Welcome to:
Mass Effect 1 Updated/Improved Textures Mod
Hello Mass Effect modders and mod users,
I'm trying to fix some of the "uglies" in ME1 and give it the polished look the epic story line deserves. So far I have updated/re-textured: Light and Shadow Maps on walls and floors, Kaidan, Tali, Garrus, Wrex, Liara, Saren, Benezia, Udina, Council, Anderson, Joker, Chakwas, Geth, Colonists, Scientists, Keepers, Normandy, Mako, many NPC clothings, Geth ship, volus, hanar, elcor, some armors and default character armors including N7 armor (of characters re-textured). This was Acheived by texture editing (up-scaling, re-painting, adding details, adding textures, adding bump maps, and rebuilding normal maps). Finally, but probably my favorite, I made a new Film Grain Texture to replace the muddy Film Grain with a much less obnoxious ME2 "looking" effect. Now you can keep film grain on and still have a crisp picture.
Requests are always welcome 
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Let's get Started:
Pre-Install:
Apply LAA patch to MassEffect.exe
LAA Link
Download, extract, and run. Now browse for MassEffect.exe and apply Large Address Awareness Patch
Important: bioengine.ini tweak to fix many normal maps in the game without requiring TexMod. This file is located:
x:\\Users\\xxx\\Documents\\BioWare\\Mass Effect\\Config
**Note any typos will break the game and cause crashes so be careful here**
All mistakes can be fixed but if you avoid typos it will save a headache in the long run.
Find the following 3 entries:
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)
And change them to:
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)
This will allow you the highest detailed normal maps the game can render without needing TexMod which allows me not to have to modify many many normal maps.
Dynamic Shadow Fix
Use the following Bioengine.ini tweaks:
Find the following entries:
DepthBias=0.030000 or(0.012 if you restored to pre-official 1.2 patch values)
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=512
ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
And change them to:
DepthBias=0.006000
MinShadowResolution=32
MaxShadowResolution=4096
ShadowFilterQualityBias=4
The mod also will install new shadow shaders made by Daemonjax @ the Nexus sites (thank you Daemonjax for the great new shadows) These shaders will implement proper soft shadows and fix the wacky shadows of Mass Effect 1
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Now we are ready to download the mod:
Download Page
Download ALL 7 parts of the mod. Now simply extract ALL of the 7 parts into the same place of your choice and run the ME1UITM.exe. Follow the instructions of the installer. Be sure when it asks for the directory that it is your exact path to the "Mass Effect" folder. Back up your files before the install incase you don't like the mod and/or simply want to play the game unmodded, the installer will permanently mod your files. Continue with the install after you have backed everything up and in 5-10minutes, once the installer has completed run MassEffect like you always have and enjoy the mod
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Mass Effect Troubleshooting:
Mass Effect with or without the mod can crash and have issues!!!!!!! The most prominent issues and crashes are:
1 Hardware sound issues. These will cause random invalid page faults and crashes. There are pages and pages online of people with this issue back to 2008. Google is your friend here. Usually a fairly simple bioengine.ini fix which will vary depending on your audio hardware.
2 AMD processors (bulldozer or later chipsets) this is because Mass Effect is seeing AMD and looking for 3D now instruction sets that existed when it was made. AMD has ditched these instructions in their latest processors causing miss timings and faults in communication between Mass effect and the CPU. Due to this you will see black textures for characters and have potential crashes/general instability.
link to the bug way before this mod existed:
Social.bioware.com
video of the issue on un-modded game with workaround fix:
Youtube.com
Mod Troubleshooting:
Random crashing:
See Mass Effect troubleshooting first!
If all is well, check your bioengine.ini for typos as they will cause invalid page faults, missing mip level/lod/texture loads and many other random crashes. Better yet delete your Bioengine.ini and run the game, this will create a new one and will guarantee its free of errors.
If you still have errors, make sure you have applied LAA to Mass Effect.exe
If you have a 32-bit OS LAA can still help, but you need to do the following to allow 3gb usage "the 3.1 GB switch" in 32-bit Windows:
"Run Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Make sure to run as Administrator manually even if you are an admin on the computer, it requires extra admin rights granted by right clicking and running as an admin).
At the command prompt, enter:
"bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072" (without quotes)
Restart the computer"
Now LAA will work properly on 32-bit systems .
My shadows on faces are blocky I don't like it:
You didn't clear your shader cache before running the game because the shadows from Daemonjax completely resolve this problem.
There are 2 ways to clear the shader cache.
1) Find your install directory:...\Mass Effect\Binaries\ and run MassEffectConfig.exe. On the left hand sidebar, select the Repair option. Click the Delete Local Shader Cache Files button. That's it, you can close the config program and start the game normally and it will load the new soft shadow shaders.
2) Find your My Documents directory: x:\Users\xxx\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Published\CookedPC\ and delete the file named: "LocalShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM3.upk" That's it, you can now start the game normally and it will load the new soft shadow shaders.
Textures aren't showing up and/or are black (not the black character bug on Noveria this is and AMD processor issue):
This is a result of an incomplete install:
Check your "CookedPC" folder after installing the mod it should be at least 16.7 GB (some languages/regions may be larger) anything less means you will have missing textures, usually this happens as a result of not running the installer as administrator or using a previously modded Mass Effect as a base install. If you cannot get the install to the full 16.7GB or more, there is a work around. When the installer asks for your Mass Effect folder instead, point the installer to a new folder you have created, run it, and then copy/cut and paste all installed folders, should be 11.2GB, into your Mass Effect folder and say yes to overwriting.
Some textures (N7 armors Garrus face etc...) are shimmering it's annoying:
To get the mod to work I had to force these textures to load at full lod meaning 4096x4096, since no one has released affordable 4k monitors I'm guessing your running resolution will be lower than the source texture, and due to the fact that is full lod you will see shimmering unless very close to the texture. A pretty decent fix is to force SSAA (ATI/AMD cards) and SGSSAA (Nvidia) these options with high enough setting should stop the shimmering or at least minimize it so it's less annoying. If you use Nvidia the new DSR features in the drivers also work very well to diminish shimmer, running the game at 4k resolution or above should completely resolve shimmering in most cases.
If you still have problems post them here and we will work them out, this is a brand new version of the mod in both textures and form so we are all learning, with the infinite number of hardware configurations out there we are bound to need to fix a few things to get it running on those configurations.
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Mod spotlight by CaptainShack from TheXpGamers
Thank you for the spotloght
Video Showcase By Darzkai
The video shows the mod running with SweetFX to amp up color and contrast, Nvidia forced AO, and a custom Garrus reticle by Darzkai. Thanks for making the video Darzkai
My other Mods:
Mass Effect 1 Scars for Mass Effect 2
Liara HD version of Mass Effect 1 Face in ME2
Mass Effect 2 New Texture Updates/Improvements
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Awesome Mods that are not mine (but I couldn't live with out):
Jean-Luc's High Res Textures: Trilogy Edition
Mass Effect 2 Textures Improvements
http://social.biowar...othing Textures
High Def Normandy SR2
/// ME3 MOD: High Resolution textures + v.1.5 illumination MOD + 3D Fix
For curious mod seekers out there (a great resource for many, many Mass Effect mods) go here:
Mass Effect 2 Texture Modders Group
Mass Effect 3 Texture Modders Group
Do góry
