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Mass Effect 3 PC Thread: Fixing Bioware's broke-ass console port, now with holstering

Lime

Member
From the maker of high-res normandy comes high-res citadel (including aria and udina)!

Screens

Download at the bottom of the OP here.

Once again he or she is using the jeans texture to everything. I'm sorry, but the texture work done so far is far from acceptable in regards to being true to the original art as well as using simple things like bump and normal mapping.

Look at the recent Miranda suit he/she created:

MsRFB.jpg


Nj5X2.jpg


What the fuck is smarteck doing? Compare it to what JeanLuc achieved in ME2:

mir2njeu.png


It's great and all that someone is taking their free time to do stuff like this, but when the job is so poor, he or she might as well refrain from wasting time on it.
 

Lucius86

Banned
Once again he or she is using the jeans texture to everything. I'm sorry, but the texture work done so far is far from acceptable in regards to being true to the original art as well as using simple things like bump and normal mapping.

It's great and all that someone is taking their free time to do stuff like this, but when the job is so poor, he or she might as well refrain from wasting time on it.

To me you are sounding like an ass. Maybe this is the first time they have created textures for video game artwork? They are learning? It's what they themselves like? It's a mod. They make it because they love doing this, it's a personal tweak they are not paid to do, and just so happen to freely distribute it. And you can easily choose not to download it. Providing critical feedback (which I do agree with before you say anything) is always a good thing - telling them to not bother is entirely another.
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
To me you are sounding like an ass. Maybe this is the first time they have created textures for video game artwork? They are learning? It's what they themselves like? It's a mod. They make it because they love doing this, it's a personal tweak they are not paid to do, and just so happen to freely distribute it. And you can easily choose not to download it. Providing critical feedback (which I do agree with before you say anything) is always a good thing - telling them to not bother is entirely another.

I think the issue Lime has with those textures is that the author doesn't limit herself/himself to just improve the quality of those textures, but alters them and adds new things that weren't there in the first place thus changing the artistic vision of BioWare's designers.
 

Khar

Member
My Shepard imported looking incredibly grumpy. Even in cutscenes where her face was supposed to be relaxed or contented. It wasn't the end of the world, but it did bug me a little playing through ME3.

A number of users on the Bioware forums have put together a tool to address the face import issues still in place after 1.02. The current import system doesn't directly import your old head mesh. Instead it converts it to a ME3 equivalent face code which does have the side benefit that players can tweak their Shepards on import. But the ME3 facial structure presets aren't entirely the same which can make your Shepard look strange in some cases. Different.

The tool only works with female Shepard as yet, but is worth trying if you are unhappy with your imported Shepard's appearance. It attempts to convert ME2 vertices to ME3 so that players can get a closer match to their Shepard from previous games.

Lazarus project @ Bioware forums

I tried it on my Shepard and the perpetually pissed off expression disappeared, so it was an improvement for me. Anyway, I just thought I'd post this here in case it was of use to anyone else (and you wanted to avoid the general creepiness of the vast majority of BSN).
 

Lucius86

Banned
I think the issue Lime has with those textures is that the author doesn't limit herself/himself to just improve the quality of those textures, but alters them and adds new things that weren't there in the first place thus changing the artistic vision of BioWare's designers.

And an entirely valid complaint that I agree with. But telling the designer to stop working on their home project - maybe he/she prefers their tweaks, along with others? To me, it was still a stupid and unfair statement.
 

Lime

Member
To me you are sounding like an ass. Maybe this is the first time they have created textures for video game artwork? They are learning? It's what they themselves like? It's a mod. They make it because they love doing this, it's a personal tweak they are not paid to do, and just so happen to freely distribute it. And you can easily choose not to download it. Providing critical feedback (which I do agree with before you say anything) is always a good thing - telling them to not bother is entirely another.

Oh, I apologize if I come across as hostile. That was not my intention. My critique is simply that the texture work is intended to improve on the original ones, but unfortunately the degree of liberty taken with the original art is too high to consider the textures to be replacements for the original ones. A lot of the faults with Smarteck's textures could have easily been avoided if he or she had used different maps, rather than re-using the same one, over and over again.

Like I already said, it's nice that someone wants to make the textures in ME3 better, but I don't think they accomplish their goal when the same textures are used over and over again on different meshes. That's why I said that they might as well spend their time more effectively, than pushing out half-assed fan-interpreted assets. As it is, the commendable fan modifications becomes more of a wasted effort (to some extent). I'd rather have the people reiterate their existing texture work based on fan feedback, than continue pushing out rushed texture work (imo).

Obviously they are within their right to do whatever they want, I just wanted to suggest a better approach to doing texture work :)
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Is there a way to separate the cover/run/use actions from using the same key?

The number of times in multiplayer where i want to run away from a group that is too close, only to end up in cover and getting myself killed, or the number of times i want to resurrect a player or hack something and end up in cover and dead is frustrating.
 
This thread hasn't been active in a while, but I just started playing this game and certain things about SGSSAA are confusing me. If discussion has migrated to another thread then please point me in that direction.

Everything I've read about SGSSAA has suggested using Negative LOD bias, but I'm getting better AA when I just leave it on Clamp instead of Allow. Took some screens in FRAPS to help illustrate my point. Using 0x000010C1 compatibility bit.

2x MSAA, 2x SGSSAA, Negative LOD Bias: -0.500

2x MSAA, 2x SGSSAA, Negative LOD Bias: Clamp

The horizontal lines on the wall directly across from Shepard are smoother in the bottom shot and if there's any blurring going on then I certainly can't see, and I've compared the two shots several times over. Is there any reason I should be using a Negative LOD bias if it's giving me poorer AA?

On a different note, what happened to BP101? He was so helpful and informative.
 
Sorry for the bump, but I though some people might want to know that Smarteck (and others) have still been pumping out high-res textures for the game (including some ports of Jean-Luc textures where available). The quality is definitely getting better (and Smarteck has revisited several earlier textures to fix the overstated "jean" look).

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9735492/1

This fix for the Rannoch reaper is by far one of the best to date:
1.jpg


The next step is to bypass texmod and finding a way to import the textures into the game files proper using ME3 Explorer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/me3explorer/
 

Jarmel

Banned
Sorry for the bump, but I though some people might want to know that Smarteck (and others) have still been pumping out high-res textures for the game (including some ports of Jean-Luc textures where available). The quality is definitely getting better (and Smarteck has revisited several earlier textures to fix the overstated "jean" look).

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9735492/1

This fix for the Rannoch reaper is by far one of the best to date:
1.jpg


The next step is to bypass texmod and finding a way to import the textures into the game files proper using ME3 Explorer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/me3explorer/

Fuck Bioware for having the fans do their work.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
I believe that Clamp doesn't let LOD go into negative numbers, while Allow does.

That's about all I know. :p

Sorry for the bump, but I though some people might want to know that Smarteck (and others) have still been pumping out high-res textures for the game (including some ports of Jean-Luc textures where available). The quality is definitely getting better (and Smarteck has revisited several earlier textures to fix the overstated "jean" look).

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to...ndex/9735492/1

This fix for the Rannoch reaper is by far one of the best to date:
http://i389.photobucket.com/albums/oo340/wadres/1.jpg

The next step is to bypass texmod and finding a way to import the textures into the game files proper using ME3 Explorer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/me3explorer/
I think that reaper looks weird.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
I think that reaper looks weird.

masseffect3rannochreaper.jpg


Yeah, too radical a departure from the original design.

I think the Miranda above looks fine. It's just higher res, right? I'm not following all the normal mapping, mesh, jeans look talk above. Can I get the Coles notes?
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Actually, comparing them now, the new texture looks awful.



I think the Miranda above looks fine. It's just higher res, right? I'm not following all the normal mapping, mesh, jeans look talk above. Can I get the Coles notes?
There's a texture maker by the user name of smarteck who has created these ME3 textures. The metallic textures in particular end up looking like denim, that's all.
 

Dennis

Banned
Sorry for the bump, but I though some people might want to know that Smarteck (and others) have still been pumping out high-res textures for the game (including some ports of Jean-Luc textures where available). The quality is definitely getting better (and Smarteck has revisited several earlier textures to fix the overstated "jean" look).

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9735492/1

Is this were one gets all the high-res textures?

I see a lot links to different textures but there are so many that it will take a very long time to get it all in place.

Is there a compilation/collection of all the high-res textures made so far - for easy download ?
 
Is this were one gets all the high-res textures?

I see a lot links to different textures but there are so many that it will take a very long time to get it all in place.

Is there a compilation/collection of all the high-res textures made so far - for easy download ?

Anyone?

Im finally going to start playing MF3 and would very much like better textures.
 

Lime

Member
Is this were one gets all the high-res textures?

I see a lot links to different textures but there are so many that it will take a very long time to get it all in place.

Is there a compilation/collection of all the high-res textures made so far - for easy download ?

Anyone?

Im finally going to start playing MF3 and would very much like better textures.

Click the link to the thread, the OP has links to all mods. It's pretty simple.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Is there another link to that FOV fix from the widescreen place? I click the link on the site and it says download link has expired.
 
Is this were one gets all the high-res textures?

I see a lot links to different textures but there are so many that it will take a very long time to get it all in place.

Is there a compilation/collection of all the high-res textures made so far - for easy download ?

Not right now. You are going to want to pick and choose I think, since some of the new textures are not good/stylistically different.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.

Thank fuck. It's nice that the other guy is giving people something to spruce up the res of textures, but he strays too far away from the original art for my liking and just seems to dump scratch/denim detail maps over everything.

JeanLuc's work on ME2 is basically perfect as far as I'm concerned, and of such accuracy it might as well be official. I look forward to seeing what he does in ME3.
 

Lime

Member

Just an update. He's already made textures for (download links embedded in the names):

Mordin


Tali

Legion




Samara


Ashley "restoration" (make her look more like original ME1),


Grunt



Miranda

And what I think is quite commendable in terms of taking liberties with the original art:

Miranda Alternate A

Miranda Alternate B

He is supposedly working on Garrus now.
 

- J - D -

Member
Nice! I think the other guy did a solid job with a lot of the models, but these new ones are superior.

With the Leviathan dlc coming this is almost enough to get me to replay the game a third time.
 

xJavonta

Banned
Mega bump, but with BPM being my standard way of gaming now, is there any controller support outside of Xpadder? Like an altered Coalesced.bin file?
 

Peterthumpa

Member
Bumping this to ask about AA forced through Inspector as explained in the first post.
I can't make it work with the 306.97 drivers. Did something change driver-wise?
 
Bumping this to ask about AA forced through Inspector as explained in the first post.
I can't make it work with the 306.97 drivers. Did something change driver-wise?
I just played a little last night and it's working fine for me.

Apparently the compatibility bit in the OP only works with certain resolutions. A better bit has been found, try this one: 0x080000C1. Also, make sure Behaviour Flags are set to None and turn off in game AA. Be sure to select "Override any application setting" for AA mode. Here's a screen of what my Inspector looks like.

5UQcq.png
 

Lime

Member
Cross-posting from the Aria DLC thread:

Apparently some fans fixed the ending with a mod. Too happy whatever, but at least the Starkid is out of the picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQEofXDuxAQ&feature=plcp

What does it do?
- It removes the catalyst scene. No ifs, not buts. It's gone for good. (So is your choice, you will now destroy the reapers no matter what)
- It introduces a whole new scene showing how Joker disobeys orders and keeps the Normandy in the fight long enough for Shepard to be rescued (with the help of a certain Alliance captain :))
- The Normandy no longer crash-lands on the Weirdo Planet
- The Geth and EDI survive. EDI is now present during the memorial and you can add new slides to the epilogue that will show the geth, if they are alive. All credit and thanks for the slides goes to areyouareaper!
- You will see your Shepard reunited with his crew (and even some interaction unique to your LI if the LI is part of the Normandy crew). While they don't exactly have a party, now it is a real bitter-sweet ending with the emphasis on "sweet" rather than on "bitter"
- The musical score is changed quite extensively, including the credits song
- Since v0.2, Harbinger will say a few lines during the beam run

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358
 

Lime

Member
Empty Space wanted me to upload my collected mods for Mass Effect 3, so I figured I might as well post the link here as well. You can download it here or a temporary mirror here

These are some of the examples of texture improvements of some of the characters. Note that not all texture modifications are present, but I tried to show as much as possible.


I have included the mods created by many different people, like JeanLuc, Smarteck, Ottemis, Deadmeat, and several other hard-working people. Their work is much appreciated, so big credit to them all. I've tried to avoid including the not-so-good texture mods, but it is hard to go through all of them to see what's good and what's not. At the very least I've included a much better N7 armour texture insted of the one we have seen with all the stripes and squares that people normally use.

In order to use them, you have to use Texmod.exe, which has to be started through Origin. To do so, follow this tutorial, it's a simple re-naming of Texmod to MassEffect3.exe and vice versa.

I have also included my edited Coalesced.bin, which includes some modifications. These are the hotkeys for the included Coalesced.bin:

Code:
Home (load screen): Equip weapon
End (load screen): Holster weapon
F12: Tiledshot 4
NUMPAD1: Disable HUD
NUMPAD 2: FOV 0
NUMPAD 3: FOV 75
NUMPAD 4: Timescale 0.5
NUMPAD 5: Timescale 1 (normal)
NUMPAD 6: Stop time
NUMPAD 7: FOV 120
NUMPAD 8: FOV 20
NUMPAD 9: Flycam

Additional edits to Coalesced:
-NPC Armor
-No helmet Ajax armor
-Unlocked armor pieces

Finally, I added a Large Address Aware tool, that might enable MassEffect3.exe to tolerate the large amount of mods, but I am not sure if it actually helps, as the game crashes if one includes all the level texture mods.

P.S.
The game is still shit.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Empty Space wanted me to upload my collected mods for Mass Effect 3, so I figured I might as well post the link here as well. You can download it here

These are some of the examples of texture improvements of some of the characters. Note that not all texture modifications are present, but I tried to show as much as possible.



I have included the mods created by many different people, like JeanLuc, Smarteck, Ottemis, Deadmeat, and several other hard-working people. Their work is much appreciated, so big credit to them all. I've tried to avoid including the not-so-good texture mods, but it is hard to go through all of them to see what's good and what's not. At the very least I've included a much better N7 armour texture insted of the one we have seen with all the stripes and squares that people normally use.

In order to use them, you have to use Texmod.exe, which has to be started through Origin. To do so, follow this tutorial, it's a simple re-naming of Texmod to MassEffect3.exe and vice versa.

I have also included my edited Coalesced.bin, which includes some modifications. These are the hotkeys for the included Coalesced.bin:

Code:
Home (load screen): Equip weapon
End (load screen): Holster weapon
F12: Tiledshot 4
NUMPAD1: Disable HUD
NUMPAD 2: FOV 0
NUMPAD 3: FOV 75
NUMPAD 4: Timescale 0.5
NUMPAD 5: Timescale 1 (normal)
NUMPAD 6: Stop time
NUMPAD 7: FOV 120
NUMPAD 8: FOV 20
NUMPAD 9: Flycam

Additional edits to Coalesced:
-NPC Armor
-No helmet Ajax armor
-Unlocked armor pieces

Finally, I added a Large Address Aware tool, that might enable MassEffect3.exe to tolerate the large amount of mods, but I am not sure if it actually helps, as the game crashes if one includes all the level texture mods.

P.S.
The game is still shit.

I'm downloading this as i type. It's going at 250-400KB a sec though. Anything i should know? I'm overwhelmed and confused by all the info in the OP and other sites.
 

Lime

Member
I'm downloading this as i type. It's going at 250-400KB a sec though. Anything i should know? I'm overwhelmed and confused by all the info in the OP and other sites.

It should be fairly straight forward. If you want the coalesced.bin stuff (FOV, holster, flycam, commands, extra casual appearances, etc.), then simply copy over the downloaded one I've included.

In regards to the textures, one simply has to use the program Texmod. Put this into your Bin32 folder in the ME3 folder and rename texmod.exe to masseffect3.exe, run ME3 through Origin, Texmod will start up, rename the original Masseffect3.exe file into its original name, select it through texmod and the textures you want to use, and press Launch in Texmod.

You are now playing with the extra stuff I posted.
 

Card Boy

Banned
So Shapards stating Armour from the intro is not meant to have any texture mods? Also do i have to keep loading all those files each time i start up texmod.exe? It keeps reseting loaded files when i close texmod.
 
I'm going through the series again now. I'm deep into the first game right now. Once I reach the third I'll see if I can get acceptable performance with texmod but it was always too much of a drag on my system with ME 2. I'm using a texture mod pack with ME 1, though and it's running fine, even while forcing 4x supersampling AA. Thanks for the guide Lime.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Ok i think i got it working. Just Shapards & Andersons clothing from the intro looked like shiet.

Now i got to work out this FOV fix.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Those high res pics looks pretty damn good.

Damn it Bioware, why couldn't you do that in the original game?
 
Those pics really make me want to play this again. Want to wait until all the DLC is out though, since I had zero of it my first play through. Fuck Bioware for putting about zero effort into the PC port.
 
A version of the tool for ME2 and ME1 is also starting development. Hopefully it's an easy port. If you want to find out more or help out, you can head here.
 
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