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Packing
Packing
A SMS Power standard VGM package contains all known/logged music of the game in VGM format and 3 extra files: a representative image of the game (used as cover), a playlist with every included VGM and an information file. No other files or folders are allowed. Packages are distributed in a compressed format.
Package format
Currently 2 different VGM package formats may be found:
- A "Game Name.zip" package, which is a standard Zip file with compressed VGM files.
- The user will extract the archive onto his disk; the files are compressed to minimise the space used
- The Zip format is chosen because it is the most commonly supported archive format
- A "Game Name.vgm7z" package, which is a standard 7-Zip file with uncompressed VGM files, and renamed extension.
- VGM software will support this format directly, either by playing the files directly or by extracting and then individually compressing the files contained in it
- By storing the uncompressed VGMs in a 7-Zip archive, the compression achieved will be greater, and thus the download smaller/faster, at the cost of more complicated handling on the user's machine
Packaging must follow these rules:
- Both ZIP and VGM7z packages must be created.
- Only standard files are allowed.
- Every file must be on the root of the package. There can't be folders in the package.
- Always use maximal allowed compression.
Packing helper
Here's a batch file that does a lot of the work for you. It assumes that there's only one M3U file in the directory, with the right name; only one PNG file, which might have the wrong name; that you have 7-zip and PNGOUT available; and that the directory name is the base for the packed files' names.
