BAMgr Update 1.1.9: Library updated. BAMgr Update 1.1.8: When selecting items to output at the time of extract and archive creation, the search result was made the top priority. BAMgr Update 1.1.7: 1) Fixed a bug where items that were unchecked and output could not be output again. 2) Fixed a bug that caused a crash when the check for files on the root of the file list. 3) Double-clicking an item in the table list now points to an item in the tree list. (support both directions.) 4) Added new theme. BAMgr Update 1.1.5: 1) Fixed bug in Create archive. When chunk data is compressed, the compressed data size is sometimes larger than the uncompressed data size. In that case, the chunk data must be archived as uncompressed data, but I had mistakenly commented out that process, which is the cause of this bug. My apologies. Please re-archive with 1.1.5, as I have received reports of textures not displaying properly due to this bug. BAMgr Update 1.1.4: 1) Fixed CTD bug. (folder double click in tree view) 2) Added some item in settings. BAMgr Update 1.1.3: 1) Fixed CTD bug. *plz don't use 1.1.2. 2) Added some unsupported dxgi formats. (BC4S, BC2U_SRGB) 3) Save Window geometry(Window size, position, Splitter position, etc.) BAMgr Update 1.1.2: 1) Fixed a bug that caused slow file and folder loading. many interrupts were occurring after drawing the table view, so it was taking a long time to complete reading the file. BAMgr Update 1.1.1: 1) Fixed Dir-Hash and Name-Hash values Incorrect calculation. If you have ever archived a file with a path and name that contains uppercase letters, please archive it again with this version 1.1.1. (If you were using files with all lowercase paths and names, no problem) 2) Fixed a bug that caused BAMgr.ini to be created in multiple folders. 3) Added "Type" column in table view on use General format. 4) Added "Entry" column in table view. 5) Double-clicking an item in the tree view points to the same item in the table view. (the reverse behavior has not yet been implemented) 6) Separator added to context menu. and, added "Expand All" to the tree view context menu
when packing dds files... is there any texture quality loss between using the (close to beth) and the programs default compression? All i know atm is that close to beth takes about 5 hours on my machine, opposed to 10 minutes using the default..& would be helpful to understand a bit more about the different compression methods...
Is there something that needs to be done to be 100% safe at or after ba2 creation? I had now multiple times, where a ba2 file crashed the game. Once it was textures and some other were uncompressed main. I could recreate the packages and then they worked. So I wonder... sometimes I hit the clear list button, other times I wait a bit more before closing. I have a faulty archive if you'd like to have for inspection.
I was able to recreate the issue again and somehow I think I pinned it down to a specific case. So there is a mod with geometries, materials, meshes, scripts and textures. And of course I want to put textures into textures.ba2, the rest into main.ba2 But there is at least one .png file in the textures folder, so that must go into main.ba2.
So I drag & drop geometries, materials, meshes and scripts into BAMgr. Select all. Then I drag & drop the textures folder into the tree, too. Unselect the textures folder. Sort the column for file type in the right window, so I see the .png and select the file. Now I create the ba2 (default settings, assistant does its job). And this ba2 file will crash the game right at loading the main menu after the logo circle is done. https://pasteboard.co/pbbXJLfbgiAS.png
If I create the main.ba2 without the textures folder step, it loads fine. If I extract the bugged main.ba2 (so I have the png where it belongs, too) and create it again with the extracted files, it loads fine.
Something with "textures folder but all dds unselected" seems to be an issue still.
delete all pngs in your modded folders they are not used or recognised by the game it will not work or crash as described if packing those into a ba2, pngs are simply left over or extras included by the mod authors
hi thank you for the great work can you provide some guide for the uninitiated ? xD i have lots of mods and i want to reduce them into ba2 as much as i can but they have everything in them... esm, ba2, dds, ini .........
+1 for a basic repacking guide to avoid the hit and miss process... although it is pretty much self explanitory using this tool, I think many would find it helpful to know what opions to choose in the tool itself..
Well after a couple of hours of trial and error I've managed to succesfully pack 33k of dds files into a working ba2
:)
Thanks ! Hopefully finally resolves the long outstanding FPS drops to -10 from +60 on leaving the menus and when entering new areas.. tried everything imaginiable apart from putting all my loose textures into a ba2 !
I wasn't sure exactly where to post this question, as it's not necessarily a question related to my use of BAM or an issue I'm having with BAM (at least not to my knowledge). But I'm struggling to find the information I need and sufficient guidance via Googling. In any case, I'm trying to package all of my loose files into ba2 archives to improve performance, but Starfield seems to refuse to load or detect files supplied by the majority of the archives I have made and then loaded via StarfieldCustom.ini's sResourceIndexFileList line.
Here's my file structure before switching to archives:
And my sResourceIndexFileList line looks like the following before switching to archives:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
The first files I archived were the texture files. So I just dragged Textures over to BAM and made a version 3 archive, since all DDS files. I found that my first time trying this worked, and I named the file StrangefieldTextures.ba2 and added it to StarfieldCustom.ini:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
Ever since setting it up like this, though, it seems Starfield will not load my Textures if I package my textures using any other filename other than StrangefieldTextures.ba2. Starfield will not load "Strangefield Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield_Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield - Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield - Textures01.ba2" (as in the case when I tried splitting up the textures into multiple archives) despite updating the filename in the sResourceIndexFileList line to match the file I made. It seems I'm permanently stuck having to use the very first filename that Starfield loaded the first time, otherwise my textures are missing in the game. In any case, that's not a huge deal, as I can stick with that filename, but my textures added up to a 22GB ba2 archive, which is large. I could be wrong about this, but I intuitively figured that multiple smaller archives might be better for performance than a giant monolithic one. So I attempted to split up the Textures folder for multiple archives in the following way:
Spoiler:
Show
Sample Textures file tree prior to splitting up: Textures - actors - architecture - planets
Then make separate folders somewhere separate from the game files in which to place a Textures folder containing a portion of the original Textures folder contents: Folder A: - Textures -- actors
Folder B: - Textures -- architecture
Folder C: - Textures -- planets
Folder D: - Textures -- planets
And then take turns dragging each Textures folder to BAM to make a version 3 ba2 archive like StrangefieldTextures01.ba2 or StrangefieldTextures02.ba2, etc. In reality, my Textures folder is much bigger and contains way more stuff than in this example, but this is just to explain the exact way I did this. So then my setup looks like the following:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures01.ba2, StrangefieldTextures02.ba2, StrangefieldTextures03.ba2, StrangefieldTextures04.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
Those steps in the above spoiler simply do not work. Starfield will not load my multiple texture archives. The only way I can make it work is by sticking with the giant monolithic archive named StrangefieldTextures.ba2. If anyone in the know can tell me that there is no real advantage to loading multiple smaller archives instead of a giant one, then I'll be happy to stick with my giant texture archive. But if, as I'm guessing, it is more performant to load from multiple smaller archives, then does anyone have any insights as to what I might be doing wrong? I have noticed that none of the ba2 archives that ship with the game or that I've installed from mods have ever been any bigger than 4GB, so I was trying to follow that convention.
But there's more, because I'm not done packaging loose files. I still have the version 2 stuff to package, and so far that is not going well for me. So, following a similar method, here's what I did to try to package my remaining loose files:
Spoiler:
Show
I split up the folders into two sets, one for a compressed version 2 ba2 archive and the rest for an uncompressed one. So for the compressed archive I dragged over the following folders to BAM and made the StrangefieldGeneralCompressed.ba2 archive:
Geometries Materials Meshes SFSE Source Strings Video
And then I dragged over the following folders to BAM for the uncompressed archive, which I called StrangefieldGeneralUncompressed.ba2:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldGeneralCompressed.ba2, StrangefieldGeneralUncompressed.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
The method in the above spoiler to make my version 2 archives did not work and Starfield would not launch with those files loaded. I had to restore all the loose files to get my game working correctly again with all its geometries and meshes and interface files and scripts, etc. So the final setup that I have that's working right now is as follows:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
So I'm writing all this out here because I am struggling really hard to find information online that will help me understand what I'm doing wrong. Why won't Starfield interact with the majority of ba2 archives that I attempt to make and load? Am I using wrong methods? Did I attempt to put files into my version 2 archives that shouldn't be archived with the rest? Did I not split up my textures in the right way for multiple smaller texture archives to be loaded properly? I just feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and I just can't seem to find answers anywhere. Every article I have found so far just explains what I already know like why packaging loose files boosts performance and how to use [insert software tool here] to make an archive. I can't find anything on the various rules and conditions of when Starfield will read your archive and when it won't.
I know this is a very long post, which I tried to mitigate as best as I could using spoiler sections. So I apologize for the big read, but anyone with the time and patience to read my problem and attempt to offer help is extremely appreciated. Thank you for taking the time. I have already gained a significant performance boost just having all my textures packaged into one single version3 ba2 archive, but I can't seem to break that up into multiple smaller archives, and I can't seem to archive my version2 loose files in a way that Starfield will read.
So I've been packaging my loose files to improve Starfield's performance, and I've run into an issue using BAMgr where if I pack all of my textures into one, very large monolithic ba2 archive, as long as I don't include spaces, special characters, or numbers, Starfield will load the resulting archive when I include it in my StarfieldCustom.ini without issue. However, when I attempt to package my textures separately into several smaller archives each under 4GB (which I figured would be even more performant), regardless if I avoid spaces, special characters, and numbers or not, Starfield simply will not load my archives even after correctly updating StarfieldCustom.ini to load the multiple archives. I'm creating the multiple archives from the exact same files as when I make the large monolithic one, and always respecting the correct folder structure. I have no idea what's going on, and not sure what's up with the sensitivity about how I name the files. Is there some kind of limit to how many ba2 archives you can load with the sResourceIndexFileList line?
To summarize:
- MyTextures.ba2 (all textures in one archive - loads fine) - My - Textures.ba2 (all textures in one archive - will not load) - MyTextures01.ba2, MyTextures02.ba2, MyTextures03.ba2, MyTextures04.ba2, MyTextures05.ba2 (all textures split up into separate archives - none of them will load)
There may be something amiss in your setup. I use the Inflictor Enhanced mod and noticed lag when using the rifle. I used BAM to create replacement archives for the loose files this ships with, namely a Ba3 for the textures (named it InflictorEnhanced - Textures.ba2) and a Ba2 for the materials/meshes/geometries (named that InflictorEnhanced - Other.ba2). I appended these BA file names to the StarfieldCustom.ini sResourceIndexFileList list. Everything works fine for me. I'm not aware of any limit to the sResourceIndexFileList parameter. Are you archiving files from multiple mods? I assume we cannot have a many-to-many relationship between BA's and ESMs; only one-to-many from ESM to BA's.
I am archiving files from multiple mods. The way I'm doing it is that I have all the texture files from any mods that provide textures into one big Textures folder, and then I archive that in a ba3. And for whatever reason, in my experience, my resulting ba3 will only load when playing the game if there are no spaces or special characters or numbers in the filename I choose, and if I only load one of them. I didn't like the idea of loading a single 20G .ba2 file and thought to break it up into multiple archives, but no matter how I broke it up, it never loaded my multiple archives.
I've also considered that maybe it's some kind of weird caching issue. Maybe it's not that BAM or Starfield have any weird issues with ba3 filenames that contain spaces, special characters, or numbers (clearly the ones you created that are working fine have those), but that the very first archive filename that I set in my StarfieldCustom.ini somehow got cached in some way so that Starfield won't acknowledge any new archive name I place in that file that isn't identical to that one filename it's expecting. I don't know, I'm speculating. But with hours down the drain, I have not figured this out. But Starfield is loading my giant, monolithic archive, so I at least have that.
I was having some textures not show up in game when I packed them, can't wait to get home and see if this was why. :)
It was mostly smaller textures that I was trying to toss into a larger BA3 bundle, so I can see this as a potential instance of this bug. I didn't post a bug because this is my first time dabbling with BAs and I assumed it was user error.
This is killer for merging Starfield formatted BA2 v3s. Works awesome. The HDTP mod loads way too many BA2s and causes crashing issues. Trying to use other more traditional tools failed with these newer filetypes. This tool seems to handle them just fine so I am experimenting to see if merging some files and reducing the number loaded will help. Absolutely invaluable tool the community has needed for over a decade. Awesome work. Thank you!
I am experimenting to see if merging some files and reducing the number loaded will help.
I've merged 40+ separate mods in to 13 BA2s. I've also loaded them via ESM modules. Those two combined got rid of constant stuttering and has reduced CPU load for me.
After experimenting myself I can definitely say this helps performance quite a bit. A few loose textures here and there seems fine, but for really big texture packs archives are the only way to go. I've used this to repack and customize Starfield HDTP as well as Starfield HD Overhaul. Being able to compress Starfield HD Reworked was also super useful because it's all loose textures and they are used so much in the game.
I am also using ESMs and loading everything via Mod Organizer 2. Old faithful.
how did you merge mods with all different folders and different files etc into one ba2 ? SPECIALLY the mods that have more than 1 load order ... as in (optional downloads) that you have to load after the main mod... can you please explain to me ?
If I open a ba2 archive with textures. And I type "color.dds" into the search. Then I click the down to the starfield.esm entry in the tree on the left. And hit "Extract" (only color.dds are shown in the tree). I expect to only get those extracted now, but it is still extracting the whole starfield.esm folder with all other dds files, which I do not want. BAE can do this, can BAMgr do it, too?
I see. But you don't need to have SF installed, just any ba2. I would say the tool does not make a difference when you tick a folder. Scenario "Open ba2, open the tree, untick the main (nothing is selected)."
Case 1: Tick a subfolder > extract = you get all files of that subfolder: OK
Case 2: Tick a subfolder, enter a word in "search" to filter > extract = you get all files of that subfolder: Understandable as everything was ticked before the filter.
Case 3: Enter a word in "search" to filter, tick the containing subfolder of those files in the tree > extract = you get all files of that subfolder: This is not expected. As I filter before selection, but ticking the subfolder does always the same and ignores the filter.
Ah, I understand, I misunderstood that the issue involved the starfiled.esm folder. I'm sure it didn't behave that way before, so somewhere in the update I must have made a bug. I will try to fix this asap. thanks for the report.
116 comments
Library updated.
BAMgr Update 1.1.8:
When selecting items to output at the time of extract and archive creation, the search result was made the top priority.
BAMgr Update 1.1.7:
1) Fixed a bug where items that were unchecked and output could not be output again.
2) Fixed a bug that caused a crash when the check for files on the root of the file list.
3) Double-clicking an item in the table list now points to an item in the tree list. (support both directions.)
4) Added new theme.
BAMgr Update 1.1.5:
1) Fixed bug in Create archive.
When chunk data is compressed, the compressed data size is sometimes larger than the uncompressed data size.
In that case, the chunk data must be archived as uncompressed data, but I had mistakenly commented out that process, which is the cause of this bug. My apologies.
Please re-archive with 1.1.5, as I have received reports of textures not displaying properly due to this bug.
BAMgr Update 1.1.4:
1) Fixed CTD bug. (folder double click in tree view)
2) Added some item in settings.
BAMgr Update 1.1.3:
1) Fixed CTD bug. *plz don't use 1.1.2.
2) Added some unsupported dxgi formats. (BC4S, BC2U_SRGB)
3) Save Window geometry(Window size, position, Splitter position, etc.)
BAMgr Update 1.1.2:
1) Fixed a bug that caused slow file and folder loading.
many interrupts were occurring after drawing the table view, so it was taking a long time to complete reading the file.
BAMgr Update 1.1.1:
1) Fixed Dir-Hash and Name-Hash values Incorrect calculation.
If you have ever archived a file with a path and name that contains uppercase letters, please archive it again with this version 1.1.1.
(If you were using files with all lowercase paths and names, no problem)
2) Fixed a bug that caused BAMgr.ini to be created in multiple folders.
3) Added "Type" column in table view on use General format.
4) Added "Entry" column in table view.
5) Double-clicking an item in the tree view points to the same item in the table view.
(the reverse behavior has not yet been implemented)
6) Separator added to context menu. and, added "Expand All" to the tree view context menu
All i know atm is that close to beth takes about 5 hours on my machine, opposed to 10 minutes using the default..& would be helpful to understand a bit more about the different compression methods...
So there is a mod with geometries, materials, meshes, scripts and textures. And of course I want to put textures into textures.ba2, the rest into main.ba2
But there is at least one .png file in the textures folder, so that must go into main.ba2.
So I drag & drop geometries, materials, meshes and scripts into BAMgr. Select all.
Then I drag & drop the textures folder into the tree, too. Unselect the textures folder. Sort the column for file type in the right window, so I see the .png and select the file.
Now I create the ba2 (default settings, assistant does its job).
And this ba2 file will crash the game right at loading the main menu after the logo circle is done.
https://pasteboard.co/pbbXJLfbgiAS.png
If I create the main.ba2 without the textures folder step, it loads fine.
If I extract the bugged main.ba2 (so I have the png where it belongs, too) and create it again with the extracted files, it loads fine.
Something with "textures folder but all dds unselected" seems to be an issue still.
thank you for the great work
can you provide some guide for the uninitiated ? xD
i have lots of mods and i want to reduce them into ba2 as much as i can
but they have everything in them...
esm, ba2, dds, ini .........
what should i set the setting for it ?
:)
Thanks ! Hopefully finally resolves the long outstanding FPS drops to -10 from +60 on leaving the menus and when entering new areas.. tried everything imaginiable apart from putting all my loose textures into a ba2 !
Here's my file structure before switching to archives:
D:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Data:
- docs
- Geometries
- Interface
- Materials
- Meshes
- Scripts
- SFSE
- Sound
- Source
- StarUI Configurator
- Strings
- Textures
- Video
- 2XEnemies.esm
- 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
- ... other esm and ba2 files
...
...
And my sResourceIndexFileList line looks like the following before switching to archives:
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
The first files I archived were the texture files. So I just dragged Textures over to BAM and made a version 3 archive, since all DDS files. I found that my first time trying this worked, and I named the file StrangefieldTextures.ba2 and added it to StarfieldCustom.ini:
D:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Data:
- docs
- Geometries
- Interface
- Materials
- Meshes
- Scripts
- SFSE
- Sound
- Source
- StarUI Configurator
- Strings
- Video
- 2XEnemies.esm
- 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
- ... other esm and ba2 files
...
- StrangefieldTextures.ba2
...
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
Ever since setting it up like this, though, it seems Starfield will not load my Textures if I package my textures using any other filename other than StrangefieldTextures.ba2. Starfield will not load "Strangefield Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield_Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield - Textures.ba2" or "Strangefield - Textures01.ba2" (as in the case when I tried splitting up the textures into multiple archives) despite updating the filename in the sResourceIndexFileList line to match the file I made. It seems I'm permanently stuck having to use the very first filename that Starfield loaded the first time, otherwise my textures are missing in the game. In any case, that's not a huge deal, as I can stick with that filename, but my textures added up to a 22GB ba2 archive, which is large. I could be wrong about this, but I intuitively figured that multiple smaller archives might be better for performance than a giant monolithic one. So I attempted to split up the Textures folder for multiple archives in the following way:
Sample Textures file tree prior to splitting up:
Textures
- actors
- architecture
- planets
Then make separate folders somewhere separate from the game files in which to place a Textures folder containing a portion of the original Textures folder contents:
Folder A:
- Textures
-- actors
Folder B:
- Textures
-- architecture
Folder C:
- Textures
-- planets
Folder D:
- Textures
-- planets
And then take turns dragging each Textures folder to BAM to make a version 3 ba2 archive like StrangefieldTextures01.ba2 or StrangefieldTextures02.ba2, etc. In reality, my Textures folder is much bigger and contains way more stuff than in this example, but this is just to explain the exact way I did this. So then my setup looks like the following:
D:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Data:
- docs
- Geometries
- Interface
- Materials
- Meshes
- Scripts
- SFSE
- Sound
- Source
- StarUI Configurator
- Strings
- Video
- 2XEnemies.esm
- 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
- ... other esm and ba2 files
...
- StrangefieldTextures01.ba2
- StrangefieldTextures02.ba2
- StrangefieldTextures03.ba2
- StrangefieldTextures04.ba2
...
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures01.ba2, StrangefieldTextures02.ba2, StrangefieldTextures03.ba2, StrangefieldTextures04.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2Those steps in the above spoiler simply do not work. Starfield will not load my multiple texture archives. The only way I can make it work is by sticking with the giant monolithic archive named StrangefieldTextures.ba2. If anyone in the know can tell me that there is no real advantage to loading multiple smaller archives instead of a giant one, then I'll be happy to stick with my giant texture archive. But if, as I'm guessing, it is more performant to load from multiple smaller archives, then does anyone have any insights as to what I might be doing wrong? I have noticed that none of the ba2 archives that ship with the game or that I've installed from mods have ever been any bigger than 4GB, so I was trying to follow that convention.
But there's more, because I'm not done packaging loose files. I still have the version 2 stuff to package, and so far that is not going well for me. So, following a similar method, here's what I did to try to package my remaining loose files:
I split up the folders into two sets, one for a compressed version 2 ba2 archive and the rest for an uncompressed one. So for the compressed archive I dragged over the following folders to BAM and made the StrangefieldGeneralCompressed.ba2 archive:
Geometries
Materials
Meshes
SFSE
Source
Strings
Video
And then I dragged over the following folders to BAM for the uncompressed archive, which I called StrangefieldGeneralUncompressed.ba2:
Interface
Scripts
Sound
So now my setup looks as follows:
D:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Data:
- docs
- StarUI Configurator
- 2XEnemies.esm
- 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
- ... other esm and ba2 files
...
- StrangefieldGeneralCompressed.ba2
- StrangefieldGeneralUncompressed.ba2
- StrangefieldTextures.ba2
...
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldGeneralCompressed.ba2, StrangefieldGeneralUncompressed.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2The method in the above spoiler to make my version 2 archives did not work and Starfield would not launch with those files loaded. I had to restore all the loose files to get my game working correctly again with all its geometries and meshes and interface files and scripts, etc. So the final setup that I have that's working right now is as follows:
D:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Data:
- docs
- Geometries
- Interface
- Materials
- Meshes
- Scripts
- SFSE
- Sound
- Source
- StarUI Configurator
- Strings
- Video
- 2XEnemies.esm
- 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2
- ... other esm and ba2 files
...
- StrangefieldTextures.ba2
...
sResourceIndexFileList=Starfield - LODTextures.ba2, Starfield - Textures01.ba2, Starfield - Textures02.ba2, Starfield - Textures03.ba2, Starfield - Textures04.ba2, Starfield - Textures05.ba2, Starfield - Textures06.ba2, Starfield - Textures07.ba2, Starfield - Textures08.ba2, Starfield - Textures09.ba2, Starfield - Textures10.ba2, Starfield - Textures11.ba2, Starfield - TexturesPatch.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures01.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures02.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures03.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures04.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures05.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures06.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures07.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures08.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures09.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures10.ba2, Starfield HD - Textures11.ba2, StrangefieldTextures.ba2, 4K_Hair - Textures.ba2, 4K_Beards - Textures.ba2So I'm writing all this out here because I am struggling really hard to find information online that will help me understand what I'm doing wrong. Why won't Starfield interact with the majority of ba2 archives that I attempt to make and load? Am I using wrong methods? Did I attempt to put files into my version 2 archives that shouldn't be archived with the rest? Did I not split up my textures in the right way for multiple smaller texture archives to be loaded properly? I just feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and I just can't seem to find answers anywhere. Every article I have found so far just explains what I already know like why packaging loose files boosts performance and how to use [insert software tool here] to make an archive. I can't find anything on the various rules and conditions of when Starfield will read your archive and when it won't.
I know this is a very long post, which I tried to mitigate as best as I could using spoiler sections. So I apologize for the big read, but anyone with the time and patience to read my problem and attempt to offer help is extremely appreciated. Thank you for taking the time. I have already gained a significant performance boost just having all my textures packaged into one single version3 ba2 archive, but I can't seem to break that up into multiple smaller archives, and I can't seem to archive my version2 loose files in a way that Starfield will read.
To summarize:
- MyTextures.ba2 (all textures in one archive - loads fine)
- My - Textures.ba2 (all textures in one archive - will not load)
- MyTextures01.ba2, MyTextures02.ba2, MyTextures03.ba2, MyTextures04.ba2, MyTextures05.ba2 (all textures split up into separate archives - none of them will load)
I use the Inflictor Enhanced mod and noticed lag when using the rifle. I used BAM to create replacement archives for the loose files this ships with, namely a Ba3 for the textures (named it InflictorEnhanced - Textures.ba2) and a Ba2 for the materials/meshes/geometries (named that InflictorEnhanced - Other.ba2). I appended these BA file names to the StarfieldCustom.ini sResourceIndexFileList list. Everything works fine for me.
I'm not aware of any limit to the sResourceIndexFileList parameter.
Are you archiving files from multiple mods? I assume we cannot have a many-to-many relationship between BA's and ESMs; only one-to-many from ESM to BA's.
I've also considered that maybe it's some kind of weird caching issue. Maybe it's not that BAM or Starfield have any weird issues with ba3 filenames that contain spaces, special characters, or numbers (clearly the ones you created that are working fine have those), but that the very first archive filename that I set in my StarfieldCustom.ini somehow got cached in some way so that Starfield won't acknowledge any new archive name I place in that file that isn't identical to that one filename it's expecting. I don't know, I'm speculating. But with hours down the drain, I have not figured this out. But Starfield is loading my giant, monolithic archive, so I at least have that.
I was having some textures not show up in game when I packed them, can't wait to get home and see if this was why. :)
It was mostly smaller textures that I was trying to toss into a larger BA3 bundle, so I can see this as a potential instance of this bug. I didn't post a bug because this is my first time dabbling with BAs and I assumed it was user error.
Thanks so much for this amazing tool!
im where you were at the time you wrote this xD
I have not tried the most recent update. I will probably tonight!
I've merged 40+ separate mods in to 13 BA2s. I've also loaded them via ESM modules. Those two combined got rid of constant stuttering and has reduced CPU load for me.
Thanks to Unikko, this was all super easy.
I am also using ESMs and loading everything via Mod Organizer 2. Old faithful.
SPECIALLY the mods that have more than 1 load order ... as in (optional downloads) that you have to load after the main mod...
can you please explain to me ?
I expect to only get those extracted now, but it is still extracting the whole starfield.esm folder with all other dds files, which I do not want.
BAE can do this, can BAMgr do it, too?
I would say the tool does not make a difference when you tick a folder.
Scenario "Open ba2, open the tree, untick the main (nothing is selected)."
I'm sure it didn't behave that way before, so somewhere in the update I must have made a bug.
I will try to fix this asap.
thanks for the report.