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

[G00Glethis1]

Title says it all:

I'm looking for advice on compressing GameCube ISO/Roms....

Currently I have me ISOs compressed in 7zip, which is nice but useless at the same time (not readable/playable in Dolphin terms)

Ideally I'm looking to compress the ISO into a format (I.e. CISO, GCM?, GCZ? , TGC? ) which is playable thru Dolphin.


I would also like to know from anyone who has experience with this topic on the outcome of compressing ISO, ie playable, reliability, best compression method and file extension, really anything else relevant to the topic.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to learning something new today from anyone who can pass on some knowledge to me and hopefully help someone else down the road.

!

EDIT: [SOLVED!!! SOLUTION BELOW]

[color=#000000]I [/color]think I figured it out: the easiest / best method for anybody who comes across this, *thanks to shonumi & jhonn:




[color=#000000]Start here-> ISO -> Trim ISO in GameCube ISO Tool -> Compress trimmed ISO to GCZ in Dolphin -> GCZ file <- End Here!![/color]





[color=#000000]Here is an example how much I was able to compress a GameCube called 4 x 4 Evo 2:[/color]





[color=#000000]ISO: 1.36GB / 1,392MB -> Trimmed ISO: 552MB -> Trimmed ISO compressed to GCZ: 264 MB !!!![/color]





[color=#000000]THAT IS 81% savings in space/mb Hell yeah!!![/color]


[color=#000000]So far my test show no flaws in game performance....[/color]

[Shonumi]

GCM offers the best compression, imo. 1:1 ratio, can't get better than that /s

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

In all seriousness, GCM is just an arbitrary extension people used for Gamecube disc images. It's basically dumping a game, then changing the last 3 letters of the file name.

Jokes aside, I'd probably just use GCZ if I had to choose, but these days I don't worry about space with TB drives.

[G00Glethis1]

Hahaha I needed a good laugh, thx brother. Go Bronies!!! 

[mbc07]

I always used GCZ for my library and never got any problems. But, if you want to save space, I recommend compressing your GameCube ISOs with Wiimms' WIT Tools instead of Dolphin, as Dolphin won't scrub the original GameCube image (but it'll do for Wii images). That also means the uncompressed ISO won't match anymore after unscrubbing, but the important areas (e.g. the actual files) will still be intact.

TL;DR, what I do is:
GameCube ISOs: dump them => make sure the MD5 matches a verified good dump => compress them to GCZ with WIT instead of Dolphin.
Wii ISOs: dump them => use "Verify Partition Integrity" option from Dolphin (or the equivalent command with WIT) => compress them to GCZ either with Dolphin or WIT as they'll achieve the same size in the end.

Never had any problems and still saved a lot of GBs...

[G00Glethis1]

Jhonn, you are brilliant sir!!! That info will help a lot mate!!!!

[G00Glethis1]

@Jhonn

First I would like to thank you for answering my question in the first place. I believe I found and installed the right version of the software WIT Windows variation: Cygwin (reference http://wit.wiimm.de ) , it appears there is not GUI variation of the program which seems very intimidating @first galance... Or am I just looking at this incorrectly...?

If it is command line, do you have any recommendation on syntax for a bulk scrub of GameCube ISOs within the same directory?

I'd figure I'd ask the question, you maybe able to answer this question faster than I can and would more than likely get asked again in the future if not by me someone else who discovers this thread....

[G00Glethis1]

**I guess I should have said syntax / commands for bulk scrub /gcz conversion....

[Shonumi]

(02-04-2017, 04:23 PM)G00Glethis1 Wrote: it appears there is not GUI variation of the program which seems very intimidating @first galance... Or am I just looking at this incorrectly...?

The tools Jhonn mentioned are indeed command-line only, however, there is at least one GUI for it. It's a bit old, but maybe this could help -> https://code.google.com/archive/p/qtwitgui/downloads It probably won't work with the latest versions of WIT. Wii Backup Fusion is only slightly more up-to-date.

Alternatively, you could use the Gamecube ISO Tool. That has a trimming (i.e. scrubbing) option to reduce the file size of the disc image. It has a GUI and has been around for quite a while now.

[G00Glethis1]

@shonumi

Great job!

I did manage to stumble my way across qtwitgui, even though the program was nagging about not recognizing the newest wit.exe version installed in c:\ path directory. It would appear the project has either bust or no active development.

I'll give GameCube ISO Tool a shot and report back on results!

I'm also will keep checking in on the pulse of this thread if you, jhonn, or anyone else brings anything "fresh" at least to me on "discovering" ancient history here.... Hahaha ooooo GameCube.........

[G00Glethis1]

@shonumi

Very happy with the results of GameCube ISO Tool so far!!!

Now I'm deliberating if it's even worth taking it a step further to convert the trimmed ISO to gcz for further compression....or will I end up like Icarus except the part about free failing from the sky with wax wingz and I R dealing with reliability issues with freezing up game, etc. WWSD (what would shonumi do????)