Why do people use winrar? : III

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:03 pm

Why do people use winrar?
it has a $40 subscription fee and I assume that the other zip programs can do an equal job as it.
Can a modder out their explain it to me?

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:42 am

Isn't there a free trial version? Their used to be.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:30 pm

Isn't there a free trial version? Their used to be.

Yep, and even though it says it expires, it continues to work forever, in fact, it is the cheapest compression program out there because of it!

Edit: To answer the OP's question though, it is because it is the only compression utility that I know of at least that can decompress all formats, from 7z to .rar

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:33 am

I stoped using winrar for mods long ago, 7zip has way much better texture size compression

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:54 am

Yep, and even though it says it expires, it continues to work forever, in fact, it is the cheapest compression program out there because of it!

Oh,well I wish I knew that!
Now I got to reinstall it.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:15 pm

I stoped using winrar for mods long ago, 7zip has way much better texture size compression

No arguments on which is better at doing compression, but the question was why it was used!

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:43 pm

Edit: To answer the OP's question though, it is because it is the only compression utility that I know of at least that can decompress all formats, from 7z to .rar

Zip Genuis handles all of them, or almost all of them. It did not like large rar archives in the past, say over a few hundred MB, but that might have been fixed

http://download.cnet.com/ZipGenius-Standard-Edition/3000-2250_4-10179818.html

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:58 pm

Yep, and even though it says it expires, it continues to work forever, in fact, it is the cheapest compression program out there because of it!

Edit: To answer the OP's question though, it is because it is the only compression utility that I know of at least that can decompress all formats, from 7z to .rar

1.I got 7zip for free
2.7zip can decompress 7z to .rar.
p.s I'm not trying to advertise I am just trying to say that winrar isn't the only one that does all that.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:48 pm

So whats everybody's favorite archiver?

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:53 pm

I stoped using winrar for mods long ago, 7zip has way much better texture size compression

Same reason i use it, plus ive never found anything it can't open. Along with the fact that its much smaller than Winrar and it integrates itself much better with windows

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:38 pm

i have Zip Genuis and 7zip what one wont open the other will . though i use 7zip not only to open files but its the only one i use to pack my files .

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 4:28 am

I use winrar just because I had it on my pc and am used to it. I had 7z on other pc, which I guess was better, but then again, I'm kinda lazy and that prevents me from downloading 7z once more.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:25 pm

There were some discussion of archivers and the formats they open in http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1097861-is-there-a-free-program-to-open-ace-files/. I would not use Winrar because it is not free (according to the EULA), and there are good free alternatives.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:54 pm

So whats everybody's favorite archiver?

iv had the trial version of winrar for over a year....haha it never expires for some reason.

i have 7zip and winrar on my other computer and they're bother equal to me (in performance)

so my favorite would have to be winrar and 7zip.

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:18 am

7zip because it opens just about everything save for .ace files(which I really hate even though I have another program to open them)

New question, why do people use .ace files? The only place I have ever seen them used is for morrowind mods.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:41 pm

So 7zip can compress a 2 GB mod to a much smaller size than winrar can?
Is there a program than can compress 2 GB to 500 MB?

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 2:07 pm

So 7zip can compress a 2 GB mod to a much smaller size than winrar can?
Is there a program than can compress 2 GB to 500 MB?

Compression ratio always depends on what you are compressing. If the file is 2GB of zeros, most compression programs will be able to compress that down to the size of the archive header + a small number of bytes. I just tried 7zip on a 100MB file of zeros, and it compressed down to 14290 bytes.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:18 pm

I use 7z too. As it is open source. But I like winrars icons. I changed 7z's icons to winrar(but it doesn't like it.) Also I like the internal viewer for text files. I used it a lot.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:01 pm

I use 7zip. Too bad it doesn't open those stupid .ace formats some modders use. And sometimes it won't let me take a peek inside an .exe that has stuff like textures in it. =/

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:58 pm

Winrar has a free trial, John, it's free, it's only not free if you buy it.

Don't know why the EULA would have anything in it about it not being free...

Now I use 7zip, because it runs with everything, except for .Arj files and .ace. I think.

Also, unless it's a self extracting zip based exe, I don't think 7zip could let you look inside it.

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:12 am

Winrar has a free trial, John, it's free, it's only not free if you buy it.

Don't know why the EULA would have anything in it about it not being free...

This is what the EULA says:

Anyone may use this software during a test period of 40 days. Following this test period of 40 days or less, if you wish to continue to use RAR, you must purchase a license.

Ipso facto it is not "free", it is a commercial product, marketed under the shareware model, for which the author expects to get paid. Whether you choose to honor the EULA is your business, but that has nothing to do with the fact that it is not free.

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:08 pm

I use 7z for this and that, but I stopped packaging mods with it because I kept ending up with corrupted esp files. It only seemed to happen if the overall archive was very large; I first noticed it happening with Fliggerty's Armor Project.

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:28 am

I know someone who made a 5GB text file of empty space, then zipped it using winrar... it compressed down to 2.5MB.

What a waste of time that was... compressing empty space. It was very funny to try and extract though. Went on for a lot longer than you'd think a 2.5MB file would take to extract. And then trying to open the text file? :rofl:

» Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:38 pm

I got lucky and was able to get a free version of Winrar that was offered during an aniversary. Though I don't use it to compress files, for that I use 7Zip.

Fliggerty, it can corrupt esps though?

Might try something else for larger esps. How big is too big though?

» Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:21 am

IMO the main reason is 7zip has _ugly_ icons. Windows 3.1 ugly. It can scare people off.