OTBjoel Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 I was just wondering why more people at this forum don't use EAZIP. The weapons of choice seem to be GFXPAK, BIGgui and EAGRAPH. The GUI tools BIGgui and EAgraph IMHO should only be used for extracting and never repacking. This leaves us with either GFXPAK or EAZIP. I've found EAZIP to be more flexible, stable, and faster. I still use the two interchangeably sometimes but any times gfxpak crashes, EAZIP seems to work. I was just wondering why more people around here don't use it. It's a great program. - OTBjoel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro23 Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 I agree, EAzip is a nice little program. I gather that people don't use it more because its command line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim825 Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 I use EAZIP, but then again, I'm old enough (or should I say "classic" enough) to remember when the only OS you had on a PC was DOS. The command line is your friend........ :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro23 Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 I use EAZIP, but then again, I'm old enough (or should I say "classic" enough) to remember when the only OS you had on a PC was DOS. The command line is your friend........ I'm with ya Jim. Good old DOS prompt days. :smile: My primary OS these days is Linux, so I use command line a lot and am no stranger to it. Although Linux Distros know have excellent GUI's just like Windows. Some things are just faster using a command line though. A GUI can get "in the way" sometimes. And using command line is not about being an "elitist" as some would say. It's just faster for so many tasks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Ditto. Anyone ever tried doing a search for a file using the Windows Search, then doing it in DOS? Not only is DOS faster, take a look at your Task Manager after running each one - Search uses a ton more memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigPaPa Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 If you know how to use a Command prompt you can do things that you simply can not do in the GUI. I agree with you on EAzip too one of my favorite programs for EA files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big O Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 I use EAzip to compress and repack all my files for my mods I've put out recently. EAzip compresses so much better than gfxpak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OTBjoel Posted May 14, 2008 Author Share Posted May 14, 2008 Ditto, on all of the above. EAZIP has so many more command line switches than GFXPAK. It might seem overwhelming at first but if you just learn it, you'll be better for it. I've used EAZIP and GFXPAK in parallel for the last two weeks and I can't honestly think of a reason to use GFXPAK anymore. EAZIP can do everything it can do and more. Can anybody else here think of a situation where GFXPAK is better? I wish command line were taught again in the schools. At least, people would not be afraid of it. I'm glad I learned computers in the day when all we had were command prompts. Like the above post, it's not about being elitist, it's about being practical. When I was working with .big files and .fsh files using BigGUI/EAgraph, my hand would get sore from all the mouse clicking. With EAZIP, I was packing/unpacking multiple files in batches. GFXPAK also worked (sometimes) but it couldn't handle the bigger files like models.big. I just really encourage anybody out there serious about modding to read as much of the EAZIP help file as possible. Just learn it and you'll be better for it. There will be a lot less posts about corrupted files and what not. Although the readme says it's beta software, after hundreds of command entries, I honestly can't say the program did anything it was not supposed to do. It was usually user-error. Also, if you learn the command line switches, you won't have to edit/run batch files anymore. It's really so much faster if you know the switches yourself and just free-type the commands. Essential modding programs: EAZIP, GFXPAK and SX (for sound editing) As great as EAZIP is, SX is just as great for editing/converting sound files. These command line programs are a god-send. Yes, you must learn how to use them but they can do so much. Serious modders should download all three and copy them to your windows folder. If you copy them to your windows folder, they will be accessible no matter where in the OS you are. You can actually copy them to any folder designated in your path variable and it will do the same thing. This way, you don't have to keep copying these programs to the subfolder you happen to be working in. They essentially become part of the OS (operating system). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OTBjoel Posted May 14, 2008 Author Share Posted May 14, 2008 Just a qualifier on the above, no matter what program you are using, it's always still a good idea to back up your files. You never know when you will be in the middle of something and the program runs into the 1 in 1000 bug it has. Or the power could just go out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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