 21:36:36 - Overall output size: 74.84 GB (Ratio 56.66%)
 21:36:36 - Overall conversion time: 04:32:33

Notes:
- I have extracted all the bink videos from the game files. In my previous test using plain xtool with bms plugin and bink plugin was not working correctly for some reason. That's why I extracted and removed the files out of the game files with xtool. I attached xtl file for which you can extract the files aswell with xtool (use xtool extract command). This is why input is bigger in this case. Normal game size is about 100GB + 32GB extracted videos. Like I said the 32GB video files were removed from the game archives so the zero'd parts of the game files will compress with like ratio 0%, so the result (output) is the very same like as you weren't extracting the video files.
- The attached xtl file is compatible with game version 1.1.1. As long as future game updates does not modifiy any of the game files (diff-like) this xtl file should work.
- xtool command order for xtl file: 1. extract, 2. erase, 3. decode (after install with xtl file).
- I decided to not extract & process WEM files because I was just too lazy, sorry. In the end it doesn't give a big size loss anyway. This is only important for repackers anyways, but they know by now.
- To make a bms plugin use the bms script with bms2xtl with the following settings:
SafeMode=1
LZ4=lz4hc:l9
input files: *.rmdtoc

[Danziel123]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

Use reflate bro

Yhe result is the same as mzlib

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------- CONVERSION DATE 2024/08/13 -------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17:50:43 - You have chosen the unlimited type for the output size.
17:50:43 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
17:50:43 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
17:50:43 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:mreflate:dd3:l6,d128mb
17:50:43 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1b-01.bin was: xtool:dd3:l6,d128mb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17:50:45 - Compression initialized in 13/08/2024 at 17:50:45.
17:50:45 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.
18:55:46 - Moving Data1a-01.bin file to media folder.
18:55:47 - Starting Data1b-01.bin archive creation.
19:04:06 - Moving Data1b-01.bin file to media folder.
19:04:06 - Compression finished in 13/08/2024 at 19:04:06.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19:04:06 - Getting size of the game: Railway Empire 2
19:04:06 - Installation folder size: 33,94 GB
19:04:06 - Data1a-01.bin file size: 30,96 GB
19:04:06 - Data1b-01.bin file size: 5,66 GB
19:04:06 - Compressed game size: 36,62 GB (Ratio 107.89%)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19:04:06 - Overall input size: 33,94 GB
19:04:06 - Overall output size: 36,62 GB (Ratio 107.89%)
19:04:06 - Overall conversion time: 01:13:21
19:04:06 - Overall conversion media: 1 custom media
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