BSAs vs Loose Files

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I know this has probably been answered before but I believe the answer might have been changed a few times. 

 

My questions is...

 

Should I be converting all BSA files into Loose Files? Including Guard Dialogue Overhaul, Unofficial Skyrim Patch, Unofficial Dragonborn Patch, etc.?

[Garfink]

Yes, all mine are made loose when installing via mod organizer.

 

 

Garfink Skyrim Junkie Anonymous.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Yes, all mine are made loose when installing via mod organizer.

 

 

Garfink Skyrim Junkie Anonymous.

I can delete the .esp after converting it, right? For every mod I convert from BSA to Loose files?

[Garfink]

No, most (almost all) mods still need the ESP. Only with the Bethesda HD texture pack are you instructed to delete the esp.

 

 

Garfink Skyrim Junkie Anonymous.

[EssArrBee]

No you can't this will cause major problems. On mods that are purely replacers packed into a bsa can go without an esp after unpacking. If you try this with something like the USKP you will have a really bad time.

[Kelmych]

Extracting BSAs into loose files is the safest way to proceed. The issue is overwriting of vanilla resources. With a mix of loose files and BSAs you might not get the overwrites correct when installing. For example, if you optimize the vanilla textures and put them into archive files, then you need to use loose files for all the Unofficial Patch files since they overwrite some of the vanilla textures.

 

If a mod has a BSA with no vanilla resources, with only resources that are used exclusively by the mod, and you are not optimizing any textures from the mod then leaving the BSA is fine. But you would need to check whether this is true. Guard Dialog Overhaul overwrites 2 vanilla scripts. If no other mod touches these then you could leave the BSA, but you have no way of knowing whether this has happened.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Ok thanks for the info everyone. I am just going to convert all BSAs to Loose Files.

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Please mark as solved!