[Solved] Looking for: Rom/ISO compression guide/advise for GameCube games??

[G00Glethis1]

I think I figured it out: the easiest / best method for anybody who comes across this, *thanks to shonumi & jhonn:

Start here-> ISO -> Trim ISO in GameCube ISO Tool -> Compress trimmed ISO to GCZ in Dolphin -> GCZ file <- End Here!!

Here is an example how much I was able to compress a GameCube called 4 x 4 Evo 2:

ISO: 1.36GB / 1,392MB -> Trimmed ISO: 552MB -> Trimmed ISO compressed to GCZ: 264 MB !!!!

THAT IS 81% savings in space/mb Hell yeah!!!

So far my test show no flaws in game performance....

[Admentus]

Ohh, trimming with the GameCube ISO Tool and afterwards compressing it with Dolphin to GCM format works quite fine. Just be sure to have a backup if you mess up.

Anyway, on my SSD drive were I use my actual games (I still do use a large external TB hard drive disk for the uncompressed storage, hidden away somewhere safe), I managed to reduce the file sizes of my GameCube games even further, which is quite useful on my limited SSD. Just a few examples here:

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: 332 MB
Mario Kart: Double Dash: 386 MB
Luigi's Mansion: 153 MB
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: 850 MB

I should still be careful through. If I mess up I either need to redump my game again or retreive my uncompressed rip stored on that external hard drive disk. Eventually it all depends on the game. Wii games (through the use of WiiScrubber and Dolphin's own compression) caan of course yield greater compression results since the game discs are larger. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is one of those examples where I compressed it to 347 MB while the original disc size is about 4.7 GB. Quite the difference huh? Of course it completely breaks all MD5 hashes.

[mbc07]

As far as I remember the following command is enough to scrub GC/Wii ISOs with WIT and store them as GCZ:

Code:

wit COPY <path to source ISO> --gcz <path to destination GCZ>

It also works between GCZs as well (e.g. passing an unscrubbed GCZ made by Dolphin as source and getting a scrubbed GCZ as output)...

[G00Glethis1]

(02-04-2017, 06:34 PM)Jhonn Wrote: Thanks @Jhonn. Is there syntax to add to that command (below) to do more than one iso within the same directory? 

I wouldnt mind playing around 
As far as I remember the following command is enough to scrub GC/Wii ISOs with WIT and store them as GCZ:

Code:

wit COPY <path to source ISO> --gcz <path to destination GCZ>

It also works between GCZs as well (e.g. passing an unscrubbed GCZ made by Dolphin as source and getting a scrubbed GCZ as output)...

[matheusstaffa]

Amazing! But compressing iso files like xenoblade will reduce the performance? Also playing games with "shader compilation sluttering" on a SSD will increase performance?

[JosJuice]

(02-07-2017, 11:01 PM)matheusstaffa Wrote: Amazing! But compressing iso files like xenoblade will reduce the performance?

Not with any of the compression formats that Dolphin currently supports. The only GC/Wii disc image format I know of that is likely to reduce the performance is WIA.

(02-07-2017, 11:01 PM)matheusstaffa Wrote: Also playing games with "shader compilation sluttering" on a SSD will increase performance?

No.

[G00Glethis1]

the compression works great.....if you are doing each game...one by one..... :-(

I will update if anybody adds to the discussion on a more efficient and impressive way of bulk compression , otherwise I have found so far:

1) Wiimm's WIT Tools: I have not been able to find syntax / command to add to the following below to process more than one ISO @ a time... jhonn please correct me if I am wrong... I have yet to find that feature this exist in CL tool...

Code:
wit COPY <path to source ISO> --gcz <path to destination GCZ>

2) Same thing with Gamecube ISO tool for trimming. The tool does a great job trimming down ISO but the GUI only allows for one ISO to be trimmed at a time. :-( I have yet to find BULK trim has to exist. PLUS (rant); another annoying feature of this tool is that there is no way to stop Gamecube ISO Tool from renaming the trimmed ISO by default other than manual input (end rant?)

3) I have found Dolphin does allow for BULK ISO to GCZ compression which yields slightly less impressive compression results: Less than 10% savings on space VS the current manual method: Start here-> ISO -> Trim ISO in GameCube ISO Tool -> Compress trimmed ISO to GCZ in Dolphin -> GCZ file <- End Here!! which resulted in up to over 80% savings on space.

I would like to learn how to make such tools yet have realized that the amount of time invested to make that happen, I'd probably better get on with doing it manually one by one...

[G00Glethis1]

@Jhonn: "It also works between GCZs as well (e.g. passing an unscrubbed GCZ made by Dolphin as source and getting a scrubbed GCZ as output)."


^^^Is there a BULK command??

[mbc07]

There's a recursive option in WIT but I never managed to get it working on the copy command, so, just use the for statement from Command Prompt instead. Enter in the folder with your ISO files and run the following command:

Code:

for %i in (*.*) do (<full path to where wit.exe is stored> COPY %i --gcz %i_scrubbed.gcz)

[G00Glethis1]

(02-08-2017, 08:02 AM)Jhonn Wrote: There's a recursive option in WIT but I never managed to get it working on the copy command, so, just use the for statement from Command Prompt instead. Enter in the folder with your ISO files and run the following command:

Code:

for %i in (*.*) do (<full path to where wit.exe is stored> COPY %i --gcz %i_scrubbed.gcz)

Sounds like a brilliant command. I'm not familiar with the syntax. Only problem is I'm still trying to grasp my mind around where to fill in the _____(blanks...) of what goes where?

Example:

1) My ISO directory?

Example: F:\GC_Games\*.iso

2) When I installed Wiimms WIT it installed in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Wiimm\WIT\wit.exe

3) So would that make the command....?:

EXAMPLE COMMAND:

Code:

for %i in (F:\GC_Games\*.iso) do (C:\Program Files (x86)\Wiimm\WIT\wit.exe COPY %i --gcz %i_scrubbed.gcz)

[EDIT]^^^That did not work for me. Received the following message: "\Wiimm\WIT\wit.exe was unexpected at this time." BTW, I am running the command prompt as administrator...

[EDIT #2] I ended up just changing into the directory, yet I'm still getting an error...

Code:

*****  wit: Wiimms ISO Tool v2.40a r7331 cygwin - Dirk Clemens - 2017-01-05  *****
!! wit: ERROR #27 [CAN'T OPEN FILE] in SetupReadSF() @ src/lib-sf.c#447
!!      Can't open file: ZooCube

4) I promise I have opposable thumbs and I deserve to keep them...for now...