Should I compress my roms (zip/rar/7z) Or upgrade my HDD?

[scooter1974]

Is this the script you were referring to Styphelus?

http://www.rlauncher.com/forum/showthread.php?1873-Batch-Command-Line-RAR5-Compressing&p=16372&viewfull=1#post16372

[swimminginthoughts]

I know it's already been answered, but I'm in the process of doing this to my ROMs right now.  The waiting was getting to me...

 

For Wii, use CISO or WBFS.  These are compressed files and Dolphin opens them instantly, no waiting!

 

For GameCube, use GCZ.  You can use Dolphin to convert your ISO to GZC, just RIGHT-CLICK on them and choose to compress, then delete the ISO when it's done.  They open instantly.

 

For PS2, zip your ISOs into GZ files.  PCSX2 will open these.  The first time they are opened, it creates an index file (takes a few minutes) but every time after that, they open instantly. I'm using Total Commander to batch this process.

[badboo]

For PS2, zip your ISOs into GZ files.  PCSX2 will open these.  The first time they are opened, it creates an index file (takes a few minutes) but every time after that, they open instantly. I'm using Total Commander to batch this process.

 

I am new to this compression thing, sorry if my question is super noob. Total commander is used to compress multiple isos? I am asking this because I will run out of space soon and never though about space limit before (my hdd is 5tb lol) and I have a lot of isos, which I am not sure how long will it take to do so.

 

thanks

[swimminginthoughts]

Yeah, I'm having to do mine in chunks too because of my limited space.  What I do is this:

 

Unzip the PS2 ROMs, they are ISOs in 7z format.

Use Total Commander (you get a 30 day trial) and browse to the ISO directory.  On the LEFT, select the ISOs you want to compress to GZ, then choose FILES>>PACK and tell it where to save them.  On the RIGHT, make sure to choose GZ as the format and tell it not to use the directory structure.  You just want a single ISO in the GZ file. If I do this before I go to work or bed or something (where I'm not waiting on it), I compress them with MAX compression.  If it's during the day and I want to keep it moving, I choose NORMAL compression.  MAX takes a lot longer and you only get a 1% or so more in compression so it's only worth using if you're not going to be waiting on it like water to boil.

 

I'm having to do these in chucks because of space so I'll do all of the A's and B's, then all of the C's and D's or whatever I have space for, knowing that when I unzip them, I'll be taking up more space until I delete the 7z files, then when I GZ them, I'll need more space until I delete the ISO files.

 

If I run into BIN and CUE files instead of ISOs while I'm unzipping them, I collect them into a folder and use WinISO to batch convert them to ISOs.

 

After you do that, go here: 

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/7368-compressed-ps2-isos-gz-and-hlhq/page-2

 

There's an AHK script that launches PCSX2, loads a game to create the index file, waits 5 minutes (to give it enough time), then moves on to the next game.  You can adjust the 5 minute time to however fast your processor can work.

 

There's also a way to script 7z to uncompress and compress automatically but I found it easier to just use the Total Commander.  You can also look at PIGZ.  It's will work faster than 7z but is command line only.

 

This is a long process but definitely the way to go.  I hated waiting on RocketLauncher to unzip the ISOs!

[SkyHighGam3r]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't it be easier with a bin/cue to just open the cue file in notepad and replace the .bin extension, with .iso after converting the bin file?

[Spawk]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't it be easier with a bin/cue to just open the cue file in notepad and replace the .bin extension, with .iso after converting the bin file?

Iso's don't use cue files. They are incapable of containing multi track data so there is no use for them. There is no issues with Iso anyway. There isn't even an issue with single bin games. This is only for games with multiple bin files (tracks) that need to be called by the cue file.

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[gigapig]

 

For GameCube, use GCZ.  You can use Dolphin to convert your ISO to GZC, just RIGHT-CLICK on them and choose to compress, then delete the ISO when it's done.  They open instantly.

 

 

I'm converting my GC set thanks to your suggestion. Can I just ask and of course make it clear to others, did you do them one at a time or highlight the first one in the list, scroll down, hold shift and then click the last one which will highlight them all. Then right click and choose "Compress ISO"?

[JoyStickKilla]

Just to throw another idea out there...   what I did for the GameCube and Wii games is setup a script to un-compress the game when it is played (if its not already un-compressed), and re-tag the current date-time on the uncompressed file to a temp folder. 

 

Then, everytime that game is played there after, the script first checks to see if the game has already been uncompressed in the temp folder, and restamps the file with the current date time after its played but before the cleanup routine.  At the very end of the script there is a cleanup routine that deletes all files in the temp folder that are older than 45 days (adjustable, I just choose that to get started).   

 

So games that get played often don't have to deal with constant decompression.  Ones that are played once, then never again eventually go back to being in an archive only state to save space.

Can't rlui pretty much do that?

[SkyHighGam3r]

Iso's don't use cue files. They are incapable of containing multi track data so there is no use for them. There is no issues with Iso anyway. There isn't even an issue with single bin games. This is only for games with multiple bin files (tracks) that need to be called by the cue file.

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Yeah, I was thrown off by the concept of cue/iso at first too, but there's a decent number of rips that have it setup that way. I think it's more if you're emulator needs a cue file to boot, but you have an iso you can trick the thing. Could be wrong though.

I also tried running straight BIN files, but I ALWAYS get kicked to a BIOS screen for Saturn, SCD, etc. asking for a disc.

[swimminginthoughts]

gigapig, you can just highlight them all and do them at once!  Just watch your space because it won't get rid of the source ISO, you'll have to delete it afterwards!

[swimminginthoughts]

JoyStickKilla, if you use GCZ, you get the benefit of compression, plus no wait times since Dolphin can launch them natively and no scripting!  Might be worth switching.

[Fursphere]

Can't rlui pretty much do that?

 

Pretty sure it can unzip and place them in a temporary folder.  I don't know if it has any sort of time based file cleanup routine logic built in.  

 

I stopped using rocketlaunch on my cabinet quite awhile back.  

[Fursphere]

JoyStickKilla, if you use GCZ, you get the benefit of compression, plus no wait times since Dolphin can launch them natively and no scripting!  Might be worth switching.

 

Does Dolphin have a command line for this?  I didn't see one.   Manually doing every single game in a 600+ game system would be.....tedious.  

[ChrisKant]

you can marked all games in dolphin and then choose compressed under the right mouse click menu... 

[gigapig]

Does Dolphin have a command line for this?  I didn't see one.   Manually doing every single game in a 600+ game system would be.....tedious.  

 

I explained that in post #34

[Fursphere]

thanks.  I must have missed that.

 

And that wasn't the answer to my question.  I asked if there was a command line option.  Not a GUI option.  

[Guest]

Does Dolphin have a command line for this? I didn't see one. Manually doing every single game in a 600+ game system would be.....tedious.

Dolphin won't help you compress the image; it's the emulator.

I'm more than sure that you'll be able to script the appropriate compression tool.

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[Guest]

It will compress the image. If you load your rom folder containing iso files you just right click, select compress iso, and it will create a gcz.

Well there you go. Every day is a school day.

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[SkyHighGam3r]

Ok, so I compressed God of War 2 using the rar5 method, best setting, 32mb dictionary size (W/e that is...) Shaved almost 2GB off the filesize so that was amazing.

Ran into a problem though, took almost 4 minutes to load the game.

Coming from a 5 second load time that's just way too high for me.

I don't want to use the gz method, because I tend to burn a good deal of these for use in my actual systems (hooked up to my 13" crt lol) for when I'm feeling super nostalgic.

So... unless you guys know a way to cut down on that load time, I think I may end up just grabbing the 2GB drive.

Either way, as always, I appreciate the plethora of helpful information you all have given me.

[Spawk]

4 min is about how long it takes un-7zip it... Are you sure that's not just on first run?

I haven't tried any of the methods in this thread yet. I want to play them uncompressed for a while first. I worry about compatibility when running compressed. Another caveat to doing this is that I cannot seed these big collections after compressing.

I am interested in how people are getting along with it though so I am keeping an eye on it.

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[SkyHighGam3r]

I assume by 'first run' you mean to say that after it's unzipped, it would just load it from the temp files?

I don't have much space on my local drive either lol it's full of PC games I'm trying to integrate into Hyperspin. so to have my discs duplicated on a second drive just seems like lunacy lol.

Maybe I'm missing something though.

[Spawk]

No, I think the first run thing was for .gz not rar5... so rar5 is a no go then?

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[swimminginthoughts]

As far as I know, rar5 isn't supported.  For PS2, it has to be GZ.  You'll end up with GAMENAME.iso.gz.

 

For GameCube and Wii, it has to be GCZ (or optionally CISO or WBFS).

 

I don't see any lag in launching or playing the games.  The only lag to speak of is the first run of the PS2 games where it creates the TMP file, which is basically an index of the GZ file so it can access it faster.  To resolve this, I ran the script mentioned that launches the games to create the TMP file.

[SkyHighGam3r]

No, I think the first run thing was for .gz not rar5... so rar5 is a no go then?

If you don't mind waiting several minutes for the game to load, then yeah I'd go with rar5 from what I can tell. As far as JUST compression, it did a fantastic job. I can see how that would save an immense amount of space.

I'm wondering how easy it is to convert between a GZ to an ISO for the PS2 discs. Like I said I burn my games to physical media a fair amount and I wouldn't want to spend a bunch of extra time when I barely have the patience to wait for the burn process lol.

If THAT is quick and easy... then it may be worth it.

As far as wii, I am probably going to go the wbfs route. That way I can use the games on my actual wii via USBloaders as well.

[SkyHighGam3r]

As far as I know, rar5 isn't supported.  For PS2, it has to be GZ.  You'll end up with GAMENAME.iso.gz.

 

For GameCube and Wii, it has to be GCZ (or optionally CISO or WBFS).

 

I don't see any lag in launching or playing the games.  The only lag to speak of is the first run of the PS2 games where it creates the TMP file, which is basically an index of the GZ file so it can access it faster.  To resolve this, I ran the script mentioned that launches the games to create the TMP file.

If it only is long the first time you load a game I'd be fine with that. I wouldn't even bother using a script to get it all out of the way at once.

Is the TMP file pretty small?