BSA and bodyslide mesh help

[IGotBored]

So I'm trying to edit my mesh with NifSkope but i couldn't find it so i thought that if i rebuild the body in Bodyslide ill find it. After building it showed to be in data/meshes folder but the only thing in there is for Morenastycritters. I noticed everything was packed in a bsa. I'm wondering if its safe to unpack the bsa to edit the mesh. Or should i Even bother unpacking Bethesda's bsa files because i use MO 

[myuhinny]

Do not unpack a BSA they are packed that way for a reason. 1 It'll eat up a shit ton of your computer space 2 you will have a harder time keeping those files from getting overwritten 3 loose files will override files inside a BSA as BSA's load first followed by the loose files. The only way to get a file out of a BSA is to extract it but I doubt that a person can alter a file inside a BSA without first extracting it from a BSA.

[IGotBored]

Do not unpack a BSA they are packed that way for a reason. 1 It'll eat up a shit ton of your computer space 2 you will have a harder time keeping those files from getting overwritten 3 loose files will override files inside a BSA as BSA's load first followed by the loose files. The only way to get a file out of a BSA is to extract it but I doubt that a person can alter a file inside a BSA without first extracting it from a BSA.

Then If i want to edit my character mesh how should i go about it?

[cleavagesweat]

i asked a similar question and got a different opinion and instructions on dealing with BSAs here on LL not too long ago. in regards to a follower mod that was operating totally off of a bsa. the advice i got was to unpack the bsa using bsaunpacker (google it) and then setting the unpacked folder aside (like on your desktop) and looking at the folders and where they are supposed to go in your data folder. then just copy paste it over and at that point you can remove the bsa from the data folder.

 

that's wut i was told and it actually worked for me. i wouldnt do that for the big BSAs tho like the skyrim, dlcs, Update.bsa but for smaller mods like follower mods i did it and it seems to be working for me. personally i don't like bsa files bc it prevents any alteration by the common user.

 

keep in mind that i don't know as much as myuhinny so consider that when making your decision.

 

btw, you can actually unpack bsa > edit the files > repack them using CK... if someone wanted to do that.

[Pauduan]

BSAOpt allows you to extract single files from a BSA (not all of them) and repack them back into the same destination. However the game will always prioritize a loose file in the correct path, over the BSA.

 

Which means if you have a mod that is completely packed in a BSA, simply placing a newly built body or head mesh in the correct file path will make the mod use that files (instead of the one in the BSA.

 

For example, if you have a mod that uses the internal path meshes\mymod, you can simply create a new 'mymod' folder in the meshes directory and place your new meshes there. And if it is the character face you are editing, all of those are placed in the facegeom and facetint folders.

 

The game processes loose files faster than BSAs, but they do eat up a lot of space. You'll have to figure out if that's worth it or not.

[cleavagesweat]

you can unpack, place the loose files in the correct folders and ditch the bsa forever if u wanted. some mod authors have warning about do this... quite honestly i think its more them trying to prevent ppl editing their mods and seeing wuts inside the secret sauce....

[IGotBored]

BSAOpt allows you to extract single files from a BSA (not all of them) and repack them back into the same destination. However the game will always prioritize a loose file in the correct path, over the BSA.

 

Which means if you have a mod that is completely packed in a BSA, simply placing a newly built body or head mesh in the correct file path will make the mod use that files (instead of the one in the BSA.

 

For example, if you have a mod that uses the internal path meshes\mymod, you can simply create a new 'mymod' folder in the meshes directory and place your new meshes there. And if it is the character face you are editing, all of those are placed in the facegeom and facetint folders.

 

The game processes loose files faster than BSAs, but they do eat up a lot of space. You'll have to figure out if that's worth it or not.

I think this is what im looking for cause all i want to do is edit the nif file for my character that bodyslide is creating 

[myuhinny]

You can also use FOMM (fall out mod manager ) or OBMM (oblivion mod manager) to extract files from a BSA file as they both have a BSA extractor built into them.

 

@cleavagesweat

 

Many people use BSA's so that it prevents their mods and files from getting overwritten or broken from other mods it can also cut down the size of the file.

 

[cleavagesweat]

You can also use FOMM (fall out mod manager ) or OBMM (oblivion mod manager) to extract files from a BSA file as they both have a BSA extractor built into them.

 

@cleavagesweat

 

Many people use BSA's so that it prevents their mods and files from getting overwritten or broken from other mods it can also cut down the size of the file.

which would lead to less ppl complaining about their mod being broken... ahhh i see.