BA2 Limit Fix

## Functionality

Starfield normally uses an 8-bit index for loaded BA2 archives, providing 256 addressable slots from index 0 through 255. Large mod lists can exhaust this range, preventing later archives from loading correctly and potentially causing missing assets or crashes.

BA2 Limit Fix extends both Starfield's ordinary GNRL archive registry and its streamed DX10 texture archive registry to logical indices 0 through 65,534. This provides a theoretical maximum of 65,535 addressable archives in each registry.

The plugin extends archive registration, accepted archive entries, synchronous and asynchronous resource retrieval, entry replication, texture stream selection and texture metadata lookup.

The change is entirely runtime-side and is applied automatically during early startup. It does not modify BA2 files, plugins or save games.

This mod is compatible with Starfield versions 1. 16. 236 and 1. 16. 244.

It automatically logs the number of registered GNRL and DX10 archives to:

Documents\My Games\Starfield\SFSE\Logs\BA2LimitSF.log

Please note: if you use Starfield Engine Fixes and you previously enabled bBA2Counter=1, change it back to bBA2Counter=0 before exceeding the original BA2 limit. Otherwise, Engine Fixes may display its legacy limit dialog and stop archive loading at the original boundary.

## Testing

Automated tests were done to test archive-index boundaries, the reserved 0xFFFF value, stable overflow storage, archive lifecycle resets, and concurrent access, with diagnostics with dedicated GNRL and DX10 archive probes.

Starfield was live-tested with 260 GNRL and 260 DX10 fixture archives. The plugin read an exact known GNRL payload from full archive index 258 and an exact known DX10 payload from logical index 260. Synchronous, asynchronous and replication retrieval were exercised, together with both live DX10 stream-selection and metadata paths. The run recorded 1,757,274 overflow-path hits across 10 instrumented paths with zero failures.

Another tester live-tested using a real mod list containing 350 GNRL archives, including 94 above the original boundary, and 277 DX10 archives, including 21 above the boundary. The session recorded 183,230 diagnostic hits at its checkpoint with zero failures. Continued play exercised both live DX10 consumers at full archive index 276.

## Credits

SFSE Team - Starfield Script Extender

Mith077 - Daytripper