Aeradom

@BoSoxBry Assuming I'm correct (which to be fair I figured this stuff out last night so it may not be), I'm pretty sure it follows normal modding conventions of lower in the order takes priority. The reason I'm pretty sure is that when you run the Texture Optimization Project (to optimize the vanilla folders), it's recommended to do that first and then install mods as those mods will then overwrite the vanilla ones. I'll double check and then get back to you. @GSDFan Is there a particular reason you don't have a scrapping mod in there? Or is it just you don't think you need it so didn't bother?

You are in luck friend because I just so happened to of spent 8 hours figuring just that out. Now, it might of been easier to do one file at time but I just did one super large file (which might of been why I had difficulty because I did that with a smaller mod and had no issues). Any who, if you are converting loose file mods to ba2 format here's what you do: ''What to do exactly is: 1. Extract the .zip from the download into a temporary folder. 2. Navigate to "Tools\Archive2" inside the fallout 4 folder. And open Archive2.exe 3. Drag the extracted folder named "Textures", from where you extracted the downloaded .zip, onto the Archive2 interface. Can take a while, the program may be unresponsive, just wait. 4. In Archive2 press "Archive -> Settings", in format choose "DDS". Press OK. 5. Then "File -> Save" or "CTRL + S", and choose the Data folder and the name "TextureOptimizationProject - Textures.ba2". Wait til done. 6. Open up the Creation kit and load up the fallout4.esm. 7. When loaded, simply save a new plugin by pressing the "floppy disk icon" or "File -> Save". Name it TextureOptimizationProject.esp 8. Activate it for loading in NMM or through the mods menu ingame. Then you're done.'' (Credit: Mind Dozer @ Nexus) As to what it does, well I'll let the guy ianpatt (f4se, originally dumped .ba2 for bsaextractor) explainL There are two types of ba2 archives: general, and texture. General archives can contain anything, while texture archives are optimized for storing textures. There is no significant size advantage when comparing the two, but texture archives store textures in a more intelligent way that is friendlier to the runtime texture streamer. When reading a DDS file, finding the lower resolution textures requires seeking to, and therefore decompressing most of the file. This is inefficient, because in most cases you will care about the lower resolution mips first, when the object is off in the distance. Texture archives store any mips higher than 256x256 in their own separate blocks, while the 256x256 and below are all in their own block. @Gernash What's left to overhaul on the guide right now?

You know, half the time I don't know what you are saying lol. Read above where? What Optimize? "+9000 feel good option"? Then again, it could be the lack of sleep. Night guys.

@Gernash I thought about bringing up the Grasslands update but as it was labeled as a pre-release didn't know if you wanted to use it. Something else I forgot to bring up is in regards to the "HD Retexture Pack - Misc Props", there is 4K optional file. For it to work, you have to install the main mod, then merge that one and this together. I just bring it up because I know how much you love 4K. @Gernash I know you've done a lot of work in the past few days updating sections, which ones have you done? Because I'm just going to move on past them and work on bringing the others up to date (you know, whenever I wake up as I've put off going to sleep for 4 hours). Off to bed then. Just leave me the sections that still need to be gone over and I'll look into them. Don't forget I need you to do those fomods in the misc textures section. No rush on that though, just a reminder.

@Gernash I actually am not sure how to make an esp in FO4edit. I did it with the CK, and created the archive using the Archiver program that was mentioned above. It was weird though and I'm not completely with it. See, there seems to be some disagreement on how to go about this. Some people think you need the -main.bsa whereas others have been able to create mods with just the -textures.bsa. and esps in the data folder. And then for some no matter how long they work at it couldn't get it to work. Sparrow ran into this issue with WET it took him a few days apparently to get it sorted. And no, my purpose wasn't to optimize the vanilla textures. Oddly enough that was easy in comparison (partly because there was set instructions for it). I mentioned this before, but there are so many comments that it's easy to get lost. The file that I converted was the "After The Fallout" mod. I'm actually planning on doing the same with a lot of the older mods and putting them up on the Nexus as I think there's a demand for that sort of thing (with the mod author's permission of course).

@Gernash I did it. It took my six or eight (or more) bloody hours but I did it.... sort of. I've figured out to convert loose file mods into ba2 format. I need to get a few more things figured out, like the fact that in ba2 format currently After the Fallout is 8 gigs. I think though that's because one of the files I didn't use proper compression on though so I should be able to get that down a bit. However, the overall point is that I know how to do it. Now I just gotta start sending out messages to mod authors to okay converting the mods and what not. But yeah... that's tomorrow. Night guys. @rhodey Wasn't there something about there being a handicap for that when it came to Window 10 users?

Are you aware of this? I packaged all of the After the Fallout downloads into one ba2 and then went to the CK and created an esp, both with the proper naming conventions. Assuming that the bottom part is correct and you merely need to drop the two of them into the Data folder and it's good to go. Problem is, I don't know how to test that sort of thing. When I load it into LOOT or xEdit, it shows up as an empty plugin. But so does FAR for the record. You know a way I could test this to see if it works? Normally I'd think to fire up the game and look but, how do I know if a texture is vanilla or from the mod? Said file will take about an hour for me to upload to dropbox btw, even with it being compressed but I'll send you the link through mail. There is one thing; with FAR and other mods that do this, they have with them a "meta.ini". Do you know how that is generated? Oh, and the ambient occlusion I was referring to Bethini. If you recall, they updated it and ambient occlusion is now an option to disable on there. You had said you wanted it to be disabled from there, and then rely on ENB. That's why I was asking about if it's on by default, or if need be I'd update the ENB with the proper instructions. Edit: Well flipper skipper! I was double checking in the instructions and realized it wasn't in dds format so I attempted to switch and turns out everyone of them was flagged with an error of "not supported for this archive type"

@Gernash. Don't know what you are talking about. Why would you deny a mod and his lovely mod organizer a date. :P I hate to pull you away from all that, but there are some mods with fomods that haven't been picked out. I'm not a mind reason so I don't know what you prefer for the list. Hence thought it best to leave that one to you (Or I can, just know I prefer vanilla so will lean towards that). Here's the List: Park benches Flacon Oil Better Settlement Camps Improved Wood Textures Alt Desk Fan Once those are sorted, I can go through and see what's being overwritten and by whom. Speaking of textures, I'm working on a way to convert some of these older mods into ba2 formats (Quick Question: all I need to do is package the ba2 with the esp and it's good to go, yes?). Lastly, just making sure you are aware that I did go ahead and remove Clean Waters of the Commonwealth. If you didn't see, check the update section and I have a link to the related info. @Gernash OH! Which reminds me, I wanted to know if ENB had ambient occlussion turned on by default. Because if it does, I was going to tweak the Bethini section to make a not to disable that from the ini.

@Gernash

TOP is the Textures Optimization Project, i just get lazy and don't want to spell that out. Pascal is the architecture behind the new Nvidia GTX 10xx cards. Even the 1060 has 6 full gigs of VRAM but still manage to see some improvement (granted there's diminishing returns but it's still there). Eh, it's not important I suppose. Have you had a chance to look over the changes I made?

So what's the point of TOP then? It's the #1 method I hear of (and I believe from you as well) of getting an FPS boost. So how does it accomplish that? I've heard people even running pascal cards seeing an improvement.

@Gernash It can have an impact if you end up filling up your GPU memory. Edit: To be clear, you are probably right in this case though.

@Rhodsey Might also want to try the 2K versions of the 4K texture mods. Even though I probably could run the 4K, I'm happy enough with the 2K myself.

Quick Trade really is essential to me now. It really does need to be added ASAP. The last one though I haven't heard of will need to do more research on. Most of the rest I'm going to install even if it's not added to the list.

@Gernash Why is Rocks Overhaul on the mod list? Is it you just prefer the looks of the rocks to compared to ATF and VR? Because all the files seem to be covered by at least one of those mods. I bring it up just because if it's superfluous, then why not remove it? Also, with the WET mod, what are the FOMOD instructions you want?

@Gernash When you return, might want to consider swapping "Realistic Roads" with Hein84's new "Vivid Roads and Bridges". Not only does it include more than the first, but there have also been some LOD glitches reported and the mod author stated as recently as last month he's still trying to figure out the LOD issue. Up to you though, it's still a great mod either way.

No harm in trying. If Subtle ENB doesn't work, you might want to give Vogue a whirl. From what I've heard there's no performance loss with it. This isn't from personal experiences but from comments I've seen. @Darthf1 If you have a clean save (one with no mods or very few installed), can you disable all your settlement related mods and then attempt it? I'm still working on installing myself so you might have to wait for @Gernash to return.

I actually haven't had a chance to look at that mod. Pretty much I use True Storms instead. As to your question, if you are wanting to use an ENB with Vivid Weathers I'd recommend checking out the sticky post on the Vivid Weather page. That's because the author has listed three mods that are confirmed to be compatible with VW. I would copy and paste here, but better to go there as they are already linked.

@Gernash For the Ambient Occlusion, I'm changing the instructions for Bethini to have people disable that, but what I need to know is if it's automatically enabled with ENB or if it needs to be turned on.

@Darth not sure you saw, but you're using version 1.2 instead of 1.1 of FAR right? Reason I bring it up is there's an achived version out now that I just want to make sure you were aware of as it wasn't here prior to this version. Not sure when you went about installing as I fixed that in the wee hours of the morning. AS to the other stuff that needs updating, I'm working on that now (well after feeding the cats and taking care of my dementia-addled grandmother. Edit: Might want to check back later, as I'm going to be doing a fair amount as I'm going through the list myself. I'll leave all the updates annotated at the bottom under "Updates" for quicker reference.

@rhodsey I'm actually doing a full install myself which is why I'm going through and updating version notes and what not. As to the actual content of the guide, I know it's still a WIP but gernash is using it should so things should be fine. I'll know more once I'm actually able to get into the game myself. So yeah, giving a day wouldn't be a bad idea.

@rhodsey I can tell you right now why Functional Displays isn't in. @Gernash is working on overhauling the settlement section and trying to figure out what to keep or not. I have it in, but haven't had time to really test it.

Something to remember about Extended Weapons & Cut Weapons Mods Restored is that to my knowledge they serve different functions. Whereas Cut Weapon Mods Restored opens up cut mods for certain weapons, Extended Weapons take it a step forward as the author actually created custom meshes and textures to make it look more natural.

Yeah, Gernash and I are in the process up updating everything (coincidentally, which version of FAR did you end up using?) so that might of been the issue. Gernash seems to be on top of it. But since you brought it up, I'm curious how Extended Weapons Mod is working. I really enjoyed it what I got to use back when I originally played but haven't had a chance since it was updated. Any issues?

Done.