and four years ago 8GB of RAM was the standard for a gaming PC, with about 1GB of VRAM.. these days, most gaming PCs have a minimal of 12GB of RAM (although, 16GB is becoming very common at this point), plus at least 2GB of VRAM..

my point being, alot of the resource intensive mods (which are usually the popular ones) just won't work on Consoles, unless they try and keep the system specs close to Skyrims (but judging by the footage we've seen so far, that won't happen)


EDIT: Not trying to bad talk consoles or anything, i love my consoles just as much as i love my computers, just stating the facts as they stand

And back then 8GB was total overkill. Even now, few games use even half that.

Yes, particularly resource-intensive mods will be a problem--as I mentioned, a mod that replaces every texture with HD versions likely won't work. But I was disputing the statement that "Graphic mods are out of the question, no new textures or retextures ...and that takes care of the question of body mods". Plenty of mods that add new objects and textures will be fine, as long as they don't go overboard on file size. Looking at the top FO3 mods on Nexus, many of them are not huge downloads.

After they arrive on Xbox One. We'll have much more info in 2016.

If graphic overhauls are the mods unavailable, I wouldn't care much. Items, companion and quest mods are what I fancy most. hardcoe mode if that is unavailable from the base game.

Uh if memory serves (couldn't resist) skyrim never addressed more then 4 gigs of memory because of a flaw in the engine. Where you would literally ctd if you tried to go over it. It had something to do with how memory was handled. They had something like two stacks of memory being used, and the issue cropped up when they tried to access the other stack. There are about 4 different plug-in ini edits that deal with the issue.

I'm not sure how you can say graphics mods are out of the question (at least technically). Why couldn't the interface they use to add the esp files and edit the loading order files also add the required textures and models to the correct locations? Obviously there would be size limitations and certainly content will be subject to some sort of review (or takedown) policy, but I don't see a technical reason that mods that require added data files can't be on consoles.

Now mods that require some sort of 3rd party software to run outside the game exe (script extenders, graphics enhancers, etc.) will certainly not be allowed or even possible outside some severe cracking / hacking of the console.

I think new textures and objects go in a BSA file, don't they? (Someone correct me if I'm mistaken.) So any mod which includes new items comes with a BSA along with the ESP (or ESM for a new worldspace). Mods get loaded exactly like DLC add-ons do, and those get onto the consoles just fine.

No matter how it works it will be an interesting step. If it does work at all, and we do see some interesting mods, it may pave the way for other game makers.

Using a BSA is the proper way to store new content for a mod, but not every modder uses them (as building the BSA is a bit of a pain). you can put loose files in the data folders (or simply replace the existing ones.....not the best idea as reverting to vanilla then becomes messy). Mods do install similarly to DLC, but if Bethesda plans to use the existing DLC distributions method to add mods to the console games, this may end up being a huge cluster....

Yeah, I don't expect mods to be distributed like DLC... as you mentioned earlier, MS and Sony don't exactly make it easy or cost-effective to distribute whatever they want that way. As for loose files, I could see Bethesda bundling them into BSA's for distribution, or demanding that modders do it, or building the functionality into the GECK. It sure makes life easier when you want to remove a mod. I can't tell you how many times I've dug through the loose files trying to find everything associated with one mod or another.

I think for the sake of compatibility [...and simplicity] that "they" will alter the mods to use vanilla resources before they are offered for consoles.

"They" will not modify any mod. Costs too much money, may have legal issues attached, and they already announced that they will let users break their consoles.

FTFY

I have never had a problem with loose files. But then all the mods I make and all the mods I use from other mod makers store their loose files in subdirectories with the name of the mod as part of the folder.

That was the way we did in for years (Fallout 3, oblivion and earlier). Maybe I am just too old to change what is comfortable and works for me.