Necessary files on the CD (to make smaller ISO?)

[DragonQ]

Hi, I am trying to make an ISO Image out of my CD, and I have some software that allows me to rip an image from the CD, and another piece of software that lets me edit what's in the ISO.

Now, the reason I'm doing this is because I use WA on my laptop a lot while on the move, and I hate to use the DVD+RW drive while running on batteries - I want more play time, lol! But, again because it's a laptop, I have little HDD space to play with so I try to save as much as possible.

Anyway, I have removed all but the Data folder on the ISO, and I've also removed some of the language stuff I don't need - but this only reduces the total size by 65MB. I don't want to use a crack because I like the in-game music (which is run from the CD or image), and well, because they're illegal I think :)

So, can anyone tell me any other unnecessary stuff on the CD baring in mind I only need to be able to RUN the game properly, not install it (I can use the original CD for that should I ever need to reinstall)? Like stuff that is copied over during install so isn't required to be on the CD maybe?

Thanks for any help.

[CyberShadow]

Hi,

Unfortunately, most of the space of W:A's CD is used by the in-game music. It is stored as uncompressed WAVs (in \Data\Streams), and occupies 281 MB of space. You can theoretically replace them with empty WAVs (use File -> New -> Wave file in Explorer), but then, of course, you'd lose the in-game music. Then, there's the custom fanfares and sound banks (30 and 90 MB respectively); I believe you can remove all but the default soundbank without any side effects (otherwise, replace the files with empty WAVs as well). I also think that most of the contents of the \Data\Resource folder is unused for offline games, but may be required for installation or online play.

Oh, also: modifying the ISO may not work at all, because of W:A's copy protection. The game may not recognize the CD if it will detect that it has been modified.

[DragonQ]

OK, that's a bit annoying. I probably won't be able to reduce its size further.

Oh, and FYI, it works fine (so far at least) with just the Data folder in tact.

[CyberShadow]

You could always reencode the music into MP3/OGG/FLAC and listen to it with an external media player (like WinAMP) ;)

[DragonQ]

lol, that's not exactly the workaround I'm looking for ;)

[Vader]

With regards to swapping WAV files:

1.) If you listen to MP3s while you play then you probably have music switched off anyway, so swapping the music WAVs for empty one is no big deal.

2.) If you have a custom speechbank, you can swap the default spech WAVs for your custom ones. Just be sure to use the default speechbank for your team*.

Your biggest problem with WA and HDD space is that the more games you play, the more HDD space you will use up on account of WA's automatic game recording. I am not aware of a way to disable this.


*Incidentally, you can also do this if you just wish to hear a non-default speechbank when you don't have the one someone else is using when on WormNET.

[DragonQ]

From what I've seen the saved games are TINY in size (I have 144 games @ 3.51MB total) so that isn't a problem anyway.

I do like to play with the in game music most of the time, so I would like to keep the music. I would prefer if they'd implemented mp3 support instead, but what you gonna do?

[bonz]

From what I've seen the saved games are TINY in size (I have 144 games @ 3.51MB total) so that isn't a problem anyway.
I have 957 replays totalling in 125MB HDD space... :rolleyes:
I do like to play with the in game music most of the time, so I would like to keep the music. I would prefer if they'd implemented mp3 support instead, but what you gonna do?
OGG is more likely, as MP3 needs licensing from Thompson/Fraunhofer.