BSA Max Size?

[zilav]

And I've made installer for TTW 3.2 and didn't separate textures. So...

[dubiousintent]

@Zilav: Thanks for the clarifications. I've added a "TIP BSA Files" to the "Packaging Mods for Installation" section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article for future reference. Let me know if I've misinterpreted you.

 

I found a report that just adding the significant portion of the game filename to a master-less "dummy ESP" BSA file was sufficient to get it always loaded without the ESP file. For example: with "My_Mod.esp"; adding "Fallout - My_Mod - textures.bsa" to "My_Mod - textures.bsa" would eliminate the need for the dummy file "My_Mod.esp". (The report was specific to Skyrim and MO, however.) Just wondering if you have any insights on that? It would save having the dummy file consuming an "active plugin cap" slot. If so, might that work with any other plugin ESP file that was already loaded instead? (Ignoring the potential for confusion as to which mod if belonged to, of course.)

 

-Dubious-

[zilav]

Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas load archives by partial name matching, so "Mod.esm" or "Mod.esp" will load all archives named "Mod*.bsa" (case insensitive of course in Windows, but not in Linux!) in alphabetical order. The only exception is the main game master plugin so "FalloutWhatever.bsa" won't be loaded, however naming after any DLC if available like "HonestHeartsMyAwesomeArchive.bsa" will work and allows to avoid using dummy plugins.

 

Morrowind has no BSA loading by plugins and loads archives listed in the ini only

Skyrim LE loads a single archive by exact name match "Mod.bsa"

SSE loads two archives per plugin "Mod.bsa" and "Mod - Textures.bsa" (it can contain any assets despite the name)

Fallout 4 loads "Mod - Main.bsa" and "Mod - Textures.bsa", probably something else but my interest in that game is zero so whatever.

[dubiousintent]

Appreciate the follow up. Updated the wiki entry.

 

-Dubious-

[llloyd]

So... *looks at Dubious and Zilav* Boil this down to simplicity here. Will, or will not, what I have currently work? The NMC_HD.esp with NMC_HD Textures.bsa to NMC_HD Textures4,bsa and NMC_HD Meshes.bsa? Or do I have to rename / remake them ?

[dubiousintent]

Zilav is the authority, but nothing he said indicates it won't work. He was just pointing out that it was not "necessary" to split the meshes from the textures, despite that being the way Bethesda did it originally. The crucial factor is overall file size. (You *could* reduce the number of BSA files by combining your "meshes" with any of the smaller "texture" BSAs, but I don't know if that will net you any performance gain. Something for later testing, I suggest.) Your largest BSA (Textures4) is within the size limit (as measured in KB: 2,073,844 KB actual versus the limit of 2,097,152 KB). The significant portion of your file names now conform to what is expected for "partial name matching". Looks ready to test.

 

The only thing you *might* want to change is to rename the significant "NMC_HD" portion of the filenames to something like "DeadMoneyNMC_HD" in order to avoid needing an empty "dummy ESP" file. But as that is: 1) optional, and 2) easily done anytime; I would suggest you first test your BSA files load into the game as they are with the "dummy ESP" file.

 

-Dubious-

[llloyd]

Don't think it's working. *hmm* Or if it is there is something else going on. I don't see much difference between these two pics with and without NMC_HD.esp active.

 

https://imgur.com/a/FSVFkHO

 

 

[dubiousintent]

You were talking about NMC, which is "landscape in the distance" (i.e. "background"). Those images are of a building "object" in the "foreground". You want to be looking at things in "the distance" such as the hills, trees, buildings, billboards, or mountains in the background or "city/towns" from a hillside. "Mid ground" is where the switchover point between using a scaled down "foreground" image and a true "VWD/LOD/background" image resides.

 

In this image, the table and chair back to about the "fire barrels" is in the "foreground", the "building" is in the middleground (probably: it's around the point where the engine switches between the scaled down "near" and "far/VWD" images), and the hills are in the "background". (The visible "level of detail" in the building inclines me to believe it is still a "near" image. LOD/VWD reduces the polygon count.) The hills and landscape outside the fence are where you should expect to see the difference with and without NMC.

 

BTW: I have no idea if xLODGen or FNVLODGen can rebuild the LOD files of your "load order" from a BSA. You may need to rebuild those from the "loose files" prior to switching over to the BSAs. The resulting "*.lod" files are separate from the "*_far.nif" files they are built from. I'll be curious to hear how that works out.

 

-Dubious-

[zilav]

Of course lodgen reads from BSAs otherwise it would have been unable to generate LODs at all in vanilla worldspaces. This is explicitely mentioned in the message at the bottom of lodgen options window which noone reads unfortunately.

[llloyd]

Oh! I thought NMC was a HD texture pack that made everything HD, the near and far, so signs, walls, ground, etc got HD textured as well as the hills in the background. What packs do I need for that for TTW or NV / 3 individually?