About Compression...

[Jinkies!]

Just to start this is a question about image and game compression rather than file compression such as 7z and Zip.

What are the differences between a compressed file and a standard one? A few games like Dogma and MurMur offer compressed versions of their game. So I was wondering what are the trade offs for compressed game files? Usually in normal games it's not extremely noticeable unless you are really OCD about fidelity. The biggest problems usually occur from performance, when the CPU has to decompress frequently. However the little bit of overhead and loss in fidelity is worth the reduced file size, especially in larger games.

I'm mostly trying to figure out if it's even really noteworthy, to double or triple file size for uncompressed files in AVNs, or is it really noticeable?

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

Compressing is a blanket term. Stuff like 7z and winrar are zipping files. This both reduces overall download size, and is more convenient for everyone as it puts everything into one file to upload/download.

Whether compressed games have a noticeable fidelity hit really depends on the original quality of the game and who is doing the compressing. It's most notable in games with animations.

 

[Goeffel]

Just to make sure, you're talking about this?

Usually in normal games it's not extremely noticeable unless you are really OCD about fidelity.

For me too, this seems to be so.

The biggest problems usually occur from performance, when the CPU has to decompress frequently. However the little bit of overhead and loss in fidelity is worth the reduced file size, especially in larger games.

err, no?
Once unpacked, your CPU no longer needs to decompress*. Some files were re-encoded with codecs that offer smaller filesize, or maybe they also shrink 4k pictures (don't know, never play such?) and then some. Even when more demanding codecs (on decoding side) are used, that is mostly done in hardware (-assisted) nowadays, the CPU being unaffected.
I remember 1 video and 1 game I could not watch/play because my old notebook too old for those codecs to be in the hardware decoder. Now on the new notebook with officially "weaker" hardware runs like a charm.

*well, yes, it may still need to decompress and load game files if game-design handled things that way.
imo. good gamedesign (resp. good engine-design) should try to avoid that. like pre-loading things that come next already in the background instead of waiting until it is really needed right now. and un-loading stuff that is not needed anymore.
But that has nothing to do with the game having been re-compressed, that is the same for the not-recompressed versions.

see eg. here for details:
https://f95zone.to/threads/ultrafast-adult-games-compressor-v3-1-3-12.80592/

 

[Jinkies!]

Whether compressed games have a noticeable fidelity hit really depends on the original quality of the game and who is doing the compressing. It's most notable in games with animations.

err, no?
Once unpacked, your CPU no longer needs to decompress*. Some files were re-encoded with codecs that offer smaller filesize, or maybe they also shrink 4k pictures (don't know, never play such?) and then some. Even when more demanding codecs (on decoding side) are used, that is mostly done in hardware (-assisted) nowadays, the CPU being unaffected.

Thanks. Wanted to make sure, I was going to download DOGMA but the normal file is 16GB and the compressed on is 6GB. I just wanted to make sure that I was going to see any terribly rendered scenes, or run into choppiness as it loads. I normally avoid compressed versions but it makes sense on larger games that aren't finished.

I knew it was a blanket it term so I tried to describe it well, since i'm not familiar with the software or methods.

Anyways thanks guys, appreciate it.