Off the Wall crazy idea, make BSA2 file of Bodyslide Meshes output foler..

[Gameplayer]

So given that a massive amount of mods in Fallout 4, especially clothing mods come unpacked that is these are not packed in BSA2 file format,

I thought I might try to pack up some things into BSA2 format.

 

What I have managed so far and works quite well is to pack Textures for mods such as Vtaw 6 and Vtaw 7, the V6 has 13.6 Gigs of textures unpacked if you download its optional texture file.  V7 is about 7 gigs.

Using Cathedral Optimizer was able to quickly pack it up for me and give dummy esp's, tested that in game worked great.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23316?tab=posts

 

Next I thought well I might try packing my whole Bodyslide Meshes Folder, weighing in at almost 4 Gigs of just meshes...

Of course I forgot one thing....

Loose Files always beat BSA2 format files >< ouch.

 

I'm putting this together on MO2, but from what I have seen Vortex user could probably do the same thing since Vortex is basically a copy cat of MO.

 

The point...Well the point of all this is to enhance the speed of the game both in load screens and when fetching well any needed mesh or texture during gameplay, now this might not matter on newer machines Fallout 4 came out what 2015 Nov, but if you are on a machine prior to that date well every extra bit helps in a modded enviroment and that was what BSA was meant for in the first place to make it so that the game ran well on the consol machines.

 

As an aside it also freed up an enormous amount of hard drive space given the mods that I have installed by several gigs so far and I have only packed a few of the mods, I've upwards of around 100 more to go.

 

Soo I am thinking to properly pack up Bodyslide Files, I am going to need to remove by hand every single loose file that is an outfit part....Or maybe easier just dump all the mod clothing parts into a single folder and then overwrite that with the Bodyslide files and then pack that.

BUT wait I need a Dummy ESP?

Fo4edit, make a Merge File with only Fallout.ESM loaded...Save then drop out of program.

Drag the Newly empty dummy file over to the final product folder.

How to pack the Bodyslide files?

I'm using the Archive2 program you get free when you download the CreationKit from Steam.

 

So 4Gigs worth of Bodyslide files becomes about 2.7gigs, 

 

 

Your thoughts, comments, and I've done that alreadies here's how you do this right newb all welcome.

 

[steelpanther24]

From some of the remote troubleshooting I have done in the Tech support areas, what you are doing will help out a number of people...if......it is easy to install.   Inflation, coupled with chip shortages have forced many gamers to hold off on upgrades.   

 

I don't think anyone has done that before, esp with all of the VTAW mods.   In fact, I would use those mods if they weren't so damn heavy.   As for your technical questions, you are out of my depth, but I am interested in what you are doing.

 

The game, being as old as it is, is starting to "fracture" in that mod paths are increasingly becoming incompatible with other mod paths, especially with gun mods and body mods.   That said, I think you are taking on a pretty big task. 

[Gameplayer]

13 hours ago, steelpanther24 said:

From some of the remote troubleshooting I have done in the Tech support areas, what you are doing will help out a number of people...if......it is easy to install.   Inflation, coupled with chip shortages have forced many gamers to hold off on upgrades.   

 

I don't think anyone has done that before, esp with all of the VTAW mods.   In fact, I would use those mods if they weren't so damn heavy.   As for your technical questions, you are out of my depth, but I am interested in what you are doing.

 

The game, being as old as it is, is starting to "fracture" in that mod paths are increasingly becoming incompatible with other mod paths, especially with gun mods and body mods.   That said, I think you are taking on a pretty big task. 

 

My next tip I will do a write up on,

Checking the 

VideoMemorySizeMb=.......

In the ENBlocal file, turns out when I downloaded a Preset it was set at 4096.....I have 6VRAM, so the setting handicapped me ><, literally downthrottled my VRAM usage by having it set lower than what I had.

I also learned this number can include "graphics memory" that is not VRAM, it can use your RAM to assist here....So any free RAM not used up in background can be put into the total count.

Now I figured out I could have something like 18,000 set there, but upon playing the game itself well it was having blurred textures, so I set it to 12,000 and blam way better smoothness and more consistent FPS in the 55+ range mostly staying pretty solid in many easier area's of the game at 59-61 range.

 

I also have an old machine, so I did check the pricing on RAM, may do a write up on how to get started on looking for RAM, dont know...Not sure a buddy was telling me I was nuts cause spending 40 dollars to outfit the missing Slots with RAM was a bad idea cause I should just spend 3 grand on a new machine >< was all like buddy give me what you are smoking I needs it.

 

Anyway, yes I am getting much better performance out of my game with my machine, but its been from many tweaks across a lot of things mostly dealing with how my game and machine are budgetting the RAMs usage.

[steelpanther24]

I speak from experience on this point:  Foundational analysis is rarely hailed as great work, sort of like Fourier transforms were seen by me as a mathematician's revenge on Electrical Engineers, until many years later, they are extremely helpful in my work.   While I doubt the work you are doing will have that impact, the efficiencies you are coming up with should be shared at larger mod gaming sites, though if  you want to keep it here at LL, I won't complain.  

 

I hope to use your developments once they are ready.