How the graphic packs work (satisfy my curiosity)

[Xylothia 3]

So while getting the enhanced edition to work on my Sacred 2 game I noticed that some of the changes was simply a new zipped folder with version of graphic files (I think that is what they were at least), numbered higher than the existing (zipped) folders.. Does that mean that if you want to change something (graphics) you add the change to such a folder and the game engine will apply it on top of the existing graphics?! (and could one consolidate all the pak's to one pack by simply adding all the files from the newest to the previous one?! (would that save time on start up?)))

[Androdion 884]

If the graphics pak is of a number above 20 it should relate to HD textures, or any form of added custom textures. For a more technical explanation please refer to the maker of the mod.

[Xylothia 3]

Yes. But my question was if they are applied layerwise, and sequentially. And the answer is yes. But something else is going on too. Since if I just remove graphics25/26 then the engine is looking for files that arent there (and keeps runing regardless). Try removing graphics19 you will have an 'invisible' dragon mage (graphics19 seems to contain all the updated graphics/textures for the expansion).

This is not a recomendation to play the game that way. I just found it interesting that it still starts up.

Edit: I suppose this is one of the sources of incompatibility between mods. One of the options in EE is simply graphics29 (overhaul of npc pics). So I am guessing graphics 27 and 28 are used in alternate projects by flix. 

But I would like to try to unpack the lot of them. Copy one on to the other, step by step, in reverse sequence until I simply have graphics1 and rezip it. And see if the game doesn't run just fine. for example.. there are no hq/maps/heroes/highelve before graphics25 But if you moved it to a previous pack, I don't think it breaks anything. Will try that soonish.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Xylothia
addition comment

[Flix 5,116]

You don't even have to pack them.  You could also leave them as loose folders in the pak folder, so long as the folder path structure matches that inside the zip files.  I typically do this while working on projects, only placing the files into zip archives when it's time to upload it.

However we found that unpacking all the files and leaving them that way made load times and performance worse.