Creating Archives - Keeping File Size Down

[WIGWAM]

When creating an archive for my mod the list that the creation kit tries to pack always included numerous textures and meshes relating to character FaceGen that bloat the file size considerably.

 

I have created custom faces using the tools within the CK (i.e. I haven't added any new textures or meshes), but is there any reason why the textures and meshes need to be included within the archive for other players to see the custom faces? Isn't the data related to the facial features contained within the .esp/.esm and aren't the textures included within the vanilla game anyway?

 

Also I assume I can leave out ObjectReference.pex, Form.pex, ScriptObject.pex, Actor.pex and the PipBoy world map texture without breaking anything added by my mod? I've heard some of these are packed by the CK by default but aren't necessary to be included.

[Carreau]

I brought this question up a while ago as I had a bunch of leveled actors in a mod I was creating generate face data as well. If you look at the dds files that are generated, theyâre blank alpha textures. So, as a test, i packed an archive without tge dds or nif files and sent it along to a tester). There were no issues on their end.

 

What tipped me off to not needing them was the fact a companion I had made never generated the facegen files.

[WIGWAM]

Cheers, good to have some confirmation.

 

Any idea about the .pex files? I just opened the Actor one and all it had in it was a list of papyrus commands e.g GetKiller[], GetLevel[],...

[Carreau]

The CK for some reason will try to pack in the pex files for Actor, ScriptObject, and a few others. I think it has something to do with F4SE. The CK sees the scripts are different and tries to pack them. I'll use a ton of vanilla scripts like CompanionActorScript, a bunch of default alias/ref scripts, and the CK never tries to pack those. My rule of thumb is to never pack in a vanilla script. Unless the point of the mod is to make changes to a vanilla script.