Failed to Compress Game Data

[Paladin_Potato]

So I have been working on my game a little and decided to try to compress it and give it to one of my friends as a short demo, yet when it finishes compressing I get a message saying: Failed to Compress. I have tried compressing the game data to a different place such as my documents or desktop while changing the name, yet that so far has sadly failed. I am not using any scripts, but I am using custom tiles, mp3 sounds, and custom face graphics with the game. Currently, I am able to play test my game and see it run perfectly fine, but it is when I compress it down to a copy that I get the message. I have noticed though when I compress the game and it fails that their is a still file of the game where I compressed it to, yet nothing is in the files (no actors, faces, etc.). I don't know if this info will help, yet I am willing to pass out more info to get this problem fixed.


I don't want my work to suddenly go to waste  

 

[bgillisp]

I get this error occasionally, and usually if I keep trying to compress it, it eventually works. No idea why though, but it seems it succeeds about 50% of the time with me. Wonder if there is something off with the ACE compression algorithm?


If it helps, I find that most of the time it fails if I try to multi-task while the compression is running. As in, if I run ANYTHING else while it is compressing, it seems to cause a failure.

 

[Andar]

How big is your project folder?


Ace compression and encryption has a problem when the total filesizes gets near 2GB

 

[Kes]

I too suspect it might be your file size.  First thing is to convert those mp3 files to ogg vobis format.  That will reduce your audio file size by as much as 75% without loss of sound quality.   You can use a free program like Audacity.  There is a tutorial on reducing file size but as I'm on my phone I can't give you a link.

 

[Paladin_Potato]

It is now actually working properly! By downloading Audacity and making the mp3 files into ogg vobis format allowed more room to be made which allowed the game to be compressed. I am kinda upset that I can only have a limited amount of space to game though, yet that is another problem to be dealt with in the future. Thank you all for your support and guidance.

 

[Andar]

I am kinda upset that I can only have a limited amount of space to game though,

That has technical reasons that go back to the times of Microsoft DOS and the earliest Windows versions, those couldn't handle files larger than 2 GB. And some of the libraries at the time when Ace was programmed had not been updated to remove that limit - that was outside the RM-developers hands.


One question: are you encrypting the game? then there is a bit of a workaround to this.


Audio-files aren't encrypted by the default encryption anyway, but they need to be processed during encryption.


Make a backup of the project before compressing, remove all audiofiles from the backup to a second location.


Compress and encrypt without audio files


install the resulting game somewhere


Copy in the audiofiles into their usual structure in the game folder


Compress with an external utility again.


Because the 2GB limit is basically caused by a part of the encryption formula if I remember correctly, and that workaround will get you the encryption without running into the limit.


(and if you want everything encrypted and encapsuled, use the enigma virtual box as advised by MV, that also works with other programs.)

 

[Paladin_Potato]

One question: are you encrypting the game? then there is a bit of a workaround to this.


Audio-files aren't encrypted by the default encryption anyway, but they need to be processed during encryption.


Make a backup of the project before compressing, remove all audiofiles from the backup to a second location.


Compress and encrypt without audio files


install the resulting game somewhere


Copy in the audiofiles into their usual structure in the game folder


Compress with an external utility again.


Because the 2GB limit is basically caused by a part of the encryption formula if I remember correctly, and that workaround will get you the encryption without running into the limit.

Thank you for this helpful tip! This will be very helpful to me since I am trying to make a rather large game and trying to avoid making multiple seasons of the game due to this limit. I believe the RTP file may also consume some space as well as some of the PNG pictures that I have saved into the game, and so I may try to figure out a way to make them consume less space if possible later while I develop the game (although I may want to start figuring out ways to conserve space since this game is going to be large, and going back through changing PNG files may end up becoming a pain).

 

[Kes]

Ah, picture size.  Allow me to introduce you to another friend tinypng.com which typically allows you to reduce picture file size by between 60 - 75%.


You know all those animation sheets needed for skill animations?  They have a very big file size, and I have lots of extras for custom animations.  I saved 50Mb on that individual graphics folder alone, again without loss of visual quality.  You can put battlebacks and other pictures through the same process and reduce your file size enormously.


Doing things like that on my last project, which had 300+ maps, 70+ BGM tracks, lots of additional SEs and BGSs, additional animation sheets etc for a game which (if you do everything) is 25 hours, and non-default tiles (I removed the RTP) gave me a final file size of 182Mb.  It takes a bit of work, but when size is an issue it is worth it.

 

[Paladin_Potato]

Ah, picture size.  Allow me to introduce you to another friend tinypng.com which typically allows you to reduce picture file size by between 60 - 75%.


You know all those animation sheets needed for skill animations?  They have a very big file size, and I have lots of extras for custom animations.  I saved 50Mb on that individual graphics folder alone, again without loss of visual quality.  You can put battlebacks and other pictures through the same process and reduce your file size enormously.


Doing things like that on my last project, which had 300+ maps, 70+ BGM tracks, lots of additional SEs and BGSs, additional animation sheets etc for a game which (if you do everything) is 25 hours, and non-default tiles (I removed the RTP) gave me a final file size of 182Mb.  It takes a bit of work, but when size is an issue it is worth it.

I will be sure to go ahead and use tnypng.com since my game is going to be sorta large, yet don't you require the RTP so that other players may play the game? or is there another way to get around that as well? I believe the RTP takes up about 200mb, but I am not completely sure about that.

 

[EdgeMaverick]

you could build games without including all the RTP files 


Check my signature (always wanted to say that )


it explains how but it will take little working around copying files