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Your crusade on "piracy" and ISO dumps has been a noticeable pattern here. Maybe not the best idea to hang around an article about how to compress ISO dumps and completely delete stuff about compressed online isos w/ missing files?
This page was based partially on this [https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3g933n/guide_reduce_the_size_of_your_ps2_gc_wii_x360_ds/ guide].
Archive-quality dump means that the resulting compressed dump, when reverted back to its original state, will be the same checksum as the official uncompressed release. Compressions that can't be reversed, or those that can be but will have missing or altered content, whether it interferes with functionality (rebuilt table of content) or not, are not archive quality dumps. For example the WBFS format is not archive quality since it will be missing padding content and upgrade partitions (which have their uses in 3DS/Wii modding) compared to an intact uncompressed dump.
=Audio-CD=
<br />CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Depends on what format you convert the No (unless audio is converted to.and from uncompressed formats, which is unlikely)
* '''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
==PlayStation 1==
===ECM===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No(removes error correction data permanently)
* '''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.
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?''' No(missing data)
* '''Gain:''' Not Immediate (ISO dump size the same). Coupled with compression, however... the gain is really noticeable.
* '''Tools Used:''' UltraISO
===CSO (aka CISO)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo (missing data)
* '''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
==PlayStation Portable==
===CSO (aka CISO)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo (changes disc structure, some gameplay issues)
* '''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
==DreamCast==
===CHD Archive Format===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo (missing data, no gameplay issues)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ROM dump size lowers).
* '''Tools Used:''' GDI to CHD converter.
==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)
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.
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! These are the WBFS and GCZ formats.
===GCZ (Dolphin native archive format) - GC/Wii===
Dolphin can't play games directly from compressed archives (7zip/zip/gzip/rar...). Instead, it utilizes its own compression method.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes for GC games, No for Wii games.(checksum won't be the same, no gameplay issues)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Dolphin; right click the game(s) in the games list and select "Compress ISO..." ("Compressed selected ISOs..." if more than one is selected)
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You can right-click on the GCZ-compressed (in blue) ISOs in Dolphin and choose "Uncompress selected ISOs". Garbage data for Wii titles will be zeroed outand thus different from the official dump, but will have no effect on gameplayin most cases.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Only Dolphin.
===Scrubbing and Trimming - GC/Wii===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No(missing data)* '''Gain:''' Not Immediate for just scrubbing (ISO dump size the same); Immediate for trimming (ISO dump size lowers).
* '''Tools Used:''' GameCube ISO Trimmer (scrubbing and trimming for GameCube), WiiScrubber (scrubbing for Wii, although compressing with Dolphin will scrub it anyways).
* '''Can be reverted?''' No.
Scrubbing games zeros out garbage/dummy data in the ISO file. The resulting file will be the same size, but it will be able to compress better than unmodified ISOs. The difference can be huge depending on the game. Animal Crossing, for instance, will compress to just a 26 MB .gcz file after being scrubbed!
Trimming games implies scrubbing, but will also remove the garbage/dummy data outright, resulting in a smaller ISO file. The trimmed file can be used immediately at a smaller size without compression, but the game's internal structure will be wholly modified. '''Several games will break if you trim them.'''
===WBFS - Wii only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo (checksum will be different even when reverted)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager; after adding your game, go to "Transfer" and select "WBFS".
===CSO (aka CISO) - Wii only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo (checksum will be different even when reverted)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Less than WBFS.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager; same as above, but select "CISO".
===RPX/RPL (a.k.a. Spilling the WUD's Guts)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No(dump is collapsed to individual files)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (Total size decreases). Can be less than a WUD depending on the game.
* '''Tools Used:''' [http://wiiubrew.net/uwizard/ UWizard.] [http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/console-guides/nintendo-wii-u-guides/14680-wii-u-wud-loadiine-gx2-conversion-extract-wud-images-loadiine-use.html Follow this guide for usage information.] You'll need the title key for the game you're trying to extract, which you should have gotten with the WUD.
==GameBoy Advance / Nintendo DS / Nintendo 3DS==
===Trimming===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No.(destructive)
* '''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!
===XEX (Xbox Executable) + Data folder (a.k.a Spilling The ISO Guts)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No.(dump is collapsed to individual files)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (total file size decreases). It still works with Xenia
* '''Tools Used:''' XBOX 360 ISO Extract, Exiso-GUI or Exiso. (These might be useful for rom-hacking too I guess?)
===Rebuilt ISO===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No.(missing data)
* '''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.
===NTFS Compression===
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. It's surprisingly more effective than many people would like to give this credit.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
===Decompression on Demand===
You can keep your ROMs/ISOs compressed in a 7zip archive and use RocketLauncher or any other [[Frontends]] to decompress 7zip archives and pass the contents onto the emulator.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
==Destructive Modification==
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, many PSP JRPGs have 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, but sometimes such care isn't even put into ensuring it's still in a functional state. Some examples:
* delete all videos: this brings Super Smash Bros Brawl to 4.7GB.
* 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.
* delete unused content you could get with emulator cheats like rooms and stuff
* 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.
Tools used for this are modding tools for rebuilding file trees, like UMDGen (PSP), Tinke (DS) and also regular ISO tools (PS1, Saturn)...
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. Some of these dumps make it to sharing sites sadly enough.
Avoid resorting to destructive modifications since it can lead to random crashes and unexpected behavior, especially in games with lots of shared assets. [[File_Hashes Verify]] your dumps to make sure you don't have these, and if you want to compress those prefer other methods or using decompression on demand.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No (destructive mod)
[[Category:FAQs]]
