LE Need help with Multi-Part BSA archive

[Ironman5000]

Hi, I have recently released a weapons overhaul mod which had to be taken down because the bsa size was 3gb in size while I have been informed that the engine can only read 2gb.

 

The game cannot read all the data because of this so it has been removed until I can work around this by somehow making 2-3 bsa files, however it is my understanding that the bsa and esp names for a mod must match but obviously this cant be done as it stands.

 

Does anybody know of a way to get this concept working so that I can re-release my project?

[Mujuro]

I could be wrong, but can't you just register the different BSAs in the main Skyrim INI (or possibly your own supplemental INI, never tried this so can't be sure)? My understanding of the "same BSA name as mod name" is, at least in part, to dodge having to register them in an INI. Essentially, you'd be doing exactly what Skyrim does for its own BSAs. Edited August 13, 2012 by Mujuro

[Ironman5000]

Well apparently the game won't register bsa files over 2gb and mine is 3gb. If I divide it into 1 mesh and 2 texture bsas then the game won't read them because they won't match the name of the plugin.

 

I have tried adding the bsa names to the skyrim.ini but it still doesn't work.

 

It would help me out a lot if anyone knows of an author that has done this successfully before so I can get in touch with them.

[Mujuro]

I just got home from work and packaged up the loose files for one of my mods into 2 separate BSAs, one for voice and the other for everything else, registered them, and they worked just fine. I used BSAOpt on 10 - quick compression, registered into sResourceArchiveList2, right at the end.

 

And yes, I removed all of the loose files prior to testing. :)

 

Exact steps of what I did:

1. Opened up BSAOpt (I'm using x64 v1.6.2).
   
2. Opened up my WIP mod data directory.
   
3. Selected recursive view, selected all folders except Sound.
   
4. Set compression at 10-quick, set Game to Skyrim.
   
5. Clicked "Pack".
   
6. Repeated the above steps, except this time only for the Sound directory.
   
7. Opened up my Skyrim.ini and under sResourceArchiveList2 added both of the new BSAs right after the vanilla Skyrim Voices/Extra Voices entries.
   
8. Packaged the ESP and 2 BSAs into a .7z archive and dropped into Wrye Bash installers tab, order to come AFTER my previous WIP using loose files.
   
9. Installed the archive with the BSAs, deleted my WIP with the loose files, verified the files were GONE from Skyrim\Data\xxxx.
   
10. Loaded up Skyrim, talked to my NPC and she spoke with her custom voice, checked her configuration dialogue (handled via script) and it worked properly.
    

If you're using another tool for packing your BSAs, I probably won't be much help, as this is the only one I've used for Skyrim. Anyways, hope this helps you.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Mujuro

[Ironman5000]

I seem to have fixed the problem, using a help from a few guys I managed to get it working.

 

It seems I needed to add the BSA file names to the ini file in a certain way :thumbsup:

[Deleted2628341User]

Is it possible to do this using a custom INI? The problem I see with using the Skyrim.ini file is that you'd be overwriting the original file for any players that downloaded it. If someone downloaded multiple mods that used that method for multiple BSAs and they all modified the Skyrim.ini file, only one mod would be able to work at any given time while the others would not, unless I misunderstand how the ini files operate and they simply auto-update when overwritten rather than being replaced.

 

I would say in this case if the BSA is too large for the game engine to process, it might be better just to provide the loose files.

[Ironman5000]

Is it possible to do this using a custom INI? The problem I see with using the Skyrim.ini file is that you'd be overwriting the original file for any players that downloaded it. If someone downloaded multiple mods that used that method for multiple BSAs and they all modified the Skyrim.ini file, only one mod would be able to work at any given time while the others would not, unless I misunderstand how the ini files operate and they simply auto-update when overwritten rather than being replaced.

 

I would say in this case if the BSA is too large for the game engine to process, it might be better just to provide the loose files.

 

The BSA was one of the key features of this mod, I suppose I could give an alternative option - a txt file with the line to add to the ini so that users can just copy and paste. I've not actually seen any other mod do this si it didn't cross my mind, but they must be some out there I guess...i'll do that now :thumbsup: