Question regarding plugin limit

[NotRGBJackal]

Hello, I was installing some mods and I found that my active plugins are about to go over 255, which is the plugin limit as far as I know. If I hover my mouse over it in MO2, it says I have 169 active ESM+ESP, and 85 ESLs. Does the plugin limit apply only to ESM/ESP, or are the ESLs included in the limit?

[travelmedic]

ESLs have a separate limit and are not counted in the 255 limit.  I want to say the ESL limit is about 4000, but I can't swear to that.  It's very high, anyways.

 

You may run into the BA2 limit though.  That limit can be different for every load order, but people start hitting it with about 440 archives.  Not every mod has a BA2, but some mods have multiple BA2s.

[sila]

ESLs have some restrictions to them that prevent some mods from using it, but a lot of mods work just fine as one and as mentioned above that does not count towards the 255 esp limit.

 

You only need to worry about the ESM+ESP number.

[NotRGBJackal]

18 minutes ago, travelmedic said:

ESLs have a separate limit and are not counted in the 255 limit.  I want to say the ESL limit is about 4000, but I can't swear to that.  It's very high, anyways.

 

You may run into the BA2 limit though.  That limit can be different for every load order, but people start hitting it with about 440 archives.  Not every mod has a BA2, but some mods have multiple BA2s.

Never heard of the BA2 filetype. How do I check how many I have?

[bnub345]

Vanilla SSE has a limit of 256 plugins (255 since you have to use Skyrim.esm) and 256 esl (255 since FF is reserved for engine generated refs/saves). With the Engine fixes mod, it doubles the file limit to 1024, which is 256 plugins + 718 esl. 

As a 64-bit game, SSE can in theory handle 4096 files, but there are tech limitations that prevent this. 

[Gameplayer]

You might try Merge Plug Ins.

 

Its a bit of a bear, had to watch the video's a few times to do them for Fallout 4.

Mostly best used on Armor Mods.

[travelmedic]

1 hour ago, NotRGBJackal said:

Never heard of the BA2 filetype. How do I check how many I have?

 

That may possibly be my mistake, I thought this was a Fallout 4 thread.  Not sure if SSE uses BA2, or still uses BSA.

 

Anyway, BA2 and BSA are archives that may be associated with your esm/esp/esl files.  Not every esm/esp/esl has them, but some will have multiple.  The BA2/BSA archives may contain stuff like meshes and textures, or voice and sound files, or things of that nature.  They're not necessary, mod authors also have the option to just use "loose files" that will go directly to your existing meshes/textures/sounds folders instead.

 

For example, a simple patch between two other mods might not have any meshes or textures or sounds, and thus won't require an archive at all, just the esm/esp/esl.  Another mod that adds a new sword may only have a small amount of meshes and textures could be packed up in an archive, but the mod author may not bother and just publish loose files.  A large quest mod with lots of meshes/textures/custom dialogue is probably better packed into an archive.

 

From my understanding, the BA2/BSA archive files load up in your game more efficiently than loose files, but in FO4 at least there is a limit that will vary from load order to load order.  Not sure if SSE has that issue, but it may.

Edited September 21, 2023 by travelmedic

[Demonwolf218]

 

5 hours ago, travelmedic said:

ESLs have a separate limit and are not counted in the 255 limit.  I want to say the ESL limit is about 4000, but I can't swear to that.  It's very high, anyways.

 

You may run into the BA2 limit though.  That limit can be different for every load order, but people start hitting it with about 440 archives.  Not every mod has a BA2, but some mods have multiple BA2s.

 

3 hours ago, travelmedic said:

 

That may possibly be my mistake, I thought this was a Fallout 4 thread.  Not sure if SSE uses BA2, or still uses BSA.

 

Anyway, BA2 and BSA are archives that may be associated with your esm/esp/esl files.  Not every esm/esp/esl has them, but some will have multiple.  The BA2/BSA archives may contain stuff like meshes and textures, or voice and sound files, or things of that nature.  They're not necessary, mod authors also have the option to just use "loose files" that will go directly to your existing meshes/textures/sounds folders instead.

 

For example, a simple patch between two other mods might not have any meshes or textures or sounds, and thus won't require an archive at all, just the esm/esp/esl.  Another mod that adds a new sword may only have a small amount of meshes and textures could be packed up in an archive, but the mod author may not bother and just publish loose files.  A large quest mod with lots of meshes/textures/custom dialogue is probably better packed into an archive.

 

From my understanding, the BA2/BSA archive files load up in your game more efficiently than loose files, but in FO4 at least there is a limit that will vary from load order to load order.  Not sure if SSE has that issue, but it may.

 

 

You can bypass the BSA limit by installing "Engine Fixes". Just change the setting for MAXstudio to 8000. By default the game can only handle 2000 plugins that it has to load (ESP+ESM+ESL+BSA). All of them count towards this limit.

This is why people have the misconception that the game become randomly unstable about 1500-1700 ESPs. This because if you have 1700 ESPs and 301 BSAs the game will start acting up. These issues can be completely random and inconsistent. Dialog options won't appear, the ground won't load, the whole world is underwater, NPCs won't fight, quests won't work, or the game won't even launch. 

If you plan on having a large load order you must know what ESPs to flag as Masters.