Need help creating .esp for .bsa file.

[LeiYingLo]

Hola, I need some help on how to create an .esp file to tell the game to use a certain .bsa file I created.

 

I packaged all the textures and meshes of the UOP, QTP3R and some other small mods into a .bsa. The goal is to reduce the occupied space on my SSD and to use the .bsa on my RAM disk for a more stable game. I basically want the game to load the .bsa after the default Oblivion .bsa's so that the improved textures are applied.

 

I've searched the web for an hour or more now for information on how to do this but haven't found anything helpful so far. So, I would be thankful if anyone could give me some advice how to do this.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Well, there's this article in the CS WiKi for starters, but it seems to be missing some valid points: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php?title=Creating_your_Own_BSA_files

 

For example the name of the plugin and the BSA file(s) doesn't need to be an "exact" match at all.

In fact, there isn't an "Oblivion - Meshes.bsa" or "Oblivion - Textures - compressed.bsa" to go along with the "Oblivion.esm" for no reason.

 

If I remember correctly, and chances are rather high I do, it's only the beginning of the filename that needs to match, i.e. "Oblivion.esm" - "Oblivion - Meshes.bsa" , "DLCShiveringIsles.esp" (this one's actually completely empty even, and only used for exactly this effect, to load its BSAs) - "DLCShiveringIsles - Meshes.bsa" and so on.

 

 

However, for one it's still very debatable if there even is a benefit in packing loose files into a BSA other than easier mod distribution, results in regards to overall game performance have been mixed, from slightly better to far worse than before, from multiple different sources who tried each one out for themselves. Maybe the "RAM disk" part of it can save you some and indeed really gain a little bit of overall performance in the end, but I'm still not sure.

Let us know if it does. I'd be delighted to learn better.

 

But for two, and that's a big one, you "cannot" ever put "replacement" assets into a BSA. Having both, "Oblivion - Textures - compressed.bsa" AND another BSA containing the replacement texture from QTP3R will inevitably run into results being completely "random", sometimes a Vanilla texture will be used, sometimes a QTP one. There's no way to tell the game which one, as BSAs have no priority load order or anything in this regard. They are meant to "add" to the game's assets, never to "replace" existing assets.

 

I was surprised to learn this has been fixed for Skyrim, as in Skyrim you very well can distribute even replacer mods in BSAs, but still that's only the case for Skyrim BSAs, in Oblivion and the other games the restriction still applies.