How to delete files in a .bsa?

[leotheEliteMajor117]

Moving on from my topic from the Mod Troubleshooting "Anims of weapons still stay even if their anims are deleted" I found out what was causing the trouble: Animation files inside a mod's .bsa that the game uses.

 

I need instructions on how to delete these .kf files in the mod's .bsa, I don't want to delete the weapon meshes with it too.

Edited March 14, 2020 by LabroLEO

[dubiousintent]

"Loose files" will override the use of those in BSAs (regardless of source). Just extract the vanilla ones from the vanilla BSAs into the correct folders, and then toggle "ArchiveInvalidation". That way you can just remove the appropriate loose file when you determine you do actually need the KF replacement in the BSA.

 

If the KF from the mod BSA is still being used, then there is something different in either the filename (spaces are significant) or the path where it is stored that is different from vanilla. That information is actually burned into the NIF mesh. It would either have to be edited in NifSkope (see the "How to fix hard-coded texture paths in NIF files" wiki article and adapt that info) or the vanilla KF file made to "match up" in name and path to the modded file.

 

If you are absolutely determined to unpack and repack a BSA, use BSArch (freeware) by zilav. A command line tool for packing and unpacking Bethesda archives. The most complete support setting the correct flags across the various games.

(See the Skyrim thread BSAs and You for details about the pros and cons of "Bethesda Software Archives" (BSAs), but bear in mind such files in previous games, like Oblivion, FallOut3 and Fallout New Vegas, don't have "strict order" like in Skyrim. Games prior to Skyrim don't support overriding of assets in archives using other archives; only loose files can. If the same resource is contained in several BSA archives, those games won't use it from the last BSA on 100% of occasions. They may grab the resource from a random one of the BSAs containing the same file.)

WARNING! Do not unpack BSAs directly into your game "Data" folder; potentially overwriting any mod files. The tools don't ask you to confirm the overwriting, either. All the hair textures unpacked to "loose files" will go through the head models in that case; because that's what happens when hair is not packed in a BSA. "Best practice" is to unpack to a unique folder (they are large: 1-2GB) and manually drag the desired files to the appropriate "Data" folder as needed.

-Dubious-

[leotheEliteMajor117]

"Loose files" will override the use of those in BSAs (regardless of source). Just extract the vanilla ones from the vanilla BSAs into the correct folders, and then toggle "ArchiveInvalidation". That way you can just remove the appropriate loose file when you determine you do actually need the KF replacement in the BSA.Â

Â

If the KF from the mod BSA is still being used, then there is something different in either the filename (spaces are significant) or the path where it is stored that is different from vanilla. That information is actually burned into the NIF mesh. It would either have to be edited in NifSkope (see the "How to fix hard-coded texture paths in NIF files" wiki article and adapt that info) or the vanilla KF file made to "match up" in name and path to the modded file.

Â

If you are absolutely determined to unpack and repack a BSA, use BSArch (freeware) by zilav. A command line tool for packing and unpacking Bethesda archives. The most complete support setting the correct flags across the various games.

(See the Skyrim thread BSAs and You for details about the pros and cons of "Bethesda Software Archives" (BSAs), but bear in mind such files in previous games, like Oblivion, FallOut3 and Fallout New Vegas, don't have "strict order" like in Skyrim. Games prior to Skyrim don't support overriding of assets in archives using other archives; only loose files can. If the same resource is contained in several BSA archives, those games won't use it from the last BSA on 100% of occasions. They may grab the resource from a random one of the BSAs containing the same file.)

WARNING! Do not unpack BSAs directly into your game "Data" folder; potentially overwriting any mod files. The tools don't ask you to confirm the overwriting, either. All the hair textures unpacked to "loose files" will go through the head models in that case; because that's what happens when hair is not packed in a BSA. "Best practice" is to unpack to a unique folder (they are large: 1-2GB) and manually drag the desired files to the appropriate "Data" folder as needed.

-Dubious-

By "Unpacking" do you mean removing those files in a certain .bsa? And by "Packing", do you mean by putting files on a .bsa?

[M48A5]

A .bsa file is a Bethesda Software Archive file. A mesh .bsa file will contain all the mesh files needed for the game in a compressed format.

 

Here is an easy to read article explaining the .bsa file extension. https://www.lifewire.com/bsa-file-2619981

[dubiousintent]

Broadly speaking, a "BSA" is an "archive" file, similar to a 7Z, ZIP, or WAR archive but with a Bethesda particular format you need the BSArch tool (there are older tools but they don't "pack" correctly) to recreate properly. You have to recreate the BSA file to remove anything.

 

The only way to get files out of a BSA is to "unpack" (extract) them into a folder as "loose files", and then "pack" (package, to include folder structure) them back into a new BSA file (generally best to create a differently named one, and rename it later as a replacement) without the files you want to remove. Do not delete the original file. Rename it so you still have it available if things prove more difficult than you think.

 

-Dubious-

[GamerRick]

Use this to unpack and pack BSAs for the various Beth games: BSAopt - Bethesda Archive Management and Optimization

[leotheEliteMajor117]

I don't quite get it guys.

 

All I'm trying to say, is how to remove a folder in a .bsa file?

 

Like for example, I want to remove the /characters folder inside a .bsa file.

 

Can you guys give me an in-depth instruction?

[madmongo]

You can't directly remove files or folders from a bsa.

 

Step 1: Unpack the bsa file somewhere. Don't unpack it in your Fallout directory because then the files will get mixed in with all of your game files. Make a temporary folder to unpack the files in.

Step 2: Go into the folders that you just unpacked and delete the \characters folder.

Step 3: Create a new bsa from the unpacked files and folders and give it the same name as the original

 

Save the original bsa somewhere before doing all of this in case you need to get back to it.

[dubiousintent]

You cannot just "remove a folder" from a BSA. You have to recreate the BSA file without the content (folder paths and files in those folders) you want to delete. There is no "delete" command or capability unless the tool provides it (and last I knew they did not). Which is why the instruction sequence is "unpack", "remove", and "rebuild".

 

!. Unpack (extract all the contents of) the BSA file to a new separate folder (not to your game).

2. In the new folder, locate and delete the "\characters" folder and it's contents.

3. Repeat for anything else you want to delete from the BSA.

4. Now navigate into that "new" folder, so you are looking at it's contents which will include both files and subfolders.

5. Create a new BSA file. Only the "subfolders" and files you see should be included; not the "new folder" they were unpacked into. The resulting BSA HAS TO internally look exactly the same as in the original BSA (minus what you delete).

6. Rename the original BSA file to something else (by adding "_old" to the filename for example), and rename your newly created BSA file to the original file name.

7. Test.

 

[Edit: Ninja'd by madmongo. I'll leave it because of a little more detail.]

 

-Dubious-

[leotheEliteMajor117]

Is BSAOpt the right tool for this? If so, can anyone of you show me a tutorial? I am confused on how to use the tool. Edited March 18, 2020 by LabroLEO