Better with the mod MERLIN
Get it here: Link

MEUITM 2 is Out!!!!
Get it here: Link


Welcome to:
 

MEUITM
(Mass Effect Updated/Improved Textures Mod) by Catachrism 

Updates For Holidays 2021:

• ALOT Installer full integration for both MEUITM mode and ALOT mode which features options preselected to work best with ALOT, MEUITM mode is setup assuming ALOT is not installed. (currently available in Beta mode of ALOT installer, soon to be in main mode barring any issues)
• New more professional and vanilla friendly splash screen when launching the game.
• Normal maps toned down on custom male Shepard faces.
• Fixed caustic and various effects including lens flares clouds and distortions that could be cause if using LE versions (use if running along side ALOT)
• Fixed normal map seams on the beach sands in Virmire
• Added a few sets of npc clothes not previously covered
• Minor visual bug fixes on Chakwas and Scientists if choosing vanilla friendly after installing ALOT and other such compatibility issues.
  

Updates For N7 Day 2021:

• Improved Installer Options!!! Like MEUITM2 you can now completely pick and choose what gets installed for maximum modding customization :)
• Anderson both improved and more vanilla friendly
• Garrus Improved MEUITM style version and new HD Vanilla friendly option
• Wrex Improved MEUITM style version and new HD much improved Vanilla friendly option
• Ash improved and more Vanilla friendly (fixed black tongue and other seams and minor issues)
• Kaidan improved and more Vanilla friendly (fixed black tongue and other seams and minor issues) 
• Turian NPCs new HD Vanilla friendly texture
• Krogan NPCs faces new HD Vanilla friendly texture
• Chakwas outfit vanilla friendly HD option 
• Liara outfit vanilla friendly HD option
• Liara LOTSB style Option
• N7 armor option for vanilla friendly is now more vanilla friendly
• Improved Normandy exterior
• Improved Mako
• Saren HD vanilla friendly option
• All armor mods have option for "no lights" which means no added lights - more vanilla friendly.
  

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: Film grain, Light and Shadow Maps on walls and floors (Normandy Citadel and Feros covered so far), 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, Salarians, Batarians some armors, default character armors including N7 armor (of characters re-textured) and various environmental textures.

This was all achieved by texture editing (up-scaling, re-painting, adding details, adding texture, adding pattern, and using that to rebuild spec maps, spec power maps, and normal maps). Then once all the details are added I load up the Character models into Photoshop and paint away texture seams as best as possible.

This mod also introduces soft shadow shaders by daemonjax, tweaked by myself and tweaked bioengine.ini settings for texture streaming and soft shadow setting by me and other various quality improvements by Aquadran all done behind the scenes by the installer ro manually in MEM for advanced users. Lastly I have included a ReShade preset that I customized specifically for MEUITM to add next gen lighting and effects as best as possible without betraying the original feel of the game while adding some effects to mimic visual styles seen in Unreal Engine 4.

Requests are always welcome :)

Special thanks to Kotaku for their article! 

Special thanks to GameSpace for their article!
Special thanks to PCGamesN for their article!

2021 Updates Preview

Kaidan Developer Style Hair Restoration

Thank You For Using:

Before and After screens:

Install Video (read below if you have any trouble )

MEUITM with Controller Mod Install:

Mod Variant Comparisons:

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Let's get Started:

Ideal pre-install steps to allow the mod and game to run properly and prevent issues:

0). Yes step zero :). Install the main game and any DLC you will be using fresh, especially if you were using any mE3Explorer mods including pre- 2018 MEUITM.

**This mod is not compatible with old MEUITM for file structure reasons. You need reset to vanilla before installing the new version, there is currently no way around this. If you don't the installer will abort as to avoid breaking your game**


1). Run Once. (and optionally make a back up)
Now we can run the unmodded game one time for the game to establish directories, paths, and settings. This is a good time to go in and Max Out in-game graphics settings and choose your gaming resolution (use left and right arrows to see resolutions not displayed in the drop down in game menu) and test any mods you may have installed before MEUITM. Also if you've never played Mass Effect before please run around a bit in vanilla so you can see what it is the mod is aiming to improve.

Once your sure everything is functioning properly with vanilla Mass effect, it's also a good time to make a back up of the game folder should you choose to do so. Simply copy and paste the game folder to a place of you choosing. This will save bandwidth should you need to revert to vanilla if you are using steam or Origin.

2). Install any other mods that you want that are non-texture based now (they can also be texture based but MEUITM will overwrite any that are covered in it). Mainly this applies to same sex romances, Xbox 360 controller support, any mods that alter the games files etc...these mods will break MEUITM and the game if installed after. Install the mods for vanilla compatibility (Ignore MEUITM versions as they refer to the old pre-2018 MEUITM which is incompatible.)

3). If you use Origin you must disable game auto updates, if you don't it will revert Mass Effect to vanilla textures.

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Now we are ready to install the mod:

Happy 10 years of Mass Effect!

MEUITM Anniversary Edition is the new version of MEUITM , it uses MEM with a user friendly installer.

Benefits of MEM and the new installer:

Smaller download size
More localizations support (only textures are being installed)
Improved performance
Perfect mipmap function 
Boat loads of new and revised textures.

Special thanks to Aquadran for MEM and all the support getting this going including the nice installer!

Special thanks to CreeperLava for pointing me towards MEM, support, and all of the work on ALOT!

To install:

Extract the MEUITMAnniversay.zip.
From the extracted folder, run MassEffectModder.exe and click "install".

Follow any prompts but mostly kick back until it's done and then launch MassEffect.exe like normal.

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For AMD CPU owners to fix an old bug with the game Download and install One of the following Mods:

Black Blobs fix for AMD CPU users
This mod by Mgamerz fixes the issue by removing the problem lights form the game. No thrid party overlay software (Best Solution yet)

FPS Counter(Nexus)  Alternate Link (Pharago website) 

This does use third party injection so that may make it less desirable for folks. But users could also be interested in FPS Counter because it adds SweetFX/ENB style color, sharpening, and lighting tweaks in game with a slider menu and the best ambient occlusion support you can find for Mass Effect, a feature ENB sweetfx gemfx and reshade are all missing in Mass Effect.  Download, tweak away, and enjoy!
**Note FPS Counter is not compatible with Origin Overlay, you must disable Origin Overlay in game to avoid crash at load.**
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Dynamic Shadow Fix manual install (standalone mod):

Install the "soft shadows" by extracting the contents of the zip file in to your game directory example: "C:\Origin\Mass Effect\" 

Then for them to take effect you must clear the shader cache, to clear the shader cache (steps heavily taken from https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mass_Effect): 

1) Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Published\CookedPC.
2) Delete LocalShaderCache-PC-D3D-SM3.upk.
3) Run the game and behold soft shadows.

The game will take longer to boot on the first run after performing the above steps. This is due to the engine recaching. Following the first boot, each subsequent boot up should be as normal. 

To further enhance and match the screenshots from the mod:

Lastly, to match the screenshots you will need to install the MEUITM Reshade located in the mod's "addons" sections. Simply extract the contents in to the binaries folder in you Mass effect install directory.

**Note- FPS Counter is not compatible with ReShade so you will need to make a choice as to which one you want to use.**

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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- Black Blocky characters on Noveria and Ilos.  
See earlier section about AMD CPU owners for mod based fixes.

This is caused by playing the game on any post 2008 AMD processors (bulldozer or later chipsets) this is because Mass Effect is seeing AMD and looking for 3Dnow 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 also see black textures for characters on Noveria and Ilos.

video of the issue on unmodded game with workaround fix using the console (no additional mods):
 Youtube.com

**The black blob character texture bug is now completely fixed MGamerz and alternately by FPS Counter, see links above for the two methods**

3- Black/missing terrain textures on Therum. 
This is a known game glitch see the link below for the fix:
https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mass_Effect#Therum_missing_textures

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Mod Troubleshooting:

1- MEM installer is crashing at step "X" at ("X"%): 

This happens for one of two main reasons:

A) The version of the game is pirated/unsupported (Don't report crashes if you are on pirated game-we don't support these because the files have been repacked/altered making it a pain to mod properly but also because we don't support piracy. Just buy the game :).

MEUITM Installer is tested working with all official releases Steam, Origin, Disc, the official digital localisations, as well as the Polish and Russian language localisations.

B) We are trying a new feature and something is temporarily broken (rare, but can happen).


2- My game is not saving anymore after installing the mod:

This has to do with your antivirus flagging MassEffect.exe after the changes MEM makes to the .exe are applied.  It seems to mainly affect disc versions of the game. Here is the fix found by users:

"So I found the problem. My antivirus is deleting my saves. Apparently MassEffect.exe was added to the blocked list and wasn't allow to read/write to my Documents folder. I removed MassEffect.exe from the blocked list and added to the Allow list. The issue has been resolved."

"Avast has several different "shields" that it runs in a modular fashion. The exclusions list is supposed to exclude that file or folder from ALL shield actions, but that isn't the case for whatever reason when it comes to this issue. I had the MassEffect.exe file listed, the masseffect/binaries folder listed, each of them separately, together, the whole damn Origin Games folder - nothing worked. The following worked:
1. Open up Avast interface (right click, or double click on the system tray icon on your taskbar)
2. Click on "Protection" (the lock icon on the left side bar)
3. Click on "Ransomware Shield"
4. Click "Blocked/allowed apps" 
5. Click the green "allow app" button and add the MassEffect.exe

I can confirm it is specifically the Avast Ransomware shield causing the issue. I totally disabled Avast and was able to save. Then I re-enabled Avast and manually turned on one shield module at a time, until I isolated Ransomware shield as the problem. No other component of Avast blocks Mass Effect. Perhaps Avast auto updated when I wasn't looking, but I have never had this issue before. Infuriating as it all was, not the mod's fault."

3- I'm experiencing micro stutter, it's annoying. Is there anyway to reduce?:

Maybe, yes.

This depends on your PC hardware and sensitivity to "microstutter" (as this can be subjective and Mass Effect 1 will always have some amount of micro stutter due to the game engine).

For many this fixes a lot of their issue:

Find the bioengine.ini file in mycdocument\Bioware\MassEffect\config

Open the bioengine.ini file with notepad or wordpad etc...find and change the following section [TextureLODSettings] and replace with the following:

[TextureLODSettings]
This will force 2k cap to texture rendering and in some cases improve microstutter (mileage may vary depending on hardware). Also this will degrade the textures from 4k to 2k so there is some visual sacrifice.

4- My Game wont launch after mod install -infinite hang-:

There are a handful of causes, luckily all easily remedied:

a) Antivirus:
-This is almost always the culprit. It's becoming more and more frequent as AV gets more vigilant and aggressive, in particular things like shields and live scans etc...
-Why it's flagged?:
"Masseffect.exe" is edited by MEM (the installer) to allow both Large Address Aware mode which allows it use more system memory improving performance and preventing the large textures from crashing the game while playing, and administrator mode to avoid the annoying pop-up from windows everytime you want to play the game. This editing of the file can trigger AV services to block the game from launching.
-To fix: You must allow/add to exceptions/deem a safe app/whatever your antivirus needs to happen for it to not quarantine or sandbox "MassEffect.exe". In the above mod description is an example for Avast, but use Google or your AV manufacturer's webpage or manual or help file etc..to find instructions how to do this per your specific AV as they are all a little different. In many cases adding to general exceptions may not be enough and you must also add it to livescan or shields etc...
-As I said these AVs are getting extremely aggressive which is great for bad actors but annoying as hell for MEUITM/AL0T and others mods like them. Luckily with a little effort they can be remedied.

b) Conflict between FPSCounter mod and Origin overlay:
This is not MEUITM but MEUITM does recommend FPSCounter usage in AMD CPU cases so you may run into it. To use FPSCounter mod you must disable Origin in-game overlay.

c) Reshade, enb, sweetfx, FPSCounter combination conflicts: 
Do not combine these unless a specific mod states they will work in conjunction. If you come across such a mod do not try to run it alongside MEUITM's ReShade as it will cause issues. MEUITM Reshade is stand alone and will not work properly or at all when combined with other injectors.



Uninstall:

Currently there are two ways to thoroughly uninstall the mod:  


The play it safe - If you backed up the vanilla files, you can simply delete the modded versions and replace with your backup and delete the bioengine.ini in the My Documents\Bioware\Config directory.

Ol' Faithful - Uninstall the game through windows program manager and delete the bioengine.ini in the My Documents\Bioware\Config directory.

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If you like this mod, feel free to check out my other mods:

Final Fantasy X:
Tidus 4k and 8k
Yuna 4k and 8k
Wakka 4k and 8k
Auron 4k and 8k
Rikku 4k and 8k
LuLu 4k and 8k
Kimahri 4k and 8k
Ixion HD
Shiva HD
Bahamut HD
Yojimbo Summon HD
Young Auron HD
Yunalesca HD
Shoopuf HD
Blitzball Ball HD
HD Character Icons
HD Snowflakes
HD Spheres and Sphere Grids Original Style
ReShade 3 for UnX CDAMJC cut

Mass Effect 1: 
MEUITM 

Mass effect 2:
Garrus HD textures MEUITM continuity
JeanLuc's Miranda HD revised by CDAMJC Edition

Dragon Age Origins: 
Ogre HD Retexture
Lady of The Forest HD Retexture
Desire Demon HD Retexture

Dolphin emulator HD texture packs: 
Mario Galaxy  
Mario Galaxy 2

Thanks for stopping by!