Hacking Wii U image (WUD) compression tool

[Exzap]

I made a little tool to compress Wii U images/dumps.

How does it work?
It detects duplicate sectors and only stores them once. Essentially this leads to all the empty ranges being shaved off, storing only ranges which contain file or filesystem data.
Although the algorithm is simple, it works really well. In almost all cases it will reduce the size by more than 50% (12GB+!)

Examples (uncompressed size is always 23.3GB):
Super Mario World 3D -> 2.61GB (20.69GB saved)
DKC Tropical Freeze -> 11.7GB (11.6GB saved)
Zelda WW HD -> 2.70GB (20.7GB saved)
Darksiders 2 -> 9.43GB (13.87GB saved)
Mario Party 10 -> 4.01GB (19.29GB saved)

It is lossless, meaning you can compress and uncompress a file and the outcome will still be the same. This is different to tools like WiiScrubber which actually modify the data.

Why is this better than using RAR/ZIP/etc.?
It's faster and tools can natively read it (obv. assuming they support it). At least my future releases will support compressed images directly.

Download (includes source)
Download mirror

The easiest way to use the tool is to just drag the file you want to compress/decompress onto the .exe

Note for developers:
I tried to make it easy to integrate into other projects. If you want to implement it, just include wud.cpp and wud.h and you are good to go (for reading only, code for compression is in main.cpp). API should be self-explanatory. Small adjustments are needed to make it work for non-Windows platforms.

 

[Xuman]

I made a little tool to compress Wii U images/dumps.

How does it work?
It detects duplicate sectors and only stores them once. Essentially this leads to all the empty ranges being shaved off, storing only ranges which contain file or filesystem data.
Although the algorithm is simple, it works really well. In almost all cases it will reduce the size by more than 50% (12GB+!)

Examples (uncompressed size is always 23.3GB):
Super Mario World 3D -> 2.61GB (20.69GB saved)
DKC Tropical Freeze -> 11.7GB (11.6GB saved)
Zelda WW HD -> 2.70GB (20.7GB saved)
Darksiders 2 -> 9.43GB (13.87GB saved)
Mario Party 10 -> 4.01GB (19.29GB saved)

It is lossless, meaning you can compress and uncompress a file and the outcome will still be the same. This is different to tools like WiiScrubber which actually modify the data.

Why is this better than using RAR/ZIP/etc.?
It's faster and tools can natively read it (obv. assuming they support it). At least my future releases will support compressed images directly.

Download (includes source)
Download mirror

The easiest way to use the tool is to just drag the file you want to compress/decompress onto the .exe

Note for developers:
I tried to make it easy to integrate into other projects. If you want to implement it, just include wud.cpp and wud.h and you are good to go (for reading only, code for compression is in main.cpp). API should be self-explanatory. Small adjustments are needed to make it work for non-Windows platforms.

Will mosdef try this asap. Good job! Small things like these are what helps out in the long run. I myself am glad the Wii U scene is healthy lately.

 

[fernas]

Wow, excellent work!

 

[davokazaki]

Excelent work

 

[Reecey]

@Exzap . Good work just a thought is this in connection with loadiine cause I see it puts out a WiiU.wux file, not WiiU.wud, any connection with @golden45 ? interesting seems about the right time a compressor has popped up all of a sudden.

 

[EclipseSin]

@Exzap . Good work just a thought is this in connection with loadiine cause I see it puts out a WiiU.wux file, not WiiU.wud, any connection with @golden45 ? interesting seems about the right time a compressor has popped up all of a sudden.

Loadiine doesn't work with WUDs as far as I know. It works with extracted files. And I'd assume .wux is just the extension he chose for compressed wud... Could name it .iso for the same effect.

 

[Exzap]

@Exzap . Good work just a thought is this in connection with loadiine cause I see it puts out a WiiU.wux file, not WiiU.wud, any connection with @golden45 ? interesting seems about the right time a compressor has popped up all of a sudden.

It's just a coincidence. Probably not useful for loadiine due to the reason already stated by EclipseSin.

 

[Reecey]

It's just a coincidence. Probably not useful for loadiine due to the reason already stated by EclipseSin.

I just thought .pux .wux files? I don't know.

 

[gamesquest1]

I just thought .pux .wux files? I don't know.

seeing as the loader made by @golden45 uses the extracted files i doubt this will be of any use except for archiving "backup", but tbh the raw extracted file system offers the same space saving and means you dont have to extract it several times to access the actual file system

 

[Reecey]

seeing as the loader made by @golden45 uses the extracted files i doubt this will be of any use except for archiving "backup", but tbh the raw extracted file system offers the same space saving and means you dont have to extract it several times to access the actual file system

So what your saying is, this loader can only load official back ups that are extracted before hand, it cant load any .wud files etc..? or files in the wild. but then again once they have been extracted I would imagine they would get posted up somewhere in the correct format.

 

[gamesquest1]

So what your saying is, this loader can only load official back ups that are extracted before hand, it cant load any .wud files etc..? or files in the wild.

well seeing as its based on cafiine almost certainly, not that i have access to it or know exactly what it uses, but he has stated it started as a modified cafiine to load the rpx file from the network too.....which suggests its extracted files only

but you can extract the files from a wud file using Uwizard too using the titlekey that is included in the nfo on most releases, so they aren't exactly useless and can still be used, just that the extracted files are more manageable than trying to stream the entire encrypted image over a network

 

[Philip3ds]

I knew that something like this would be made.

 

[the_randomizer]

A nice little tool, too bad there's no way to make unofficial backups yet

 

[Vegeta]

Great tool. Reminds me of WIA (Wii ISO Archive) which does the same thing for Wii ISOs.

http://wit.wiimm.de/info/wia.html

 

[YugamiSekai]

Maybe this will be combined into Uwizard. @Mr. Mysterio Great work still. I was surprised that the MK8 ISO was 23GB.

 

[Mr. Mysterio]

I actually designed my own WUD compression algorithm, but the reason I didn't add it to Uwizard is that DiscU is closed source and it can't read compressed games.

 

[Irastris]

I actually designed my own WUD compression algorithm, but the reason I didn't add it to Uwizard is that DiscU is closed source and it can't read compressed games.

Was it just due to how your technique worked? I'd hate to compress the .wuds and not be able to easily use them anymore. (But this 186GBs is seriously killing me, I should invest in a better HDD)

 

[Mr. Mysterio]

Was it just due to how your technique worked?

I don't know what you mean. Could you please explain the quoted text a little better?

 

[Margen67]

0:10

 

[Irastris]

I don't know what you mean. Could you please explain the quoted text a little better?

You say your algorithm made them incompatible with DiscU, does that mean it worked differently than Exzap's program does? He claims his program allows them to still be compatible, so I'd assume it's different, but I'd still like to be sure before I go around compressing my WUD folder.