Mass Effect 1 Surround sound?

KingDazza

KingDazza

KingDazza

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Hi,

Probably flogging a dead horse. But does anyone know if its possible to get 5.1 on the original Mass Effect through Nvidia HDMI audio on windows 7 64bit? Its been a few years since I've played it and seem to remember forcing it to work, but looking online it appears this isn't possible without an X-FI sound card.

Looking at doing the trilogy over Christmas and adding 5.1 would be a nice touch for this original old gem.

Cheers :)
 
It might be possible as its based on the unreal engine to play with the ini files and do something not officially supported as the engine has a few tricks up its sleeve not exposed by the game developers but unfortunately don't have it installed at the moment to have a play.
 
Thanks guys. I've tried most of the commonly known config tweaks out there, switching between hardware and software etc etc. But no luck. I might switch Windows 7 to stereo output and let my amp upmix to psuedo 5.1 just for this game if no other option. Shame though as 5.1 really helps the immersion for me.

Going back to a sound card isn't an option either really as my latest av receiver doesn't have 5.1 analogue inputs and so therefore only allows HDMI or optical. And of course optical means going Dolby Digital or DTS which is compressed. So whilst that's fine for maybe Mass Effect. It would be a step backwards for everything else on my PC. Guess that's progress for you.

Would be good to see an update/remake. With running ambient occlusion and obviously everything maxed, but with film grain off, it still looks fairly decent/passable to me. But I'd say its just starting to look aged to the point where by I wonder if I'd play it again a few years from now, especially if its missing 5.1.
 
vintage-x said:
Yeah I've read that. I hope its true and they don't just up the graphics but also fix some of the game play issues especially in the first one such as the cover system
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And weapons getting stuck in overheat until the next cutscene/checkpoint, where even quicksaving/loading doesn't help - a nightmare if you're playing soldier class.
 
Amraam said:
There are coalesced.ini mods out there that make gamepad support possible.
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Sort of.

I played Mass Effect 1 with a combo of controller and keyboard (keyboard for powers and commands)

Mass Effect 2 almost works, but you can't see what power or weapon you are selecting and the menu screen selection is completely backwards though

Mass Effect 3 was no good, had to use keyboard and mouse.

I hate playing with keyboard and mouse, but Mass Effect 3 was easy enough.
 
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Amraam said:
And weapons getting stuck in overheat until the next cutscene/checkpoint, where even quicksaving/loading doesn't help - a nightmare if you're playing soldier class.
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Strange never experienced that. Must have played through the first one half a dozen times now too and usually as a soldier class. Hope I'm not tempting fate saying that though lol
 
KingDazza said:
Strange never experienced that. Must have played through the first one half a dozen times now too and usually as a soldier class. Hope I'm not tempting fate saying that though lol
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Oh it happened to me every playthrough, almost every mission, across various PC builds and installs. Your heat bar would fill and where it hits overheat with the warning tone, it would stay there permanently, instead of fade back down. It rendered the weapon unsuable until the next checkpoint etc. It was even worse the the inferno/explosive rounds!

I want to play this game again now, I play about 7 hours of ME3MP per week, but now I'm really itching to pick up ME1 again, probably for the 8th or 9th time...
 
Amraam said:
Oh it happened to me every playthrough, almost every mission, across various PC builds and installs. Your heat bar would fill and where it hits overheat with the warning tone, it would stay there permanently, instead of fade back down. It rendered the weapon unsuable until the next checkpoint etc. It was even worse the the inferno/explosive rounds!

I want to play this game again now, I play about 7 hours of ME3MP per week, but now I'm really itching to pick up ME1 again, probably for the 8th or 9th time...
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Maybe I just don't overheat my weapons enough... interesting. About to start a new play through. Just deciding what class to go. I'm always tempted by the others but not sure how the abilities hot key stuff would sit with me and then always fall back on soldier kit. So glad I've fixed the 5.1 now :cool:
 
KingDazza said:
Maybe I just don't overheat my weapons enough... interesting. About to start a new play through. Just deciding what class to go. I'm always tempted by the others but not sure how the abilities hot key stuff would sit with me and then always fall back on soldier kit. So glad I've fixed the 5.1 now :cool:
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With ARs, I learned to be careful, but certain pistol, sniper and shotgun combinations could cause it to overheat in a single round. Even with the cooling coil mods!
 
Well I've always mainly used AR's and sniper rifles so maybe thats it. Anyway, not saying you're wrong btw of course :) Just that I cant recall ever experiencing it. Last time I ran through the series was about 3 years ago, so it has been a while.
 
KingDazza said:
I was just reading this on it and they reckon its profile dependent?

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/145276-the-overheat-bug-and-how-to-fix-it/

EDIT: and they advise against alt-tabbing out of the game.... but it at least appears that not everyone suffers from it.
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Thanks for that. It's a lot of work, so I'll just be careful :D I've been tweaking the game so I get the same amount of XP from killing things in the Mako as I would on foot. Makes progress to level 60 a bit quicker.
 
Hope it helps :)

If using my 5.1 fix anyone, make sure to disable eax1 and eax2 in the dssound ini that comes with it. Perfect 5.1 after that.

Well I'm going to use my existing soldier at lvl 48 I've decided, which will be the first time that I've not started with a fresh new charcter. Should put a new twist on the trilogy and also I'm going through on Hardcore. Wish me luck! The universe needs me again and I hear my calling!! lol
 
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