How to make a bsa file for Morrowind ?

[sirmister]

Basically what the topic title says.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ZWolol]

BsaUtils (bsapack.exe)

TESRename.exe

[sirmister]

Thanks a lot ZWolol !

 

TESRename works good but I can't open any files for BSA Browser and I can't seem to be able to find any tutorials online so can you please post a quick tutorial on how it works ?

[ZWolol]

 

TESRename v1.05 by ghostwheel
January 15, 2004


SUMMARY
-------

TESRename is a utility developed for the TES3 Morrowind modders. It
can be used to rename icon, texture and mesh(NIF) files, update
corresponding references in the NIF/ESM/ESP files, generate usage
reports for resource files (icons, textures and meshes) and package
updated resources files into the BSA archive.


LIMITATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS
---------------------------

1) If NIF file references bmp/tga texture, but there is a renamed
dds texture with same filename, bmp/tga reference will be updated
with the renamed dds texture reference.

2) When updating ESM/ESP files, only following fields will be updated:
- MODL field on any object that has reference to the NIF file
- ITEX field on any object that has reference to the icon file
- PTEX field on any object that has reference to the particle texture
- DATA field on LTEX object (landscape texture)
- TNAM field on BSGN object (birthsign texture)
It is my assumption that those fields cover all possible icon, texture
and NIF file references in the ESM/ESP file.

3) Program should handle up to 25000 files of one type (icons, meshes,
textures or NIFs).

4) IMPORTANT! Some standard textures and meshes (like magicitem/*.dds,
water/*.dds, bloodsplat.nif, menu_*.nif, etc) ARE NOT REFERENCED by
any ESP/ESM file (including morrowind.esm). They are either hard coded
inside MOrrowind.exe or mentioned in the morrowind.ini. Utility will
(incorrectly) identify such files as NOT USED! So, if you decided to
use this utility to clean your Data Files\ directory, be EXTRA CAREFUL.


FUNCTIONS
---------

TESRename can perform following functions:

1) scan provided icon, texture, NIF and ESM/ESP files and build
configuration template file. This file then can be edited with any
text editor to rename certain files and to check what files are not
referenced.

2) rename texture and NIF files according to the modified configuration
file and update appropriate references in the NIF/ESM/ESP files.

3) delete all icon, texture or NIF files that are not referenced (directly
or indirectly) inside provided ESM/ESP files.

4) Generate usage report to show what resource files (icons, textures or
meshes) are used by what files.

5) Package icon, texture and mesh files into the BSA archive.


USAGE INSTRUCTIONS
------------------

Utility expects certain folder structure. So:

a) Create temporary folder and copy TESRename.exe into this folder.

b) VERY IMPORTANT! Create subfolders Icons, Textures, Meshes and Plugins.

c) Copy all NIF files into the Meshes folder, preserving their directory
structure (if NIF file was inside BP subfolder, then create such
subfolder in the Meshes folder and copy NIF there)

d) Copy all texture files (preferably already converted to DDS format)
into the Textures folder, again preserving their internal directory
structure.

e) Copy all icon files into the Icons folder (also preserving directory
structure).

f) Copy all ESM/ESP files that rely on this models directly into Plugins
folder - do not create any subfolders there.

g) Go to the temporary folder (so it will become current) and run a program.


You will be presented with the dialog that has 5 buttons. Each button
performs single function. Usually, at first, we need to scan all files and
build initial configuration file. You can do this by pressing button

Generate configuration template

and entering name for the configuration file that will be created. Now open
created file in the text editor (Notepad if you dont have anything better).
It contains multiple lines of the following format:

file_name same_file_name ; number of references

First look for non-referenced files. If you want, you can remove them from
resource folders (best way to do this is to use "Delete unused files"
function) and regenerate configuration file. If not, proceed to modify
records to give some (or all) files new names. You can
also move them to different subfolders by specifying path inside new name.

NB! If file name contains spaces, it should be surrounded with quotes(").
Also all file names should be less than 32 characters long. That
includes path, if you moving file to the subfolder.

Once configuration file is updated and saved, it is time to use TESRename
again. Press button:

Rename/move files

and select updated configuration file. Utility will then perform following
steps:

- rename all icon files according to the configuration file
- rename all texture files according to the configuration file
- update texture references in all NIF files where necessary
- rename all NIF files according to the configuration file
- update icon, texture and NIF references in all ESM/ESP files where necessary

At any moment you can also use other TESRename functions. For example, in
order to see where all those references come from in the generated configuration
file or to see list of resources, not used by plugins, press button:

Create resource usage report

and select name for the report text file. Inside report file you will find
a list of unused resources and a record for each resource file (icon, texture
or mesh), followed by filenames where it is found (for ESM/ESP files record
id is also provided).

To quickly remove all resource files that not referenced in the ESP/ESM files,
execute following command:

Delete unused files

You can check log file (tesrename.log) for the file names that were deleted.

Finally, if you want to package all files inside Icons, Textures and Meshes folders
into the BSA archive (once you done renaming them), you can do it by pressing:

Create BSA archive

That's it for functions.

Also, after all destructive operations (operations that delete, rename, modify or
create new files), you can always check log file tesrename.log to see what kind
of actions were performed. And I am sure that you have copies of original files,
just in case if utility screwed up something.


DISCLAIMER
----------

As usual, utility is provided AS IS. I am not responsible for any actions
performed by this program or any side effects caused by it. If you're
afraid - then don't use it.


SPECIAL THANKS
--------------
Special thanks goes to the Dave Humphrey for the excellent NIFTexture source,
that gave me insight into the NIF file structure.


HISTORY
-------

1.05 Increased maximum number of files, handled by program
Improved performance
Utility now correctly identifies alternative DDS files for icons as well

1.02 Fixed bug with NIF files incorrectly referencing textures inside subfolders.

1.01 Minor interface enhancements.

1.0 Initial release

 

 

[sirmister]

Thanks again

However I believe that you misunderstood me, I don't know how to use BSABrowser (I can't even launch the thing) NOT TESRename.

 

I do know how to use TESRename from the tutorial that came with the zip file I downloaded (the same that you posted) and it works great !!!

So I do not really need BSABrowser but I am curious to see how it works.

Thanks again though since I did not know about TESRename !

[ZWolol]

I do not have descriptions

there is only this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eRsqsPRrOHunOCEjgTRtK3wNpPt24qDJ/view?usp=sharing

[leonardo2]

I don't know how to use BSABrowser (I can't even launch the thing)

Do you mean this BSA Browser?

 

If you do then it requires Java to be installed and working before launching it.

 

It's easy to learn how to use BSA Browser, even I could create a BSA the first time I tried.