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

[L33THAK0R]

Hi all has anyone else had any issues with recompressing "Ghost Recon Wildlands" .forge archives? I've tried the following:

XTool 0.6.5 (Anvil) + Srep + Lolz

74,326,347,887 bytes -> 20,662,955,336 bytes

as well as

AFR v0.0.1.9 (v0.0.2.0a7 detects and seemingly picks up streams, but spits out an error code and fails to write to disk) + srep + lolz

74,326,347,887 bytes -> 21,147,452,370 bytes

I've had decent success with previous Anvil Engine titles (save for "Assassin's Creed III" (the original, I'm currently testing remastered)), however it seems like Wildlands is giving me a whole lot of strife. Attempting to decompress the XTool-based test yields an almost immediate installer crash, as does attempting to decompress the AFR test when using the CLS plugin or AFR v0.0.1.9 (the latter at least offers a "-11" error code instead of an unceremonious CTD) , however attempting to use v0.0.2.0a7 results in a partially successful decompression, however failure occurs around the halfway point. Has anyone else experienced any similar behavior, at this point I'm a bit reluctant to attempt any further attempts due to the write endurance costs resulting from this behemoth of a title.

[Masquerade]

I did Wildlands either last year or year before and had no issues with AFR.

[KaktoR]

A Plague Tale Requiem

*.dpc -> zlib

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by KaktoR

A Plague Tale Requiem

*.dpc -> zlib

Different voice packs are all contained in VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK - use WWise PCK BMS script from here to extract and then use XTool erase command to remove unneeded voice packs.

[KaktoR]

Does not work here, or lets say only partial.

Seems like xtool just erase some files, as I can see in hex editor filled sectors with zeros. But if I extract the archive once again, all files are still there.

Maybe I do it just wrong lol

Edit: Oh ok, the extracted files are zero'ed, now I got it.

Edit 2: Forget my prevous edit. Seems like this one worked correctly (before I was using wildcards for the folders/files)

xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\chinese(simplified)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl
xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\french(france)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl
xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl
xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\spanish(spain)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

I did Wildlands either last year or year before and had no issues with AFR.

I'm gonna give the EMPRESS release a shot, was originally basing my tests off the Steampunks release, fingers crossed I have better luck with it, out of curiosity, do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

Latest Edison version. P.S. don't discuss Warez on this forum - it's against the rules!

[Edison007]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

I'm gonna give the EMPRESS release a shot, was originally basing my tests off the Steampunks release, fingers crossed I have better luck with it, out of curiosity, do you happen to remember which version of AFR you used?

AFR versions above 019 are unstable. Crashed when using mt-unpacking.

[Razor12911]

Originally Posted by L33THAK0R

I've had decent success with previous Anvil Engine titles (save for "Assassin's Creed III" (the original, I'm currently testing remastered)), however it seems like Wildlands is giving me a whole lot of strife. Attempting to decompress the XTool-based test yields an almost immediate installer crash, as does attempting to decompress the AFR test when using the CLS plugin or AFR v0.0.1.9 (the latter at least offers a "-11" error code instead of an unceremonious CTD) , however attempting to use v0.0.2.0a7 results in a partially successful decompression, however failure occurs around the halfway point. Has anyone else experienced any similar behavior, at this point I'm a bit reluctant to attempt any further attempts due to the write endurance costs resulting from this behemoth of a title.

unpackcmd = xtool.exe decode --verbose $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

Try xtool in verbose mode to see what error message it produces.

I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

DataPC.forge

Tested 1 file, 10,925,907,848 => 8,042,348,544 bytes. Ratio 135.85%
Testing time: cpu 8.38 sec/real 238.37 sec = 4%. Speed 33.74 mB/s

[Cesar82]

Originally Posted by Razor12911

unpackcmd = xtool.exe decode --verbose $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

Try xtool in verbose mode to see what error message it produces.

I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

DataPC.forge

Tested 1 file, 10,925,907,848 => 8,042,348,544 bytes. Ratio 135.85%
Testing time: cpu 8.38 sec/real 238.37 sec = 4%. Speed 33.74 mB/s

I don't know if the extraction done by @L33THAK0R is being done on Windows 11, but I couldn't get lzo2.dll to work on windows 11, maybe I need a recompilation of the lzo2.dll library to make it compatible with Windows 11.
Also the old library zlibwapi.dll (from the old xtool) doesn't work, however the new library zlibwapi.dll shared with the new xtool works perfectly with Windows 11.

[fabrieunko]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

Different voice packs are all contained in VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK - use WWise PCK BMS script from here to extract and then use XTool erase command to remove unneeded voice packs.

can you tell me if i think i'm doing it right?

I launch quickbms, I open the WWise.bms file then the VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK file



it is extracted from wma files in directories (chinese(simplified)/english(us)/french(france)/german/spanish(spain)

if i want to delete the german i type in a back window (from the post of KaktoR)

xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by fabrieunko

can you tell me if i think i'm doing it right?

I launch quickbms, I open the WWise.bms file then the VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK file



it is extracted from wma files in directories (chinese(simplified)/english(us)/french(france)/german/spanish(spain)

if i want to delete the german i type in a back window (from the post of KaktoR)

xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl

Make batch files for this, so you don't have to type all manually in cmd.

unpack.bat for quickbms

for %%f in (*.pck) do quickbms_4gb_files.exe -d -o -Y wwise.bms "%%f"
pause

xtool_erase.bat for xtool

xtool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" test.xtl

This will delete all german voice files from the file.

PS: Make a backup of the file first

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Cesar82

I couldn't get lzo2.dll to work on windows 11, maybe I need a recompilation of the lzo2.dll library to make it compatible with Windows 11.

Originally Posted by Razor12911

[CODE]
I have tested this game once before and found no errors having only lzo2.dll in directory with xtool.exe

I'm so sorry for wasting your time lads, bit of backstory, I use a separate ASIS installation to test my archives, I'd just finished wrapping up my "Assassin's Creed" "Odyssey/Origins" compressions and was using the same setup.dll which didn't contain lzo2.dll, after updating the setup.dll archive decompression was successful with my xtool-based test.

[Masquerade]

Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection Precompression

Using the oo2core_9_win64.dll from game folder:

Compressing animtex0.psarc, 47,187,477 bytes

xtool v0.6.5 (-mkraken)

Compressed 1 file, 47,187,477 => 180,655,223 bytes. Ratio 382.85%
Compression time: cpu 0.05 sec/real 6.76 sec = 1%. Speed 6.98 mB/s
All OK

xtool v0.6.5 (-mkraken:n256)

Compressed 1 file, 47,187,477 => 183,093,362 bytes. Ratio 388.01%
Compression time: cpu 0.06 sec/real 11.78 sec = 1%. Speed 4.01 mB/s
All OK

oo2reck (rename oo2core_9_win64.dll to oo2core_7_win64.dll)

Compressed 1 file, 47,187,477 => 183,176,064 bytes. Ratio 388.19%
Compression time: cpu 0.08 sec/real 15.15 sec = 1%. Speed 3.11 mB/s
All OK

[dixen]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection Precompression
Using the oo2core_9_win64.dll from game folder:

And zlib also

XTool v0.53 (zlib+kraken)

Compressing 4 files, 58,792,062 bytes. Processed 0%
Compressing 58,792,062 bytes with xtool.exe precomp -mzlib+reflate+kraken -c128mb -t100p $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp
XTool is created by Razor12911

Streams: 6445/6445
Time: 00:00:50 (00:00:49)
Memory: 331 MB (331 MB)

100%
Errorlevel=0
Compressed 4 files, 58,792,062 => 211,162,930 bytes. Ratio 359.17%
Compression time: cpu 0.02 sec/real 50.73 sec = 0%. Speed 1.16 mB/s
All OK

XTool v0.53 (only kraken)

Compressing 4 files, 58,792,062 bytes. Processed 0%
Compressing 58,792,062 bytes with xtool.exe precomp -mkraken -c128mb -t100p $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp
XTool is created by Razor12911

Streams: 6370/6370
Time: 00:00:45 (00:00:44)
Memory: 298 MB (298 MB)

100%
Errorlevel=0
Compressed 4 files, 58,792,062 => 197,760,883 bytes. Ratio 336.37%
Compression time: cpu 0.00 sec/real 46.67 sec = 0%. Speed 1.26 mB/s
All OK