redump.info Forum

here

http://www.underground-gamer.com/wiki/index.php/Packiso

Because people often refer to cd based images as "iso" - probably because .iso was the first format that showd up.

packISO is just a set of tools designed to give better compression but still creating the same archive on any platform/pc.
You could do those steps manually, but packISO just creates the batch files for you and executes them.

ECM only works for CD images (not DVD), and only for .bin/cdi/mds with a sector size of 2352 compared to .iso with 2048 sector size. (ISO file format does not store EDC and ECC data).
ECM checks this EDC and ECC data and removes it when it matches the calculation of that sector. (It is a bit more advanced, though)

For Wii DVD images you do not need that. You would just scrub the image with WiiScrubber (with creating a diff file) and then use 7zip 4.57 with the standard options to compress the image.

Well, so far what packiso did was just this:
use ECM on the first track, then just call 7za on the file: "7za a [...]"

If everyone uses the same 7zip version, it should be the same file for everyone.

The normal add operation uses a dictionary of d=16MB, means it needs 11.5*d+3.5 MB of memory to compress the file. Using ultra compression uses a larger dictionary, but this means, more memory for compression is needed. Computers with less than 1.5GB RAM won't be able to use ultra compression at all. (It might be possible on computers with 1GB, but this means that no other tasks must be running, that you have around 700MB free)

Sotho Tal Ker wrote:If everyone uses the same 7zip version, it should be the same file for everyone.

Actually No, it will not create same Archive on different PCs, if you look into your Packiso folder, there will be a file called RMDtrach.exe (or somewhat similar name), that exe it what make it possible to get same images on different PC.

now for wii, search this forum for packps2 and use that to compress DVD base image, it will create same archives on different PCs, just a note, packps2 has been only tested for PS2 images, so thou it should work ok for wii also, making a backup is highly recommended.

BadSector wrote:

Sotho Tal Ker wrote:If everyone uses the same 7zip version, it should be the same file for everyone.

Actually No, it will not create same Archive on different PCs, if you look into your Packiso folder, there will be a file called RMDtrach.exe (or somewhat similar name), that exe it what make it possible to get same images on different PC.

Well, yes, i forgot rmdtrash. What is does is zeroing the created/modified/accessed times.
Still 7za will create exactly the same files on different machines with exactly (Which means file times are identical, too) the same source files.

Sotho Tal Ker wrote:

BadSector wrote:

Sotho Tal Ker wrote:If everyone uses the same 7zip version, it should be the same file for everyone.

Actually No, it will not create same Archive on different PCs, if you look into your Packiso folder, there will be a file called RMDtrach.exe (or somewhat similar name), that exe it what make it possible to get same images on different PC.

Well, yes, i forgot rmdtrash. What is does is zeroing the created/modified/accessed times.
Still 7za will create exactly the same files on different machines with exactly (Which means file times are identical, too) the same source files.

Oh thanks for this info, didn't knew that. So this mean that if i used the ultra setting instead of default in Packps2, it will still make the same Archives?

Are you sure about that Sotho Tal Ker? Even the slightest difference in floating-point calculations across CPU's/OS's can cause the archive to be completely different. Unless 7zip uses only integers values. Do you know if that's the case?

Here is the link to packps2

http://www.mediafire.com/?cxbvztebq44

the file extension should be iso for it to work. if you have more then one image, u can either put them in a single folder or in subfolders and it will compress them all.

BadSector wrote:Oh thanks for this info, didn't knew that. So this mean that if i used the ultra setting instead of default in Packps2, it will still make the same Archives?

It will make the same archives when you use the same settings. Compressing with 7z ultra leads of course to higher compression vs. the normal 7z compression (because of Increased dictionary size). But every computer has to have enough resources to use such a large dictionary, else compression outcome might differ (when there is extensive paging for example).
Also you could use other advanced settings to improve compression.

ssjkakaroto wrote:Are you sure about that Sotho Tal Ker? Even the slightest difference in floating-point calculations across CPU's/OS's can cause the archive to be completely different. Unless 7zip uses only integers values. Do you know if that's the case?

Well, I am not completely sure (I did not look at the source of 7-zip), but so far packISO did work for many people on many different computers. Unless someone comes with an example that the file created is different, it stands as is (it's not a mathematical proof, but a natural ... it is right until someone disproves it). Of course everyone has to use the same 7-zip version.

Delete this post, since the server was misbehaving again