Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Xdelta

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Xdelta
Developers
Joshua MacDonald
Release dates
Windows October 12, 1997
macOS (OS X) October 12, 1997
Linux October 12, 1997
Xdelta at Wikipedia

Key points

Cross platform solution.
Doesn't give false antivirus flags unlike some automatic patchers in windows executable.
Isn't automatic and doesn't feature GUI. Though can be bypassed e.g. user made windows batch file or external tools.

General information

Official site
Xdelta on Wikipedia
General explanation how Xdelta works.
General explanation how Xdelta works.

Xdelta is a utility which is used to generate a file of differences between two binary files. This effectively means only modifications made between the two binary files are saved; the resulting file is easily shared to another user, who can use it to generate a modified file from the original file. This is especially useful if the original file contains copyrighted material (e.g. game executable, rom) or the original file's filesize is huge. While the examples in this article use regular Windows executables (.exe), Xdelta can be used with any kind of binary file.

General use

For more options, use xdelta -h.
Apply Xdelta patch
  1. Open command line
    • In windows navigate to Xdelta path.
  2. Use the following while replacing filenames:
    xdelta -d -s old_file delta_file decoded_new_file

Notes

It may be easier to rename original file extension to *.bak beforehand to avoid confusion between original and modified files.
Generate Xdelta patch
  1. Open command line.
  2. From the command line, navigate to Xdelta path.
  3. Use the following while replacing filenames:
    xdelta3.exe -e -s old_file new_file delta_file

Notes

Xdelta file doesn't require any file extension, but it's advised to use *.xdelta to make it easier to distinguish.

Graphical user interface

xdelta UI

Includes basic patch applying and creation.
Really small filesize makes it easy to bundle with Xdelta patches.
Included Xdelta may be outdated. Simply download binary from official site and replace supplied executable with updated one and rename it the same.

Xdelta3 GUI

Only for Xdelta patch creation.
Includes advanced options, including patching batch of files and automatic windows batch file creation for end user.

xDelta GUI

Automatic patcher for Steam titles

Still under construction. Initial Windows patch file made for Batman Arkham Asylum, in to do list to modify windows batch file to contain more variables making it easier to use across multiple titles and creation linux bash file.