Unpbo and makepbo and similar tools:

[ozanzac 0]

For every addon that I have ever downloaded, I've used two small programs called UnPBO and MakePBO to decrypt addons to check if their as small as they can go so that one: they take up as little space in the addons folder as possible and two: so that the Cannot Memory Map xxxx.pbo pop up message appears as little as possible. I have about three quaters of a gig of addons in my addons folder, and I used to get Memory Mapping problems at 400MB before I started compressing them with UnPBO/MakePBO. But since then, I've always compressed them and I've never had that problem since.

My question is, and be tuthful: Do you use addon compressing tools to compress addons for all the addons you download?

Also, for Addon Makers, when releasing a final version of an addon, do you compress it with MakePBO or a similar Addon Compiling tool to make your addon as small as possible?

Post your situations as well (e.g. Addon Folder Size, Yes I do have memory map issues but don't use an addon compressing tool etc.)

Cheers

ozanzac

[theavonlady 2]

There is no choice for people who never compress addons and never had memory problems, like me. It has nothing to do with being lazy. I don't fix what isn't broken.

[suma 8]

This is an interesting observation. Really, compressing addon may prevent "Cannot memory map" issues, as compressed files are smaller and memory mapped footprint is therefore smaller as well. On the other hand, compressed files can significantly increase CPU load, as they are decompressed from pbo per-file, which does not work well with things like streaming audio or mipmap loading.

To prevent memory mapping errores I would recommend either downloading 1.92 beta, or waiting for upcoming final patch, which should solve the memory mapping problems better way.

[Guest]

I use StuffPBO everytime (testing) until the last time, when I use MakePBO. StuffPBO is faster, MakePBO does slightly better compression...except for pbos containing wrp files, when I only use StuffPBO because MakePBO seems to always **** wrp files (in my experience).

[mr burns 131]

I never did so because i did´nt know if this method causes lag or some other weird problems (the ´puter has too unpack the addons = more HD,CPU & RAM usage, i thought ).

Can i turn all the compressing features in MakePbo on and my OFP still runs as before ?

If so it´s a shame that this method wasn´t described earlier or addon makers do it before the release.

Till now i thought there must be a significant reason to let at least some files in an .pbo uncompressed...but well, learn something new everyday

[dm 9]

From my work with BAS, and my personal delvings into the addon making world, we [bAS] find that makePBO causes more errors than its worth.

Whislt MakPBO does have an excellent compression rate, it can cause corruptions within the file: Reference the very first release of the BAS Littlebirds. All of the errors with them were caused by compression errors with MakePBO.

If you want an excellent program which compresses addons, use the ingame pbo tool - otherwise known as the Mission Editor.

Also, I'd like to point out that Binarise Does NOT compress addons It simply optimises the addon, by changing the format of the p3d from MLOD (BIS' orginal codeing) to ODOL, which is the highly optimised version of MLOD, that was released in the full game. Whilst binarizing the p3d's may make them smaller in the folder, because of the newer, more "compact" data coding, the ODOL p3d file will not compress as well in the PBO. So by binarising non-binarised addons in the effort to make them "smaller" you are actually creating more work for less gain...  

[Edit] Also, by compressing the PBO's even more, it actually makes your game run slower, as it takes longer for the game engine to access, and decompress the highly compressed file, than it does to simply access a un-compressed file (PBO) [/Edit]

[theavonlady 2]

Whislt MakPBO does have an excellent compression rate, it can cause corruptions within the file: Reference the very first release of the BAS Littlebirds. All of the errors with them were caused by compression errors with MakePBO.

I have never encountered such errors in mission and campaign PBOs I've produced with MakePBO.

Is this problem unique to addon compressions (versus missions and campaigns)?

What would you suggest for campaign compression? That won't work with OFP's MISSION EDITOR, will it?

[dm 9]

The main problems usually occur with texture files, the high rate of compression corrupting the mipmap levels...

Not sure how to work around the campaign issue with the mission editor, if you can compress addons with it, you can sure as hell compress campaigns with it... I'm at college now, so I'll have to do some experiments when I get home on how to do it.

[ozanzac 0]

I'm aware of the extra load that compressed addons can have on cpu usage, but I haven't had any problems with any problems with makePBO. I used the technique of decompressing and recompressing addons as a quick, temporary fix for my memory mapping problems, seeing as I had only 128mb of RD ram up until a couple of months ago.

This technique may well be unnecessary now, but I also add the addons I download onto a disk which I take to LAN's so that the missions me and my freinds make are compatable with each other. This means more addons per addon CD I make. So that is also a factor to why I compress addons.

CPU usage ain't really an issue in my mind, as once the addons are loaded in a given mission, there are no performance problems, as the addons are in the memory, ready to be seen in the 3-D world. It takes a little longer to load, but not much longer than what it used to be.

Besides, it fixed the memory-map problems when I had meagre RAM, so I was a happy customer.

[dm 9]

This means more addons per addon CD I make. So that is also a factor to why I compress addons.

Do you use winzip or winrar (or winace, or any other file compression program)?

If you don't, then ignore what I am going to say.

If you do, then compressing the addons' pbo's further will not bring you any benifits in the long run. This is because of the higher compression in the pbo, will mean that the zip/rar/ace files will not be able to compress the allready compressed data, and you will end up with similar sized zip/rar/ace files at the end of the process.

Think of it like crushing a drinks can. If you just stamp on it, it'll compress quite flat. But if you crush it with your hand first, then stamp on it, it'll still end up as flat as the other, but not any flatter.

Basically, I'm just trying to save you a bit of effort

[ozanzac 0]

The main problems usually occur with texture files, the high rate of compression corrupting the mipmap levels...

Within MakePBO, there are options which determine which types offiles are compressed and which are not. I use the default settings, and have had no problems with any, including the BAS units, I've decompressed and recompressed.

[dm 9]

The main problems usually occur with texture files, the high rate of compression corrupting the mipmap levels...

Within MakePBO, there are options which determine which types offiles are compressed and which are not. I use the default settings, and have had no problems with any, including the BAS units, I've decompressed and recompressed.

I don't doubt it, but whilst it is a great program (thanks for the effort on all your tools Amalfi)

We [at BAS] find it more trouble than its worth. As the errors can pop up randomly, on different computers, for different reasons.

[ozanzac 0]

This means more addons per addon CD I make. So that is also a factor to why I compress addons.

Do you use winzip or winrar (or winace, or any other file compression program)?

If you don't, then ignore what I am going to say.

I do use winace. For the CD's sake and the CD's sake only.

I make one big addons folder ---> ace it ---> add to CD ----> install the ace on my freinds CPU's---->decompress the addons folder--->add the contents of the addons folder to their OPFLASH addons folder.

[Edit] originally 785MB of makePBO compressed addons, compresses into a 500MB Ace archive to fit on a single CD. There is a significant difference and is worth the extra trouble [/edit]

[Guest]

Whislt MakPBO does have an excellent compression rate, it can cause corruptions within the file: Reference the very first release of the BAS Littlebirds. All of the errors with them were caused by compression errors with MakePBO.

I have never encountered such errors in mission and campaign PBOs I've produced with MakePBO.

Is this problem unique to addon compressions (versus missions and campaigns)?

What would you suggest for campaign compression? That won't work with OFP's MISSION EDITOR, will it?

Read my post Avon......=> I have never got MakePBO to compress a folder that contains a wrp file without it producing errors.

[AirwolfPL 0]

The main problems usually occur with texture files, the high rate of compression corrupting the mipmap levels...

Within MakePBO, there are options which determine which types offiles are compressed and which are not. I use the default settings, and have had no problems with any, including the BAS units, I've decompressed and recompressed.

I don't doubt it, but whilst it is a great program (thanks for the effort on all your tools Amalfi)

We [at BAS] find it more trouble than its worth. As the errors can pop up randomly, on different computers, for different reasons.

What kind of errors?

I'm using MakePBO for all of my final (and internal beta) releases, and I'm using StuffPBO for fast addon previews. I never got any 'errors' or mipmap problems, and I never had problems with wrp files inside MakePBO-ed files. I also didn't noticed incrased loading times. In fact I don't see any difference between MakePBO-ed and StuffPBO-ed addons but their size.

[dm 9]

What kind of errors?

Like I said, its usually mipmap errors (texture corruption), sometimes the cpp or a script may be corrupted.

The only reason I can see for this is that the final compression is so high.

Also, the errors don't appear on all computers, so it may be an issue with the game engine having problems un-compressing such large, and highly compressed files...

Since StuffPBO and the mission editor work fine without producing errors, those are the tools we [bAS] use.

[Eviscerator 0]

Actually, i use PBOTool, it doesnt compress at all making it very fast, and good to use for testing. And of course the mission editor (found to have one of the best compressions and no errors).

For anyone unsure of how to use the mission editor to compress, take the addon folder, copy it, and paste it to your user/missions folder, rename it to MY_ADDONNAME.intro and load the mission name up ingame, then export to singleplayer, then rename the pbo and voila...

[SelectThis 0]

I only use Stuffpbo. While Makepbo is a great program, I've had problems with it in the past (more likely due to not using the right settings for it in the option fields!). In addition I've always felt that compressing the pbo caused a performance hit when I tried it (using the method evis described)  (and now confirmed by Suma) so I prefer to use non-compressed pbo's with binarized p3ds.

I would also suggest using Mod folders to orgainse your addons better. (Get Kegetys' excellent OFP Launcher program)

SelectThis

[kegetys 2]

For anyone unsure of how to use the mission editor to compress, take the addon folder, copy it, and paste it to your user/missions folder, rename it to MY_ADDONNAME.intro and load the mission name up ingame, then export to singleplayer, then rename the pbo and voila...

Heh, I remember when this was the only way to make addon PBO's when no tools were yet available, I think my objects1 and objects2 addons are compressed this way

Anyway back on topic, I dont think the PBO compression has any use anywhere else than in multiplayer missions which get transferred as PBO's over network. For addons it doesnt make much sense as the negative sides are quite bad... Not only will it make the PBO slower to access by OFP, it will also pretty much always cause the final downloadable addon to be larger too, as the PBO compression isnt as efficient as zip/rar/ace compressions are, and using it will only leave less room for those compressors to work on so its like stuffing your luggage into two suitcases inside each other. While it can help memory map problems, 1.92 solves that, and while waiting for 1.92 final you can always try this ;)

[ozanzac 0]

But exactly how big of a hit would the compressing addons have? Especially when I've read of more people winging about the lag created  by the CPU hits of islands,but for addons, well, I can put just about as many compressed units as I want on a map and theres no performance deficit. Islands however, are much more complex compared to most unit addons, especially when enterable buidings come into the equation.

I tried mod folders, but because of the private missions I make with my LAN buddies, along with the missions they make, It simply has to be one huge mod folder, the original addon folder .

[edit] thats for mission compatibility issues though [/edit]

[dm 9]

hehe, how could I forget PBOTool (got a shortcut to it on my quicklinks bar )

Yeah, also a good tool, very handy for quick pbo making, but doesn't decompress pbo's properly (if they have any form of compression)

@Kegs - like my can crushing explanation

@ozanzac - the main cpu hit is when OFP first loads (note how much longer it takes when you first boot the game with addons, to when you first boot it without (yes its only seconds, but when trying to rejoin an mp game after addon installation it can mean getting in the game, or missing out) )

And when you first start the mission, as the game loads the addons, mapping all the neccisary ones onto the RAM for use in the mission. Again, the wait is only a few seconds longer, but it can cause mayhem with desync...

[benu 1]

I just downloaded 2 addons and unpacked them with unpbo (pbo decryptor) 1.5. Then i repacked them, one time with StuffPBO and the other time with MakePBO. Then i unpacked those pbos again with unpbo.

I let md5 generate checksums of all files and compare them. The result was that ALL were different. This means, packing with either stuffpbo or makepbo and unpacking again with unpbo will change ALL files in the pbo

Are there pack/unpack tools that won't change the content of the pbo in the process? Is maybe unpbo not working correctly?

[theavonlady 2]

Is maybe unpbo not working correctly?

Test UnPBO by unpacking the same file several times and running a check sum against the different copies of the unpacked file copies.

[gunterlund 0]

Question

I used unpbo to open up O.pbo. Low and behold there was nothing in the file that I extracted to. What is happening here. I use to be able to unpbo the file. I tried it on a couple of other addons and all I got was an empty folder. Are there other unpbo tools out there that are more reliable or will open up compressed files?

[aj_addons 0]

i use stuff pbo nice and fast as you dont have to reset file names and source folders everytime you want to make an addon and dosnt compress to my knowledge, i dont use binnarize as A it refuses to work on my pc for some reason and if you accidently delete stuff you have to use odol expoler to convert models back into mlod which is just time consuming compared to just opening up a non binned addon, though when stuff is released i would get someone to bin it for me due to the slight performance gain people get from binned addons. as for memory map errors ive never had them even though i have about 2gig worth of addons