[SKY] BSA's vs Loose Files

[l0new0lf331]

Ok first I have Skyrim updatated to 1.8.151.0.7 with Dawnguard,Hearthfire,Dragonborn and the HRDLC.Just read a thread on Skyrim freezing randomly which is what happens to me though it is usually a quick freeze and some random stuttering.I use the TPC (Texture Pack COmbiner) with the low res options as I only have a 512mb card.I ran into some issues with running the TPC and the HRDLC together so I removed the TPC.What I have gathered is to not use the HRDLC and instead use the HRDLC Optimized 1024 options for my poor GPU,and then try to use the TPC again.Before I came back to Skyrim and updated I ran the low res version of TPC fine.No issues,no stuttering.Now that I updated the game and my mods and the TPC(also added the HRDLC+hearthfire+Dragonborn) I'm running into various issues with stuttering,freezes,and CTD's(though the only CTD's I was getting was in character creation;the culprit Apachii Sky Hair).And a constant freeze at the EXACT same spot when starting a new game with mods but I'll ask about that later.

I've been researching things on the S.T.E.P. Wiki and am going to follow the advice found there for optimizing textures and getting the game stable and goodlooking.

I remember in Oblivion it was better to unpack the BSA's into the Data folder for performance and I am going to do that now.I prefer that anyway from my Oblivion habits.

What are the ini edits that must be made.I only saw a reference to that and was wondering what it is.Also are there any other steps to take in order to have loose files instead of BSA's?

[_echo]

BSAs are basically just compressed archives like a RAR or Zip. So in order for the game to access them, it has to decompress the files it needs before loading them into memory. So by having the files uncompressed, be it with Oblivion, Skyrim, or any game, can give some performance boost to load times. Yes, just load times.

It can improve loading at the start of the game, between cells, and texture swapping in the world, but if the textures are too much for your card's VRAM, then you will still see stuttering due to the unloading and loading of textures from memory.

[l0new0lf331]

Thank you.I know I have to optomize the textures and go with the lower resolutions,I'm looking into that now.The stuttering only came with the updates I did.Right now I am redownloading the HRDLC Optimized so I can use the 1024 recomended for 512mb GPU's and also looking into both the TPC and the STEP guide and will debate between the two since they contain many of the same mods.

I want to unpack ALL the BSA's; textures,meshes,interface,etc. since I run into hang ups and random freezes during the load screen to which I have to ctl+alt+del,start task manger and close Skyrim since it reads "not responding".

What are the ini edits to the Achives that are needed?Do I have to remove this:

[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

from the ini?

Or can I just unpack the BSA's and remove them from the Data folder?

EDIT:The magic question to do this after using BSAopt and checking the structure; How should the folder structure be once done?

I only ask because the Animations BSA has only a meshes folder inside.

Should it be:Data-->

Animations

Interface

lodsettings

Meshes

Misc

scripts

Shaders

Sounds

strings

Textures

Video

Voices

VoicesExtra

Edited March 6, 2013 by l0new0lf331

[_echo]

Im not entirly sure. I have the files extracted and have the BSAs in the ini file listed, so Im not 100% sure if it is loading the lose files for me. I have my install on one of my SSDs, and a graphics card able to handle the high resolutions, so ive not seen any issues.

[l0new0lf331]

From what I found so far if you have the loose files,they win over the same files in BSA format.So you should be loading them not the BSA's.But what is the folder structure that I should use?

[WillieSea]

You follow the same file structure as is in the BSA.

If its your own mod, I recommend making a folder of your userid or something, and subfolders of the mod name within that.

Example:

\data\meshes\williesea\levelerstower\

\data\textures\williesea\levelerstower\

You cannot do this with scripts though, they must go in the \scripts\ folder.

[l0new0lf331]

Ok I was needing to know this my only concern was that the animations BSA has a meshes folder only.I wasn't sure if it should be merged with the main meshes folder or not.And the meshes BSA structure was /-->

lodsettings

meshes

So I was just wanting to ensure of the exact folder structure.Thanks

[WillieSea]

Unless there is a 'requirement' that you put your custom files in the games folders, then you should not. Its best to make your own folders for your files within the games folders.

Mixing your files in makes it near impossible to manually uninstall your mod.

[l0new0lf331]

Thanks willie I'll remember that when i finally get this sorted and start again on my modding,but what I mean is what should the data folder look like once I've extracted the Vanilla BSA's?What is the folder structure?Should I just extract them to the Data folder and not worry?

[WillieSea]

Yes, just extract to the Data folder.

/Data/Meshes/ --> comes from "Skyrim - Meshes.bsa"

/Data/Textures/ --> comes from "Skyrim - Textures.bsa"

Every BSA file is based off of "Data" being the parent folder.

[l0new0lf331]

Sorry so long to reply.Thanks.So folders should be created named after the Bsa's and the Bsa's extracted to those folders.....right?

[WillieSea]

No. All you need to do is 'extract' the BSA file using a BSA extracter directly to your games DATA folder. It will create all the folders you need.

If you only select to extract a single file, it will not create the necessary folders.

Edited March 18, 2013 by WillieSea

[vometia]

BSAs are basically just compressed archives like a RAR or Zip. So in order for the game to access them, it has to decompress the files it needs before loading them into memory. So by having the files uncompressed, be it with Oblivion, Skyrim, or any game, can give some performance boost to load times. Yes, just load times.

I always find myself wondering about this: as CPU speeds and IO throughput diverge, at some point the overhead for decompression will be less than the overhead of dragging the full-size file in from mass storage. But at what point does that happen? Has it happened already? Does the system's overhead for maintaining multiple file handles have an adverse impact? Lots of theoretical questions from me but no useful answers at this point!

[l0new0lf331]

That's what I'm wondering about too.Seems to me  a lot of extra redundant work to uncompress the files everytime the engine calls for them.So far I've just unpacked the meshes and textures BSA's.I found a noticable performance increase(though not drastic).But my laptop isn't an uber machine so it is noticable to me.

[Leonardo]

I think you might want to read this thread about BSA that's important information for you to know about.  Also make sure to read the other linked threads too in the OP.

[ContagiousCure]

I've noticed no difference between unpacked and loose. BSAs make the folder more neat but loose files allow reasources to be shared if another mod uses the same stuff.

[dcadint]

"BSAs are basically just compressed archives like a RAR or Zip. So in order for the game to access them, it has to decompress the files it needs before loading them into memory. So by having the files uncompressed, be it with Oblivion, Skyrim, or any game, can give some performance boost"  -  _echo

 

This is not necessarily true.  Disk is exponentially much slower than the memory and cpu cycle rates so if files are compressed then they require fewer really slow disk IOs and more exponentially much faster cpu and memory cycles.  Compression of disks has quite often been found to speed up systems because the slow IO times are offset by the faster CPU times.  The real benefit of loose files would be their reuse by other mods.