Riven1978 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Ok first off let me state that i have done some searching around on the nexus sites (TES, FO3, FNV) for an example of how it was done but my search did not come up with anything (searching by size). In my upload Rivens Costume Mod the BSA alone is 455MB by itself when low compression is used. When i zip everything associated with the mod using Ultra compression in the 7-Zip utility the resulting archive is 470MB >.< now i tried looking into splitting the archive so that i could upload to the nexus (hence the searching) Now i am not extremely fluent with archiving i will admit, most the time i just highlight all the items right click and add to archive, so this may be a simple matter of doing things a bit different, however i can only see a very few options that goes from 10MB to 600MB are there options in between this? And if there is a better way to make a 300MB file for upload please tell me how :ermm: cause I would really like to not have to host the file on a site like Mega upload as a mirror. Thanks for any that reply with a solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Does your single bsa file really have 450 MB of your own content? Or does it include a bunch of things you don't need? The first step is to remove anything you don't need from the bsa file. (Since you have created the bsa I am sure you can use FOMM to investigate and remove.) If that doesn't help, there is no reason you need to force everything into one bsa file. Maybe two files. For example, make a "basics" bsa file and an "advanced" or even "optional" bsa file. Then you can upload each one separately and you should be below your 300 MB target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riven1978 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 (edited) The BSA in question are all the Mesh/Textures used in the Costumes mod, Everything in it is either in use by the mod or required for the mod to be (there are a few textures here and there that are in there that will be in use in an update or two down the line; however whether i figure it out now or then doesn't matter i will still need to know) As you yourself are probably fully aware Meshes themselves take a lot of space (I am sure there are some ways of reducing the size such a reducing polys and such, however i am not inclined to alter someone elses mesh in such a drastic manner) I wouldn't mind breaking it up into separate BSA's such as The devs have done like Fallout - Textures.BSA and Fallout - Textures2.BSA however when i tried doing it as they have it one or the other was not showing up, and the only way i can think of to get them to is to have everyone alter their .ini file to include them in the EssentialCache list, however the only problem i see there (well for Fallout 3 anyway) was that you are only allowed a certain length for that? (not positive but i remember something about this) and I know that later down the road if i take that route (altering the ini) i will no doubt have at least 112 characters taken up by the *Costumes alone (Data\RivensCostumes-Meshes.bsa|RivensCostumes-Meshes2.bsa, Data\RivensCostumes-Textures.bsa|RivensCostumes-Textures2.bsa) I would much rather keep it simple for everyone and not have to go that route, and just find a way to break the file down into separate files. Which right now i cold do (break into a multi volume archive each file no more then 300MB using a program i have used before called Alzip, however i see no option for that program in the list :dry: and the options i do get (7-zip and WinRar) want to break it down to either 10MB files or the next 600MB files. The 10MB files allows you to upload up to 20 and when i do it with either of those programs it takes up about 45-47 different files.... There has got to be a better way, although i still have yet to find anyone actually using the system put forth on here so maybe it just doesn't work as advertised? If any Mods/Admin read this please take a look at this Program ALZIP as it allows you to choose your own file size (unless there is an option in the others that i am missing somehow) And at least discuss the possibility of maybe adding it to the list of choices in the Multi-file Upload section (if it is already able to be used you must really tell me how >.< cause it didn't work when i tried it :) it said something about not being the right type of file? ) *Edit* The word vendor was changed to the word Costumes >.< Edited April 11, 2011 by Riven1978 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 (edited) OK, you have almost 0.5 GB of real data. The entire base game has 1 GB of mesh data and 2 GB of texture data, so I guess you have a huge mod. But, I don't think your files are *essential*, they are mod files. So you don't need to list them as essential in the ini file. The game will read any bsa file in the data directory, in the same way that it will look at all the mesh and texture files in the data directory. Please try putting two bsa files, each with half your data, into the data directory. Then without editing any ini file, try your mod. I am sure the game will find all your files. Then you can upload the mod as two files, which will be easy for the user to download and install. Edited April 11, 2011 by davidlallen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riven1978 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 As i said i have actually tried it :) I had made one BSA for the Textures named RivensCostumes - Textures.bsa and then split the Meshes into two different files naming them RivensCostumes - Meshes.bsa and RivensCostumes - Meshes2.bsa (Named the esp RivensCostumes instead of RivensCostumeMod as previously) similar naming structure as the Fallout ones inside the data folder. The issue was that i would get the big Red ! Diamonds in game for items listed in the files, I agree that the game will read any BSA placed into the Data folder but as far as i know the names must sync with your file. The only fix i was able to come up with was by adding them to the sUnessentialFileCacheList= inside the Ini file. Once i added them to that list everything then showed up fine. I am by no means a File Compression expert, if I am not doing some key step by all means tell me; As i would love to split the BSA up >.<. But using the program Alzip or even Izarq i am able to span the .Zip Archives into separate 250MB files the only problem is that the extension these programs use (alzip appends an .egg and the Izarc appends a .z01) is not supported by the Nexus File system. Actually the Izarc one would be Ideal as the Alzip i understand as a lot of people prefer the Free programs rather then paying for them, which alzip requires after the 60 day free trial is up. and Izarc is as far as i know completely free (I just tend to go by the old "You get what you pay for" adage) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Your suggestion is that if I have two bsa files, foo1.bsa and foo2.bsa, but my mod is named foo1.esm, then none of the files from foo2.bsa will be loaded. I am surprised, but I do not know the answer for sure. In this case, perhaps you can make one large bsa file and keep the other files outside of any bsa, just as plain files. In that case you can still have two distribution files, each below your size limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riven1978 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 Well from my trials yes that seems to be the case, I am not entirely sure exactly how Bethesda or Obsidian accomplished it but they managed it somehow, I am just in the dark as to how >.< And that would be very nice but the BSA alone is 455,258KB which is well over (the rest only amounts to about 30-32MB) and going through the files again it is the textures that are really posing the problem. If anyone knows how the split was made possible for the Main Fallout files I would be very very interested in knowing how >.< Thanks Davidallen for at least trying to help come up with a solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quetzlsacatanango Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 They list the bsa file names in the sarchive= line.I am really surprised you have a bsa file that big, at least 75% is probably textures. Are you sure they're all in use and no dupes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riven1978 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 Yes it is mostly all textures, the actual Textures encompass a little over 700MB when not zipped down >.< and the Meshes are a little over 313MB unzipped, I have looked through them again today and there were no dupes to be found there are a few "extra" textures inside but those will be getting use in later updates. Plus i was not planning on being done with the conversions since i still have quite a few requests out there for some :dry: it seems as though i may have to break them up manually and create a few different Mods for the same mod (i.e. RivensCostumes1, RivensCostumes2, etc.) I was hoping to get the whole zip thing sorted out so i wouldn't have to do that. You are more then welcome to have a look at it yourself though :) i have it up on MegaUpload in the Mirror section of the mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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