Just about everybody in the modding community distributes their work as .rar archives, they must have a reason for their preference. Might have something to do with the way it handles lots of small files, error recovery etc.
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Should I purchase Winzip?
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Just about everybody in the modding community distributes their work as .rar archives, they must have a reason for their preference. Might have something to do with the way it handles lots of small files, error recovery etc.
animal531
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It's only because it was older but better than normal zip, so it became the standard for them to use. 7zip is better in pretty much every possible way.
Johnatan56
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But winrar can open 7zip? And 7zip can open rar? Been like that for a very long time, not sure what you're talking about.
No? Nexusmods uses their own format.
Most people just use normal zip, and then it's a mix between 7zip and RAR. Completely depends on community, and 7zip over time has started to become more prevalent imho.
EDIT:
I think moddb was a case where it's just "normal" to upload rar for a lot of popular mods, and guides that people followed were so, and those haven't been updated in ages, and winrar just "works", so people don't change.
At my work everyone uses 7zip, most devs I know use 7zip now, started shifting a few years ago and it's gaining a lot quicker acceptance over time, will probably take a long time to swap, and doesn't matter as winrar can open 7zip and vice versa.
Nowadays I see uncompressed/custom > zip > 7zip ~= rar tbh. Since net speeds increased, people don't compress as much.
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From my experience, most people don't install anything in the way of archive extractors. Zip ensures no problems. Although I use WinRAR, I don't send anyone .rar files.
And just because a format is supported on paper doesn't necessarily mean any qualifying extractor can open it. The reason I initially ditched 7zip and bought WinRAR was because of issues extracting Zips from Envato Elements and brand packages from an agency I was working with at the time.
Johnatan56
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7zip uses the extractor utility provided by WinRAR though, so quite strange that you had issues. Shouldn't matter anymore.
And as you said, it's rare that we compress files like that anymore, word docs usually aren't large, images and pdf have other ways to compress, and most of us have enough upload that we generally just don't care if a file is 25MB or under in regards to compression.
backstreetboy
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Binary_Bark
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sorry, not sure if asked yet (can't be bothered to look back), but I think you spelled WinRAR wrong
I get sent zips more than any other file type, usually over WeTransfer. Vanishingly few companies, even creative agencies, send me a Dropbox or Google Drive link. Pretty crazy.
WinRAR supports both packing and unpacking more formats. Also I've personally opened some of those formats like MSI just depends on which packer was used.
backstreetboy
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And as I've said I've opened some of them in WinRAR, just not by extension so it's not a complete list. Also some of those are actually not archive formats.
backstreetboy
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You should get them to update their website then...
Johnatan56
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Not sure why you're arguing that, as long as it supports most used ones, it doesn't matter, and both 7zip and WinRAR support most.
The only real reason I prefer 7zip is that it's open source and doesn't have an annoying pop-up.
EDIT: That is to say that both work well, and that I would pick 7zip every time as both fulfill their function about the same in terms of zipping size and time to zip/unzip.
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Those are integrated ones. If you manually assign extensions or open them it supports more as it doesn't look at the extension but the file format and many of those are just renamed and slightly changed. But I don't see the issue as WinRAR natively supports more of the popular formats I've worked with instead of simply being able to read them.
If I have to work on disk structure I wouldn't use an archival program anyway but rather a proper hex editor. This is like trying to be a Jack of all trades but master of none.