User:SynthetikHD/MassEffect

Guide Forum Thread

THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR:
Mass Effect on Patch 1.02

Version History

• January 21, 2016
  • First version of guide started

Introduction

Goals of the guide: Skip the startup videos Set options to the highest possible ini tweaks fixing sprint texture pack Enb

The main goal of this guide is to make your The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition look as good as possible while improving the overall balance of the game and fixing some minor bugs that appeared in the Enhanced Edition. The guide will stay true to the vanilla look and feel of the game and simply further enhance it. The graphical improvements/mods will cause somewhat of a FPS hit, on my machine the hit was quite negligible though, but most modern PCs that can already run The Witcher 2 on ultra should be able to use this guide no problem. If you are wondering if your computer can handle it, then see if your PC meets the recommended specs below. There's not really much more for me to say so, let's just get started!

Without the support of STEP, this guide would not be possible. If you would like to make a donation, that would be awesome! Do so with Paypal.

ALL donations are applied to hosting expenses.

Mass Effect Modding

This guide is separated into ? sections, I will cover eachasdfafadsfk;lda;klfk;l:

• Installation Setup

Installing Mass Effect in the correct place and disabling the Origin Overlay

• Skipping the Startup Videos

Deleting the start screen videos to make the game load up faster.

• Options

Setting the game options to the highest possible.

• INI Tweaking

Tweaking graphics and shadow stingsf runs fsf fuckkk

• Optional Mods
• ENB Setup
• Finalizing

A few things to note beforehand.

It is advised to follow the guide in order it is written and to not skip any mods or steps. When copying or moving files or folders anywhere throughout this guide you should always: overwrite, replace, or merge when asked.
Unless you are told to do so, don't launch the game until you have finished all the steps in the guide.

System Requirements

I recommend the following minimum hardware configuration for running and modding Mass Effect.

Hardware	Minimum
Windows OS	Windows 7/8.1/10 (64 Bit)
CPU	Intel Core i3 (Dual Core)
System RAM	4GB
GPU	2GB VRAM

Installation Setup

This guide assumes that the user is beginning with a clean Mass Effect installation. If you already have the game installed please back up any files or game saves you wish to keep then reinstall Mass Effect. It is recommended to install Mass Effect to an SSD if available, and preferably separate from the drive with Windows. Mass Effect should be installed outside of "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" folders as Windows User Account Control can cause issues with games.

If you have installed your copy of Mass Effect through Origin, you must disable the Origin Overlay as it does not work with some mods. To do this, open Origin, click the gear icon in the top-right. Then go Settings > In-Game > Uncheck "Enable Origin In-game".

Skipping the Startup Videos

After Mass Effect is done downloading, we will first delete the startup videos and splash screens to make the game load up faster.

Navigate to "Mass Effect\BioGame\CookedPC\Movies"

Delete the following files:
"BWLogo.bik"
"db_standard.bik"
"ME_EAsig_720p_v2_raw.bik"

Options

Now launch the game for the first time and once you get to the main menu click [Options] then [Settings] then [Graphics] and set the options as follows:

• Windowed Mode: Set to Off.
• Particle Effects: Set to High.
• Resolution: Set your screen resolution.
• Dynamic Shadows: Set to Yes.
• Texture Detail: Set to Ultra-High.
• Filtering Mode: Set to Anisotropic.
• Motion Blur: Set to Yes.
• Wait for Vertical Sync: Set to Yes if you have screen tearing issues or a 60Hz monitor. Set to No if you play higher than 60fps.
• Film Grain: Set to Yes.

Click [Apply] when you are sure your settings match those above and return to the previous menu and then click [Sound] and set the option as follows:

• Hardware Audio: Set to Yes.

Click [Apply] when you are sure your settings match those above then exit the game.

INI Tweaking

The INI files we will be tweaking are located in the "\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config" directory. The files we will be editing are BIOEngine.ini, BIOGame.ini and BIOInput.ini.

Each of the following entries can be pasted directly into the INI. The entry descriptions are commented, so they will not be interpreted by the game at startup. Alternatively, these descriptions can be omitted. Descriptions are only provided on tweaks that needed explaining. There are too many tweaks to list what each one does, but know that all are required.

BIOEngine.ini

[Engine.GameEngine]
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=60.000000
;Set to whatever frame rate you will be playing at

ShadowFilterRadius=2.000000 or 3.50000 or 5.000000
DepthBias=0.006000 or 0.008000
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=4096
ModShadowFadeDistanceExponent=0.000000

[SystemSettings]
ShadowFilterQualityBias=4
;This line shows twice in this section, so make sure to change both

Trilinear=TRUE
MaxAnisotropy=16

[TextureStreaming]
PoolSize=564

[TextureLODSettings]
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)
;Just copy and paste these over the existing lines

BIOGame.ini

[BIOC_Base.BioPawnBehavior]
m_bAllowPhysicsOnDeadBodies=TRUE

[BIOC_Base.BioPawn]
m_fCorpseCleanupFirstAttemptTime=60.0
m_fCorpseCleanupAttemptRetryTime=30.0

BIOInput.ini

[Engine.Console]
ConsoleKey=Tilde

[BIOC_Base.BioPlayerInput]
Bindings=(Name="LeftShift",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="SprintOn | OnRelease SprintOff | ToggleVehicleZoom | SetRunSpeed 600 | OnRelease SetRunSpeed 400",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False) or 480 default maybe
;Just copy and paste this over the existing line

Removing RAM Limit

In order to run the following mod without issues, the game needs to be allowed to use more than 2GB of RAM, which is its programed limit. To edit this programed limit, download and install CFF Explorer. This utility will allow users to alter .EXE files. Follow these instructions to edit the Mass Effect executable:

WARNING:

DO NOT use the LAA Patch method listed on the author's Nexus page. This has caused instability and crashes during testing. Only use the method below!

1. Install CFF Explorer
2. Navigate to "\Mass Effect\Binaries" folder
3. Right click on MassEffect.exe
4. Click on "Open with CFF Explorer"
5. Click "No" to the pop-up.
6. In the left pane, click on "File Header"
7. In the right pane, on the bottom row that says "Characteristics" click where is says "Click here"
8. Check the box next to "App can handle >2gb address space" and click "OK"
9. Now in the menu bar at the top click "File >> Save As..."
10. Save the file as MassEffect2.exe. DO NOT save as MassEffect.exe and overwrite!
11. Close CFF Explorer
12. In your Binaries folder, right click on MassEffect.exe and click "Rename"
13. Rename it to "MassEffect_original.exe". This preserves the original file in case there is an issue and it needs to be revert back.
14. Finally, right click on the saved file, MassEffect2.exe and rename it to "MassEffect.exe".
15. You're now ready to install the mod.

M.E.U.I.T.M.

Mass Effect Update/Improvement Textures Mod (M.E.U.I.T.M.) sets out on a mission to improve the Mass Effect's textures in a way that doesn't alter the original concept of these textures. They are upscaled to higher resolutions, re-painted, have added/enhanced details and bump maps, and some of the normal maps have also been rebuilt. This gives the textures a higher quality look and an overall polished feel. Not only has the author improved the textures, the Lighting and Shadow maps on the walls and floors have also been improved. Finally, the author gives us a new Film Grain texture that mimics the grain texture found in Mass Effect 2, which is far improved from the muddy grain of the default texture in Mass Effect. The best thing about this overhaul is that even though Mass Effect was released in 2008 on the PC, it's still currently being updated! (at the time of this writing)

There are two ways to download this mod. The best way is with a torrent client. Click the "MUEITM torrent Link v032214" main file for the download. This will download a .zip archive. Extract this file and open the torrent file in a torrent client to start the download. The second method, which doesn't require a torrent client is to download the mod in two parts via .zip archives by clicking the "MEUITM Part1" and "MEUITM Part2" main files. These files are very large! The torrent method is highly recommended!

Mod: M.E.U.I.T.M
Size: 4.21GB
Website: MEUITM on Nexus

Installation

To install the torrent, extract the archive, right click on the .EXE file and click "Run as administrator". Point to your Mass Effect installation folder when asked and install the mod. This will take several minutes to complete. Once it's done, click "Finish".

Clean the Shader Cache

Before running the game, the shader cashe should be cleared. Open "MassEffectConfig.exe" located in your Binaries folder ( ...\Mass Effect\Binaries ). Click the "Repair" button on the left and then click the "Delete Local Shader Cache Files". Now click on the "Video" button on the left to ensure the settings are correct. If so, simply exit the program. If not, correct the settings and then save them by clicking "Mass Effect" at the top and clicking "Save Settings".

Set the Compatibility Mode

Mass Effect apparently doesn't like to run on 64-bit systems very well. If running a 64-bit version of Windows, doing this step will help protect you against the "General Protection Fault" error. It could be beneficial doing this on 32-bit systems as well; however, I have no way of testing this. Users on 64-bit systems will need to set the game to run in compatibility mode. To do this, at least Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 with 1GB of free system RAM and 15 GB of free disk space is required. Here's how:

1. Navigate to the installation folder ( ...\Mass Effect ). Here you will see a file called "MassEffectLauncher.exe".
2. Right click on this file and choose "Properties".
3. Click the "Compatibility" tab at the top of the window that opens.
4. Here, check the box for "Run this in compatibility mode for:" and choose "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" from the drop-down menu.
5. Next, click the box for "Run this program as an administrator" at the bottom and click the Apply button.
6. Exit the window.

Now open the "Binaries" folder. Repeat the above steps for the "MassEffect.exe" file.

NOTE:

If you're using a no-CD fixed EXE file, you may receive an error message when using the MassEffectLauncher.exe to launch the game. The messages states the game has been compromised and directs to you to reinstall the game. There is no need for this. You can fix this two ways. 1) Block the Mass Effect Game and Mass Effect Launcher from the Internet by using Windows Firewall. 2) Simply launch the game from the cracked MassEffect.exe located in the Binaries folder. Either will work. Personal Note: Ethical or not, I'm personally a fan of no-CD cracks due to not having to keep up with all of the disks (which are tucked away in my closet) for the games I play. I'm sure there are many of you that feel the same. Don't spam me with topics regarding this ethical issue.

Mass Effect Cinema Mod

https://www.moddb.com/mods/mass-effect-3-cinema-mod

Defrag

If the mod above was installed, it just added/replaced several gigabytes of files in Mass Effect. At this point, it's a good idea to defrag you hard drive. Skip this step if Mass Effect has been installed to a solid state drives (SSDs). I recommended Auslogics Disk Defrag for HDD users. It's free and does a better and faster job than Windows. Whichever program that is chosen, run it to defrag the entire drive where Mass Effect was installed.

Finalizing

One last thing must be taken care of before you can start playing your game. Simply..

Start your normal Witcher 2 launcher (not the tweak launcher)
Click on Mods
Make sure all boxes are ticked and Save and Exit
Start The Witcher 2 Tweaker
Make sure your settings still match the settings in the picture at the top as they likely changed due to the last step

NOTE: If you are playing The Witcher 2 through Steam, you must disable the in-game Steam Overlay. If you are not playing through Steam, ignore this, if you are..

Right click on The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition in Steam
Uncheck Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game

Now you're all good to go! You can now enjoy The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition..enhanced!

WARNING

Do NOT start the tutorial in the game. You risk bugging your game and will need to reinstall everything again.

WARNING

Alt+Tabbing may crash your game. When you first launch the game try to Alt+Tab and if it crashes remember to save before you Alt+Tab because your game WILL crash every time.

Support, Feedback, and Credits

If you need support for the mod, ask via a forum thread on the STEP Community forums. Any questions, suggestions or feedback should be posted there.

Credits:
Me, aka Synthetik - For taking all the time out of my day to write this.
EssArrBee, Neovalen and Rootsrat - For the guide style sheet.
EssArrBee - Once again for helping me start the guide.
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