SSE Clarification needed re:BSA's

[Kel1978]

ok for large texture mods in SSE, what I want to do is create bsa's for them for my personal use. Are the following accurate with SSE? Every guide i've seen is from 2016 or older

 

1. The must be under 2gb

2. I can load multiple bsa's with a single dummy plugin as long as it is pluginname.esp and the bsa's are pluginname - xxx so as long as its named pluginname before the " - " it will load the bsa?

 

For example:

mymod.esp will load

mymod - Textures1.bsa (compressed)

mymod - Textures2.bsa (compressed)

mymod - Meshes1.bsa (compressed)

mymod - Meshes2.bsa (compressed)

mymod - Sounds.bsa (uncompressed)

mymod - Voices.bsa (uncompressed)

mymod - randomname.bsa

 

as long as they are under 2gb?

Sounds should not be compressed?

scripts should not be in a bsa? (for non texture only mods)

dummy esps will not take a slot if I make them light in Vortex?

Aside from textures can I pack everything else in a single bsa or keep each seperate ie; meshes, sound,

 

Sorry for the barrage of questions.

[cdcooley]

I'm not sure about the size limit, but it's probably still true. The second part about naming is definitely false. That doesn't work with any version of Skyrim. The only two BSA names that the game recognizes are "mymod.bsa" and "mymod - Textures.bsa". You should be packing everything except textures (including scripts) into the main bsa file and it should not be compressed. The textures are separate because they can and should be compressed. And yes, with with SSE you could create a series of empty ESL mods so they don't take up a critical slot in your load order.

[Kel1978]

thanks, I appreciate it. :)

[Kel1978]

One more question. Do textures have to be in a bsa marked mod - Textures.bsa or can they also be in mod.bsa and have mod.esp manage both? For example if I wanted to package a huge texture mod like Skyrim Realistic Overhaul (over 10 GB) into bsa and having only textures, Can each plugin manage 2 compressed bsa (mod.bsa and mod - textures.bsa) or am i forced to use 1 plugin for each mod - textures.bsa? (the difference being using 5 plugins to manage 10 bsa over using 10 plugins to manage 10 mod - Textures.bsa) I hope I'm making sense...lol

 

PS. Can I rename a plugin in windows like KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE.esp? Archive.exe crashes when i try to save a KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE.bsa. There 's no "save as" in the construction kit so i can't rename that way

 

I tried making an archive through the CK by loading up the esp and it worked. I'm not sure why it worldn't work with archive.exe. maby because the esp isn't empty?

Edited September 16, 2019 by Kel1978

[cdcooley]

You can have textures in the main BSA file. I haven't tried having textures in the main file and also a separate textures bsa, but it should work.

[Dreifels]

The second part about naming is definitely false. That doesn't work with any version of Skyrim. The only two BSA names that the game recognizes are "mymod.bsa" and "mymod - Textures.bsa".

I'm no tsure that you're right. In Skyrim SE I have several mods with BSAs made with word after the "-" identically with the folder, i.e.

• NameOfYourMod - Textures.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Meshes.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Misc.bsa

and I refer to https://geckwiki.com/index.php/BSA_Files

Using new assets with new BSA files

 

Important is that the word before the "-" is absolute same as an existing esp/esm because the internal loading according load order of the esp/esm

(It may give some restrictions, but not yet found for biger mods a working way with BSA names like

modname, modname0, modname 1, etc., and all pack into "modname - textures" even if it is not a texture (i.e. script) seems to work not correctly)

 

But I'm still experimenting with this and open for any informaiton.

[KainThePheonix]

 

The second part about naming is definitely false. That doesn't work with any version of Skyrim. The only two BSA names that the game recognizes are "mymod.bsa" and "mymod - Textures.bsa".

I'm no tsure that you're right. In Skyrim SE I have several mods with BSAs made with word after the "-" identically with the folder, i.e.

• NameOfYourMod - Textures.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Meshes.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Misc.bsa

and I refer to https://geckwiki.com/index.php/BSA_Files

Using new assets with new BSA files

 

Important is that the word before the "-" is absolute same as an existing esp/esm because the internal loading according load order of the esp/esm

(It may give some restrictions, but not yet found for biger mods a working way with BSA names like

modname, modname0, modname 1, etc., and all pack into "modname - textures" even if it is not a texture (i.e. script) seems to work not correctly)

 

But I'm still experimenting with this and open for any informaiton.

 

@Dreifels

 

I read in a Nexus guide if you use only a BSA to load anything either in Mod Organizer 1 or MO2 that you need to update the BSA loading in the skyrim.ini under the [Archive] section. It takes longer to ensure a load order using that method and it can save you an ESP slot too. This is located near the bottom of Mere Morsel's second reply in the Thread.

 

Here is the Thread describing it in greater detail. I hope this helps.

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4591640-update-bsas-and-you/

[Dreifels]

 

 

The second part about naming is definitely false. That doesn't work with any version of Skyrim. The only two BSA names that the game recognizes are "mymod.bsa" and "mymod - Textures.bsa".

I'm no tsure that you're right. In Skyrim SE I have several mods with BSAs made with word after the "-" identically with the folder, i.e.

• NameOfYourMod - Textures.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Meshes.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Misc.bsa

and I refer to https://geckwiki.com/index.php/BSA_Files

Using new assets with new BSA files

 

Important is that the word before the "-" is absolute same as an existing esp/esm because the internal loading according load order of the esp/esm

(It may give some restrictions, but not yet found for biger mods a working way with BSA names like

modname, modname0, modname 1, etc., and all pack into "modname - textures" even if it is not a texture (i.e. script) seems to work not correctly)

 

But I'm still experimenting with this and open for any informaiton.

 

@Dreifels

 

I read in a Nexus guide if you use only a BSA to load anything either in Mod Organizer 1 or MO2 that you need to update the BSA loading in the skyrim.ini under the [Archive] section.

 

this is for old Skyrim and for Skyrim SE definitely wrong if you let it stand so w/o longer explanation.

Below all refers to Skyrim SE along with Windows 10:

 

1) the max line is 255 characters, and there are only two working proper, as definition in Skyrim.ini (sResourceArchiveList and sResourceArchiveList2. By that, you already have filled thes 2x255 completeley by vanilla and other essentials

 

My Skyrim.ini has

[Archive]

bLoadArchiveInMemory=1

sArchiveToLoadInMemoryList=Skyrim - Animations.bsa

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes0.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes1.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Patch.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Textures0.bsa, Skyrim - Textures1.bsa, Skyrim - Textures2.bsa, Skyrim - Textures3.bsa, Skyrim - Textures4.bsa, Skyrim - Textures5.bsa, Skyrim - Textures6.bsa, Skyrim - Textures7.bsa, Skyrim - Textures8.bsa, Skyrim - Voices_de0.bsa, Skyrim - Voices_en0.bsa, Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch - Textures.bsa, Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.bsa

 

I had done lot of tests for several months, and use of these lines in skyrim.ini for other mods may cause other, unexcpected issues.

 

2) Sjyrim SE does not load and keep in Memery full BSAs for long time. I never seen that RAM usage goes above 4GB (+ Windows and background not-Skyrim applications), in oppositie to usage of VRam.

 

3) Size limit of BSA look for me as depending from free RAM until these max ~ 4GB for Skyrim. (Means 4GB less Skyrim, less other Skyrim-related addons) The secure way for BSA is to keep them below 2,3 GB. More "may* work but is risky as maybe not all graphics will load proper.

 

4) A mod may not have than 2 BSAs, one with name MyMod.bsa and one with name MyMod - Textures.bsa while you have to watch what is with the compresion (see below)

 

More BSAs for same mod *may* work, but with same risk as I say above: not full load of all graphics or other. (I tested that with very big mods (more than 40GB uncompressed and more than 50,000 files)

 

5) If you have a mod that needs more than these 2 BSAs, the secure way is to have Dummies, and for these dumies same restirction as for the Mod: max 2 BSAs. A Dummy may have a name like MyMod1.esp MyMod2.esp and the BSAs MyMod1.BSA + MyMod1 - textures.bsa and so on.

 

6) A dummy should have in header a Dependency to the mod*s esp/esm, otherwise it will not sorted and loaded correctly (resp. its BSAs content), a Dummy may have ESL-Flag and also ESM-ESL-Flag (if mod is esm), according the mod's esp/esm.

 

The best sample how to build a big mod with dummies you may see with Die unglaubliche Reise - SSE 2.0 DV and EV (analyse structur and header entries)

 

7) name extensions for BSAs other than nothing (like MyMod.BSA) or "textures" (like myMod - textures.BSA) do not work proper if not load in ram by using Skyrim.ini, means, these other names related to the subfolders of /data/ do not work except for those in sjyrim.ini

 

Compression of BSA should be according this white list, made by G_k of Cathedral Assets Optimizer

on base of my analyse made before for his new 64bit version of CAO (coming this week)

This is because Skyrim's system of working with loading and reading of BSAs and on base of Windows 10 system basics (i.e. the excessive write of logs in background for any file access whcih is covert for the user by windows in foreground where your see operation is finished but in fact it is not yet. You may test it with ope file manager and resourcen manager and mofe more than 200GB loose files from one HDD to another. It writes terrible mass of logs and drops speed as soon as RAM is full. Same is with any file access by Skyrim SE)

 

Because this, the best, most fast and most secure way is either to have loose files or - better to organise and less Win10 log writing) uncompressed BSAs, except some graphics that may be compressed, as that goes to VRam and not to RAM

 

below the extract of my test for CAO within 2 months (more than 300 tests with different solutions and settings)

see also the white list we made.

 

1) files that need to be converted or should be converted

 

- .TGA => .DDS

- .WAF (if music) => .XWM | If sound/fx/ DO NOT CONVERT !

- .HKX if LE-Format

 

 

2) BSA compression (NEVER high compression!) - uncompressed

 

2.1) uncompressed BSA

 

- /interface/

- /LOD/

- /music/

- /Scripts/

- /seq/

- /Sound/

- /Voice/

• ALL OTHER, except SKSE and other files that do not belong to Skyrim directly. Such must not packed in a BSA

 

Arthmoor: SKSE DLLs are not part of the vanilla game. So although you can put one in there using archive.exe, the game will not process it because it's not designed to. You have to pack those loose if you're including them with a mod. You also can't use SKSE DLLs from LE with SSE. They need to be recompiled by their authors before that would work anyway.

.

by that, only these may get compressed

 

 

2.2) BSA compressed, but never HIGH compression

 

- Meshes

- Textures

- Animations (some say, also HKX should not get compressed, but this is not clear. Bethesda itself did pack HKX in compressed BSA)

- Source (not used and for user's informaiton only, same like txt or other info) - does not belong into a BSA

 

 

IF the system is strong, smaller BSAs and mods with less than 3 BSAs *may* work even if all put together and compressed, however, there is always a risk that some files of a BSA not get loaded correctly. (I just had this again in an test environment with Dwemer Worldgate. So the secure way is to follow the above systematic strictly.

 

3.1) There must not be more than 2 BSAs for same esp/esm, while one need (regulary that one which is uncompressed) to have same name as the mod's esp/esm and the other the same name of the mod*s esp/esm plus expansion “ - Textures“.

 

Other solutions *may* work, but risk that some files get not loaeded correctly.

3.2.1) This means, mods which need more than 2 BSAs need to get a dummy. While the same rules apply to every dummie as above. (not more than 2 BSAs like above)

 

---

 

The new 64bit CAO will be published this week and it has build in all these rules

[PapaiJarda]

I'm no tsure that you're right. In Skyrim SE I have several mods with BSAs made with word after the "-" identically with the folder, i.e.

 

• NameOfYourMod - Textures.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Meshes.bsa
• NameOfYourMod - Misc.bsa

and I refer to https://geckwiki.com/index.php/BSA_Files

Using new assets with new BSA files

Could you elaborate a bit this specific claim? I mean, can you provide some examples and results from your personal tests?

 

Thanks in advance.

[KainThePheonix]

Thanks for the reply Dreifels!