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==Audio-CD==
==Padding==
====GCZ (Dolphin native archive format) - GC/Wii====
====WBFS - Wii-only====
====CSO (aka CISO) - Wii-only====
no edit summary
There are many ways. Some alter the dump copy forever. Some are playable on only some specific emulators. And many light dumps are unplayable on real hardware (though a bunch are). All depending on the method and the console. So you might want to consider all of this before.
Sega-CD, PC-Engine, PlayStation, Sega Saturn... what did these have in common was their reliance on the regular CD format. Game developers stored often orchestrated/Redbook music and occasionally voice acting, using the Audio-CD format. Of course, the CD contained also game data.
* '''Full Dump:'''
<br /br>BIN/ISO + CUE<br /br>BIN/ISO is the full disk data, including Audio-CD sound data and game data<br /br>CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Light Dump:'''
<br /br>ISO + MP3/WAV + CUE <br /br>ISO is the disk data with only the game data<br /br>MP3/WAV is the sound data from the Audio-CD, but these formats take much less disk space<br /br>CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Gain:''' Several hundreds of MBs to just a few dozen, depending on how much this specific game relies on the Audio-CD sound format
Examples:
* Princess Crown (SAT): 574 MB > 72 MB (Game Data) + 50 MB (Audio-CD data in MP3 format)*
Devs often have their games much, much bigger than they need to be. They put garbage data in the disk. Garbage data isn't game data and just bloats the disk size. It's either a sequence of 00/FF (you know what's inside a file if you open it with a hex editor) or randomized garbage data.
Let's go back to normal padding then, and how to remove it:
===DreamCast=PlayStation 1==
==PlayStation 2==
==PlayStation Portable=====CSO (aka CISO)===* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). 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. <br />UMDGen is a PSP ISO editor. You can save to either the CSO format with this. * '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using same tools, but saving to ISO (Uncompressed) format. No data loss.* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes. Longer load times though.* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes. PPSSPP. ==DreamCast== ==GameCube=/ Wii==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.
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...)
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Dolphin emulator
<br /br>You need to add the games in your game list under Dolphin (Configuration/Paths).<br /br>Select game in game list (you can hold Shift and select multiple ones).<br /br>Right-click and choose "Compress selected ISOs". Choose a directory.<br /br>It saves a compressed GCZ copy. You might want to delete the original uncompressed ISO.
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You can right-click on the GCZ-compressed (in blue) ISOs in Dolphin and choose "Uncompress selected ISOs". Garbage data is still there but zeroed out, which has no effect since it's randomized anyways.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Only Dolphin.
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager
<br /br>Under the "Files" section, choose "Add" then choose the ISO file you're converting.<br /br>Tool is compatible with ISO, CSO (aka CISO) and WBFS disk dumps. When you're done, select the ISO files you added.<br /br>Under "Transfer", use the destination format. So, in our case, WBFS. Choose the directory to save it.<br /br>It saves a copy in the WFBS format. You might want to delete the original uncompressed ISO.
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You "Add" the WBFS disk dump and "Transfer" it to the "ISO" format. Garbage data is still there but zeroed out, which has no effect since it's randomized anyways.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Dolphin
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Less than WBFS.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager. Same as above, but "Transfer" to "CISO".
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Dolphin
==GameBoy Advance==
==DS==
==3DS==
==Xbox 360==
=Other Tricks=
==NTFS Compression==
==RocketLauncher==
