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Zip, 7z or rar: which archive formats each game accepts, how to repack to zip correctly, and why we prefer zip

· 3 min read · ModsDrop

Opel Combo 2023
Pictured: Opel Combo 2023, from the ModsDrop library.

A mod arrives as a zip, a 7z or a rar, and whether it works depends on which game you are feeding it to. Some games read archives directly and accept exactly one format; others want the contents extracted and do not care how they were packed. Getting this wrong produces the most boring failure in modding: a file that is simply ignored. Here is what each game accepts, how to repack safely, and why we prefer zip on ModsDrop.

Game by game

The pattern: games that read archives want zip; games that want folders accept anything.

Why authors use 7z and rar anyway

Better compression on large textures (a few percent to a fifth smaller), rar’s recovery records, habit. For a game that reads zips directly, that saving comes at the cost of every downloader having to repack. Many authors ship a 7z that contains the real zip inside; the outer archive is packaging, the inner zip is the mod, and the inner one is what goes in the folder.

Repacking to zip correctly

  1. Install 7-Zip (free) if you have not; Windows’ built-in zip tool also works for this.
  2. Extract the 7z or rar to a temporary folder.
  3. Look at what you got. For BeamNG the top level must be vehicles/, levels/, ui/ or similar; for ETS2/ATS, def/, vehicle/, material/ and the like, plus manifest.sii; for FS25, modDesc.xml at the top. If instead you see a single folder with the mod’s name containing those, go inside it.
  4. Select the contents (not the containing folder), right-click, and choose Add to archive (7-Zip) or Compress to ZIP file (Windows). Format: zip. Compression method: Deflate, normal level. Anything else is acceptable to the games but gains nothing.
  5. Name the zip without spaces or brackets. Put it in the mods folder.

The step that matters is the third: the folder level. A zip whose top level is a folder named after the mod, rather than the game’s expected folders, fails in BeamNG and FS25 and sometimes in the truck games. It is the single most common repacking mistake.

Things that do not matter

Compression level (the games unpack what they need at load; a “store” zip loads marginally faster and is larger). Zip64 (large archives over 4 GB use it automatically; the games handle it). The tool used, as long as it produces a standard zip. Encryption and passwords matter very much: a password-protected zip cannot be read by any of these games and cannot be scanned, and such files are refused on ModsDrop.

Checking a repack

Open the new zip in 7-Zip and confirm the expected top-level folders are directly inside it. Compare the uncompressed size with the original archive’s; they should match to the byte. Then install and test. A repack changes the SHA-256, so the hash on the original download page no longer applies to your file; that is expected, and it is why we ask authors to upload zips in the first place.

Why ModsDrop prefers zip

Three of the five games we host for read zips directly, so a zip is the file the downloader can use without touching it. It is scannable, it opens on every operating system without extra software, and it has no proprietary owner (rar does). When an author uploads a 7z or rar of a mod for BeamNG, the truck games or FS25, the downloader has to do the repacking above, and some of them do it wrong and then report the mod as broken. A zip with the right top level saves everyone that round.

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