Disk access after decompress bsa

[Arhakis]

Hi all

 

 

I just re-installed Skyrim and all the STEP Mods.

This time, to do this, I decompressed all the BSA files, originals (except Voices.bsa) and of all the mods.

I used BOSS and WryeBash. No conflict, no problem ...

 

But now, I have multiple disk access. For example, Frequent but short when I'm walking...

Slowness too : when I'm crafting a potion or selling an item, I must wait sometimes 10-15 second before realize it, in the inventory, the picture of the items appear always after some seconds......

One times, I killed a wolf and I heard his howl after his dead !!!

All is slow in fact !

 

I don't understand. Before this installation, I didn't decompressed the bsa (I was wrong, I know) and I never had these problems. I thought that decompress all the bsa files increase the perfomances in the game

maybe, something wrong in my installation ....

 

Can you confirm that the decompressions of all the bsa files are necessary ?.

[torminater]

Nobody ever said that decompression of any bsa is necessary...

It seems to me that your experiment has gone wrong. Which utilities did you use at which settings did you implement?

[Arhakis]

Sometimes I've some difficulties to understand english lol ... But

I read in the STEP Guide :

"To achieve the best results, “Loose files†(non-BSA) versions of mods should be used. If a "loose files" version is not available, extract the BSA .....":

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:BSA_Extraction_and_Optimization#tab=Unpacking_BSAs

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:BSA_Extraction_and_Optimization#tab=Optimizing_Vanilla_BSAs

 

I seen also that the BSA have priority over loose files... Is it correct ? I think, in this case, that the original BSA must be extacted to not overwrite the loose mod files .... I'm wrong ?

 

But maybe extract also the original files is not the better way to install STEP ;)

 

It's difficult to understand all the installation of STEP, many thing to do and all in english, What do u advise in some words ?

[Morphello]

If you read through everything in the guide, it actually says "Loose files are best for general mods and the textures where as we're currently recommending you keep the DLC (dawnguard, hearthfire and dragonborn) in BSA" - Not a direct quote.

 

That said, this occurred frequently on my partner's pc and the solution was a good defrag. Unnecessary for ssd's, yet still a pain for hard drives. I wrote up a quick little guide on how to get a solid defrag for just your Skyrim directory using MyDefrag:

 

Additionally and finally, something that most people ignore. If you're installing STEP from a hard drive, especially with Mod Organiser, you need to defrag it properly. My suggestion is to make the downloads folder in mod organiser a different directory (preferably different hard drive) and then defrag the Skyrim folder perfectly. One of the best ways to guarantee a perfect Defrag for your game directory is to download MyDefrag v4.3.1. It's just a little program with scripting that allows full control over the windows defrag engine.

Title('MyDefrag Game Optimizer')

RunScript('Settings.MyD')

VolumeSelect
    Name("D:")
VolumeActions

  ReclaimNtfsReservedAreas()

    # Lay MFT and other crap NTFS spews out
  FileSelect
    SelectNtfsSystemFiles(yes)
  FileActions
    PlaceNtfsSystemFiles(Ascending,MftSize * 0.1)
    AddGap(RoundUp(ZoneEnd,20MB))
  FileEnd

    # Fix the Directories
  FileSelect
    Directory(yes)
  FileActions
    SortByName(Ascending)
    AddGap(RoundUp(ZoneEnd,100MB))
  FileEnd

    # Defrag Fraps, Move to the start of the drive, in order of folder hierarchy
  FileSelect
    FullPath("D:\Fraps\*","*")
  FileActions
   SortBySize(Ascending)
  FileEnd

    # FUS RUH DOH
  FileSelect
    FullPath("D:\Steam\*","*")
  FileActions
   SortBySize(Ascending)
   AddGap(RoundUp(ZoneEnd,15000MB))
  FileEnd

    # Everything Else with quick defrag
  FileSelect
    all
  FileActions
    Defragment(Fast)
    FastFill()
  FileEnd

VolumeEnd

Some basic code I use on my partner's PC, should be simple enough to understand. This of course, is implying you still have a hard drive. If you've moved over to an SSD, there are various guides for windows to speeding it up and making sure it works properly. One of the biggest things you should note is that SSD's some space free in order to perform swap appropriately. You might also have TRIM deactivated or haven't had any Garbage Collection for a while, also a reason to cause slowdowns (slow texture loads from the drive).

 

Address these issues first, then come back if the problem still persists.

[Arhakis]

I defrag always with Mydefrag. And the game are on a separate HD. I work on another disk.

 

In fact, if I undertand that you say and this post

https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=2098

I must keep all the original BSA files and extract to loose files the different mods ...

[Arhakis]

Hello

 

I need some advises (again). It's difficult for me to follow all the advises in the guide

This time I installed like this :

- Conversion of the HRDLC BSAs to loose files (improving access times) Like I read here

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Installation#tab=HRDLC

- Repaired them with the batch like here

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#Repair_the_HRDLC_Textures

(Some files have been removed)

- Copied all these textures HRDLC (as loose files) in the skyrim data folder for better performances ...

- Removed their BSA and ESP (Useless I think because their loose files are in the data folder. but I'm not sure ....)

- Installed all STEP addons as loose files.

- Wrye bash and BOSS ok

 

I'm right ?

 

The game is more fluid but i've always some disk access. I had a "back to windows" without message one time ......

 

Sorry for my problems and thank you for your help !

[Morphello]

The way I have everything setup that works really solidly at the moment is thus:

 

* Extract the 4 texture BSA's (HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa, HighResTexturePack03.bsa and Skyrim - Textures.bsa).

* Follow these instructions.

* Optimize these 4 folders with DDSopt by following the guide (make sure to exclude the PNG's).

* Zip each folder and drop them into the Mod Organiser downloads folder

* Extract Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa and HearthFires.bsa

* Optimize them with DDSopt by following the guide and save them as BSA's (click the browse button down the bottom of DDSopt, select BSA file and type out the correct name. Make sure to save to a a working folder so you don't overwrite the originals)

* Optimize the following 6 BSA's: Animations, Interface, Meshes, Misc, Shaders, VoicesExtra

* Replace your original BSA's with the optimized BSA's

* Use Mod Organizer to install the zip files you created of the Standard Textures, HRTP1, HRTP2 and HRTP3.

 

Your Skyrim Directory should look like this:

 

 

Your first 4 mods in MO should look like this:

 

 

After this point you start installing the STEP mods. Get Mod Organizer to automatically decompress BSA's and keep everything from this point on as loose files. Complete the STEP install, run your MyDefrag script, and run the game. Disc loading should be at a minimum, stuttering should be reduced and you should have quicker load times.

 

If you're still experiencing stuttering and crashes at this point, and you've followed everything closely, you need to check how much VRAM you're using. Read section 1.D in STEP in regards to performance benchmarking, download GPU-Z and start logging your VRAM. If your game is constantly at its VRAM limit, it'll cause stuttering on turning around, and crashes periodically (especially when close to 3.1gb total ram use).

 

Optimize the remaining mods in STEP. You don't have to optimize the HRDLC Optimized (because they already are!). There's a huge updated list of what you can do to improve performance. Check your VRAM again. If you still need a little more VRAM, look at note 6 under this section of the guide. You can reduce the normals to half their resolution using DDSopt and gain back quite a bit of VRAM for a very small reduction in quality. If you're still hitting your limit, consider removing the HRDLC or reducing to the 1024 only HRDLC.

 

Hopefully that's clear enough for you :D

[Arhakis]

Yes, it's clear ;) But the guide is very complicated to understand for a non english people

just : What do you mean by "Zip each folder", with what tool ?

And you extract Skyrim - Textures.bsa too ??? But it not appear in the batch file...

 

Before, I installed STEP without optimizations .... I had better result, never a crash, never stuttering .... lol I don't understand. .....

[Morphello]

Ah I understand. The tool I use to "zip", to compress each folder is 7zip. All i'm doing is compressing them slightly, and putting them into one package (Standard textures.zip, HRDLC1.zip, etc) so that i can drop those files in the Mod Organizer downloads directory. After that, i can use Mod Organizer to install them.

 

There aren't any problems with Skyrim - Textures.bsa that the batch file will fix. I extract them to optimize them with DDSopt.

 

In the end you're extracting 7 BSA files (Skyrim - Textures.bsa, HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa, HighResTexturePack03.bsa, Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa and HearthFires.bsa).

 

You optimize each of those, but only save 3 as BSA's again (Dawnguard.bsa, Dragonborn.bsa and HearthFires.bsa).

 

You're also optimizing 6 more BSAs (Animations, Interface, Meshes, Misc, Shaders, VoicesExtra) but they don't need to be extracted (using BSAopt).

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=Performance_Comparisons

 

The reason we optimize is listed in the link above, we're saving at any given time 20-30mb of VRAM just by recompressing the game slightly. Additionally, loading time is significantly reduced.

 

If you compared Vanilla Skyrim HRDLC with the Optimized HRDLC by Vano89 + vanilla normals + optimizations, you can save up to 25% of your VRAM with very low loss of quality.

[Arhakis]

Thank you for all ..... I've to work now

[Arhakis]

Hello It's me again

 

After re install as said in the guide, FPS are around 60 (with FPS_LIMTER), stuttering and disk access have  almost disappeared. Except in one case, when I'm in my inventory, some objects don't  displayed immediatly, often pieces of armor.

 

For example, I'm in the inventory, I click on an armor. No image appear. I must click on another item and go back on the armor to see his image.

It's like if the game search the texture of the object

 

Maybe a problem with one of the mods in step

 

Someone has this problem ?