Mods and BSA Files

[Ryuukon]

I've always been curious why people don't release mods in BSA files. Is there some special reason?

 

I've decided to try and clean up my mods by placing them in BSA files, but so far haven't had any luck. Only tried with EVE OA since it's small and only a few files. I've looked it up on the GECK site and it says to name the BSA the same as the ESP, which I did, but the game doesn't want to load from the BSA for some reason. All the textures and sounds are from the original OA, not EVE.

 

Is this why nobody uses BSA files or am I doing something wrong? I used FOMM to crease the BSA file, downloaded a fresh copy of EVE OA, and pointed FOMM to the folder containing the mesh, sound, and texture folders. It -seems- to have created the file with the correct structure. I just don't understand why it's not working...

 

Any hints?

[Ryuukon]

Well I made a BSA file for the nuke armor mod and it works just fine, loads the meshes and textures directly from the BSA file I made. Atleast now I know I can make the BSA file correctly. But I just can't seem to get EVE OA to work with a BSA file... Dunno why...

[Ryuukon]

Furthermore, I can't get it to work with the EVE Beta either... How weird.

[gsmanners]

It's a small matter of which utility you prefer people to use: FOMM or BSA Manager. Me, I prefer people used FOMM.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2094

[Ryuukon]

It's a small matter of which utility you prefer people to use: FOMM or BSA Manager. Me, I prefer people used FOMM.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2094

 

Yeah I use FOMM too for making BSA files. In fact over the past few hours since my original post I've made BSAs of every mod I use, including MMM, but no matter what I do I simple can't get a BSA of EVE and EVE OA to work. No idea why...

 

I just really like having everything in BSAs, it's so much easier to keep organized especially when you start having a LOT of mods like I do.

[AlaricMod]

The problem you are probably having is that FOMM's BSA (it's my prefered program too) is not very user friendly. You say your files are in the BSA but they proabably are not stored with the pathing info. I solved this problem as follows (There is likely an easier way but this way works for me):

 

Lets call out mod "MyUniqueMod". I name my mod file "MyUniqueMod.esp". Then in the data folder I create a folder called "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild". I then go about building the assets for my mod and placing them into the proper spots in the data folder as I need them. After I have tested the asset I put it into my "-BSAbuild" folder I created in the same file structure it would be if it was in my normal data files.

 

Lets say I made a new texture for a laser pistol. I have tested it and it works in game and in the GECK. In my Fallout 3 data folder the texture file I made is located at "textures\weapons\1handpistol\FlamingPinkLaserPistol.dds". I place that into my "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild" folder with a path of "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild\data\textures\weapons\1handpistol\FlamingPinkLaserPistol.dds".

 

Now that it is in my "-BSAbuild" folder I open up FOMM and launch the BSA Creator. I click the "Add Folder(s)" button and then navigate to the "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild" folder and select the "data" folder inside. The BSA Creator then packages up my BSA for me with the correct pathing info, and I save it as "MyUniqueMod.bsa".

 

I put the "MyUniqueMod.bsa" file into my Fallout 3 data directory and delete the file that is now contained in the bsa from my Fallout 3 data folder (but not the copy that is left in my "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild" folder. I now test the BSA file. If it works I move on to the next asset.

 

Wash - rinse - repeat.

 

Eventually your "MyUniqueMod-BSAbuild" folder contains all the meshes, textures, etc that you want and because the assets are not only packed in the BSA but stashed away in this folder, updating (should you find a problem with one of your assets is as simple as fixing the one asset and repackaging the BSA.

 

Hope this helps.

-Alaric_

[BadPenney]

I may be wrong, but if I remember correctly, I decided not to upload BSAs because I could get a better compression ratio without them.

[nfckitten]

Yeah, I would have to agree with BadPenney, a lot of small files compresses better with .7z than one big one... don't quite know about other compressions...

[Ryuukon]

RE: alaric_

 

Yeah that's pretty much the same thing I do as well, then I double check the file structure again after the .bsa is created. I know it's using the write file structure.

 

RE: BadPenny and nfckitten

 

That's too bad. I've spent the past day storing everything into their own .bsa files (and I do mean EVERYTHING) and it makes things soooooo much simpler, cleaner, and easier to find.

 

The only things I haven't been able to store in a .bsa file are things like Darnified UI, some armor and body replacers (no .esp to call them), and EVE. But I actually realized I didn't need EVE anymore since I added FOOK Beta 1.2 (which btw I also managed to get into a .bsa with no problems). So now I've got nearly 5gigs of mods, with only about 100megs in my textures/meshes folders. It's kinda nice. :)