Tips Needed: Installing Loose Texture Files in Data Folder using ESP's & BSA's in Mod Organizer

[KainThePheonix]

After playing a long time with Mod Organizer I realized that the virtual install folders cause me at least longer loading times on the desktop and CTD's depending on the number of mods used in Oldrim. Right now I am looking at using a mix of loose files in the common/Skyrim/Data folder mostly texture files obviously and allowing Mod Organizer to use load the ESP's and BSA's.

I understand how Mod Organizer works and I can test and fix the Mod Organizer side of things but I am interested in putting the correct mixture of loose files into the Skyrim Data folder and also using Mod Organizer to play the game. I have noticed an astounding amount of slowdown and loading times using Mod Organizer by itself especially if you have 400 + files in Mod Organizer. I am looking to mix the loose texture files such as Landscape and environmental textures into the data folder to reduce those larger files and to hopefully reduce 50% or so of the loading times I notice with Mod Organizer.

The Skyrim HD 2K FULL texture pack unpacked into Mod Organizer increases the initial load up time for Mod Organizer and I am thinking it would speed the process up to utilize the Loose textures in the Skyrim/Data folder while allowing Mod Organizer to handle the ESP's. - armors, CACO, WAFR, CCOR and SKSE plugins.

My question is for anyone that installs mods manually what ways of testing have you used to ensure that the proper textures show in game? I am looking to mix the Skyrim HD2K texture packs alongside the Vivid series of landscape textures. I want a good mix and basically I know that I want the Vivid series of texture mods displayed in game along side the Skyrim HD2K mods but I have no idea the folder structure within the Skyrim Data folder.

It would be easier to have an idea of the folder structure within the Skyrim common/Data folder too. Would anyone have a "map" of the folder structure of that for the various textures used in game? I'm not a mod creator but I figure the people working on the texture side of things might know so that I can avoid errors if possible - moving the wrong textures into the wrong folder for instance.

I am hoping the combination will allow Mod Organizer to load up quicker and perhaps reduce the CTD's without dirtying up the Data folder with many ESP's and certain BSA's. Could anyone familiar with this give me some tips?

Thank you.

[IsharaMeradin]

Of course more mods would mean that Mod Organizer takes longer to load. Is it causing a problem with actual load times in-game? It shouldn't.

 

Before going drastic with your mods and where you have them installed... MO loads all mods in priority order. This means that BSA content can override loose files if a mod's BSA contains files that are also loose in an earlier listed mod. Your crashing could be caused by an earlier loose file mod having one or more of its files overwritten by a BSA packed file. However, I would suspect that if your crashing happens randomly then it is more likely that you have modded beyond your setup's abilities.

 

Try the following:

Sort your plugins with LOOT (affects right pane) and make any other necessary adjustments to plugin order

Adjust priority of mods to match their load order (affects left pane and causes BSAs to load in same order as plugins)

Then carefully shift left pane mods with BSAs while keeping respective order to be above all loose file mods. (affects the game by allowing loose files to get the intended priority over BSA content)

If any mod has additional specific instructions on placement of files in relation to others, be sure to follow those.

 

If done right, it allows MO to present the files to the game as if they had been manually installed while still giving you the freedom to adjust loose file order or hide individual files as desired.

 

And if you really want to reduce what files are loaded by MO, install your ESP only and ESP+BSA only mods manually. Thus you can still use MO to tweak your loose files as needed. But you're forced to allow every profile to use those manually installed mods. Unless you keep track of what character needs what mods and install/uninstall as necessary.

 

FYI - 'dirtying' the data folder with ESP & BSA files is much cleaner than installing loose files. ESPs & BSAs are easier to find and remove. Loose files can be in all sorts of locations under the data folder and if left behind have the potential to cause issues in-game. If you still want to see a 'map' extract the Skyrim BSAs to a clean directory. That will give you a good idea of what goes where.

[KainThePheonix]

I was trying for a mix of loose files like textures and letting MO handle the plugins. I'm trying to not duplicate textures in the loose files so no need for overwrite and no saves become bloated. I had saves as large as 28 MB and I was mostly playing around with MO then.

Now I would like to devote more time to putting together a exceptional Skyrim experience without adding in bunches of merges and weapon or armor mods. I have noticed comparing the two that my load times increase in Mod Organizer, with over 200 hundred mods, even visual this leaves to possible slow down in general with running the game. I read recently from a mod author that the textures information baked into the save - so attempting to uninstall them kept the save bloated with redundant and game breaking bugs.

I'm upgrading memory soon so this is an issue too. And a heat sink. And a motherboard. And a processor - it will be nice when it's done finally.

After some obvious first time mistakes initially using MO specifically the saves were far larger than saves from other games and mod managers. My FOMM saves are smaller, same with NMM but the MO saves exceeded reasonable size with excessive bloat and I did not have anything beyond 145 slots taken in my normal game load order. It fluctuated but I had several test profiles and one for main Skyrim gameplay that had lesser plugins. My normal not heavily modded game saves were smaller in file size.

Thanks for the tips IsharaMeradin - I'll try it in reverse like you suggest - BSA's and ESP's in the Data folder and tweak it along the textures loaded in MO.