Description
How to install and set-up the new Creation Kit for Skyrim Special EditionHow to install the Fallout 4 Creation Kit Voiced Dialogue and Lip files: Creation Kit Wiki B. First of all download and install the Creation Kit: Downloadable from inside the Bethesda.net Launcher. Then go to your Fallout 4 folder (where the file Fallout 4.exe is, for example, for Steam installations it is. Steam steamapps common Fallout 4 ) Go to the Tools folder (Fallout 4 Tools ) and look for a subfolder called NIFExporter. Here is a link to an ign intervew with todd howard, it explains exactly what mod support is ( or as you put it 'the 'it' that's being beta tested now' ) and at NO POINT does it mention the GECK or 'creation kit'.
The new Creation Kit for Skyrim: Special Edition is available directly from Bethesda.net rather than through Steam but is a little trickier.
First download the Bethesda.net Launcher
Run the installer as Administrator. The publisher should be verified and should be Zenimax.
It will prompt you to select your language and the next screen asks you where you want to install it. The default file path is C:Program Files (x86)Bethesda.net Launcher. I typically use C:ProgramsBethesda.net Launcher or D:Bethesda.net Launcher because of the UAC complications you can encounter otherwise.
Once you’ve selected your language and install location it actually installs it.
Once installed it will typically go through an automated update at the same time. Just wait, eventually the application will open depending on how decrepit your computer is feeling.
You'll then be prompted to sign in or create an account. This will be your credentials for their website and for the direct upload functionality to Bethesda.net from the new Creation Kit. Feel free to toggle Remember me
Note* If you cannot download/install and are not in the contiguous United States of America, you may need to use a VPN!
If you are having difficulties logging in (stuck on the spinning square)
- On windows 10 while you have a spinning square, open network and sharing center.
- Click change adapter settings.
- Right click on your active internet connection, select disable.
- Re-enable the connection in a few seconds and hope it works.
If you have only a giant grey box
- Check to see if there is a sysinfo.dat file (under 1kb) in the launcher directory. If there is not, create a sysinfo.txt
If your launcher is sliced in half/sideways/summoning Chattur'gha
- Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements
- Update your GPU
- Accept madness
Bethesda considerately adds a large list of favorites to your sidebar, none of which are the actual program you’re looking for. Remove these extraneous icons by clicking the next to each title.
Thankfully the Creation Kit starts with one of the first letters of the alphabet.
Click the big button after selecting Creation Kit: Skyrim
The installation box will pop up and display the default file path ...bethesda.net launchergames. Change the directory to ...bethesda.net launchergamesCreation Kit by selecting Change Location > Make New Folder and naming it Creation Kit. I hope you remembered to install the Launcher not in Program Files or Program Files (x86).
It will also provide a link to read the EULA located at ...Bethesda.net LauncherEULA10CKSSE_EULA.txt. I strongly recommend you read it. There is a lot of very important information regarding your rights and what Bethesda demands from you when you use their software. Failure to read the EULA and determine exactly what those things are places you at significant risk for the industry standard policy of “guilty until proven innocent” when it comes to perceived EULA violations.
Once done with your reading material, clicking install will begin the download. Once completed, it’s installed. You’re not done.
Shut down the Bethesda.net Launcher. Ensure it is not running in your System Tray. The only time you will ever use the Launcher with regards to the Creation Kit is if you have issues and need to update or reinstall the Creation Kit.
If you use the Bethesda.net Launcher of other programs I recommend backing up the Creation Kit folder. Updates may occur without your knowledge and they are rarely beneficial for the end user.
This can be done by simply copying the entire contents of ...Bethesda.net LaunchergamesCreation Kit and pasting it in ...SteamsteamappscommonSkyrim Special Edition. Overwrite when prompted.
Already properly installed? Start here!
I recommend using Notepad++ for the next bit. You’ll want to edit the CreationKit.ini and CreationKitPrefs.ini. Open up the CreationKit.ini to start with. You’re going to be adding a lot of info into this in order to make the Creation Kit usable. Out of the box it doesn’t actually work.
*Note: Many of these fixes seem to not have any effect. Using SSE CreationKit Fixes and placing the appropriate lines and sections in the Fixes ini file does.
If you remember the old Creation Kit for Skyrim, setting up this .ini is similar. There's a [General] section, [Archive] section, and [Papyrus] section (among others).
You can tweak this setting in your [General] section if you wish.
This setting already exists and 5 is the default value. You can increase it (recommend not going higher than 7) if you want to load more of an area in the Render Window immediately (performance hit) or decrease it to 1 or anywhere in between to improve cell load times and performance.
Also add the following line anywhere under [General]
Without this you will be unable to edit or create any mods that involve more than vanilla Skyrim including its own update file. But wait, there's more!
There isn't an [Audio] section, so add that line right above the [MAIN] line and underneath the last option in [General].
Your [Audio] Section should look like this.
This stops 99.9% of all crashes in the Creation Kit. Don't ask me why, I don't even care, it works and it's beautiful and you'll love it.
Turns off the annoying (but informative) popups when loading files in the Creation Kit. No more need to click through them all! The worst error messages will be preserved in the Warnings text box and EditorWarnings.txt file which is a new addition with the Special Edition Creation Kit.
Now can we turn on the Creation Kit? Yes! Well, almost. You can, but do one last thing first!
BACKUP YOUR CREATIONKIT.INI OR YOU MAY HAVE TO DO THIS WHOLE RIGAMAROLE OVER AGAIN.
I mean it. Make a backup. I just compress the file in 7z in the same folder the original is in for ease of restoration in the event something bad happens to my CreationKit.ini.
Running as Administrator should be second nature by now. It will pull up a prompt.
Doesn’t matter. Unless you’re planning on actively working on scripts immediately there’s no need. You can always do it later. The Scripts.zip folder will remain in your Data folder whenever you need it.
Once it's done the familiar Creation Kit splash screen will pop up and a blank gray box. After just a few seconds it will disappear and the default layout of the Creation Kit will pop up. No master files or mods are currently loaded. Everything is identical in appearance to the original Creation Kit except for a little 64-bit after the title and some menu changes.
Feel free to adjust the layout of the various menus and boxes and then click the red X to close it.
Optional INI File Tweaks
Now we’re going to work on the CreationKitPrefs.ini file.
This file remembers the window positions, Render Window settings, your account login for uploading, and numerous other important convenience and performance tweaks.
I change all of these to 0 because toggling markers off is the first thing I do when I load a cell in the render window.
Stores your Bethesda.net username in the Creation Kit for easier mod packaging/uploads to their website.
This is the number of mods visible in the upload/edit menu of the CK. It’s default setting is 98 so any mods over that number will no longer be able to be viewed or edited unless you increase the numerical value of this setting.
This sets script fragment prefixes. Any script fragments you generate will have this in front of them to identify them as yours. It may only be 4 characters long and consist of only letters, numbers, and underscores. Now’s a good time to think about what you want your modder prefix to be.
This tells the Creation Kit what to do when you double click on a script in the Creation Kit. 0 (the default) value opens the script in the external editor you have associated with .psc files. 1 value opens the script in the Creation Kit (I do not recommend). 2 value opens the properties of the script in the Creation Kit.
Sets how frequently the Creation Kit will autosave your plugin. The units are measured in minutes. I have personally never used this setting but it could be helpful if you are having an especially difficult time with lost work.
Don't forget to backup the CreationKitCustom.ini if you modify it! It will make for easier restoration if anything happens to the .ini or your settings!
Happy Modding!
Blank .ESP Files and You
If you are packaging a mod that would normally use only loose files and not need an .ESP - in order to make it use a blank .ESP it requires a few additional steps.
- Your .ESP should require Skyrim.esm as a masterfile.
- Once you have loaded your blank .ESP, save it
- Once you have saved your blank .ESP, reload the mod in the Creation Kit
- You may now package your loose files with a blank .ESP and should not encounter any problems for console or other users
| Under Construction: |
| This page is incomplete but all info is relevant! |
Introduction
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Archive2 is the official tool from Bethesda used to pack archives files for Fallout 4, known as .ba2
It is part of the toolpack that come with the Fallout4's Creation Kit.
For end-users, it is useful to re-pack files under .ba2, especially textures.
Installation
The creation kit and its toolpack have to be installed through the Bethesda.net launcher.
You can download the installer by clicking here
Once the download is complete, run BethesdaNetLauncher_Setup.exe to install it to the location of your choice.
Then, start the launcher (either from the shortcut if you chose to create one during the installation, or by launching BethesdaNetLauncher.exe ). You will be presented with this page:
If you don't already have a Bethesda.net account, you will need to create a one by clicking on CREATE ACCOUNT. If you already have one, simply enter your credentials to gain access to the launcher:
Simply select Creation Kit: Fallout 4 in the left panel, and click INSTALL on the bottom-left corner of the launcher. Accept the EULA, and leave the install options at default (except for shortcuts if you want/don't want them).
Wait for the download/installation to complete (less than 1 minute).
Congratulation ! You know have access the the FO4's creation kit and all of its toolset.
Utilization
Packing a single archive from scratch
You will find Archive2.exe in <gamefolder>ToolsArchive2
Simply double-click on it to have launch the application:
To add files to your archive, click on Archive -> Add Files... or Archive -> Add Folder..., browse your computer and add the relavant files with the proper folder architecture.
Once all the files you want into your .ba2 have been added, you can pack the .ba2 by clicking on File -> Save.
You will have to enter a name and choose the location of your archive. Your archive will then be generated according to your settings.
Creating a new archive
Instead of the above method, it is possible to first create the archive, then add files into it. This is pretty much the same, except that you're first prompted to enter the archive's settings when you create it.
To create a new archive, Click on Files -> New...
You will be prompted to enter the archive's settings. See Settings Configuration
Settings Configuration
To configure the settings of your archive, click on Archive -> Settings... to bring up this dialogue:
Archive Settings
Those settings affect the archive itself.
Format
Default: General
Options:
- General - Pack the archive as a regular .ba2
- DDS - Pack the archive optimized for textures
- XBoxDDS - Pack an archive optimized for textures and XBox
- GNF - Unknown, should allow for texture-storage optimization as well
Maximum Archive Size
Default: 17592186044415
Mutually exclusive with Archive Count.Set the size limits of an archive, in MB.
Note that despite this setting, the game itself can only load .ba2 under ~2GbThis is probably intended to limit further the size of archives when packaging for consoles.
Archive Count
Default: 0
Mutually exclusive with Maximum Archive Size.Believed to be usable to create multiple indexed archives (see FO4's textures .ba2 files).
Save String Table
Not 100% sure about this yet (well, this sure is to save a string table of the archived files somewhere, the question is where, and to which purpose).
File Settings
Those settings affect individual files stored in the archive. Only files added to the archive will have those settings taken into consideration, files already present will retain their previous compression level.
Compression
Default: Default
Options:
- None - No compression
- Default - Standard compression
- XBox - Xbox-specific compression
The compression of the file.
Max Chunk Count
Default: 4
Seems to be the maximal number of chunks before mipmaps are indexed individually.
The exact incidence of this setting is currently unknown.
Single Mip Chunk Area
Default : 512 x 512
Fallout 4 Launcher Download
Note that despite those default values, it'd seems that vanilla .ba2 are using 256x256 (to be confirmed).
The exact incidence of this settings is currently unknown.
Browsing and editing an archive
To browse the content of an archive, use File -> Open... and select a pre-existing .ba2 file.
The list of tiles is displayed on the main table. You can filter it with the text field at the top to only display specific files, either by sub-string match ('Normal' radio-button), or by regular expression ('Regex' radio-button).
From here, you can:
- Add new files to the archive, using Archive -> Add Files/Folder/Source Files...
- Remove files: Select them and press suppr or use Archive -> Remove Files
- Extract all the content of the archive to a specified location with Archive -> Extract All To...
- Extract specific files: Select them and use Archive -> Extract Selected To...
- Change the settings of the archive (keep in mind that only archive settings will take effects. File settings will affect only newly added files, not those already present).
Why and how re-packing texture packs
Texture-optimized archives improve the way textures are handled by the game, optimizing performances and VRAM usage.
Technicalities are... technical. Here are two quotes from ianpatt (f4se, originally dumped .ba2 for bsaextractor), and Jon (Nifskope, B.A.E.):
The Texture BA2s are an optimized format. They do not hold complete DDS files but instead are optimized for streaming certain miplevels into the game.
— Jon
There are two types of ba2 archives: general, and texture. General archives can contain anything, while texture archives are optimized for storing textures. There is no significant size advantage when comparing the two, but texture archives store textures in a more intelligent way that is friendlier to the runtime texture streamer. When reading a DDS file, finding the lower resolution textures requires seeking to, and therefore decompressing most of the file. This is inefficient, because in most cases you will care about the lower resolution mips first, when the object is off in the distance. Texture archives store any mips higher than 256x256 in their own separate blocks, while the 256x256 and below are all in their own block.
— ianpatt
Textures pack are often distributed as loose files, because they don't need any plugin. However, re-packing them as .ba2 can improve performance over loose files.
To repack a mod as a .ba2:
- Extract the mod's texture folder in a temporary location.
- Start Archive2.exe, select File -> New...
- In the settings, make sure that:
- Format is set to DDS
- Compression is set to default
- Add the mod's texture folder using Archive -> Add Folder...
- Save as a .ba2 using File -> Save As...
There is two ways to have a .ba2 loaded into the game :
Plugin's name match:
- Create a dummy plugin by simple opening the CK and saving. (In this example, PluginName.esp)
- Package your archive with the texture pack, and name it PluginName - Textures.ba2
- Make sure both are present in the Data folder, and that PluginName.esp is activated.
INI force feed:
- Package your archive with the texture pack. Name it whatever you want, such as MyTexturePack.ba2
- Add MyTexturePack.ba2 at the end of the list (separated by comma) of the sResourceIndexFileList setting in Fallout4.ini