Why my mod does what it does: (1 comment)

1. 

   tony971

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   30 January 2016, 1:20AM

   The reasoning behind this mod and how it works today:
   
   First, some background.
   
   BSA files are basically Bethesda zip files. They contain assets like textures, sounds, and meshes that a plugin will tell Skyrim to use.
   
   ESM and ESP files are plugins. They tell skyrim how to behave and with which resources.
   
   Skyrim loads assets like the ones found in BSA files in three ways: It loads BSA files specified in the skyrim.ini; it loads BSA files named the same as an ESM or ESP file; and it loads loose files named the same as an existing asset. It loads them in this order. So a BSA file loaded by an ESM would override a BSA loaded by INI and a loose file would override a BSA file loaded by an ESM.
   
   Skyrim's textures are located in Skyrim - Textures.bsa, which is loaded by the skyrim.ini. DLC textures are located in BSA files like Dawnguard.bsa which are loaded by Dawnguard.esm.
   
   Problem #1: Optimized Vanilla Textures should overwrite the vanilla textures and nothing else.
   Solution #1: Use ESM files to load optimized texture BSAs into the game. They'll override "Skyrim - Textures.bsa" by default and I can have users place their optimized DLC texture ESM files after the original DLC ESM files. That will make it so the vanilla textures are overwritten but all other mods can still overwrite them.
   
   Problem #2: Users HATE unnecessary plugins.
   Solution #2: I'll tell their skyrim.ini file to load my BSA instead of "Skyrim - Textures.bsa."
   
   Problem #3: The DLC BSA files would still overwrite anything you put in skyrim.ini
   Solution #3: What if they didn't? Since BSA files only get loaded by ESM files if they share a name, I can rename the DLC BSA files so that their ESM files won't load them. Then I can add the original DLC BSAs and my optimized DLC texture BSA files to skyrim.ini. Then my optimized DLC texture BSAs will overrule the original DLC BSAs.
   
   Problem #4: What if users reset their skyrim.ini or download some skyrim.ini replacer?
   Solution #4: Skyrim also loads any INI files named the same as an ESM or ESP file. These overrule the skyrim.ini. I'll just include some INI files for ESM files that they're bound to have. Let's throw in an Update.ini, Dawnguard.ini, HearthFires.ini, and Dragonborn.ini with the same edits that we make to the skyrim.ini.
   
   Problem #5: What if users don't have all of the DLC? You're going to tell users to change their skyrim.ini to load files that don't exist.
   Solution #5: They'll just have to adapt the edits to the DLC that they do have.
   
   Problem #6: This is getting way too complicated for the average user to install.
   Solution #6: You're right. It should be automated. Let's include an installer file that checks which DLC you have, renames them, and makes the appropriate edits to skyrim.ini and the inis included with this mod.
   
   Problem #7: If you rename the DLC BSA files and a user runs a Steam game cache integrity check, it'll download new DLC BSA files that will get loaded by the DLC ESM files and overrule your optimized DLC textures.
   Solution #7: Users will just have to re-run the installer.