Blender: Extract Blend allow to "compress" the output file

[BigRoy]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues.

Please describe the feature you have in mind and explain what the current shortcomings are?

When we publish something from Blender, I just realized that the resulting .blend file is a lot bigger than the workfile from which it originates.
It's because the extractor uses default arguments from bpy.data.libraries.write, which means the file is written as uncompressed.

Could you please add an option to enable compression ?

See:

• Blender API write function, notably the compress argument
• Ayon Blender: Blend Extractor

So basically exposing the compress argument to be either True or False.

Does that influence anything else?

Both compressed and uncompressed blend files are non-ascii (not human readable) but one is (likely) slower to read/write whereas the other has a better filesize.

So companies may prefer the current uncompressed way. So the perfect solution would be to have an option in Studio Settings-->Blender so that we can enable or disable that compression.

As Alain Xerri states on Discord:

Without compression it's still a binary, so we cannot read it anyway in case there is a problem.
So I don't know why Blender decided to have uncompressed as a default (but on some forums people argue that compressed files take longer to be written by Blender, so maybe speed is the reason for uncompressed as default).

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How would you imagine the implementation of the feature?

Add a Project Setting to enable or disable the "compress" argument, likely keeping the default off for backwards compatibility.

Are there any labels you wish to add?

• I have added the relevant labels to the enhancement request.

Describe alternatives you've considered:

No response

Additional context:

Discord conversation where Alain Xerri requested this