rar versus zip for large files?

Trisk · Wed 26/10/2005 03:47:53

Hey everyone, can I get your opinion? I'm near release for my game, and Steve Mccrea just pointed out that rar files are quite a bit smaller than zip files. I've always known this, but I've always avoided rar figuring that alot of people don't have the ability to uncompress it.

Am I wrong to think that? Have any of you ever released a rar file, and if so, did alot of people not know what to do with it?

for example:
I just compressed all the Prodigal game data, minus the music.vox file, and with Kzip I got a 42 meg file...but compressing the same files with Winrar yielded a much smaller 31 meg file! This would save alot for the people who are still on a modem! (like me)

Gilbert · Wed 26/10/2005 03:53:40

Though I'll recommend ZIP as it's a more commonly used format, but if the difference is so huge in your case I think you may compress it with RAR. Just don't do self-installers, self-installers are for cowards!

Trisk · Wed 26/10/2005 03:56:05

lol cowards? What do you mean?

IM NOT TEH SPAM · Wed 26/10/2005 04:00:31

No one likes self instalers, that's what. And anyway, I don't care what I unzip with, but like gilbot said if it makes that much of a difference then use rar. It's easy to get winrar, so it's no coropeal difference unless some people don't know where to find it (assuming they don't plan on putting "winrar" into google)

Mr Jake · Wed 26/10/2005 04:01:33

... I don't have a problem with self installers..

Gilbert · Wed 26/10/2005 04:10:45

They're just plain evil. Unless you just use the self-extract feature of WINZIP or WINRAR, that you can still unzip/unrar them directly without double clicking on the executable.

Traveler · Wed 26/10/2005 06:49:48

You can rename an self-decompressing exe to zip/rar (whichever was used to compress it) and then open it by double-clicking it. If it's a zip, Winzip, if a rar, WinRar will open and display the file content. (Of course, you need Winzip/WinRar installed.)

Gilbert · Wed 26/10/2005 07:47:34

You don't even need to rename them, I can just right-click extract (at least for 7-Zip), the problems are from custom installer making programmes which pack the files into A B normal formats, which you can't uncompress with your archiver.

Haddas · Wed 26/10/2005 08:13:56

I don't think anyone uses programs anymore that doesn't have the ability to compress or uncompress rars, zips, 7zs and so forth. Atleast the softwares I've used have that. Ultimatezip and 7-zip.

SSH · Wed 26/10/2005 09:34:01

I experiemnted with compressing various popular AGS titles with different compression programs and found that 7zip gave the best on average.

Gilbert · Wed 26/10/2005 09:43:00

7-Zip is rather good, but since 7z is not a very popular format it's not recommended to use.
However, I found that even if you use 7zip to compress to ZIP, it's slightly tighter than most other programmes (maybe it's just my illusions), just don't turn on some of the more advanced options (like deflate64) then most programmes can uncompress the files.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Wed 26/10/2005 10:44:54

Me say rar. Rar is good. Worship rar. Besides, as has been said, rar is not that obscure a format anymore. Everyone should have a means of extracting ZIP, RAR and ACE nowadays.

Kal-El · Wed 26/10/2005 10:53:16

Definately RAR. No questions there. As Brisby said, it's becoming a common file now.

esper · Wed 26/10/2005 10:53:35

When I did my game, I found that, from a 60 Meg file, a ZIP put it down to 51, a RAR to 48, and an ACE to 37, but I zipped it anyways for the same reasons you are debating whether or not to use RAR. However, although it yielded the best results for me, I can't recommend ACE one way or another because I do not know enough of the inner workings of compression formats to know if it is good or stable.

And since the original thread in which I was doing this got locked, let me throw in my final guess here: Elliot Hird is seven years old.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Wed 26/10/2005 10:59:57

OFF TOPIC

<groan> I have no idea what you're talking about, esper, with that final paragraph, but if threads are locked they're meant to stay locked. Don't keep on discussing whatever in a different thread. Especially a remark which, to someone who has no idea what you're talking about (such as I), seems like an insult.

EDIT - I now read the thread, and I see it's not even remotely insulting, but you see the misunderstanding that ensued for a while? You can always PM the guy.

ON TOPIC

The biggest problem I ever had with ace was just finding a decompressor, actually - WinRAR wouldn't decompress some ACE files. But when I found one, it all seemed stable enough... look at it this way, if it weren't stable it probably wouldn't be one of the popular methods out there.

I use WinRAR instead of Ace and whatnot because I just like the interface and I like RAR compression... and that's about it. Ease of use is a beaut.

Nikolas · Wed 26/10/2005 11:04:55

Quote from: esper on Wed 26/10/2005 10:53:35
And since the original thread in which I was doing this got locked, let me throw in my final guess here: Elliot Hird is seven years old.

Go down esper go down...

I think that he's not even born yet...

And having that said, I think that anyone with an interent connection, who are the people to download the games in the first place, can get a hold of a decompresser for ACE or RAR or anything. So not a real problem. And since RAR and ACE produce much smaller files, I don't think there is an issue here...

And anyways, mirror both files. ZIP and RAR. If you can find webspace that is...

Gilbert · Wed 26/10/2005 11:06:10

Well, whenever I get an ace file I have to install WinAce, extract it and then unstall WinAce, I don't wanna install any additional stuff just to uncompress ACE files, unless 7-Zip supports it.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Wed 26/10/2005 11:09:59

Ok, I know this may sound silly, but why not just keep WinAce installed for whenever you have to extract ACE? Works for me.

esper · Wed 26/10/2005 11:12:49

Sorry. Ease up, pally-o. It didn't get locked because it was about guessing his age, and for whoever was reading that thread I just threw this in as a little inside joke. I apologize. You didn't have to groan at me for one short OT sentence. It couldn't have been that bothersome, and you spent more time telling me not to do it then I spent actually dong it. I feel like a complete n00b now, too, which is no good.

... That having been said, I use WinAce, which has almost the exact same interface as classical WinZip, and can do RARs, ZIPs, ACEs, along with 20 other little known file types.

Slightly off-topic (no one groan at me, please) - Why is it that EVERY archiving application has such a lousy evaluation program built in to it? You can only use this program for thirty days, and then they tell you "Hey! You're 5,842 days over your evaluation period!!!" but don't do anything about it. Companies that made archiving programs like WinZip could make so much more money if they turned the program off after thirty days. I for one could care less that after a thirty-day period, there is a screen reminding me to register. If they want to make money, the program should stop working at the end of the evaluation period, because everyone who uses the internet for just about anything needs an unzipper. I'm not going to pay 30 bucks for a program that works perfectly fine for free. However, if I did need to pay thirty bucks to keep using it, I would, out of necessity, HAVE to pay for it.

Kal-El · Wed 26/10/2005 11:14:18

Even if the programs were disabled after 30-days there'd be a crack or serial on the net within 10 minutes.