Fallout 4's original mod cap with raw ESPs the limit was 256, but thanks to ESL's and ESL flagging that cap is now over 2000 files. The new limit becomes the BA2 resource files, which is roughly 400-500. If you are running under 400 mods merging is not required. Instructions are on the description page and also in the readme.
WARNING! If you update and/or change out mods that you have repackaged/merged the BA2s for, you will have to delete old merges and repack them from scratch. This tool will NOT track any kind of mod changes. So please take your time and be careful in what you merge and how you manage it. If you are doing massive BA reorganization, I strongly recommend to keep a text doc or spreadsheet to track what is where. V1.1 I added robust logging to help but will not track whatever you rename your new BA2 file.
Great video showing using the actually same tool via the gui interface Go to timestamp 9 minutes or 540 seconds.
Probably a dumb ADHD fueled question inbound. The instructions say to COPY the .ba2 files into the input folder. Then after creating the new .BA2, it just says to rename the new .BA2. So.... Do I leave all of the original .BA2 files in the data folder, and leave the newly created .BA2 files in the output folder? I feel like I should be replacing all of the .BA2 files I put in the input folder with the ones I have in the output folder, but I can not find anything in the description or the posts section that says to do that. Is it really as easy as it sounds and I'm just trying to read way to far into it? I mean, I installed the program through Vortex, and it says it's being managed by Vortex, so there very well may be some coding going on to make it work. I don't know. It's all sorcery and magic to me.
Regardless of my little "WTF DO I DO NOW?!?!" moment, this really couldn't be simpler to use. I thank you for providing us with this tool.
If ANYBODY is as computer smart as I am, and you are totally on the fence about trying this.... Do it. It's stupid simple. I wasn't sure about some files in my data folder because they had .ESMs and .ESPs for the same mod, and a few other reasons. So I ONLY did this with files that I knew were .ESP and left everything else alone. In about 10 minutes, I had converted 196 .BA2 files into 2. Awesome.
Personally, I leave a copy of the (unmerged) ba2 files in a separate folder as a safety precaution. Even restricting your merges to same type such as the Vtaw Fashions, you can make a very deep dent indeed.
We'll use all the creation club content main or texture ba2s as an example (you'll really want to do both since these are so bloated)
Gather the texture (or the main) ba2s together - put them in the texture (or main) input folder and then merge them as you're instructed - then, just pick the highest ranking esl in your load order (for me, it's ccbgsfo4002-pipboy(blue).esl) and name the resulting texture (or main) ba2 after THAT ESL
Every other texture from every other creation club dlc should load from that one texture (or main) ba2
I have one question, i was merging the cc contents and I couldn't get it to work. Do i have keep all the .esl files in data folder or the only one i took and remaned the main and texture files to. because If I keep all the esl files the game crashes on startup and if keep only one then showing all the files are missing in game.
You probably included the updated version of the cc
I.E. the pipboy Camo(02), pipboy(Black), Halloween, Grenade and Remnants cc - sort by date, they're recent and should correspond to the Fallout 4 update
You can't use this tool to merge them - they won't work with it
You can merge everything else
Also, you'll want to do BOTH the main ba2 AND the textures ba2 - and you'll also need to leave the esls where they are
When merging Creation Club mods, including the required mods, you must leave the "Strings" folders loose, or the mods won't work properly. (1) Unpack each mod and then repack it, leaving the "Strings" folder loose; (2) Merge the "Main" BA2s and "Texture" BA2s"; (3) Rename the Main and Textures BA2s according to the convention: "EnclaveRemnants - Main" and "EnclaveRemnants - Textures"; and then (4) Create a mod that includes the Main and Textures BA2s, the combined Strings folder, and ALL of the ESLs (or dump those files in the Data folder).
This is perhaps just a general question about archives.
Is it bad to have one huge 20gb texture.ba2? Is it best to split them into smaller sizes? If so what is recommended and how could you do that?
I have a lot standalone texture and mesh replacers (4K) so was just curious. I currently have em all in one huge mod instead of splitting them in any way since all of them just need a dummy plugin and don't need anything else to work.
[Updated, with apologies to FlyingWhale] It is possible to merge (only) Textures into the game's original BA2s using BiRaitBec WorkBase Imroved. In addition, POET/The Sound of Snow's Optimization Guides Collection 2 includes an addon for WBI that make it possible to merge in Meshes and Materials. The process is automated, and the results can be amazing.
Can I just merge every main ba2 file in my fallout 4 data folder? Then I would just have to name the ba2 after a mod right? Should I choose a mod early in the load order or late?
How do I match 2 or mode ESPs to a single BA2 main and texture bundle made from 2 or more mods with BA2 archives? Can you clarify the instructions for this matter? Do I have to make a merged ESP in ZEdit or just throw older ESPs in one folder with the newly merged BA2? UPD: Using merged ESP worked out for me, just name the merged BA2s like the merged ESP
Does Buffout 4 [https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47359] change the .ba2 limit? I ask this because I hadn't run into this ceiling until I started using Sim Settlements which led to hitting mod loading limits (CTD on start-up with more than 239 ESL files and 252 "light" files.
So maybe I'm a little stupid, but I guess I just need to know - It says on the description page that "You will have to rename the output file(s) to a paired ESM/ESL/ESP file."
Does this mean that I need to merge the ESPs as well? Or can i just choose any old ESP file? I have 542 mods and I'm unsure if each mod needs to be associated with a ba2 when this tool is used?
I'm very new to this so I've got to ask to make sure I'm not misinterpreting.
I am looking to merge about 100 weapon mods' BA2s. I've got both the main and texture BA2s made but I'm still unsure of the ESP file. I just take any one ESP, rename it, and stick it in the folder with the two BA2s? Or do I merge all of the mods' ESPs and rename that, then replace the loose files created by zEdit with the BA2 files your tool created?
Just trying to make sure I understand everything before I start screwing around and wind up breaking something.
I could really use assistance, I hit ba2 limit with all the creation club paint jobs, wanted to merge them all into single ba2s like pipboy, weapons, and armor. I’m certain I’m screwing the naming up and I wish there was an example somewhere I could see, I tried renaming my first texture and mains to match the abraxo master, and that’s the only paint job that’s loading even though I merged them all into those ba2s. Any assistance in my naming problems would be much appreciated 🙏
I think I messed up my last FO4 build, and I've rebuilt it. I was having problems with invisible textures, and Buffout was reporting the few mid-game CTDs had something to do with textures. The last build I'd been getting startup CTDs due to exceeding the BA2 limit, so I'd extracted a few "xxx - texture.BA2" with MO2 into loose files until the startup CTDs stopped.
This time I've used your tool to merge enough BA2s to get myself down to 251 active archives, but I'm still getting startup CTDs. My regular plugin count is down to 252. Am I missing something? These new startup CTDs aren't registering with crash logs, and the Buffout logs don't seem to indicate anything egregious. The merge tool is installed into my modding tools directory - could that be it?
Yeah, I moved your tool into the Data directory, and rebuilt everything, but I'm still getting startup CTDs whenever I try to use a compiled BA2 from your tool. I thought your tool was my last chance to get around the hard BA2 limit, but there seems to just be no way around it unless I stick strictly to loose files.
Seriously, only 269 unique downloads? Are you kidding me? How come this fantastic mod has gone so unnoticed? It should've at least been Mod of the Month or something!
I usually run around 600 mods in a playthrough, but never hit the esp-limit, because many of them are ESL or ESL-marked. However, I did hit the BA2-limit a few times, which was a real pain. Might be me, but I never managed to solve the issue by merging mods (merging their BA2's for some reason never worked out well for me).
But now that I've found this little gem of a mod, it's bye bye to the BA2-limit!
Have merged 25 archives with this up to now. Works flawlessly on my end. It's super simple to use as well. Absolutely fantastic, thanks a million!
Looks like a very useful tool, thanks for making and sharing it.
Wanted to ask, how does it handle sound and texture BA2's when merging them with others? My understanding is they require different settings when compressing into an BA2. Is that taken into account when using this kit?
Yeah I was starting to look into that...its strange because the gui version doesn't seem to care.
For now I would only use this for" - main.ba2" merges. The kit I based my work on a similar design was a massive package of files but the first module had a similar layout: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23556?tab=files
EDIT: Since my mods don't do textures it works fine for them. I think all I have to do to make the script work for textures is add a DDS flag.
Yeah here is a snippet from BiRaitBec Modlist batch file: Archive2.exe "%cd%\WorkingFiles\textures" -f=DDS -c="%cd%\PatchedBa2\%%~nxf" -r="%cd%\WorkingFiles" I'll go ahead and dupe the batch file and make a texture and main version diff.
I had just posted something in the forums about this lol. So a big difference between the two version of the script isn't just that one has a DDS flag, or that they now filter for main or texture. The main version is supposed to run uncompressed vs the texture version runs with compression. I did not set the texture ones compression mode, I left it to default. Hopefully there are no issues there.
When using the GUI I usually use Default compression for both Main and Textures, with Main being set to General and the Textures DDS. The only other thing to be aware of is Sound. Sound also goes into the Main BSA but with compression set to None. So add everything else first using Default Compression, switch it to None, then add the Sound last.
Great to know! That means my tool is ready for any kind of main. Sure it might mean your file size isnt quite as small but this about total number of BA2 files not so much filesize.
I was originally using this guide: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/3054/ to package textures into BA2 archives. Using a format of DDS for Textures with Default compression results in a smaller file size. In my case using your tool, I was combining 33 Texture BA2 files totaling 14,2GB. After combining them with the default "Repack_Input_Textures-BA2.bat" file, the output was 24GB. Using the format of DDS and Default compression (as I normally select anyway when packing textures into BA2), it reduced the output file size to 14,1GB
I know you say it's not so much about file size, but it sure is nice having an additional 10GB free in my case
45 comments
Fallout 4's original mod cap with raw ESPs the limit was 256, but thanks to ESL's and ESL flagging that cap is now over 2000 files. The new limit becomes the BA2 resource files, which is roughly 400-500. If you are running under 400 mods merging is not required.
Instructions are on the description page and also in the readme.
If you need help using this tool post below.
Great video showing using the actually same tool via the gui interface
Go to timestamp 9 minutes or 540 seconds.
Regardless of my little "WTF DO I DO NOW?!?!" moment, this really couldn't be simpler to use. I thank you for providing us with this tool.
If ANYBODY is as computer smart as I am, and you are totally on the fence about trying this.... Do it. It's stupid simple. I wasn't sure about some files in my data folder because they had .ESMs and .ESPs for the same mod, and a few other reasons. So I ONLY did this with files that I knew were .ESP and left everything else alone. In about 10 minutes, I had converted 196 .BA2 files into 2. Awesome.
We'll use all the creation club content main or texture ba2s as an example (you'll really want to do both since these are so bloated)
Gather the texture (or the main) ba2s together - put them in the texture (or main) input folder and then merge them as you're instructed - then, just pick the highest ranking esl in your load order (for me, it's ccbgsfo4002-pipboy(blue).esl) and name the resulting texture (or main) ba2 after THAT ESL
Every other texture from every other creation club dlc should load from that one texture (or main) ba2
I.E. the pipboy Camo(02), pipboy(Black), Halloween, Grenade and Remnants cc - sort by date, they're recent and should correspond to the Fallout 4 update
You can't use this tool to merge them - they won't work with it
You can merge everything else
Also, you'll want to do BOTH the main ba2 AND the textures ba2 - and you'll also need to leave the esls where they are
Is it bad to have one huge 20gb texture.ba2? Is it best to split them into smaller sizes? If so what is recommended and how could you do that?
I have a lot standalone texture and mesh replacers (4K) so was just curious. I currently have em all in one huge mod instead of splitting them in any way since all of them just need a dummy plugin and don't need anything else to work.
UPDATED because I wanted to add links.
UPD:
Using merged ESP worked out for me, just name the merged BA2s like the merged ESP
I ask this because I hadn't run into this ceiling until I started using Sim Settlements which led to hitting mod loading limits (CTD on start-up with more than 239 ESL files and 252 "light" files.
Does this mean that I need to merge the ESPs as well? Or can i just choose any old ESP file? I have 542 mods and I'm unsure if each mod needs to be associated with a ba2 when this tool is used?
"Any old"
I am looking to merge about 100 weapon mods' BA2s. I've got both the main and texture BA2s made but I'm still unsure of the ESP file. I just take any one ESP, rename it, and stick it in the folder with the two BA2s? Or do I merge all of the mods' ESPs and rename that, then replace the loose files created by zEdit with the BA2 files your tool created?
Just trying to make sure I understand everything before I start screwing around and wind up breaking something.
This time I've used your tool to merge enough BA2s to get myself down to 251 active archives, but I'm still getting startup CTDs. My regular plugin count is down to 252. Am I missing something? These new startup CTDs aren't registering with crash logs, and the Buffout logs don't seem to indicate anything egregious. The merge tool is installed into my modding tools directory - could that be it?
I usually run around 600 mods in a playthrough, but never hit the esp-limit, because many of them are ESL or ESL-marked. However, I did hit the BA2-limit a few times, which was a real pain. Might be me, but I never managed to solve the issue by merging mods (merging their BA2's for some reason never worked out well for me).
But now that I've found this little gem of a mod, it's bye bye to the BA2-limit!
Have merged 25 archives with this up to now. Works flawlessly on my end. It's super simple to use as well. Absolutely fantastic, thanks a million!
Wanted to ask, how does it handle sound and texture BA2's when merging them with others? My understanding is they require different settings when compressing into an BA2. Is that taken into account when using this kit?
For now I would only use this for" - main.ba2" merges. The kit I based my work on a similar design was a massive package of files but the first module had a similar layout:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23556?tab=files
EDIT: Since my mods don't do textures it works fine for them. I think all I have to do to make the script work for textures is add a DDS flag.
Archive2.exe "%cd%\WorkingFiles\textures" -f=DDS -c="%cd%\PatchedBa2\%%~nxf" -r="%cd%\WorkingFiles"
I'll go ahead and dupe the batch file and make a texture and main version diff.
Archive2.exe "%cd%\InputBA2\temp\." -c="%cd%\OutputBA2\RenameThis - textures.BA2" -r="%cd%\InputBA2\temp" -compression=None
to
Archive2.exe "%cd%\InputBA2\temp\." -f=DDS -c="%cd%\OutputBA2\RenameThis - textures.BA2" -r="%cd%\InputBA2\temp" -compression=Default
I was originally using this guide: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/3054/ to package textures into BA2 archives. Using a format of DDS for Textures with Default compression results in a smaller file size. In my case using your tool, I was combining 33 Texture BA2 files totaling 14,2GB. After combining them with the default "Repack_Input_Textures-BA2.bat" file, the output was 24GB. Using the format of DDS and Default compression (as I normally select anyway when packing textures into BA2), it reduced the output file size to 14,1GB
I know you say it's not so much about file size, but it sure is nice having an additional 10GB free in my case
Also hopefully it should create those empty folders. If not any of the 3 batch files regens them.