Zip VS installers
ManStan
Posts: 0
This has nothing to do with which is better, it's the zips ;)
I though I would save myself some HDD same and swap out zips for installers in my save content folders. After all zips should be smaller files, but they are not. So far zips are running a bit to considerably bigger. With one file the zip is twice the size of the installer. They have the same content so why is the zips so much bigger then the installers?
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An installer is a scripted, self extracting compressed file...it can be almost any compression format.
A zip is just a zip...one rather mediocre compression format.
Plus, a zip isn't going to compress texture files any more than they already are...so if the file is mostly jpgs, there's not much shrinkage going to happen.
I guess it could be that they set the compression on the installers higher than that of their new zips? Or that there were two or more installers where there is now one zip? Hmmmm interesting find!
You know, on another matter entirely, I wanted to reinstall all of my runtime content to the new D|S library system because it has all of these nice folders inside like, "Environments", "Animals", "People", whatnot, right? As it turns out, all of those folders are empty and useless in Carrara 8.5! Thank the 3d gods that I still left all of my runtimes intact, eh?
A zip still shouldn't be larger if one is not set the compression level down. An installer has the installer code as well as the content right off. My zips are smaller (sometimes considerably) then the installers and I'm not using max compression (that rarely gives significant difference over the recommended and is much slower.) Try using 7zip instead of a standard zip format as it has a much better compression algorithm.
The other reason to use zips is that getting files out of them is much faster then going through the 'installer' mini app.
Edit: crosspost with Dartanbeck... my comment on installer vs zip was pre his post. If comparing zips from DAZ vs installers from DAZ, then yes.. it almost guaranteed has to do with algorithm differences used between the two because installers by definition have more content, if the basic content is the same. I add the last caveat as DAZ might have also changed what data is included in the zip version vs the installer version, adding missing things, removing items not needed for a particular environment, splitting things up differently, etc...
Thanks all. Guess I wont be swapping zips for installers.
I used to convert installers to 7-Zip packages and they were always smaller than the installers.
DAZ's archiving may be inefficient in terms of file size, I haven't checked. However even if that were the case, the difference is likely to be a few gigabytes at most in total which is nothing compared to the inconvenience of the installers.
Can you give specific examples? I don't have any DIM content on this computer.
Hi Stan :)
Which files are bigger ?
Generally,. some files which came as Multiple installers are now a single zip EG: [ Genesis starter essentials ] (technically that single file is bigger than any of the single product installers) however, the overall file size, both downloaded kb, and installed kb will be smaller, since two things are missing from the zips.
1,. the installer application (.exe) which unpacks the archive, installs the files, and creates the uninstaller.
2. the product readme file, and it's thumbnail image. (both now on-line)
Neither of these two things will make a huge difference in your hard drive space,. but if you take the example of a "Pose set",. which could be less than a single MB as a ZIP file,. as an Installer EXE. it may be double that size simply because of the installer / readme / pic.
over several thousand products,. there should be a difference in used drive space, and downloaded files.
Ultimately, you're installing the same products,. so they should take up the same amount of drive space ,. with the exception of the readme and uninstaller etc..
however,. there are also new file formats , like DSON,. for Poser,. so,.. the saving of not having installers and readme's can easily be outweighed by installing more product "support" files which weren't previously available.
either way,. it's not going to help much in saving real hard drive space,. but using DIM does mean that it's easier to Archive your content to an external drive, which may free up some real drive space.
:)
What zip program? I've been using 7-zip and always see about 4 to 6 MB smaller file sizes, depending on how old the installers are. The older installers have a smaller install program, from the looks of it.
Do yourself a favor—keep the zips.
The problem I observed with older installers? They wouldn't run under later versions of the operating system.
(You might ask, "What content company would keep using an outdated installer for their products when the target platform changes?" But if you ask it around here, you have to ask it ironically.)
The zip file is now a pretty much standard format which, though still not perfect for archival storage, will at least work with whatever zip opener you're running. Just make sure to keep that opener updated with the rest of your system.
What I was intending to do was replace installers with zips of the same content just for storage, But the first folder I went to do was Mat and Maddie. Mil3 preshoolers zip is twice the size of the installer and both have the same content. But I did clear out a few 100meg of clothes and morphs that never did fit.
Now I need to figure out what to do with Antonia and Apollo. I never use them but don't want to just rash them. Or most of the figure in my anime folder. Aiko3 and the girl are the only ones I use. I've also been thinking of stripping M2 and V2 down to just clothes for conversion.