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

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

I checked this game out and it uses lz4hc, not lz4.

Ah that'd definitely explain things, I didn't even think to see if I was using the wrong codec

Originally Posted by Masquerade

I think you are overthinking this.

First of all, bms2xtl exists so you half of the job is already done for you. The other half of the job is about 20 minutes and a bit of guessing work

Yeah I was using bms2xtl, just thought rebuilding an archive would be the next step if I couldn't figure out how to pick up more streams.

Cheers for the help and testing mate

[L33THAK0R]

Over the last couple days I've been testing "BMS2XTOOL" on ".pxp" archives to try and see if through this method it's possible to both decrypt + expand the compressed streams present within a given ".pxp" archive, to make re-compressing said archives a viable prospect. However I've hit a roadblock unfortunately, as I can get xTool (v0.5.0) to detect some streams, but can't seem to figure out what codec to use, to actually process the majority of said streams.

Currently I'm associating the compressor type, "ZENPXP" with the "zlib" codec for use with "BMS2XTOOL", and combining this with the "reflate" codec in my arc.ini.

For anyone interested, attached below is a sample testing suite, as well as just a copy of BMS2XTOOL, with the appropriate resources to generate your own database for said sample, should anyone be interested in looking at this. I've also tried to see if it's been documented anywhere within QuickBMS the compression algorithm used for a given "comtype" in a QuickBMS script but alas this doesn't seem to be the case

[Spotless]

VALORANT: Episode 4 Act 3

srep+lolz

23.5 GB> 7.2GB

[iamsmeg]

okay I am having problems getting this to work what am I doing wrong
I place the wd1.xtl and xcompress in my xtool folder and use

xtool precomp -mwd1 common.dat common.tmp

it runs for a a few seconds and nothing happens it doesn't even make a common.tmp file

[iamsmeg]

sorry I forgot to say this is for Watch dogs 1 using the database method posted here

[pslove]

Hey guys, what's the best method for The Walking Dead Definitive Series? I'm using DiskSpan GUI btw. Thank you.

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by pslove

Hey guys, what's the best method for The Walking Dead Definitive Series? I'm using DiskSpan GUI btw. Thank you.

Telltale game, so all of the ttarch2 files that have headers beginning with ECTT are encrypted using Blowfish encryption.

In this case, DiskspanGUI has nothing to handle those files. I would use cls-ttgd by Shegorat, but that isn't a public tool.

Use this to decrypt the files: https://www.fileforums.com/showthread.php?p=483980

Then, compress with xtool(zlib+reflate)+srep+lolz. You can re-encrypt your decrypted files from earlier using the same tool to get MD5 perfectiom upon installation.

[kuyhaa]

hi guys, i want try to repack Harvest Moon: One World

from 850 Mb to 736 Mb , method pak folder srep+lolz

i see on fitgirl , she is got 196 Mb

have info ?

[Hexagon123]

Originally Posted by kuyhaa

hi guys, i want try to repack Harvest Moon: One World

from 850 Mb to 736 Mb , method pak folder srep+lolz

i see on fitgirl , she is got 196 Mb

have info ?

Seems to use Unity, try XTool or UBT?

[kuyhaa]

Originally Posted by Hexagon123

Seems to use Unity, try XTool or UBT?

precomp xtool doesn't work

[Dragonis40]

Hello everybody! A simple question: does a more powerful PC give better compression results rather then a less powerful one?

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by Dragonis40

Hello everybody! A simple question: does a more powerful PC give better compression results rather then a less powerful one?

No, only the speed is different.

[pslove]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

Telltale game, so all of the ttarch2 files that have headers beginning with ECTT are encrypted using Blowfish encryption.

In this case, DiskspanGUI has nothing to handle those files. I would use cls-ttgd by Shegorat, but that isn't a public tool.

Use this to decrypt the files: https://www.fileforums.com/showthread.php?p=483980

Then, compress with xtool(zlib+reflate)+srep+lolz. You can re-encrypt your decrypted files from earlier using the same tool to get MD5 perfectiom upon installation.

I did this and the compression took a while but the results are dissapointing:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------- CONVERSION DATE 15/05/2022 -------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 11:52:56 - Deleting files from the output folder.
 11:52:56 - Files have been deleted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 11:52:56 - You have chosen the DVD5 type for the media size.
 11:52:56 - ISO images will not be created when conversion is complete.
 11:52:56 - The computer will remain on when the conversion is complete.
 11:52:56 - Selected ARC/DS method for Setup-1a.bin was: xtool:mzlib:mreflate+srep_new+lolz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 11:52:58 - Compression initialized in 15/05/2022 at 11:52:58.
 11:52:58 - Starting Setup-1a.bin archive creation.
 21:19:03 - Moving Setup-1a.bin » Setup-10a.bin files to media folder.
 21:19:05 - Compression finished in 16/05/2022 at 21:19:05.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21:19:05 - Getting size of the game: The Walking Dead - Definitive Series
 21:19:05 - » Installation folder size: 45.49 GB
 21:19:05 - » Compressed game size: 41.54 GB (Ratio 91.32%)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21:19:05 - Overall input size: 45.49 GB
 21:19:05 - Overall output size: 41.54 GB (Ratio 91.32%)
 21:19:05 - Overall conversion time: 26:37:47
 21:19:05 - Overall conversion discs: 10 DVD5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21:31:17 - Merging Records.ini into the Setup.dll file.
 21:31:17 - The Records.ini file was merged into Setup.dll successfully!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did I do something wrong? I used the tool you told me and I checked MD5s before and after decryption to make sure the files are decrypted, and they were different so I assumed the decryption was successful.

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by pslove

so I assumed the decryption was successful.

To assume makes an ass out of u and me

Anyways...

Make sure you used the correct key for decrypting the data. Check in hex editor that the decrypted file starts with ZCTT. ECTT will be an encrypted archive, ZCTT means you did it correctly.

Test on a single TTARCH2, decrypt and see if you can inflate it with XTool. If you decrypted it right, you will get correct ZCTT header and XTool will be able to precompress the data.

[kj911]

Harvest Moon: Its probably use SREP and RZ (v1.00) and two LOLZ version (last and older v20d3) compressors used from final packing. And ISDone x64 v0.6.0.2!

This piggy and fbz compressor tell someone something?