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Of course, there are also the devs who don't merely use garbage data, but also bloat in-game data. For instance, Tengai Makyou IV PSP has a specific FMV movie duplicated a dozen times, and the Megaman Collection on GC stores its sound data using an uncompressed format bringing the size of that portion alone to 1GB. In many of these cases, there's just not much you can do about it without destructively altering game data, so these cases won't be addressed here.
Let's go back to normal padding then, and how to remove it:
==GameCube / Wii==
==While it doesn't affect the game's functionality by much other than being a smaller regular ROM, it's not advisable though to trim in many cases, including GBA games in general. Rebuilding the internal structure of the rom might even destroy the game's functionality in the few games where it does matter (for example Golden Sun DS==).
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That's why devs no longer used it, preferring custom audio formats included in the "game data" part of the disk. By the time the PS1 gen came, the Audio-CD part was just used for messages like "Don't put this in a CD player, dumb user!" and little else (exceptions exist, of course!)
* '''Full Dump:''' <br />BIN/ISO + CUE
<br />BIN/ISO is the full disk data, including Audio-CD sound data and game data
<br />CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Light Dump:''' <br />ISO + MP3/WAV + CUE
<br />ISO is the disk data with only the game data
<br />MP3/WAV is the sound data from the Audio-CD, but these formats take much less disk space
<br />CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No
* '''Gain:''' Several hundreds of MBs to just a few dozen, depending on how much this specific game relies on the Audio-CD sound format
* '''Tools Used:''' Load the BIN+CUE using a virtual drive, then use a CD dumping tool
Examples:
* Princess Crown (SAT): 574 MB > 72 MB (Game Data) + 50 MB (Audio-CD data in MP3 format)
* Captain Tsubasa (SCD): 512 MB > 146 MB (Game Data) + 3 MB (audio as MP3) > (as 7zip) 34 MB (Game Data) + 3 MB (audio)
=Padding=
BUT-- the most common bar none use for this is to screw with pirates and people who download ISOs off online sharing websites, by making the ISO bigger and harder to download. Some go a little step further and make that garbage data not just a sequence of 00/FF to make the ISO much, much harder to compress using regular archive formats like zip/7zip/rar... You might be overjoyed to learn this has become the industry standard nowadays.
==PlayStation 1==
===ECM===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No
* '''Gain:''' Not Immediate (ISO size doesn't change). ECM only zeroes out redundant error correction data (but in some rare cases this data may be used for anti-piracy, hence corrupting the dump!). When coupled to a compressed archive format (7zip/gzip/zip) however it achieves drastic size reductions.
* '''Tools Used:''' PakkISO or ECM Tools (from emuparadise download page). Drag-and-drop the iso on the specific tool, then compress it with 7zip.
===PBP (PSP Format for PS1 Images)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO size decreases a lot). Official format used by Sony for PS1 dumps on PSP.
* '''Tools Used:''' PSX2PSP. Generates an EBOOT.PBP file.
==PlayStation 2==
===Manual Scrubbing + GZIP Compression===
Often, you can open the ISO in UltraISO and find the dummy files. Sometimes they're obvious looking files like DUMMY.BIN, DATA0.BIN (or .DAT), DUMMY.DAT, etc. Or folders named "PADDING" and stuff like that. You can look into the files (with a hex editor) to see if they're obvious padding data (full of 00/FF, though sometimes it's not as obvious).
However, you must never mess with LBA and TOC when removing padding. So you try change the size of the padding file inside the ISO to 0 MB, or alter it directly with a hex editor so that it's all zeroed out.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Not Immediate (ISO dump size the same). Coupled with compression, however... the gain is really noticeable.
* '''Tools Used:''' UltraISO
* '''Can be reverted?''' Not really. Garbage data here is zeroed out, it's not important and you still have the same disk data structure.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes.
You may forego the manual scrubbing part entirely. If you feel adventurous you might want to do it to enhance compression though. Let's get to the meaty part though...
The PCSX2 emulator supports opening compressed archives containing ISOs. The best format it supports would be '''GZIP'''.
Use 7zip ("Add to archive..." then choose gzip) or Pigz (multi-threaded, much faster compression) to generate gzip archives containing the ISO file in question. PCSX2 will build an index of each gzip compressed game it loads (as a file in the same directory as the gzip archive), so after the first time where you'll have to wait for the decompression, in all subsequent times there is no speed difference between playing an uncompressed and compressed game. Of course, you can extract the ISO back from the GZIP archive.
===CSO (aka CISO)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size the same). Coupled with manual scrubbing, it can be bigger. Not as much of a gain as GZIP though.
* '''Tools Used:''' maxcso
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using same tool.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' NO
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - PCSX2.
==PlayStation Portable==
===CSO (aka CISO)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Substantial, depending on game. Increases load times on real hardware but not emulators.
* '''Tools Used:''' CISO, CISO GUI, UMDGen or PSP ISO Compressor
<br />CISO GUI (CISO is command line-based): Drag-and-drop ISO file on program, Select compression level (1 to 9 (Max)), "Compress", and choose directory for saving the new CSO file.
==DreamCast==
===CHD Archive Format===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ROM dump size lowers).
* '''Tools Used:''' GDI to CHD converter.
* '''Can be reverted?''' No.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Demul and Reicast
==GameCube / Wii==
Some examples:
* Super Mario Anniversary (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 12 MB (GCZ) (!!)
* Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii): 7.8 GB (original) > 7.1 GB (GCZ) (main cause is FMV's low compression)
* Xenoblade PAL (Wii): 7.8 GB (original) > 6.3 GB (GCZ)
* Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 1.8 GB (GCZ)
* Tales of Graces (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 4.2 GB (GCZ) (game data already fills the disk)
* Animal Crossing (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 26 MB (GCZ)
* Zelda Four Swords Plus Japan (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 480 MB (GCZ)
* Zelda Twilight Princess (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 1.4 GB (GCZ) (game data already fills the disk)
* Megaman Collection (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 1.1 GB (original) (sound data is stored as uncompressed stream to fill disk)
Dolphin can't play game dumps off compressed archives (7zip/zip/gzip/rar...) directly.
People used to resort to WiiScrubber (Wii) and GCM Utility (GC) to scrub/trim games to end up with dumps that while they had no immediate size change, their randomized garbage data (like "dummy", "padding" or "znull") was still there but zeroed out making archived dumps using zip/7zip/rar formats have stunning gains (from 1.4GB uncompressed to 26MB zipped for Animal Crossing for example!). Of course the file still needed to be uncompressed to its full size everytime you wanted to play it.
'''NOTE:''' Trimming and scrubbing (in Wiiscrubber terms) aren't the same! While they both are terms for "zeroing garbage data" to make it more compression-friendly, trimming does not just that like scrubbing, but takes the extra step of relocating the garbage data to the end of the file, hence altering its TOC and requiring the disc to be fakesigned, for a not-so-big compression gain. Hence why scrubbing is by far the most authentic and safe way to solve the garbage data problem.
However compressed formats incorporating the "padding zeroing" part were made since then, and Dolphin supports them! (Of course, if you're into modding/rom-hacking games, the previous tools might be of interest to you, but this is a story for another time...)
===GCZ (Dolphin native archive format) - GC/Wii===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Dolphin emulator<br />You need to add the games in your game list under Dolphin (Configuration/Paths).
<br />Select game in game list (you can hold Shift and select multiple ones).
<br />Right-click and choose "Compress selected ISOs". Choose a directory.
===WBFS - Wii-only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager<br />Under the "Files" section, choose "Add" then choose the ISO file you're converting.
<br />Tool is compatible with ISO, CSO (aka CISO) and WBFS disk dumps. When you're done, select the ISO files you added.
<br />Under "Transfer", use the destination format. So, in our case, WBFS. Choose the directory to save it.
===CSO (aka CISO) - Wii-only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Less than WBFS.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager. Same as above, but "Transfer" to "CISO".
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Dolphin
==GameBoy Advance/ Nintendo DS / Nintendo 3DS=====Trimming===* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOT* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ROM dump size lowers).* '''Tools Used:''' NDSTokyoTrim (GBA/DS/3DS), rom_tool (3DS)<br />NDSTokyoTrim: Drag-and-drop roms, and press "Trim". The original file will be overwritten! * '''Can be reverted?''' No. Sometimes it damages the game's functionality irreversibly.* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes, same file format.* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes
==3DSXbox 360==It's certainly better than keeping 8.5GB images, but the conversion is too substantial and irreversible to be suitable for archival purposes, since it affects data structure tables as well.
===XEX (Xbox Executable) + Data folder (a.k.a Spilling The ISO Guts)===* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOT* '''Gain:''' Immediate (total file size decreases). It still works with Xenia* '''Tools Used:''' XBOX 360ISO Extract, Exiso-GUI or Exiso. (These might be useful for rom-hacking too I guess?)* '''Can be reverted?''' ISO could be rebuilt, though not accurately.* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Probably Not.* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Xenia. ===Rebuilt ISO===* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOT* '''Gain:''' Immediate (total file size decreases). It still works with Xenia.* '''Tools Used:''' ISO2GOD (also a "Games on Demand" X360 image convertor). <br />Under Settings, set the output and rebuild path to the same location. Check "Always save rebuilt ISO" and set Padding to "Full (ISO Rebuild)", then save changes.<br />"Add ISO", and press "Convert". Keep generated ISO, and delete generated folder.* '''Can be reverted?''' The padding quantity information alongside the original data structure is lost forever.* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes. If the rebuilding process didn't damage anything vital.* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Xenia.
=Other Tricks=
==Storage Tricks==You can enable filesystem-level compression (like "NTFS Compression==" in Windows) for the directory containing your ISOs/ROMs. This has a very noticeable space gain and doesn't affect the emulator's functionality. Alternatively, you can keep your ROMs/ISOs compressed in a 7zip archive and use RocketLauncher to decompress 7zip archives and pass the contents onto the emulator. These methods have the advantage of being compatible with EVERY emulator, even those without proper support for compressed ISO/archive formats. ==RocketLauncherLET'S PLAY GAME BUTCHERING GAME==Of course, there are also the devs who don't merely use garbage data for padding, but also bloat '''the game data part'''. For instance, Tengai Makyou IV PSP has a specific FMV movie duplicated a dozen times, and the Megaman Collection on GC stores its sound data using an uncompressed format bringing the size of that portion alone to 1GB. In many of these cases, there's just not much you can do about it without destructively altering game data. So what do some people do? Note when I say "delete" it often means replacing the file with a 1KB dummy file to prevent the ISO file structure from collapsing on itself.* They delete all videos: this brings Super Smash Bros Brawl to 4.7GB.* They delete all voice acting and occasionally sound and music: this brings Xenoblade PAL to 4.2 GB with even only one of both dubs removed.* They delete unused content you could get with emulator cheats like rooms and stuff* They delete "extra" languages other than English* If game has multiple quests, they delete some characters / quests they don't like. Especially seen in compilations and stuff with demos included. Since this results in most of the case in very noticeable detrimental effects in gameplay (if the game doesn't crash outright), this is nothing short of mutilating the game image, and the fuckers doing this then uploading the game (bonus points if they remove chunks from the game to make room for a shitty intro screen) have a special spot in Hell.
