So I'm PyFFI'ing the entire Fallout - Meshes.bsa. It started eight hours ago and it's still going strong. I used Fallout Mod Manager to unpack the .bsa but there is no tool to pack it with. All I need now is a utility that will pack the .bsa.

BSA Commander is not one of these utilities - it can't even open a Fallout 3 .bsa. What bsa pack / unpack utility is best to have for the long run?

http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640

top menu under tools BSA unpacker/Creator.

If you didn't use that to unpack then what did you use?

Also please let us know how the results turn out. I'm curious and have not heard of anyone doing F3 meshes or if all the same meshes are safe to do.

I've also not felt I needed it. I put in the heaviest replacers and the game still runs fine with 250 mods.

I did use Fallout Mod Manager to unpack the .bsa. FOMM associated .bsa's with itself upon installation. Unpacking it was a matter of double clicking the file. I will post the result of the fruit of my processor's labor, it's been at it for over 19 hours now. Here is something interesting: not too long ago I saw an item go from 26269 vertices to 19205 vertices. There were even wilder reductions after it. Can't wait to see what happens.

A full PyFFI on the meshes directory will result in a crash upon entering any worldspace. I don't know what causes it, but I've limited it to the static meshes (architecture, clutter, dungeons, furniture, landscape) and it works quite well .

That most likely means corrupt meshes. I know that the list of meshes to exclude in Oblivion has grown long, but I don't know of one for F3.

Interested to see nenina's results.

I've successfully loaded and ran around in interior cells such as NW Seneca Station with the friendly ghouls who want Sugar Bombs and Jury Station. Anytime I try to step out into an exterior cell it ctd's. I wonder if it could be those huge meshes in the Landscape\Lod folder that took so much of PyFFI's time. I'll try replacing them with the originals. That said, I now have an entire PyFFI'd meshes folder and an original meshes folder and can begin including and excluding files at will.

It took over 24 hours, btw, and I lost count of the hours because I slept twice.