50piecesteve Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 so everytime i download a mod with a bsa file, i get a red box with an exclamtion mark? for example i downloaded the owned mod 2.8 and the properties all have the box with the exclamtion mark, anyone know what's causing this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadPenney Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 If the BSA files that you downloaded with the mods are not in your data directory (i.e C:\Fallout3\data) then the game will not be able to find them and will place those excited red diamonds in place of any non-default meshes that the mod expects to have available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honeybiscuit Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 does the file 2.8 have a older version? sometimes also u have to have the 1st file if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechine Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 BSA is a archive Like most games, they put all the actual data, meshes textures an stuff in some kind of archive. The game engine knows what's in the archive, so it's more easy to access 10,000 files that were put together, an even compressed to save space, in the archive. Modders don't drop stuff in a archive perse, but the huge mods maybe they figure it's more keeping with default Fallout 3 or DLC's, which at any rate it wouldn't be a bad idea to create a .BSA archive for the mod you are making. But if you ask me it just makes things more complex, where simple just works better. .BSA has some rules sort of Like the engine has a list of what is in there, Which is where we bring up archive invalidation. Used to be the case that each time you add in new stuff. Which would replace, some of those things on the list I mentioned above. So now the engine has two listings for a item, one in the .BSA, then one you put in your data folder following the same folder data path They used to get around the archive's list thru archive invalidation where you would type in text telling which files you would like to invalidate in order to use the different version you got from the players/modders. You'll run around an see it brought up in the old mods Read me's Add a such an such line to archive invailidation, however... you can ignore all that, another method was developed Called archive invalidation invalidated, get it, the old invalidation method invalidated Which all it really does it make a list of all the dates the files were created/modified then only uses the newest ones. Something like that anyway. There's a stand alone version of archive invalidation invalidated, but what most people do is use the version which is built into FOMM Fallout mod manager. The version built into FOMM all you do after you come up with a load order that works, or heck after you install the game, then install FOMM, you toggle invalidation, which applies the archive invalidation invalidated, or whatever which to my knowlege you only have to apply it once, but there's only about 1,000,000 totally wierd issues you might run into from archive invalidation. For the most part it works an you can toggle it an forget about it. The only mod I even know of that uses a .BSA is Unofficial fallout patch, which is kind of cool that they did it that way. But I mean it's beside the point, in the read me it says not to be used with most of other mods. Idk I stopped using UFP a few months back an haven't missed it. Mostly because FOOK an UFP or other large mods were overwriting each other back an forth 100 times or so, and I was too lazy to fix it. The DLC's which by the way are totally worth it, also have .BSA's that come with them. The big red triangle with the ! is a dead give away for a missing mesh. I reckon... Anyway it means the Game engine has a listing for a mesh in meshes/weapons/pistol/10mmpistol.nif or whatever... It could be anything. Shoot I've found missing meshes in FOOK2, which it doesn't mean it's missing it just means in your current configuration of the Data folder, something is in the wrong place... I'm almost certian it means missing mesh. Some tools I use to figure out what's missing, is to use Groovatron to open a NPC's inventory if the big red ! is on a NPC, or if it's in a CELL, then I open the CELL with GECK an thru a process of elimination I figure out where to look. The alternative, which everyone says to never ever do, is to search the downloads on Nexus for "big red !" Or "! error" somewhere along the way someone reskinned the big red ! mesh (3D shape) so that it doesn't have a texture, making it see thru, so that you never see it. Idk, you can use it, but in part the big red ! is to let you know something is wrong. However some mods and load orders are so complex that chasing down a big red ! is almost impossible, hence the make it so you can't see it, but it even says in the read me. It's almost always a bad idea... Pfft, don't ask me... Look at FOOK2 it's freaking huge, and there is no fancy .BSA files... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50piecesteve Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 well alright thanx for the help everyone i figured it out, i just wasne't unpacking the bsa using fomm, i got it to work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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