List of folders that can and cannot be archived into .BA2s

[BlasterMasterCaster]

I keep asking Google for a list like this one but it shows no conclusive results.

Here is the list of folders contained in mods:

 

F4SE

Interface

Materials

MCM

Meshes

Scripts

Sound
Textures

Tools
Vis

So far I know that Materials, Meshes, Scripts, Sound, and Textures can definitely be archived.

The "Tools" folder, if archived into BA2s, won't let you edit the contents in Outfit Studio and BodySlide, so I would say: don't archive them.

My impression is that F4SE and Interface folder also must remain as Loose Files.

The "Vis" folder I think belongs to Valdacil's Item Sorting, I think this may work archived but I am not sure (plus I switched to VIS-G Item Sorting.

So my question is:

Can you archive the folders: F4SE and Interface into .ba2 archives or will the mods stop working properly if you do that and therefore those folders should remain as Loose Files?

[pra]

​Vis does NOT belong to any sorting mod, it's for pregenerated visibility. If you regenerated visibility for cells, you need it.

 

 

Try to use the CK's BA2 packing feature. It might attempt to pack too much, but it gets the files which your mod needs most of the time.

If you are trying to figure out which files belong to your mod and which don't, this is a good start.

Just make sure you remove the loose F4SE versions of vanilla scripts (like ObjectReference.pex).

 

I'm fairly certain Interface can indeed be packed. For Sound, the BA2 must be uncompressed, otherwise they won't play.

I think they can be just added to a compressed BA2 in an uncompressed way, but that can be somewhat tricky.

 

Tools, F4SE and MCM are third-party directories, they should not. F4SE is for F4SE Plugins (*.dll files) and their configs,

and MCM is for Mod Configuration Menu JSON files. I'm quite certain neither can be loaded from a BA2.

[BlasterMasterCaster]

​Vis does NOT belong to any sorting mod, it's for pregenerated visibility. If you regenerated visibility for cells, you need it.

 

 

Try to use the CK's BA2 packing feature. It might attempt to pack too much, but it gets the files which your mod needs most of the time.

If you are trying to figure out which files belong to your mod and which don't, this is a good start.

Just make sure you remove the loose F4SE versions of vanilla scripts (like ObjectReference.pex).

 

I'm fairly certain Interface can indeed be packed. For Sound, the BA2 must be uncompressed, otherwise they won't play.

I think they can be just added to a compressed BA2 in an uncompressed way, but that can be somewhat tricky.

 

Tools, F4SE and MCM are third-party directories, they should not. F4SE is for F4SE Plugins (*.dll files) and their configs,

and MCM is for Mod Configuration Menu JSON files. I'm quite certain neither can be loaded from a BA2.

Yes thank you for replying.

 

Oh, now I know about Vis. Does that mean that Vis can be archived into .ba2s though?

 

I am merging mods (for months now on and off) so when I am dealing with the contents of other people's mods and they are available as Loose Files I always wonder about some of the folders contained in the 7Zip/.rar archive and whether I should put them inside a .ba2 and will they work.

 

Yes, after I wrote this post yesterday I found myself unpacking the "Ghoul Mask" mod from here and it had an Interface folder inside it. lol

 

I also read about keeping the Sound folder (which belongs in " - Main.ba2") uncompressed otherwise the sound won't work, so I keep compression to "None" when archiving the " - Main.ba2", as you point out here.

 

That was my impression, that MCM, Tools and F4SE won't work in .ba2s. Now that you told me I can refer to them better as "third party directories". One of the reasons I was never quite sure what to do with for example the "Tools" and "Vis" folders is that Archive2 accepts it's contents and it will put it into .ba2s if you let it.

 

So I guess my remaining question would be because you've cleared most of my doubts: can I pack a Vis folder in a .ba2?

 

I also have doubts in whether keeping some of these third party directories would still work when you merge mods. I have found that MCM won't work if you merged the .esp that uses that directory, I wonder about Tools and F4SE though, I wonder if they recognize a merged ESP plugin and whether F4SE and Tools still work with it.

Edited April 28, 2020 by BlasterMasterCaster

[pra]

​Yes, you can pack vis into the ba2. I've done it myself, and you can see it in Fallout4 - MeshesExtra.ba2

 

MCM will break if you merge mods, because it relays on the filename and the FormIDs being the same as what it says in the JSON.

Similar for Settlement Menu Manager, btw: it looks for a specific mod filename, if it isn't loaded, the menu will be removed.

 

F4SE, depends. The main part of such a mod is the *.dll file, no idea what the ESP/ESL/ESM does, if it even has one.

The DLL MIGHT expect the ES* file to be loaded, but more likely it just provides some scripting functions, which the ES* file is using.

Though probably better ask the mod author, or just don't do it.

 

As for Tools, I have no idea which kind of mod even uses that, and why. It's not a directory the game itself recognizes, afaik.

If you have a mod which adds such a directory, I'd ask that mod's author.

[BlasterMasterCaster]

 

​Vis does NOT belong to any sorting mod, it's for pregenerated visibility. If you regenerated visibility for cells, you need it.

 

 

Try to use the CK's BA2 packing feature. It might attempt to pack too much, but it gets the files which your mod needs most of the time.

If you are trying to figure out which files belong to your mod and which don't, this is a good start.

Just make sure you remove the loose F4SE versions of vanilla scripts (like ObjectReference.pex).

 

I'm fairly certain Interface can indeed be packed. For Sound, the BA2 must be uncompressed, otherwise they won't play.

I think they can be just added to a compressed BA2 in an uncompressed way, but that can be somewhat tricky.

 

Tools, F4SE and MCM are third-party directories, they should not. F4SE is for F4SE Plugins (*.dll files) and their configs,

and MCM is for Mod Configuration Menu JSON files. I'm quite certain neither can be loaded from a BA2.

Yes thank you for replying.

 

Oh, now I know about Vis. Does that mean that Vis can be archived into .ba2s though?

 

I am merging mods (for months now on and off) so when I am dealing with the contents of other people's mods and they are available as Loose Files I always wonder about some of the folders contained in the 7Zip/.rar archive and whether I should put them inside a .ba2 and will they work.

 

Yes, after I wrote this post yesterday I found myself unpacking the "Ghoul Mask" mod from here and it had an Interface folder inside it. lol

 

I also read about keeping the Sound folder (which belongs in " - Main.ba2") uncompressed otherwise the sound won't work, so I keep compression to "None" when archiving the " - Main.ba2", as you point out here.

 

That was my impression, that MCM, Tools and F4SE won't work in .ba2s. Now that you told me I can refer to them better as "third party directories". One of the reasons I was never quite sure what to do with for example the "Tools" and "Vis" folders is that Archive2 accepts it's contents and it will put it into .ba2s if you let it.

 

So I guess my remaining question would be because you've cleared most of my doubts: can I pack a Vis folder in a .ba2?

 

I also have doubts in whether keeping some of these third party directories would still work when you merge mods. I have found that MCM won't work if you merged the .esp that uses that directory, I wonder about Tools and F4SE though, I wonder if they recognize a merged ESP plugin and whether F4SE and Tools still work with it.

 

Nice. I feel relief for the mods with Vis folders that I've archived now. :)

 

I will refrain from merging mods with third party directories, seems like the safest bet, unless I feel like I have the time to test these mods and see what happens.

 

The Tools folder usually contains Outfit Studio and BodySlide files. I haven't used those programs that much because I use CBBE vanilla and I am quite settled with female bodies close to vanilla, but then there are like 3 or 4 armor and clothing mods I've found while browsing the Nexus that will have invisible parts in-game, invisible parts because they require that you assign a bodyslide preset to it. That is why I've found that you cannot archive the Tools folder because Outfit Studio and the BodySlide program need to read the contents inside "Tools" in order to 1) find the costume and 2) find the preset to assign to the costume so that those parts are no longer invisible, thing these programs cannot do when they are archived into .ba2s.

 

But most of the time the costumes/armor work in-game so I just archive those files anyway. So far so good for most mods.

 

Thanks!

[Carreau]

Interface can definitely be packed. What I find odd, though, is that the CK won't auto-pack interface files. They have to be manually added

 

as for F4SE, you don't want to pack those files in specifically because DLLs are loaded during the game launch. If they're packed in the archive, then they wouldn't be able to load until the mod is loaded. The same should go for translation files. Most xSE plugins load the translation files during game load, not save load.

Edited April 29, 2020 by Carreau

[BlasterMasterCaster]

Interface can definitely be packed. What I find odd, though, is that the CK won't auto-pack interface files. They have to be manually added

 

as for F4SE, you don't want to pack those files in specifically because DLLs are loaded during the game launch. If they're packed in the archive, then they wouldn't be able to load until the mod is loaded. The same should go for translation files. Most xSE plugins load the translation files during game load, not save load.

That was my impression. Thanks.