Soldato
Before starting off I fully recommend registering your CDKEY from steam to use on Origin works even if you installed to steam already! although I would uninstall it before using origin. The origin version seems to have less issues running on win7/8 and comes pre-patched and includes some DLC for free!
Greetings all, recently I have been replaying Mass effect but when I first revisited it.. well it looked terrible! guess I have been spoiled by games like Crysis 3 and BF4 so here is a little list of tips to make it a much better experience
Confirmed working on Origin/Stand alone version, I have not tested steam personally but it should work fine although obviously directories will be slightly different.
High res texture mod:
Does what it say's on the tin, increases or makes textures better on most things possible,
http://www.moddb.com/mods/mass-effect-1-new-texture-updatesimprovements-mod
download latest via this page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/mass-effect-1-new-texture-updatesimprovements-mod/downloads
Had the very occasional crash with it but overall game looks 10x better with just this
[Disclaimer: Remember to save your game OFTEN , a crash can put you back quite far although It shouldn't crash too much]
the colours look a little off so we are going to use SweetFX to fix that and make it more cinematic.
Download SweetFX Configurator with SweetFX 1.5.1 included
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/64SMJpf/7/blob?download
Extract and run the configurator as administrator
click Add new game and you will want to go to the game directory>binaries and add the MassEffect.exe as shown here
Now that you have it added you can either tweak around with settings yourself or try out a few different profiles as mileage may vary
Hit Save/Load config and import
Link to various profiles:
http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/162/
Link to my current profile:
https://mega.co.nz/#!B8sUzJzK!U816noZ8ehBSXcNDBqrsQj9nVEMk5vMKN-ykuUSc7hk
Now that's all done Keep SweetFX open and load up Mass Effect, scroll lock is default key for On/Off
Oooo It's so pretty! play around with in game Gamma settings for better effects. Improves 90% of cut scenes/dialog scenes but some are hit and miss. Overall the game in general feels more cinematic with SFX enabled.
Lastly lets deal with the jaggies
Now you can use the SMAA built in with SweetFX, I have not tested it with ME myself as I have a bonus for Nvidia users!
AMD users can attempt to force AA through driver or use SMAA.
Nvidia users only!
First off if you don't have it go grab Nvidia inspector
http://www.guru3d.com/files_get/nvidia_inspector_download,1.html
If you have never used it before run it and hit this button:
taking you to this screen:
Go ahead and start typing Mass effect where I have put a red line till you have the ME profile up
Here is what I'm currently using , the bits underlined are most important.
Feel free to play around as mileage may vary, depends on your GPU and rest of your system.
However I feel SGSSAA and MSAA combined are very nice, even 2x/2x was brilliant for me!
Apply changes and you're good to go, It's beautiful right?
Unfortunately I cannot post screenshots of before and after the texture mod, just take it from me that it's a vast improvement
however I am able to post screenshots of SweetFX enabled/disabled
Warning very large, and the screenshots don't do it justice in the slightest.
Looks more subtle in the SS but in game the difference is immense.
Bigger inventory(Remember to make a backup before editing!)
first locate your BIOParty.ini file in either
Vista: \Users\<your name here>\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config
XP: My Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Config
Now you need to look for these two lines:
m_nMaxInventoryItems=150
m_nMaxInventoryWarningThreshold=135
You can change them to a larger number.
For instance:
m_nMaxInventoryItems=750
m_nMaxInventoryWarningThreshold=700
I just increased it to 7500/7000 , game seems perfectly fine and I have over 2k Items at this point
Greetings all, recently I have been replaying Mass effect but when I first revisited it.. well it looked terrible! guess I have been spoiled by games like Crysis 3 and BF4 so here is a little list of tips to make it a much better experience
Confirmed working on Origin/Stand alone version, I have not tested steam personally but it should work fine although obviously directories will be slightly different.
High res texture mod:
Does what it say's on the tin, increases or makes textures better on most things possible,
http://www.moddb.com/mods/mass-effect-1-new-texture-updatesimprovements-mod
download latest via this page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/mass-effect-1-new-texture-updatesimprovements-mod/downloads
Had the very occasional crash with it but overall game looks 10x better with just this
[Disclaimer: Remember to save your game OFTEN , a crash can put you back quite far although It shouldn't crash too much]
the colours look a little off so we are going to use SweetFX to fix that and make it more cinematic.
Download SweetFX Configurator with SweetFX 1.5.1 included
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/64SMJpf/7/blob?download
Extract and run the configurator as administrator
click Add new game and you will want to go to the game directory>binaries and add the MassEffect.exe as shown here
Now that you have it added you can either tweak around with settings yourself or try out a few different profiles as mileage may vary
Hit Save/Load config and import
Link to various profiles:
http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/game/162/
Link to my current profile:
https://mega.co.nz/#!B8sUzJzK!U816noZ8ehBSXcNDBqrsQj9nVEMk5vMKN-ykuUSc7hk
Now that's all done Keep SweetFX open and load up Mass Effect, scroll lock is default key for On/Off
Oooo It's so pretty! play around with in game Gamma settings for better effects. Improves 90% of cut scenes/dialog scenes but some are hit and miss. Overall the game in general feels more cinematic with SFX enabled.
Lastly lets deal with the jaggies
Now you can use the SMAA built in with SweetFX, I have not tested it with ME myself as I have a bonus for Nvidia users!
AMD users can attempt to force AA through driver or use SMAA.
Nvidia users only!
First off if you don't have it go grab Nvidia inspector
http://www.guru3d.com/files_get/nvidia_inspector_download,1.html
If you have never used it before run it and hit this button:
taking you to this screen:
Go ahead and start typing Mass effect where I have put a red line till you have the ME profile up
Here is what I'm currently using , the bits underlined are most important.
Feel free to play around as mileage may vary, depends on your GPU and rest of your system.
However I feel SGSSAA and MSAA combined are very nice, even 2x/2x was brilliant for me!
Apply changes and you're good to go, It's beautiful right?
Unfortunately I cannot post screenshots of before and after the texture mod, just take it from me that it's a vast improvement
however I am able to post screenshots of SweetFX enabled/disabled
Warning very large, and the screenshots don't do it justice in the slightest.
Looks more subtle in the SS but in game the difference is immense.
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Screenshots really don't do it justice!
It may not look like a big change but I can assure you it totally does the job
On
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Screenshots really don't do it justice!
It may not look like a big change but I can assure you it totally does the job
Bigger inventory(Remember to make a backup before editing!)
first locate your BIOParty.ini file in either
Vista: \Users\<your name here>\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config
XP: My Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Config
Now you need to look for these two lines:
m_nMaxInventoryItems=150
m_nMaxInventoryWarningThreshold=135
You can change them to a larger number.
For instance:
m_nMaxInventoryItems=750
m_nMaxInventoryWarningThreshold=700
I just increased it to 7500/7000 , game seems perfectly fine and I have over 2k Items at this point
Last edited:
) etc., but I'm curious to see what others think I'd benefit from. Currently my ME consists of 2x SGSSAA, SSAO, M.E.U.I.T.M. (