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

[L33THAK0R]

When it comes to testing oodle libraries is it just trial and error like with testing LZ4 libraries? Haven't tackled a ton of Oodle titles and currently taking a crack at "Wolfenstein Cyberpilot". Testing with the included "oo2core_6_win64.dll" reveals with verbose mode in xtool that only level 4 streams are successfully processed, however the sample I'm using for testing only ~300/900 streams are processed with this resulting in only a 100.10% output. I should know how to deal with Oodle by now, but in the past I've been lazy and just read through the posts here to figure out which library to use.

[KaktoR]

@L33THAK0R
With XToolUI you can use library checker.

[KaktoR]

Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon

 11:30:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1a-01.bin was: xtool:mkraken,l9:core_2.8.14+xtool:dd3+4x4:lzma
 11:30:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1b-01.bin was: xtool:c1024mb:mbk2:df20p+xtool:dd3
 11:30:01 - Selected ARC/DS method for Data1c-01.bin was: xtool:dd3+4x4:lzma
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xtool erase
 11:30:01 - Executing external file (Call Before 1a)...
 11:34:22 - Starting Data1a-01.bin archive creation.

xtool decode
 14:54:37 - Executing external file (Call After 1c)...
 14:59:51 - Compression finished in 27.08.2023 at 14:59:51.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 14:59:52 - Overall input size: 59.69 GB
 14:59:52 - Overall output size: 40.99 GB (Ratio 68.68%)
 14:59:52 - Overall conversion time: 03:29:42

All files are matching with the original files after installation (use xtool decode + the xtl file).

PS: I don't know what's up with that sd.bdt file. Maybe someone can check it as it is not compressed with kraken.

[Masquerade]

I think SD.bdt is sound data? Not sure

Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon

1. Xtool erase Movies folder from Data0.BDT

2. Compress:

• *.bdt
  

  xtool_kraken_dd5+lolz

• *.bk2
  

  xtool_bk2_dd5_fl2

• Everything else:
  

  razor

3: Xtool decode database you made in Step 1 to restore Data0.bdt.

59.7GB ---> 38.2GB

[shazzla]

Guys!

Those duplicated bk2 files in data0.bdt are required to run the game ?
(Im away from my compo)

[KaktoR]

Not entirely sure. You can start the game normally, and the first videos + intro will show (if you cut bk2 videos from Data0.bdt). But I cannot speak for the whole game.

If you move the movie folder or rename it, the game will not even start.

[shazzla]

Sorry for offtopic,but kaktor ,can u please check your msgs? A few days ago i sent u a pm.... thanks!

[L33THAK0R]

Uses Kraken, after testing with KaktoR's Oodle library collection, v2.9.0 seems to yield the best results, however even with this library a considerable number of streams are dropped. Against the attached sample 88/231 steams are processed (full recompression currently, as reported by XTool, indicates 6248/7387 streams are processed), verbose output indicates streams are at a depth of L4.

xtool 0.7.8 (-mkraken:l4:n128:t256+zlib+reflate) + srep + lolz

It should be noted that it seems at least with the current library re-compression isn't very effective, with the reinflated output only being ~10MB larger than the initial input. The original Oodle DLL matches the CRC-32 checksum for library v2.6.0, when compared against KaktoR's kindly supplied checksums for all current library.

16,606,744,418 => 14,348,641,273 bytes. Ratio 86.40%

[Masquerade]

What does the Oodle srream scanner say?

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by Danziel123

Hi, sorry if i join to discuss. How to do it in DSG? thank you

Database preset is now up for download (check in DSG for update).

However in CIU something has to be added in Setup.ini

[CMDCommands]
if exist "{app}\ac6for.xtl" (
"{tmp}\XTool_2020\XTool.exe" decode "{app}\ac6for.xtl" "{app}\Game\movie" "{app}\Game\Data0.bdt"
del /F /S /Q "{app}\ac6for.xtl"
TIMEOUT 3
)

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

What does the Oodle srream scanner say?

Here is the output for the stream scanner, as well as the output for the library checker.

[Masquerade]

No, I meant the oo2scan_7_win64.exe by Razor12911, as it lists these algorithms:

Universal Oodle stream scanner

Created by Razor12911

[0] = Unknown/Invalid
[1] = Kraken/Hydra
[2] = Mermaid/Selkie/Hydra
[3] = Leviathan/Hydra

If you scan and you see [1] appearing, it could be that you are seeing Hydra streams, not kraken.

Try extracting a single stream from the sample you are testing on using XTool verbose output and a Hex editor and attempt to precompress it with oo2reck. If it *is* a Kraken stream, it will be inflated. Otherwise, try Hydra.

[Jarmen_Kell]

Hey guys. Is there any suggested method for ARMA III?

[L33THAK0R]

Originally Posted by Masquerade

No, I meant the oo2scan_7_win64.exe by Razor12911, as it lists these algorithms:

Universal Oodle stream scanner

Created by Razor12911

[0] = Unknown/Invalid
[1] = Kraken/Hydra
[2] = Mermaid/Selkie/Hydra
[3] = Leviathan/Hydra

If you scan and you see [1] appearing, it could be that you are seeing Hydra streams, not kraken.

Try extracting a single stream from the sample you are testing on using XTool verbose output and a Hex editor and attempt to pre-compress it with oo2reck. If it *is* a Kraken stream, it will be inflated. Otherwise, try Hydra.

I'm seeing results for both [1] and [3], however using XTool's GUI and testing each library against the sample, now with both the Kraken and Hydra codecs, still results in the same number of streams being successfully pre-compressed, when compared to only using Kraken. I've got a feeling it may in this case be Leviathan & Kraken, and I'm aware of how annoying Leviathan is to process since theres a notable manual element to pre-compressing this Oodle variant. I might investigate this title further, at some point in the future, once I'm more confident with working with undocumented Oodle titles.

[KaktoR]

If I may quote Razor12911 on this:

He should give up
2.6.0 leviathan
2.9.0 kraken