How to convert a mod yourself

While it may seem hard and confusing it is very easy to convert a skyrim mod yourself.

First of all what you can not do:

It is not possible to convert armor meshes.
That means no custom armor of any kind on Xbox 360.
High definition textures need to be scaled down.
We are playing on the XBox 360 here and not your high end pc.

If this did not completly shatter your modding dreams we can continue.

The following download contains all the tools you will need following this tutorial to convert most of the mods you will come across.

Includes:
TES Archive.exe - To extract and create .bsa files
Le Fluffie - to create dlc files

Download:
Mirror 1 (Dropbox)

Step 1 Preparation

Create a folder where you will do your work and inside that folder create another one called "Data" so it should look like this.
C:\Mod
C:\Mod\Data

Now extract the mod you want to convert into the Mod folder. You should now see some files with the ending .esp .esm and some folders like "textures", "meshes" etc.
The folders get moved to the "Data" folder, .esp and .esm stay where they are and if you should have a .bsa file you extract it using the TES Archive to the Data folder.
Folder structure should look like this now.

C:\Mod\themod.esp
C:\Mod\Data\textures
C:\Mod\Data\meshes
C:\Mod\Data\sounds
and so on.

Step 2 Preprocessing

Now it is time to have a look inside the Data folder and look around if anything catches our eye. If the mod contains meshes and you find them in a pair like mesh_1.nif and mesh_0.nif you can expect the mod to not working correctly or in worst case scenario not working at all. (mesh_1.nif and mesh_0.nif are most of the time armor and clothing)

If the .dds textures are high definition (1024x1024 or bigger) your XBox 360 might not be able to handle them. Trial and error is here the way to go but if the mod mentions slow down on slow computers you should resize them. Try to cut them to half or quarter (1024x1024 -> 256x256)

If you do not have a tool to resize .dds files give Paint.net a try. It is free and an awesome graphic tool.

If you come across any files which replace official skyrim files (e.g. Mod Quality Roads) you will need to extract the "Skyrim - Textures.bsa" add the .dds texture into the place where you can find the same file with the ending .ddx and delete the .ddx file. Then create a new "Skyrim - Textures.bsa", delete the .bsl file and copy it back to your game folder. The flags you need to set can be seen at the end of this guide.

Step 3 Finish Data

Now we put the Data folder into a .bsa

Open the TES Archive.exe, select Add directory and select the Data folder inside your Mod folder.

Name it like your .esp and save it inside your Mod folder. You can delete the .bsl file.

Step 4 Creating our DLC

Now it is time to finally create our DLC which we can copy to our XBox 360.

1. Start le Fluffie

2. Go File -> Package Creation

3. Select STFS and click OK

4. In the drop down menu select Marketplace

5. Change the title ID to 425307E6

6. Right click in the squares at the bottom right and add an image you like. Just use one of these. 

7. Right click on the top side box and select add files. Select your esm, esp and bsa files.

8. Enter a Display Title. The Display Title is the title which is shown inside Skyrim in your Addon menu.

9. Choose any name you want as publisher

10. Use Skyrim as Internal Title

11. Switch to Finalization Tab

12. Check Dev LIVE

13. Click Create Package

14. Wait for le Fluffie to finish

15. If le Fluffie opened your new package everything is done and you can close it.

Now copy your mod to skyrim dlc folder on your XBox and enjoy.

TESArchive flags used on official Xbox360 bsa's

Skyrim - Animations.bsa: Compress Archive, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Interface.bsa: Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Meshes.bsa: Meshes, Compress Archive, Retain Strings During Startup, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Misc.bsa: Retain File Names, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Shaders.bsa: Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Sounds.bsa: Sounds, Voices, Retain File Names, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Textures.bsa: Textures, Xbox 360 Archive, Embed File Names

Skyrim - Voices.bsa: Voices, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - Voices2.bsa: Voices, Xbox 360 Archive

Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa: Voices, Xbox 360 Archive

Update.bsa: Retain File Names, Xbox 360 Archive

Update2.bsa: Retain File Names, Xbox 360 Archive

Dawnguard.bsa: Meshes, Textures, Sounds, Voices, Retain File Names, Retain Strings During Startup, Xbox 360 Archive