Mator

Don't merge plugins that are required by other plugins as masters.  This is a fundamental rule of merging.

You don't need to keep the ESPs you merged active or installed.  I'd recommend keeping them available to some extent so you can reactivate them when you need to rebuild your merge, but you certainly don't need to include them in the merged mod archive.

Extract the BA2s associated with the mods you merged.

Why do you want to patch as you play?  Generally speaking, it's bad to make any modifications to your ESPs/load order and load older saves.  With conflict resolution patching it's certainly less likely to end up with a change that's detrimental to your save games, but it could happen.  Unless you have a very good reason to not do all your patching up front before you start your playthrough, you should just get it all out of the way to start.

Also, I'll plug my own application, Mator Smash, which performs better/more complete conflict resolution than all other available solutions.

The main thing you'll run into when using large textures with a top of the line graphics card is VRAM limitations.  If you're on Windows 8 or 10, there's a 4GB VRAM limitation due to DirectX9, assuming you're playing Skyrim Classic.  Else the limit will be the VRAM on your card, which is probably 6GB I'd guess?  If so, you're unlikely to reach it unless you're trying to.

To my knowledge: no, of course not.
 
BSAs are not ESPs/ESMs.  They are loaded and processed by an entirely different mechanism.  I haven't tested, but I've never heard of there being a limit on BSA files.

To my knowledge: no, of course not.
 
BSAs are not ESPs/ESMs.  They are loaded and processed by an entirely different mechanism.  I haven't tested, but I've never heard of there being a limit on BSA files.

Haven't you been linked this before?
 
 
Also see Mod Picker Plugin Errors Help Page

The only reason you need to build references is if you need to access the "Referenced by" tab on a record (which tells you which records reference that record), OR you are going to run a script which needs to access that tab.  Conflict resolution generally does not require this.

You need to activate the masters for the plugins.  Skyrim.esm, Update.esm, and the DLC if relevant.  They should be red at the top of the list.

For all of you game and mod folders, and the merge plugins folder, do the following:
 
1. Take ownership of the folder and all files in it.
2. Unset read only on the folder and all files in it.
 
 
Other things you can try:
 
1. If you have an antivirus or firewall active (you do, trust me) try disabling it/making exceptions for Merge Plugins.  Avast and Windows Defender have both been known to interfere with Merge Plugins functionality.
2. Try running Merge Plugins outside MO as an administrator.
3. Verify you have ALL of the files from the Merge Plugins archive in its installation folder.  Missing the hardcoded dat file would be bad.

it's also italicized.

Hi Millet.
 
There are a few things in your script that would cause obvious slowdowns:
1. AddMessage will always be a slowdown when used.  It forces a callback to the main application to update the GUI, which is slow.  To avoid this issue you have a few options:
- Don't log messages at all
- Use a form with its own TMemo component.  This will be marginally faster if the TMemo is shown, and much faster if it is hidden (see Merge Plugins or Mator Smash for an example of what I mean)
 
2. The Process(e: IInterface) function is going to process more records than you're actually interested in.  As you yourself have stated in your code, you're only interested in records with signatures matching 'ACTI', 'CONT', 'FLOR', or 'FURN'.  Instead of using the Process function to go through ALL the records the user selected (which is going to be slow), you can use element traversal in your finalize function to get to the EXACT records you want to process.  You can still use the Process function to get the files the user selected.
 
Pastebin for syntax highlighting: https://pastebin.com/wgQM5RaJ
 
 
 
 
Also, only ACTI and FLOR records have RNAM elements, so you don't need to process CONT or FURN.
 
I applied this script to Skyrim.esm and it completed:
[Apply Script done]  Processed Records: 1, Elapsed Time: 00:37
 
 
-Mator
 
EDIT: Applied to a full load order of 154 mods and it completed in 1:54.  Got some errors on certain FormIDs probably due to master issues.  Will see if I can figure out a fix.
EDIT 2: Fix applied.  I stand by never using AddRequiredElementMasters in my scripts.  The way I just implemented is clearly better because it doesn't cause FormID mapping errors.  It's also faster.  With the version of the script above I processed a full load order of 153 mods, including all bethesda files and DLC in 00:50.  Would be even faster if I omitted the AddMessage() calls or used a progress form instead.
EDIT 3: Final version of the script which doesn't process CONT/FURN because they don't have RNAM elements:
https://pastebin.com/wgQM5RaJ