bsa unpacking and repacking

[dylandingler]

My name is Dylan and I'm fairly new to modding. I had this idea that maybe I could unpack my bsa and then copy and replace all of the textures/meshes folders from all of the mods that I have. and then repack the bsa. Is this possible? This would save a bunch of space on my tiny 225gb hd. Thanks for any help.

[rickerhk]

I wouldn't attempt such a thing without making and keeping a backup of the Fallout - Textures.bsa and Fallout - Meshes.bsa. So that's 1.7Gb of overhead that I wouldn't be willing to delete from the hard drive. So how much space would I really be saving - if any?

 

Also, if I want to do modding, and want to share these mods with others, I'm not going to alter the original game archives at all - I may create a mod that works perfectly on my own system, but will not function at all on any other system because my archives are full of changes other people made - and the mistakes they made.

[pkleiss]

It wouldn't work anyway. Mods will only check a BSA that is named for the mod. So if you pack the resources of ModX into the fallout BSAs, they will never be found by ModX. You would have to make a separate BSA for each mod. At least, this is how I understand it.

[bben46]

It's not a good idea to mess with the vanilla BSAs as that is where the game looks to find its vanilla resources. So if you manage to overwrite a vanilla resource while making changes to an unpacked bsa, then repack it, and later remove the mod that references that renamed resource, you will have a crash and no way to fix it short of reinstalling.

 

So just leave the vanilla BSAs alone and make new ones with your new stuff - if you really want to make them into BSAs.

[EARACHE42]

No reason why that wouldn't work. I use repacked DLC BSA files on my system to store upgraded textures.

 

If you plan to build and release mods, I agree its a spectacularly bad idea. But for personal use...

 

Keep in mind a couple of things.

1) Simply packing all the mod added resources into a new BSA probably won't work. If those resources were meant to over-write vanilla resources, you will end up with two BSAs in conflict and get decidedly mixed results. Unpacking the vanilla BSAs, overwrite the files, and repack is definitely the way to go.

2) Don't mix resources in BSAs. Sounds in a sounds BSA, textures in textures. I've put meshes and texture together in a single BSA, but sound files can't be mixed.

3) You can crank up the compression when you re-pack to save extra space. Might result in increased lag, but everything is a trade off.

4) You already have backups of the vanilla BSAs. Its called your install disc.

[dylandingler]

Thank you to everyone who responded firstly. I definitely think that I'm going to try this because i just want to store nmc's texture pack in the vanilla bsa. there is no esp to refer to the textures so i think that it might work. and that will save a couple gigs. I actually have 100 gigs free but that sometimes drops to 50gigs and that is a little close for comfort. There is enough room to back up the textures bsa temporarily. Thanks again and i will keep this posted to let anyone know if it works.

 

(edit) tried it and it doesn't work just a pink screen on start up. googled the pink screen and tried the fixes nothing worked. it was worth the effort.

[pasha19883]

I have a bit similar question.

In game directory all fallout data files (textures\meshes and other) are packed to bsa. Most of downloaded mods are simple texture\meshes folders. So do i need to unpack bsa files rewrite textures to new from mods and pack back? Is there some another way to set up mods, which contain only folders? I`ve seen repack where were no bsa archives, only folders (textures, sounds...), but game in it was rather laggy. So if i extract all bsa files to data folder and remove them, leaving only unpacked folders, will the game work?

And rewriting textures when repacking is needed only for main fo3 bsa or DLC bsa too?

 

P.S. Sorry if questions are stupid, i`m new here, and a bit hard to find answers to my questions :(

[bben46]

No. Do not unpack/repack any vanilla bsa folders - Unless you need to use the textures and meshes for a mod you are making you do not need to do anything with the vanilla bsa files. In fact I don't recommend doing even what the OP is asking as that can cause problems if not done properly. Also he will not be able to go back to vanilla as he will have replaced some of the original files with others.

 

When you install a new mod the first time, the simple manual way is to just extract the zipped file directly into the Fallout3\Data folder. Most unzipping programs (7-zip, Winrar, Winzip and most others ) will automatically create a new set of folders inside the data folder named textures and meshes. The textures and meshes from the new mod will be placed in them. All subsequent mods will use these folders. Usually there will be a warning that they are going to overwrite and asking if it should proceed - Always answer yes as they do not actually overwrite, they append the new stuff to the folder without changing any of the existing stuff. Some mod makers will pack their textures and meshes inside of a bsa, most use the separate files to make updates easier.

 

If you are not making your own mods you do not want to unpack the vanilla bsa files.

bsa is a Bethesda proprietary zip format that is recognized and can be used by the game without extracting first.

[pasha19883]

thx, now most of mods work.