I find myself starting a lot of topics, please excuse my spamming

Anyway to the question.

I have noticed some mods come with bsa files. Now I know these are archives, that the game uses to load data, and that when you place files in meshes, textures, and so on, you basically as files to this system, without messing with the originals. However I was thinking. Is it possible for me to, lets say, find all the mods that I like, archive them into a bsa (or bsa's if there is a limit on size), and then simply but them in. This would be awesome, and it would make it A LOT easier to install, keep track off, and maybe setup mod-packages that are easily sharable (privately ofc. I got like 3 friends who also plays a bit, and its tedious to have to do all the modding for them aswell)

And if yes, what about mods that has plugin's (esp's). Will if mess them up, if the files they require are in a bsa, and if so, how do I change the esp's to use the bsa's?


Thanks in advance guys.

Yes, you can use bsapack program to create new bsa's, or unpack existing ones. Most resources can be safely placed into a single bsa, though I'm not sure, if it would give any considerable boost to gameplay speed or stability.

Awesome, what about the mods that uses esp's? Will the work, if their content (not the esp itself ofc) was placed in a bsa, or do I have to somehow edit it?

Bsa archives are essentially resource file( model/texture/sound) containers (think zip archive). Most mods will work quite well with them. MGE or MWE files should not be archived in bsa, though.

Ofc not.

The way I understand it, esp's are basically shortcuts, that tells the game to load "these" files with or instead of "those" files. So the reason I press the question, was that in my main, putting files from a mod into a BSA, would change the files location, and does render the "shortcuts" invalid.

Actually esp files are little databases, tables of information, like weight value etc, that -when they need to - link to binary resources for rendering video and sound. The more I work with the Construction Set the more I realise that Morrowind is basically a big relational database system, using the object IDs as primary keys, with a 3D rendering engine over the top.

I think the question is, "how do you make an .esp point to the files in the BSA rather than the actual physical directories?"

In this context, the OP is looking at the .esp as a signpost, pointing MW to the correct files. If you pack the files into a .bsa using the exact same file paths and then register the .bsa in the morrowind.ini file . . . *do you have to do anything to the .esp* for the mod to work?

Spot on. Thats what I'm wondering

I hate to bump myself, but really? does no one know?

Unfortunately I don't know the answer to this question and now my curiosity is piqued. I'm trying to get my laptop more organized and lighten the load of mods, so I really hope someone out there knows the answer to this question.

I could be wrong, but I believe the .esp tells MW what to look for. It doesn't , however, tell it where to look. The .esp calls for a file, MW then looks for the file in the loose folders first. Then if it doesn't find it, it looks in the BSAs. If it still can't find it, it errors out.

This may be a simplistic view, and it may be in the wrong order, but it seems to be the way it works. I know you can change the .ini file to only look in archives (BSAs) and it won't load any files from the loose folders (which will break a lot of mods). You can also set it to only use raw data (loose files), but unless you've unpacked the BSAs you'll get an instant CTD because it won't find any files from vanilla MW. The default setting is to load from the loose folders first (overwriting the stuff in the BSA), then load the rest from the BSAs.


Hope that helps.




KF

My understanding is the same as kiteflyer61's - when asked to load a file MW checks the file system first and if it doesn't find the reource there is then goes to the registered BSA files (all the BSAa are indexed at startup, so it doesn't actually have to trawl all the BSAs one at a time).

That's how the texture replacers work, they have the same name as files in the original Morrowind.bsa

I also read somewhere, but haven't tested personally, a different version of how it works - that if the file in the BSA has a new modified date than the one on the file system then it will use that. So, to have a file overwrite one in the BSA you would need to ensure it has the same name, and a more recent modified date.

>"that if the file in the BSA has a new modified date than the one on the file system then it will use that"

That is true(I had run ins with that fact some time ago), at least if TryArchiveFirst in Morrowind.ini is set to 1. That's why, to avoid inconsistencies and be certain, that proper meshes and textures are used, I have assembled all additional resources into a single bsa(2,5 GB total). Should need arise one can always unpack/repack it again - no trouble.

Thank you all very much. It makes a lot more sense to me now, hope the OP feels the same.

Folks, it appears, there's not-so-subtle limitation to bsa size - it should not exceed 2GB. Else, some(main menu for instance) textures will not be loaded ingame.