How do I pack textures into a .ba2?

[BlahBlahDEEBlahBlah]

If theyâre in a BA2 (with their path correct inside the BA2) AND the user doesnât have the originals (or any other replacers) loose in their data folder, than this new BA2 will overwrite the textures as intended. :)

[KarmaPowered]

I confirm.

 

Let's imagine the following load order :

 

0 - Fallout4.esm

1 - ModA.esm

2 - ModB.esm

+ a couple of loose files

 

If ModA has a BSA (ModA - textures.ba2, for example), it will override Fallout4's BSAs, but NOT the loose files.

If ModB also has a BSA, it will override both ModA and Fallout4's BSAs, but again not the loose files.

 

Loose files always win, but for resources in BSA load order matters.

[DankRafft]

 

Should be able to do the regular way and just ignore the "main" ba2.

Textures are always added to a texture only ba2 ( - textures.ba2).

This is true but as vkz89q said their still going to need a blank .esp to enable the .ba2 in game. (you may be able to add the archive to the .ini but I've heard of people having issues trying to do it that way)

 

so,

 

1. open Ckit, and load the FO.esm
2. save "My Texture Mod.esp"
3. go to create archive
4. In the window select "Add Files"
5. locate all the files you want packed in your archive
6. Click pack
7. name the archive "My Texture Mod - Textures.ba2" (Note the space before and after the hyphen are important! If missing the game will not read the archive.)
8. quit ckit
9. Remove textures from your data folder
10. Enable the mod in your normal fashion
11. enjoy your packed texture mod.

Hope that helps and Just an FYI this is basically how you would go about packing a texture or mesh replacer for the XB1 because the XB1 can't use loose files.

 

Better use the archive2 tool for that. It's easier and less bug-driven. Here's a guide: http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Archive2

[kevkiev]

I've re-done a few mods into BA2s now, but have been leaving the bodyslide/OS stuff as loose files. I'm wondering - is it okay to pack that stuff (i.e. the files under "tools") into the "espname - main" ba2?

 

Edit: just noticed that Elianora's new "Wasteland Clothing" uses ba2's (yay! Still gathering the energy to ba2-ify all my other Elianora mods) but she left the bodyslide tools as loose files. I'm thinking that's a pretty good indication that the answer is "no".

[DankRafft]

I've re-done a few mods into BA2s now, but have been leaving the bodyslide/OS stuff as loose files. I'm wondering - is it okay to pack that stuff (i.e. the files under "tools") into the "espname - main" ba2?

 

Edit: just noticed that Elianora's new "Wasteland Clothing" uses ba2's (yay! Still gathering the energy to ba2-ify all my other Elianora mods) but she left the bodyslide tools as loose files. I'm thinking that's a pretty good indication that the answer is "no".

 

Correct, those are custom folders and the game won't recognize them if they are in an BA2 archive. AFAIK the archiver won't pack them and throw an error message if you attempt to do so.

[kevkiev]

 

I've re-done a few mods into BA2s now, but have been leaving the bodyslide/OS stuff as loose files. I'm wondering - is it okay to pack that stuff (i.e. the files under "tools") into the "espname - main" ba2?

 

Edit: just noticed that Elianora's new "Wasteland Clothing" uses ba2's (yay! Still gathering the energy to ba2-ify all my other Elianora mods) but she left the bodyslide tools as loose files. I'm thinking that's a pretty good indication that the answer is "no".

 

Correct, those are custom folders and the game won't recognize them if they are in an BA2 archive. AFAIK the archiver won't pack them and throw an error message if you attempt to do so.

 

Cool, thanks for the confirmation.

 

Another Q: I now have 8 separate Elianora armour mods, a few of which use some of the same meshes, materials and textures (identical file paths, i.e there's a lot of overwriting on install) and I'd like to streamline things a bit. I'm thinking of (i) either just packing the materials/ meshes/ textures into separate ba2s specific to each esp or even (ii) merge all the esp's into one (renamed, obviously) esp and pack all the m/m/t's into a single ba2 (well, 2 - a main and a texture).

 

Would that plan, especially scenario (ii), throw any sort of wrench into the bodyslide tools or, as I'm thinking, I could just leave them alone as loose files the way they sit now.

 

One other wrinkle: all but 1 (recent release) are covered by a separate (i.e. non esp replacer) patch for AWKCR/ AE compatibility. If the above scenario would work, I'm thinking it would be okay to merge that recent mod one too. I.E. the armour simply wouldn't be affected by the current patch and, if the patch ever gets updated to include that mod too, it would automatically be covered without any more fiddling on my part.

 

Hope that made sense.

[DankRafft]

Merging these mods into one could slightly increase your performance but it might be hardly noticable. I don't know about Bodyslide though. I never used it and all I know about it is the fact that it exists. :D But from my limited experience I'd say if you leave those files as loose ones it should work fine even with the merged mods. One thing to consider when merging is the overlapping Form ID and reference issue. If you're proficient with that go for it. I've done it for several of my (own) mods, too. It's a bit tedious at times but with a large number of seperate mods included it might have a positive impact on your game.

[kevkiev]

Thanks for the reply. I was still a bit nervous so I ended up asking Elianora if she thought I'd run into any problems merging into 1 esp and a couple ba2s and it sounds like I'd be totally okay. (I'm going to leave the sound files from her Armour Compendium and the bodyslide stuff as loose.)

 

One of the things I like about ba2s is that they really seem to improve the time it takes the game to render objects. For example, packing some mod weapon loose files into ba2s really helped with hotkey switching speed. Especially with hi-rez textures, hot key switching to a mod weapon often took ages. I could really tell the difference after packing the loose files into ba2s. Another thing I've noticed is time to render settlements. (One of the reasons I keep my settlements somewhat low key is so I don't have to wait forever for the game to render objects/npcs.) I know there's more to it than just textures (and meshes/materials) but I find every little bit helps.

 

Since the vast majority of my settlers wear some form of Elianora clothes, a lot of which are 2k and even above, I'm hoping ba2s will help with that. If not, and assuming it all works (and I don't f... things up), worst case scenario is that I'll have streamlined my file structures and opened up a buncha esp slots.

[Dazaster]

Search engines, hey? Back in 2019, and again last year, I searched on getting my FO4 textures files to work in BA2 format, gave up trying. Not once back then did this post get found, then, today, here it is. Used chucksteels method, worked first time. Kudos to him.