Cleaned Skyrim SE Textures (by Kartoffels)

[TechAngel85]

The author of Cathedral Asset Optimizer has confirmed there is a 2GB limit. So, yes, the multiple BSAs and plugins are going to be necessary.

@DoubleYou
What are you using to archive? I used BSArch, which results in a 7GB archive. If there is a limit, you'd think it'd split it up. CAO does this splitting and plugin names automatically.

[DoubleYou]

Official SSE Creation Kit Archive.exe. Use Compress Archive, and Embed File Names options to mimic Bethesda texture archive settings. Honestly, I haven't made too many archives. I've read that BSAOpt can compress smaller, but it is also really old.

 

Looking at BSArch (never heard of it before), it probably is better, since Zilav made it (respect!). We can automate it too with a batch file if necessary.

 

By deleting all the landscape\trees, landscape\grass, landscape\plant, and plant textures, my archives are probably overly aggressively smaller than otherwise.

[TechAngel85]

The author is hoping to have an update out today. They are also incorporating USSEP, so it can be loaded directed after it and still have all the fixes.

[Greg]

The author is hoping to have an update out today. They are also incorporating USSEP, so it can be loaded directed after it and still have all the fixes.

That will certainly ease the load order pain of this mod since I think this mod is ESP/ESL flagged and USSEP is ESP/ESM flagged.

[TechAngel85]

That will certainly ease the load order pain of this mod since I think this mod is ESP/ESL flagged and USSEP is ESP/ESM flagged.

I've recommended to the author they use both ESL/ESM flags for the next release. That should solve most sorting issues. Beyond that, LOOT team will need to add new rules.

[z929669]

@DY

I responded to your post on the Nexus. The only part of the naming convention that I don't recall is the convention of using the space-dash-spce (or if it's really just the dash that matters) and the name of the prefix, so:

 

modName.esx loads these BSAs:

• modName.bsa
• modName - *.bsa
• modName-*.bsa          (???)
• modNameBlah - *.bsa  (???)

The last one would imply that "f.esx" loads any "f* - *.bsa", which seems ... yuck.

[Greg]

I was curious about this so renamed the BSAs to kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures0.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa. I then ran the game with ProcMon monitoring on a second window. When I exited the game, I see clear evidence that the game is loading assets from kart_CSSET.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, but still nothing other than QueryDirectory on kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures2.bsa.

 

I also tried kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures0.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures2.bsa. This time the game is using assets from kart_CSSET.bsa. One interesting point is that I see an explicit QueryOpen for kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa that returns File Not Found, so this seems to indicate the game is expecting to find "kart_CSSET.bsa" and "kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa".

 

I then tried renaming the files to kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, kart_CSSET - Animations.bsa and kart_CSSET - Meshes.bsa, but the game is still reading assets from kart_CSSET.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa.

 

I finally looked at the strings in SkyrimSE.exe to see if anything obvious stands out and a little over half way through the file I see ".bsa\0\0\0 - Textures.bsa\0". This is the only instance of " - Textures" i can find other than a list of the BSA files included with the game (e.g. "Skyrim - Animations.bsa", "Skyrim - Misc.bsa", etc.). This is by no means conclusive, but so far it looks as if the game loads only "name.bsa" and "name - Textures.bsa" for a plugin named "name.esp" (and I assume "name.esm").

[DoubleYou]

@Z

I will reply to your post on the Nexus, and here.

 

Two quotes:

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7989518-clarification-needed-rebsas/&do=findComment&comment=73403068

 

I'm not sure about the size limit, but it's probably still true. The second part about naming is definitely false. That doesn't work with any version of Skyrim. The only two BSA names that the game recognizes are "mymod.bsa" and "mymod - Textures.bsa".  You should be packing everything except textures (including scripts) into the main bsa file and it should not be compressed. The textures are separate because they can and should be compressed.  And yes, with with SSE you could create a series of empty ESL mods so they don't take up a critical slot in your load order.

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6494541-bsarch/page-11&do=findComment&comment=69648786

 

SSE loads two archives for each plugin:

PluginName.bsa

PluginName - Textures.bsa

 

Even though the second one is named "textures", it can contain any assets. This is just an internal hardcoded naming convention in the SSE engine. So split mod assets into two sets each under 2GB and pack them into these BSAs. Also make sure to compress archives with -z parameter if they contain only textures and nothing else since Beth introduced a new bug in SSE.

So no, your dreams of loading all kinds of BSAs from one plugin is not going to work. Besides, there is no reason too. The limit of ESLified plugins is 2048!

[DoubleYou]

I was curious about this so renamed the BSAs to kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures0.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa. I then ran the game with ProcMon monitoring on a second window. When I exited the game, I see clear evidence that the game is loading assets from kart_CSSET.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, but still nothing other than QueryDirectory on kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures2.bsa.

 

I also tried kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures0.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures1.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures2.bsa. This time the game is using assets from kart_CSSET.bsa. One interesting point is that I see an explicit QueryOpen for kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa that returns File Not Found, so this seems to indicate the game is expecting to find "kart_CSSET.bsa" and "kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa".

 

I then tried renaming the files to kart_CSSET.bsa, kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa, kart_CSSET - Animations.bsa and kart_CSSET - Meshes.bsa, but the game is still reading assets from kart_CSSET.bsa and kart_CSSET - Textures.bsa.

 

I finally looked at the strings in SkyrimSE.exe to see if anything obvious stands out and a little over half way through the file I see ".bsa\0\0\0 - Textures.bsa\0". This is the only instance of " - Textures" i can find other than a list of the BSA files included with the game (e.g. "Skyrim - Animations.bsa", "Skyrim - Misc.bsa", etc.). This is by no means conclusive, but so far it looks as if the game loads only "name.bsa" and "name - Textures.bsa" for a plugin named "name.esp" (and I assume "name.esm").

The list of BSAs you found in the EXE is probably the default setting for sResourceArchiveList: Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa. This default value is bugged, as it doesn't load all the correct BSAs unless explicitly called out in the INI files (which is why everyone has sResourceArchiveList and sResourceArchiveList2 in their Skyrim.ini... remove it and watch the game crash!).

[z929669]

@Z

I will reply to your post on the Nexus, and here.

 

Two quotes:

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7989518-clarification-needed-rebsas/&do=findComment&comment=73403068

 

 

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6494541-bsarch/page-11&do=findComment&comment=69648786

 

 

So no, your dreams of loading all kinds of BSAs from one plugin is not going to work. Besides, there is no reason too. The limit of ESLified plugins is 2048!

Huh? If it's size limited, you need to pack/load multiple BSAs.

 

Not sure how this mod should be installed, given the plugins. Probably won't work with most mod managers, but MO seems to be loading the extra BSAs:

 

 

EDIT: So I suppose you are saying that multiple 'blank' ESL plugins need to be created corresponding to ...

• kart_CSSET
• kart_CSSET0
• kart_CSSET01

What a mess. I don't recall that it was ever that way previously, but whatever. I don't think the mod author understands how to configure it, so hope he gets some help.

[DoubleYou]

Latest version of the mod fixes the plugin bsa problem, so we should be good now.

[z929669]

Awesome. Does anyone know if the load order the MA posted is accurate now (i.e., did he forward USSEP texture fixes into his mod?)?

 

EDIT: LOOT sorts as I would expect with these plugins below USSEP plugin, and since it is now plugin based, MO priority seems functionally unimportant.

[DoubleYou]

It shouldn't matter if you put it above or below USSEP I should think, just so long as it is above everything else that adds textures via BSAs.

[DarkladyLexy]

this now comes with a direct overwrite to the vanilla and USSEP BSAs no need for plugins:

 

Skyrim - Textures0.bsa (648.4 MB)

Skyrim - Textures1.bsa (1.3 GB)

Skyrim - Textures2.bsa (1.6 GB)

Skyrim - Textures3.bsa (1.6 GB)

Skyrim - Textures4.bsa (1.7 GB)

Skyrim - Textures5.bsa (291.1 MB)

Skyrim - Textures6.bsa (186.1 MB)

Skyrim - Textures7.bsa (947.0 MB)

Skyrim - Textures8.bsa (41.3 MB)

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch - Textures.bsa (146.1 MB)

 

Serious question is not repacking them to Skyrim - Textures0.bsa etc not in violation of the EULA?

plus having it opted-in to receive Donation Pounts?

[DoubleYou]

I don't think the Creation Kit was used in the creation of this mod, so would the eula even apply?

 

At any rate, obviously direct replacement BSAs with the same names as the default will eliminate the need for plugins, which is a plus, but opens you up to the possibility of a texture not being able to load if it is somehow missing.