I'm building a total conversion, and there will be a lot of meshes and textures that will be in the mod, so saving space is a must. I was thinking that a good way to do this might be by creating a BSA file, but I don't know much about them and how they work. I have a few questions that I hope someone will be kind enough to answer...

First, I have BSA Browser, and I have found it to be great for browsing BSA files and unpacking them. I don't have any idea how efficient it might be at packing a working BSA file, but I've noted a couple of people have started threads regarding issues with it. Is it a good app for the job?

Second, I notice that there are no internal folders in the BSA files when I browse them. Meshes and textures. I see that a path is laid out like "meshes\a\bearpart.nif" and what I'm wondering is if it's possible to have a mod folder as part of the path, like "Meshes\Myfolder\bearpart.nif" and if it is possible, is it a good idea?

Third, is partially connected to the last question... If I have textures that are in a mod folder but without drive paths like "Textures\MyFolder\ Tx_myBearparts" rather than something like "C:\"Textures\MyFolder\ Tx_myBearparts" will it pack and be found properly?

Last, is having mod textures and meshes in a BSA file slower for playing than in regular data files folders? Does it effect FPS?

Thanks in advance...

Using BSAs won't save you much, if any, space by default, and can cripple intelligent compression algorithms. Counter-intuitive as it may be, you're better of with many files. The allows apps like WinRAR handle compressing images as images, text as text, and packing similar files together (I'm not aware of any intelligent compression in 7-zip, but I'm not sure).


It works, but apparently it's not the best, since I was requested to write a new one the other day. It's not too fast either and IIRC the unpacking left something to be desired.


It can, under some circumstances, increase memory and decrease the number of files MW can address. Compared proper use of subdirectories and archives, I'd almost say BSAs have no significant benefit.

Thanks for the info... given that, I guess I won't bother with BSA archives, as there doesn't seem to be much point.