winRFA screws up

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erwin rommel
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Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:02 am

Re: winRFA screws up

Post by erwin rommel »

WinRFA always packs things larger, in my experience. These larger RFAs should work fine, and you shouldn't worry about it unless you are going to upload the file somewhere.

Though in your case, there is quite a difference, which suggests something else is going on. WInRFA has always worked for me though, so perhaps we can look at what's going on.

I'm not sure about your exact circumstances, but let's get the stupid stuff out of the way. Make sure you are packing the right folder. WinRFA likes to go to the most annoying location in my experience. Also, I'm not sure if you've packed a game.rfa before but there is a nuance to it:

When you unpack it, it will make folders that look like bf1942/game/blahblahblah. Make sure you that when you pack it, you are actually packing the bf1942 folder, not the game one. This shouldn't cause the folder to get huge, though.

Failing that, there are dedicated RFA packers you could try. I know one came with RFA Explorer, but if I recall correctly, it was a little annoying to use. I think the latest MDT also has a dedicated packer.
Jeronimo
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Re: winRFA screws up

Post by Jeronimo »

I faced the same problem when I was editing an objects.rfa that was only around 1.5 MB at first but 8 MB after I packed it again with WinRFA. If you want to get the archive back to the original size you will have to use the console tools from MDT. There is a program in it called "rfaPack.exe" and you can use it like this:

Code: Select all

rfaPack [sourceDir] [PackDirName] [Archive.rfa] [ -u update existing .rfa | -Compress]
Important is the last flag, "-Compress". Leaving it away will give you the 8 MB .rfa, same as WinRFA, but putting it in gives you the original file size back. :) AFAIK there isn't any way to set this option with WinRFA.

Would be interesting to me if this has an influence to how long it takes the server to load (=>unpack) an .rfa file. Since you can replace for example the objects.rfa of a mod that is currently running without any trouble to then get your results directly loaded with the next map change, it means that the server always loads these files (objects.rfa, game.rfa, ..., map.rfa) again and again with every map change. Packing them all as uncompressed rfas should need less CPU and thus make them faster to load and like this decrease the time a server needs on a map change. Maybe somebody has already made experiences with that?
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freddy
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:58 pm

Re: winRFA screws up

Post by freddy »

yup there´s a dedicated packer in the MDT bundle that has a GUI (GUI_RfaPack.exe) and its a bit easier to use than the console version

never noticed any big difference in loading time between packed/unpacked but its neat to use when you have a map with lots of textures and such and you dont want to distribuate it as a rar/zip archive.
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fo0k
Posts: 1433
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Location: UK

Re: winRFA screws up

Post by fo0k »

erwin rommel wrote:Make sure you that when you pack it, you are actually packing the bf1942 folder, not the game one.
this!

Game.rfa f**ked me around for a good hour before I realised this. Mod worked.. game tweak.. mod fails. WTF!!
erwin rommel
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:02 am

Re: winRFA screws up

Post by erwin rommel »

And for that matter, make sure that game is the only folder that gets unpacked into that bf1942. Maps like to try and get in there too.
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