GameCube software travels as a disc image, not a cartridge dump. Dolphin describes an uncompressed GameCube disc dump as about 1.4 GB; scrubbed images can differ. Dolphin also uses RVZ, which is a compressed container. A patch built against an ISO will not accept an RVZ, because the bytes are not the same file. I convert to the layout the readme names before I look for a checksum error. Nkit and other shrink formats are the same kind of trap. The patch author hashed one layout.
The patch format for a file this size is xdelta. UPS exists in the format table for some GameCube projects, but a full-disc diff is an xdelta problem. The browser may apply a small xdelta that targets a file inside a project. A whole-disc delta asks the tab to hold a gigabyte plus the patch. I send that job to Delta Patcher or xdelta3 and say so on the page instead of watching the tab die. Secondary compression still applies. If the message names a decompressor, read that error page before you blame Dolphin.
Dolphin is the emulator after the file exists. It is not involved in applying the patch. Region matters: a US ISO and a JP ISO are different hashes. I do not publish a single GameCube serial as if every hack used it. The hack page, when we have one, carries the hash. This console page carries the container rules.
Related pages are the xdelta guide, Delta Patcher, and the PS2 page if you arrived here from a generic ISO query. An ISO is a disc-image container, not a patch format.
