Hi all, please endorse the mod for me to know that you are enjoying it, it is helping you, and to know you want me to continue working on it as I have a number of improvements in the pipeline.
I case you need support or guidance with the BMAT tool, apart from here you can reach out to me on the "Collective Modding" or "A StoryWealth" Discord servers (there I go by RJ), where I am most active.
With the latest BMAT version there are few notable changes that I wanted to make you aware (more details you can find in the change log): - BMAT now supports BA2 files, Creation Club mods, and mods with Loose files and folders. - BMAT will no longer include Archive2 as part of its package as that was confirmed being against Behesda's policies and being forbidden by them. You will need to have Arcive2 from before, or you will need to install Creation Kit from Steam which has Archive2 in it (all details in the video guide). - The Read Me file will no longer be maintained in favour of YouTube videos which I am creating (first one is already live).
With this version I will park for now adding new feature to the Vortex version of BMAT, so I can start working on the MO2 version of BMAT.
Hey, Having issues with BMAT spitting out this error
ConvertFrom-Json: G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Tools\BMAT\BMAT.ps1:565 Line | 565 | … n = Get-Content -Path $LatestVortexBackup.FullName | ConvertFrom-Json | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Cannot convert the JSON string because it contains keys with different casing. Please use the -AsHashTable | switch instead. The key that was attempted to be added to the existing key 'Reactor Enb' was 'reactor enb'.
It seems to be an issue with my Custom vortex data path as I used it with just a standard install and didn't have any issues For reference my Custom data path is G:\Vortex_Steam_Fallout_Newest\ Any insight would be appreciated.
Hello rjshadowface, I don't understand what's happening, previously the process worked fine for me in a previous version of bmat that came out in december (0.6.73), but I had to reinstall Fallout 4 and some mods from scratch, and now that I wanted to use bmat again, the most recent version doesn't work for me, I don't understand if it's because I'm using a downgraded version of Fallout 4 but I didn't have this problem when I did it with the 0.6.73 version, I do the process just like in your video and now it doesn't seem to want to read the merged files, previously I had even merged three times as many mods as I want to merge now, but for some reason now it doesn't work, I don't know how to explain it because I'm a newbie to this and I only followed the tutorial, I also have creation club content and it's almost all from the cc store, I don't know if the tool that merges creation club content has to do with my problem, isn't there a way to disable the fusion of creation club content to see if that is my problem? Or that you could allow me to download again the version of bmat that was already working for me without errors?🤔
BMAT should be working fine with both standard and downgraded version of FO4. I myself am using the GOG version of FO4 which has never been upgraded to NG.
When you say "it doesn't seem to want to read the merged files" do you mean you are trying to use old merges with newer BMAT version, or are you referring to Vortex not detecting the created by BMAT plugins?
Unfortunately the older versions of BMAT included Archive2 in them and according to Bethesda we are not allowed to redistribute any of their applications as part of mods. This is why I can't reupload it.
To disable the CCC mods merge you can open the config.json file which you can find in "<game>\data\tools\BMAT" and you can look for "AllowCCMods" and set it to "false".
So its bascially like Zmerge merging assets to esp , which then makes it ba2. To be fair ba2's with 600 to 1 GB + should be in Ba2 but under that, its really waste of ba2 and should not effect performance at all. But nice work on this tool non the less.
this tool is great and I thank you for it. It solved some problems I had but caused others (not serious). It made a lot of textures I had been using disappear. Like my dogmeat retexture is missing and back to vanilla, eyes of beauty doesn't seem to be working anymore and is back to vanilla red eyes, and other textures for similar things. I understand I can restore but that would kind of ruin the point of me getting this tool in the first place and I'm not smart enough to reduce my ba2 limit manually so I guess my question is will those textures come back with a new game or will they just not work now? I know I can re-install them to get the textures back but that would defeat the purpose of me using this tool in the first place
Hi Whiskeylove, Normally, whether mod textures are loaded by its own plugin or by another shouldn't matter (as that is how some re-texture and patch mods work). All BMAT does is that it moves a mod BA2 files content and/or loose folders content into a separate BA2 file, which for the majority of mods is enough (as long as BMAT plugin files are loaded in game). Having said that, there are few mods which don't like their files being merged (i.e. prefer those to be loose) as the path to those files is hardcoded in other files and unless those are updated the respective mod can't find its files.
The StoryWealth community created a blacklist of such mods which would cause issues if merged. You can give it a try. The aSW blacklist can be found in the optional files. To use the blacklist, you need to redo your BMAT merges.
FYI, If you reinstall mod which BA2 files and/or loose folders are part of a BMAT merge, you will end up 2 mod plugins trying to load the same files ... which for the most is not a big issue, but when you try and restore from BMAT you may end up with some leftovers ... or other issues.
BMAT has multiple options of how to control which mods will be merged to reduce your BA2 count including the use of whitelists, blacklists, retexture lists etc., options to enable/disable loose folders and/or CCC mods to be processed, mod size limit and the list goes on.
thank you for the response. I will have to look into the blacklist. As for isolating which mods are effected that will take time as I run into them because I have around 1000 mods in use atm.
On BMAT? As many as needed. I was looking to cover all that was in the read me and maybe to create a few more on troubleshooting.
You have any specific topic in mind? I am open to suggestions.
On the YouTube channel, I am planning to go over all that PowerShell code that put into the tool as learning instructions, so anyone can create their own tools.
Not really. but I can wait until your next video. But to ask a possibly obvious question, only enabled mods are merged, correct? I only ask because when I set it up to merge BMAT showed all mods whether they were enabled or not.
BMAT collects details of all the mods, and then it checks which mods are enabled/disabled in Vortex and would process only the enabled mods.
The mods files and folders candidates list should contain only enabled in Vortex mods, or mods which were previously merged via BMAT and disable after that.
153 comments
I case you need support or guidance with the BMAT tool, apart from here you can reach out to me on the "Collective Modding" or "A StoryWealth" Discord servers (there I go by RJ), where I am most active.
Cheers, RJ
With the latest BMAT version there are few notable changes that I wanted to make you aware (more details you can find in the change log):
- BMAT now supports BA2 files, Creation Club mods, and mods with Loose files and folders.
- BMAT will no longer include Archive2 as part of its package as that was confirmed being against Behesda's policies and being forbidden by them. You will need to have Arcive2 from before, or you will need to install Creation Kit from Steam which has Archive2 in it (all details in the video guide).
- The Read Me file will no longer be maintained in favour of YouTube videos which I am creating (first one is already live).
With this version I will park for now adding new feature to the Vortex version of BMAT, so I can start working on the MO2 version of BMAT.
Cheers,
RJ
ConvertFrom-Json: G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Tools\BMAT\BMAT.ps1:565
Line |
565 | … n = Get-Content -Path $LatestVortexBackup.FullName | ConvertFrom-Json
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Cannot convert the JSON string because it contains keys with different casing. Please use the -AsHashTable
| switch instead. The key that was attempted to be added to the existing key 'Reactor Enb' was 'reactor enb'.
It seems to be an issue with my Custom vortex data path as I used it with just a standard install and didn't have any issues
For reference my Custom data path is G:\Vortex_Steam_Fallout_Newest\
Any insight would be appreciated.
That has been reported to me and is fixed in the version I am currently working on.
Cheers,
RJ
Tracking!
BMAT should be working fine with both standard and downgraded version of FO4. I myself am using the GOG version of FO4 which has never been upgraded to NG.
When you say "it doesn't seem to want to read the merged files" do you mean you are trying to use old merges with newer BMAT version, or are you referring to Vortex not detecting the created by BMAT plugins?
Unfortunately the older versions of BMAT included Archive2 in them and according to Bethesda we are not allowed to redistribute any of their applications as part of mods. This is why I can't reupload it.
To disable the CCC mods merge you can open the config.json file which you can find in "<game>\data\tools\BMAT" and you can look for "AllowCCMods" and set it to "false".
Cheers,
RJ
Thanks.
Not exactly. BMAT automates the BA2 merge process which you normally would do manually using Archive2. BMAT does not merge mods plugins.
Cheers,
RJ
Normally, whether mod textures are loaded by its own plugin or by another shouldn't matter (as that is how some re-texture and patch mods work). All BMAT does is that it moves a mod BA2 files content and/or loose folders content into a separate BA2 file, which for the majority of mods is enough (as long as BMAT plugin files are loaded in game). Having said that, there are few mods which don't like their files being merged (i.e. prefer those to be loose) as the path to those files is hardcoded in other files and unless those are updated the respective mod can't find its files.
The StoryWealth community created a blacklist of such mods which would cause issues if merged. You can give it a try. The aSW blacklist can be found in the optional files. To use the blacklist, you need to redo your BMAT merges.
FYI, If you reinstall mod which BA2 files and/or loose folders are part of a BMAT merge, you will end up 2 mod plugins trying to load the same files ... which for the most is not a big issue, but when you try and restore from BMAT you may end up with some leftovers ... or other issues.
BMAT has multiple options of how to control which mods will be merged to reduce your BA2 count including the use of whitelists, blacklists, retexture lists etc., options to enable/disable loose folders and/or CCC mods to be processed, mod size limit and the list goes on.
Cheers,
RJ
...tracking
On BMAT? As many as needed. I was looking to cover all that was in the read me and maybe to create a few more on troubleshooting.
You have any specific topic in mind? I am open to suggestions.
On the YouTube channel, I am planning to go over all that PowerShell code that put into the tool as learning instructions, so anyone can create their own tools.
Cheers,
RJ
Cheers,
RJ
Cheers,
Cliff
The mods files and folders candidates list should contain only enabled in Vortex mods, or mods which were previously merged via BMAT and disable after that.
Cheers,
RJ