thx, yes, I will explore that further... indeed much to be gained with nearly impossible to notice difference in quality.
So you mean CompactGUI LZX compress will give an extra gain over already compressed content folder with CM Compress (also uses LZX as per recommended)?
I will try that, thanks! EDIT: No, this doesn't give any gain on top of the compress of CM Compress tool.
Seems alot of improvement can be made still to the CM Compress Tool...
I worked with
ImageMagick over 4 years ago as a batch converter or image editing tool for dds files. Cli command was mogrify imo. It worked very well then, and I'm sure it will be even better by now.
But I'm with what
@norms said. Why would you recompress dds files? dds is a lossy format, like jpg or mp3. Every time you recompress, you lose a certain amount of quality. png files to dds, Ok, that makes sense. But it also means that the assignments to the dds files have to be recreated.
The
CompactGUI will help a little, though probably not much.
Most and easiest, imo, it would certainly help to simply move the least used or worst mods to an external HDD and only reinstall if needed.
But you can also use this batch file.
Extract this batch file in the content directory of AC and start it when needed by double-clicking it.
In any case, make a complete backup of your AC directory
beforehand. I and some others have been using this file for a while without any problems, but who knows.... 🤷♂️
I think most of these people only use the harmless basic part of the batch file anyway.
The batch file is divided into two parts.
Code:
:: Base Version
del /S /Q /F /a "Thumbs.db" "Desktop.ini" "*dropbox" "*DS_Store" "*picasa.ini" "~*" "pspbrwse.jbf"
:: Extentended Version
::del /S /Q /F /a "*template" "*.psd" "*.rar" "*.7z" "*.zip" "*backup"
The first part (base version), deletes only small completely unnecessary files, and is mainly for my OCD.
I have deliberately not armed the second part (extended version), which could free up way more memory. The people who have to "armed it" themselves usually know what can happen.
It's in the 5th line and to activate it you have to remove the first two colons.
So from
Code:
::del /S /Q /F /a "*template" "*.psd" "*.rar" "*.7z" "*.zip" "*backup"
becomes
Code:
del /S /Q /F /a "*template" "*.psd" "*.rar" "*.7z" "*.zip" "*backup"
If you then double-click the batch file inside AC content folder, all files named as "
template" ".psd" "
.rar" ".7z" "*.zip" "*backup" or with these extensions are deleted. That's why my tip is to back up everything at least once to another hard drive BEFOREhand.
You can also divide this batch file into 2 different ones, but a batch file is easily unintentionally clicked, and could harm you. I prefer to actively arm or unarm it manually, when needed and intentioned.
Depending on what you have installed and how, this should free up a lot of storage space, as some of these files can be very large and are usually rarely or never used.
Think carefully beforehand whether this also applies to you.
So be aware that these files will be deleted without asking for your consent first. So only use the file where you consciously want it to be. Otherwise, it can cause immense damage, for which of course I cannot or will not accept any responsibility. 
Thank you everyone! 
