Looking for: Rom/ISO compression guide/advise for PS2 games??

[G00Glethis1]

Title says it all:

I'm looking for advice on compressing PS2 ISO/Roms....

Currently I have me ISOs compressed in 7zip, which is nice but useless at the same time (not readable/playable in PCSX2 terms)

Ideally I'm looking to compress the ISO into a format which is playable thru PCSX2.


I would also like to know from anyone who has experience with this topic on the outcome of compressing ISO, ie playable, reliability, best compression method and file extension, really anything else relevant to the topic.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to learning something new today from anyone who can pass on some knowledge to me and hopefully help someone else down the road.

[jesalvein]

you can use the gzip compression included in linuziso plugin.
Maxcso works too

[K.F]

If you already have 7z, you can just use it to compress the iso as gzip, and that will work with PCSX2 directly.

[avih]

you can use the gzip compression included in linuziso plugin.
Maxcso works too

gzip is supported natively by PCSX2, i.e. you don't need a plugin for it. CSO works natively too.

bzip2 with a non-standard file format is supported by a plugin (both compression and loading).

Also, on Windows, NTFS compression works great too. In Windows explorer: just right click the ISO -> properties -> Advanced -> and check "Compress file" -> click OK (and wait a while for the compression to finish), and you're good.

[tsunami2311]

you can use the gzip compression included in linuziso plugin.
Maxcso works too

that plugin isnt included in the git builds? I am assuming the plugin in the 1.40 stable is were we get that? and give 2 compression options .z .bz and .z option make .z2 file and a table file? is that gzip?

and what exactly does enable block dump mean do ?

Any way I just compresed Rogue galaxy using 7zip to a gzip,  which like 6.6gb iso, cause if i delete it i have to re rip it and my dvd player isnt installed on this pc.

6.6gb iso  saved maybe 1gb as gzip is compressing iso even worth it for saving that lil space? from reading/performance stand point?

[G00Glethis1]

Thank you all!! @jesalvein @k.f. @avih @tsunami2311

All the info is great advise, I'll report back with compression savings after the break!!!

[avih]

6.6gb iso  saved maybe 1gb as gzip is compressing iso even worth it for saving that lil space? from reading/performance stand point?

The compression ratio depends on the file. I think on average you save about 30% for PS2 ISO files, but it could be more or less. CSO compression ratios are similar to gzip.

Whether it's worth it or not is up to you. If it saves 1-2G per ISO then it can save 100-200G for 100 ISOs.

There's some performance impact when using a compressed image, but since PS2 games were designed to load their data from an actual spinning DVD disc, in general using compressed ISOs in PCSX2 tends to be just fine.

Also, depending on the storage medium, compressed images could actually be faster, for instance if you have a slow and fragmented HDD then using a compressed image could be faster because it needs to read less data from the HDD, but decompression is still fast.

So it depends. In general, it works well.

[tsunami2311]

The compression ratio depends on the file. I think on average you save about 30% for PS2 ISO files, but it could be more or less. CSO compression ratios are similar to gzip.

Whether it's worth it or not is up to you. If it saves 1-2G per ISO then it can save 100-200G for 100 ISOs.

There's some performance impact when using a compressed image, but since PS2 games were designed to load their data from an actual spinning DVD disc, in general using compressed ISOs in PCSX2 tends to be just fine.

Also, depending on the storage medium, compressed images could actually be faster, for instance if you have a slow and fragmented HDD then using a compressed image could be faster because it needs to read less data from the HDD, but decompression is still fast.

So it depends. In general, it works well.

So i noticed, I tried the linuziso plugin both z and bz both options once ISO is compressed i am assuming has to be picked threw the  plugin config before doing fast/normal boot normal iso selector dont see the compressed files.

ISO i compressed via 7zip under gzip are seen the normal way BZ compression is slighly better then gzip compression as far as i can tell, I think my expectations for compressed iso is to high I Would sabe about 10 gb if i compressed all my iso though