Hacking Reducing game size by deleting language files and or movies- LIST

[Chrisssj2]

Ok let's make this the thread were we gather information as to how to most efficiently reduce game sizes without breaking the game.
This is what i have gathered so far:

Just Sound files removed:

-Borderlands 2- I heard some people had succes with this game. I own it on my official vita. so no idea on details.
-Need for speed Most wanted -Space saved: 244MB ES and FR folders (spanish/french) - TESTED boots fine and plays fine as far as i can see
-Plants vs Zombies -Space saved: 12.1 MB de es fr it in data folder. - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Sonic All Star Racing -Space saved: 250 MB +- fra, ger, ita, spa pck files in sound folder, Not sure on multi.pck if safe to delete.. - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Streetfighter X tekken -Space saved: 76.6 MB - Archive folder All the folders except ENG AND CMN. I thought cmn was chinese manderin but it gave me a black screen i removed this so i put it back and game booted again. - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Tearaway -Space saved: 277 MB assets gamedata audio fr da de folders etc... - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see

Video's removed:
-Ar nosurge plus ode to an unborn -Space saved: 240 MB Movie/Japanese folder. I dont see why only japanese folder is in there and no other language.. (also has an english one.)- TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z -Space saved: 63 MB Opening movie Black screen with no file, with 0 byte file also black screen but i u press quickly start/ X then it will go to loading screen but then will be stuck....
-Rayman Origins -Space saved: 467 MB 6 video files in the root of data folder. - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Rayman Legends -Space saved: 62.4 MB 3 video files
-Lost Dimesion -Space saved: 217 MB 13 videofiles . 2 intro videofiles i will remove. other files seem story related so i wont remove those. Introfiles are 58.6 MB
-Oddworld Strangers Wrath -Space saved: 301 MB 14 video files data/movies.
-Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee -Space saved: 645 MB the bik files seem necessary connect to UI. Game would crash if no 0 byte file are created from legal opening_movie and ow_intro. To be sure create 0 byte of rest too of all MP4 files.
-PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate HD -Space saved: 70.4 MB 2 video files
-Project root -Space saved: 62.4 MB credits and intro - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
-Superbeat Xonic -Space saved: 431 MB Shit load on videos but the dump doesnt work so i cant test... if it causes problems
-One piece burning blood -Space saved: 1.41 GB HOLY SHITT I finished story so i cant or wont test if it gives problems but i can delete them now i think.
-Oreshika -Space saved: 184 MB 3 intro videos
-Streetfighter X tekken -Space saved: 857 MB It has every charachters ending movie. I didnt delete it, but you could after u finish story? Instead i just delete the 35 MB intro. Press start/ X or O or whatever to Skip intro or else stuck @ whitescreen.

Sound/text And videos removed:
-Assasin creed Liberation -Space saved: 464 MB +- Just delete all the GER, FRE etc. files in the sound folder - TESTED boots fine and plays as far as i can see
EDIT: Found more, 6 MP4 language based files in video folder
-Injustice Gods among us Ultimate Edition -Space saved: 10 MB localisation ger esp fr etc. MOVIES are 413MB but im not sure if they are save to be removed, someone please confirm.

Failed Games that blackscreen when video removed or partly removed video unsure if it causes problems:
-Sonic All Star Racing When removing intro and logo no boot. I think it is more safe to delete credits. gameclear not so sure. Credits = 115 MB
-Duke nukem 3D - 5 MB of video files intro etc. black screen
-Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart movies folder 114 MB

Games with Huge archive files that can or cannot be opened to extract/delete possible files from?
-PCSB00332/PCSE00471/PCSE00673 Is there a way to open psarc files from the vita?
-PCSB00404/PCSE00423 Is there a way to open cpk files from the vita?
-PCSB00507 winrar can't open this pak file?
-PCSB00511 Is there a way to open wad files from the vita?
-PCSB00701 Single huge Voice pck file, can we open it to find other language?
-PCSE00277 Is there a way to open ipk files fromt he vita?

Someone told me get a hex editor and just delete the contents which is the same as creating a .txt file and renaming to whatever the files name is, and transfer it over via FTP.
I decided not to do this untill i run into a problem. What you do is up to you.

If you have found more suggestions experiments as what to is safe to delete please do tell!
Memory card space is precious with henkaku and vitamin.
I have noticed also that in alot of games there are .bik/ movies or Intro/Credits files etc.. Perhaps those could be deleted too in some games. but I have yet to experiment.

I have gained approximately over 6 GB doing all these mini fixes.

Removing some of the movies might be trickier. since you dont necessarily know when these are loaded. Safest bet will be removing intro/credits id say. Just make backups on pc.
I will aim for to remove all non essential videos. If there are videos that are actually related to the game's story itself i will try to keep it in the game to retain the experience.

 

[Kev63]

I'm not pro about ripping games, but I remember on PSP it was better to replace large useless files with dummy files (same name, same extension but 0 Kb).

 

[Reploid]

You can also delete sce_sys/manual in every game. Sometimes, its really large, like in Tearaway -200mb for digital manual that nobody gonna read ever? No thanks.

You can also delete videos/awakening.mp4 in Jet Set Radio. Its just some making of video. minus 300mb

Same with all videos in MK9 - if you cleared storymod its minus 1gb for you.

 

[Juano]

You can also delete sce_sys/manual in every game. Sometimes, its really large, like in Tearaway -200mb for digital manual that nobody gonna read ever? No thanks.

You can also delete videos/awakening.mp4 in Jet Set Radio. Its just some making of video. minus 300mb

Same with all videos in MK9 - if you cleared storymod its minus 1gb for you.

Nice, is this safe to do?

 

[Reploid]

Nice, is this safe to do?

I did, and still good

 

[Juano]

I did, and still good

great, did you deleted the whole Manual folder or just the content of the folder?

 

[Reploid]

great, did you deleted the whole Manual folder or just the content of the folder?

Whole thing, but I doubt there is a difference

 

[Chrisssj2]

You can also delete sce_sys/manual in every game. Sometimes, its really large, like in Tearaway -200mb for digital manual that nobody gonna read ever? No thanks.

You can also delete videos/awakening.mp4 in Jet Set Radio. Its just some making of video. minus 300mb

Same with all videos in MK9 - if you cleared storymod its minus 1gb for you.

Great suggestions. Though if u want to edit the save via the hexedit trick u might be smart to back it up since it uses the manual?
What game is MK9?

 

[Reploid]

Great suggestions. Though if u want to edit the save via the hexedit trick u might be smart to back it up since it uses the manual?
What game is MK9?

Mortal kombat

 

[Chrisssj2]

I did, and still good

You sir are the man. I deleted 59 manuals. and it saved me 1.09 GB!

 

[Juano]

Error 0x8001000D when trying to delete dungeon hunter´s manual folder...weird

 

[Kyle Miller]

Error 0x8001000D when trying to delete dungeon hunter´s manual folder...weird

Just checked the Error Codes Vita Dev Wiki and it says for that error: SCE_ERROR_ERRNO_EACCES aka C1-2749-2 (The file is corrupted.) Just thought I'd help you out and let you know what the error meant, still strange why you would be getting that error though! Try rebooting? That's what I'd do.

 

[Juano]

Just checked the Error Codes Vita Dev Wiki and it says for that error: SCE_ERROR_ERRNO_EACCES aka C1-2749-2 (The file is corrupted.) Just thought I'd help you out and let you know what the error meant, still strange why you would be getting that error though! Try rebooting? That's what I'd do.

Fixed after reboot

 

[Kyle Miller]

Fixed after reboot

Yay good to hear!! Always when in doubt with electronics reboot!! Haha seems to always work MOST of the time not always though. Glad it worked though!

 

[Reploid]

Atelier Sophie's opening and credits could be replaced with dummy video files and boots fine. -300mb. You can also delete 'pack00' folder in BGM directory and don't swith alternate music on, it's -200 mb more. Should work with other atelier's games.

 

[RMF3]

Just tried Borderlands 2 I deleted the French and German audio banks both around 300 mb, played about 15 minutes and it seems fine. You can also delete the spanish audio in the game UnEpic boots fine but i havent played it.

 

[Dakor]

Hi!
I'm currently working an a native Vita App that let's you shrink game files.
For now you can browse the app directory and press triangle to replace the selected file with an dummy file with the same name (0kb).

I'm thinking of automating this progress so that it searches for video, audio and language files, that could be removed, but since every games names their files different, i'm still working on the serach key words....

I also thought about a feature where you can automatically share a list of all files you shrinked for a specific game and send it to other users who could import it, so that they don't have to shrink files manually. But it would probably make more sense to upload minified Versions of each game, like in the psp scene.

Have you thought about creating a Google Spreadsheet for the information above?

 

[Qwertyqwerty]

You can reduce the quality of the mp4 videos to gain space. Or replace all the videos with the smallest, and renaming.

 

[Dakor]

You can reduce the quality of the mp4 videos to gain space. Or replace all the videos with the smallest, and renaming.

This idea is great! We could replace movies with 1second dummy files which will then be played and won't cause any exceptions or troubles. I will consider this for my app!

 

[Dakor]

@OP You can Extract psarc files with ULTIMATE TOOLZ: http://www.file-extensions.org/psarc-file-extension

I just tried to replace videos with a dummy mp4 video, finding that there seems to be no difference for games that also work with the "empty"-dummy files. I will check Sonic Allstar Racing, which seems to crash with dummy files, next...