Update: added screenshot tools
Dunno if making basic guides for modding all 3 games is worth a new thread, but here's a run through on modding mass effect 1:
BACK UP YOUR SHIT
BACK UP YOUR SHIT
BACK UP YOUR SHIT
Specifically, back up the following directory:
DocumentsBioWareMass Effect before moving forward with this. Also,
TURN OFF GAME AUTO-UPDATE IN ORIGIN/STEAM
TURN OFF GAME AUTO-UPDATE IN ORIGIN/STEAM
TURN OFF GAME AUTO-UPDATE IN ORIGIN/STEAM
Note: If this gets fucked up, not my fault. But PM me if you have issues, and I'll try to help.
To start- enable the console.
DocumentsBioWareMass EffectConfig
BioInput.ini
Open this up in the text editor of your choice, and head over to [Engine.Console] section. If it's not already there, put the following under it:
Once you've done this, you should see the minimum in BioInput.ini:
Code:
[Engine.Console]
MaxScrollbackSize=1024
HistoryBot=0
ConsoleKey=Tilde
This is going to allow you to use console commands in the game and turn it on via the ~ key. I'll go over later why for me it's useful for screenarchery.
Tweaks:
DocumentsBioWareMass EffectConfig
BioInput.ini
Add the following to the [BIOC_Base.BioPlayerInput] section of this ini.
Code:
Bindings=(Name="F10", InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE, Command="ToggleFlyCam | ToggleHUD | PlayersOnly",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
Bindings=(Name="MiddleMouseButton",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="SloMo 10 | OnRelease SloMo 1",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
The first binding essentially sets a toggle to F10 to pause the game, turn off the HUD, and turn on flycam. Hitting F10 should put everything back to normal again.
The second binding is a quality of life tweak to add a fast-forward button to the game. Basically hold down middle-click to speed up the game 10x and let go to turn back to normal.
Now, it's going to be possible for you to add your own bindings for stuff like tiledshot and FOV but personally since I use a wide enough variety of FOV inputs and I generally don't use tiledshot at all, it's not something I have in my config. That said, here's how it works for folks that
do want to take advantage; you can add a bindings to [BIOC_Base.BioPlayerInput] like:
Code:
Bindings=(Name="L", InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE, Command="TiledShot 3",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=True)
Bindings=(Name="K",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="FOV 25",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=True)
Bindings=(Name="J",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="FOV 120",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=True)
Bindings=(Name="H",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="FOV 0",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=True)
The first will slowly take a giant screenshot from the top left down to the bottom right when pressing Alt+L. Similar to the brenizer method in photography. Basically if you use
tileshot 3 while your game resolution is 1920x1080, it's going to take 9 screenshots (a 3x3 grid) and stitch them together to make a larger 5760x3240 screenshot. I... strongly recommend against doing this while downsampling (certainly from 4k anyway) for obvious reasons. Additionally since this isn't exactly a quick process- make sure that you've paused the game via PlayersOnly before doing this. Again, I've personally never cared for TiledShot since downsampling and fov changes suit my use case better but there you go.
Now, the following 3 are FOV commands, Alt+K, Alt+J, and Alt+H change the FOV to 25, 120, and default (0 = default) respectively. Since I like experimenting with a wider range of values I don't use or have these bindings in my config myself as I just use the console to play around with it. But for those who want a wider FOV during gameplay, you can use a binding to set a field of view to whatever pleases you.
There are additional quality of life mods
here, that include inventory size changes. Inventory management is a custerfuck no matter what you do though.
Example:
Code:
m_nMaxInventoryItems=150
m_nMaxInventoryWarningThreshold=135
Set the integers to whatever you want.
Texture modding:
As a preface, there's several things you ought to do first:
Install the
Large Address Awareness patch. Unzip it to the directory of your choice, run it, search for the game .exe, and apply the patch. Simple.
Next is a series of ini tweaks you need to make to DocumentsBioWareMass EffectConfig
BioEngine.ini - also, don't fuck up the spelling/typing here. Seriously, don't.
Change:
Code:
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Diff=(MinLODSize=32,MaxLODSize=512,LODBias=0)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Norm=(MinLODSize=32,MaxLODSize=512,LODBias=0)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Spec=(MinLODSize=32,MaxLODSize=256,LODBias=0)
to:
Code:
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Diff=(MinLODSize=512,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Norm=(MinLODSize=512,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character_Spec=(MinLODSize=256,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0)
Change:
Code:
DepthBias=0.030000
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=512
ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
to:
Code:
DepthBias=0.006000
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=4096
ShadowFilterQualityBias=4
Once you've done all this, download and install
MEUITM by the illustrious and brilliant
C3Anderson. Note, issues are going to probably crop up for AMD CPU users. For those of you with AMD CPUs with issues, he addresses them in the mod's description.
Downsampling:
This game can run a fucking toaster nowadays, so if you've got a modern gaming PC there's no reason to not do this. You've got two options: GEDOSATO or via AMD/Nvidia software. For AMD folks go
here and skip down to
How to Enable Virtual Super Resolution, and for Nvidia folks, go
here. Now, if you want to use Durante's GeDoSaTo from
here with instructions included.
ReShade:
Not everyone likes how ReShade effects look but you can find it
here, or a direct download
here. To use it, fire up the ReShade Assistant and hit
+ in the Profiles tab to create a new game profile- then search for and select the game exe, and hit "Open". Then make sure D3D9 is selected and press "Confirm". Once you've made a profile- while your Profile is highlighted/selected, mouse over to the Presets tab and hit
+ to make a new preset. Once you do that, name it what you wish (I just used "ME1" for both the profile and preset names) and check off the effects you want. I haven't ever got depth of field or ambient occlusion to work through reshade though (might work through nvidia profile inspector but it's acting shitty for me so I can't test it).
Controller mod:
I don't use this myself and I probably wouldn't use it while doing screenarchery or using keybindings anyway. For those that do want to use it, go
here to find instructions and downloads for it. The main reason that I haven't really gone in depth about this is due to my own lack of interest in using a controller for this game.
screenshot tools:
First thing, do normal full-screen, don't do borderless window. Secondly, if you're on Windows 10, you can use Win+Alt+PrntScr to take a screen grab or if you're using reshade, hitting Print Screen will send a PNG to your binaries folder where your mass effect exe is located. Alternatively you can use Raptr, GeForce Experience, Radeon Pro, FRAP, or GEDOSATO.
Samples:
