General Questions regarding unpacked BSA's...

[Fallerent]

After many reinstallations of Skyrim, I want to make sure my next install remains perfect. I have a few questions pertaining to the matter- I am using BSAOpt to unpack my BSA files. I am unpacking them for modding purposes.

 

First, are loose files truly better in terms of performance as opposed to BSA's? HDD space is of no issue, I just want to be sure I do not decrease in-game performance via unpacking.

 

Second, I recall that when I was very new to modding, I unpacked my BSA files (all of them) and experienced CTD at startup. I assume this was due to another issue, not the BSA's being unpacked themselves? This led me to assume that unpacked BSA's caused poor performance, but all other evidence leads me to believe otherwise.

 

Third, Will unpacking "Skyrim - Textures.bsa" cause the high resolution texture BSA's to not function properly? Hence, do I need to unpack the high resolution texture BSA's after my standard BSA's in order to use the textures?

 

And last, can I delete BSA files or replace them with empty BSA files after unpacking them in order to save hard drive space? Or do the proper BSA files need to be present in order for Skyrim to run properly, even if unpacked?

 

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[IsharaMeradin]

1. No idea. Have not seen any concrete proof one way or the other. But neither have I looked for it.

2. It is possible that extracting BSAs in the incorrect order could cause a crash, especially with regards to DLC that modify stock scripts. Having the wrong script version in the game will at the very least cause some objects to not function properly.

3. Yes, unpacking the textures BSA would negate what the hi-res BSAs provide

4. I would not because the INI files for both the game and the Creation Kit point to them. No telling how they will react without them present

 

My opinion, extract the BSA files to a clean directory. Preferably with each DLC having its own directory. You still have access to the assets but they won't be in the game directory where the likelihood of contamination is greater.

[Lord Garon]

This only pertains to those trying to eke out max performance on sub-standard systems, like me.

 

Google around for bsa/loose file performance. The bsa extraction method seems to be a little quicker than individual system file seeks and reads for large numbers of files. That said, every test I've ever seen involves standard platter drives. An SSD/Hybrid/Velociraptor would probably negate any bsa advantage; its only a few percent at best. (Putting bsa's in a ramdisk is certainly fast, I must say.)

Edited July 15, 2014 by Lord Garon