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Description

A fast ISO to CSO compression program which uses multiple algorithms for best compression ratio.

Basic Usage

maxcso myfile.iso

Or, drag the iso file into maxcso.exe on Windows.

Release

Get the latest release from the GitHub releases. Use maxcso.exe on modern systems, and use maxcso32.exe on Windows XP and other 32-bit versions of Windows.

Features

  • Can use as many CPU cores as you want.
  • Can use zlib, 7-zip's deflate, and Zopfli.
  • Processes multiple files in one command.
  • Can take a CSO or DAX file as a source.
  • Able to output at larger block sizes.
  • Support for experimental CSO v2 and ZSO formats using lz4 (faster decompression.)
  • Tuning of deflate or lz4 compression threshold.
  • Decompression of all supported inputs (including DAX and CSO v2.)

Compression

maxcso always uses compression level 9. Decompression speed is about the same regardless of level, and disk access is faster with smaller files.

Using 7-zip's deflate and Zopfli improves compression ratios, but don't expect a lot. Usual results are between 0.5% to 1.0% smaller.

Larger block sizes than the default will help compression, in the range of 2-3%. However, the files may not be compatible with some software. For example, PPSSPP versions released after 2014-10-26 will support larger block sizes.

LZ4's compression ratios aren't as good, but it decompresses faster. It can sometimes beat deflate in compression ratio, and CSO v2 allows it to be mixed with deflate.

Speed

Compared to other tools like ciso and CisoPlus, maxcso can run much faster and achieve the same compression. Use --fast to get the fastest compression, which matches level 9 in other tools.

Additionally, if you have better than a dual core processor, maxcso will use all of your cores, and perform even better.

Full usage

Usage: maxcso [--args] input.iso [-o output.cso]

Multiple files may be specified.  Inputs can be iso or cso files.

   --threads=N     Specify N threads for I/O and compression
   --quiet         Suppress status output
   --crc           Log CRC32 checksums, ignore output files and methods
   --fast          Use only basic zlib or lz4 for fastest result
   --decompress    Write out to raw ISO, decompressing as needed
   --block=N       Specify a block size (default depends on iso size)
                   Many readers only support the 2048 size
   --format=VER    Specify cso version (options: cso1, cso2, zso)
                   These are experimental, default is cso1
   --use-zlib      Enable trials with zlib for deflate compression
   --use-zopfli    Enable trials with Zopfli for deflate compression
   --use-7zdeflate Enable trials with 7-zip's deflate compression
   --use-lz4       Enable trials with lz4hc for lz4 compression
   --use-lz4brute  Enable bruteforce trials with lz4hc for lz4 compression
   --only-METHOD   Only allow a certain compression method (zlib, etc. above)
   --no-METHOD     Disable a certain compression method (zlib, etc. above)
                   The default is to use zlib and 7zdeflate only
   --lz4-cost=N    Allow lz4 to increase block size by N% at most (cso2 only)
   --orig-cost=N   Allow uncompressed to increase block size by N% at most

Because Zopfli is significantly slower than the other methods, and uses a lot more memory, it is disabled by default. Add --use-zopfli for maximum compression.

The cost arguments allow you to allow each block to be N% bigger by using lz4 or no compression. This makes the file read faster (less cpu power), but take more space.

Platforms

maxcso has only been tested on Windows so far. The code was written to be portable, however. If you'd like to port it to another platform, pull requests are accepted. It may just compile out of the box with a Makefile or similar, but 7-zip is probably the biggest problem.

Windows

To build on Windows, simply open cli/maxcso.sln and build. Visual Studio 2013 is required, but Express for Windows Desktop works just fine.

Credits and Licensing

The larger portion of code here is from others' wonderful work in decompression and I/O libraries. Licensing is as follows:

  • maxcso is licensed under ISC.
  • 7-zip is licensed under LGPL.
  • Zopfli is licensed under Apache 2.0.
  • libuv is licensed under MIT.
  • zlib is licensed under zlib.
  • lz4 is licensed under BSD.

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