Can I call two BSAs from one ESP?

[DanielCoffey]

I had read somewhere that I can call two BSAs from one ESP in TES games.

 

It seemed that if you had an ESP called blah.esp and multiple BSAs called blah.bsa, blah - textures.bsa and so on that they should all be accessed by the same ESP because the main part of the name matched. When I tried it, I did not get the result I was expecting.

 

I had the following files in my ModOrganizer Mods directory..

 

Book Covers Skyrim.esp <-- main ESP containing my edits

Book Covers Skyrim.bsa <-- meshes and normals

Book Covers Skyrim - Textures.bsa <-- texture files

 

When I load the mod I see the meshes in place with the normals affecting them but the textures are purple indicating that the Book Covers Skyrim - Textures.bsa is not being used in in-game.

 

Am I tackling this issue incorrectly or can it not be done in this way? I would prefer to break the mod over several BSAs because I have original and desaturated textures to release.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Daniel.

 

[steve40]

Skyrim.esm is the only file that I know of that does that.

 

Maybe rename "Book Covers Skyrim.bsa" to "Book Covers Skyrim - Meshes.bsa"

 

Also, I think you might need to edit the [Archive] section of your Skyrim.ini to make it load all the BSAs.

Edited July 4, 2013 by steve40

[DanielCoffey]

Editing the Archive section is not really feasible for a Nexus mod.

 

I have been told how the Oblivion Better Cities mod handled it and will be doing some more tests today. They had a space at the end of the filename. Better Cities .esp loaded both Better Cities .bsa and Better Cities - Textures.bsa. I will try first with the space and if that works,, without it.

[steve40]

Did it work?

[DanielCoffey]

Sadly no. It appears that Skyrim references BSAs from the parent ESP by exact name only now.

 

I tried MyMod .esp, MyMod .bsa and MyMod - Textures.bsa and while the space character was respected, the textures were not loaded. I then tried MyMod.esp, MyMod.bsa and MyMod-Textures.bsa without the spaces and the same occurred.

 

It worked in Oblivion but does not work that way in Skyrim. The ONLY way round it appears to reference the BSAs directly in the .ini file along with the main Skyrim ones and there is a character limit for those strings. It is also not effective for a mod that is not a personal project.

[Kualan]

Whenever I update my mod with new armours/textures/whatever, I have to package the new additions into a new .bsa file.

 

As of v4.3, I have four .bsa files that users must download, and as such have to include four .esps in the download. HOWEVER, only one of these .esps is the main one, containing any actual edits to the game. The other three are 'blank' .esps that only exist to have the same name as the .bsas I want the modified .esp to access during the game.

 

So I have GoTAdaptation.esp, this is the file that has been updated since v1 to v4.3 with continuing changes, updates, etc. When I first uploaded it, I included a GoTAdaptation.bsa file. Fairly straightforward.

Everytime I had added stuff in an update - to avoid having to package the whole lot every time - I simply create a .bsa containing the new stuff. GoTAdaptationv4.bsa for example. But how to get GoTAdaptation.esp to access this .bsa in addition to the main GoTAdaptation.bsa?

Go into the CK, open a new file, immediately save it under the name of your new .bsa file (so in the above case, it would be GoTAdaptationv4.esp) and exit.

 

Even though this new .esp is blank, by having the same file name as the additional .bsa you want your mod to use, your mod can access it so long as both it and the 'blank' .esp are activated in your Data Files.

 

So in your case if you create a blank .esp entitled 'My Mod - Textures.esp', your main mod's .esp will be able to access the identically-titled .bsa file when you launch your game.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Kualan

[DanielCoffey]

Yes, I am aware of the "empty" ESP ability to load a BSA but one reason for wanting multiple BSAs from one ESP is to reduce the number of ESPs in the load order as there is a limit that heavy modders are hitting frequently.