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Mass Effect modding introduces M3TO - Texture overrides without package edits

Teslerum

Member
One of the most long standing issues in modding the Mass Effect Trilogy, dating back to its inception, was the fact that you couldn't fiddle with content mods after installing texture mods like ALOT for example. A big annoyance to everyone, a downright barrier to some. This issue even expanded to the Legendary Edition as it was built on an evolved version of ME's engine.

With build 136 of the Mass Effect Mod Manger 9.2 this has finally been resolved after nearly 20 years:


M3TO - Texture overrides without package edits

Mod Manager 9.2 introduces a new way to modify game textures for Legendary Edition games - M3 Texture Override. This system overrides textures at runtime, allowing textures to be modified without editing any other files. This has multiple benefits:

  • No need to deal with the 'do not install mods after textures' rule
  • Texture mods can easily be toggled on and off, as it's essentially just a DLC.
  • Developers can use the mod manager alternates system to configure what textures to override without having to ship multiple mods
Image
This feature requires work from developers to convert existing .mem mods to the new m3to system. Developers have been working on this during the private alpha for this update. New texture mods can be developed without the use of MEM.
 
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Oh my god, finally

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Edit: Next thing they should try to fix is the lack of anti aliasing, imagine the Legendary Edition with DLAA 4.5
 
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This is very cool. I know that I am going to another trilogy run at some point (since chances of another good ME game are near 0), so this would be awesome… if modders convert their mods.
 
Edit: Next thing they should try to fix is the lack of anti aliasing, imagine the Legendary Edition with DLAA 4.5

DLSS isn't really possible because of the engine. Too many changes are needed.

Use DLDSR. Gets rid of nearly everything.

If you're refeering to some of the shimmering left, that's basically baked in and not really fixable. Quite a few games from that era suffer from it.
 
DLSS isn't really possible because of the engine. Too many changes are needed.

Use DLDSR. Gets rid of nearly everything.

If you're refeering to some of the shimmering left, that's basically baked in and not really fixable. Quite a few games from that era suffer from it.

Why are you like this? Let me dream papito

And yes DLDSR helps and I have used it for the LE, up to 8k and yet you can still see aliasing especially in ME2. It sucks
 
And yes DLDSR helps and I have used it for the LE, up to 8k and yet you can still see aliasing especially in ME2. It sucks
I've recently re-played FFXIII on PC (modded) and it suffers from it too. It's funny because back when I played the game on PS3, all the aliasing everywhere didn't make it stand out. But now, because everything else is sharp I instantly notice how certain textures shimmer.
 
I've recently re-played FFXIII on PC (modded) and it suffers from it too. It's funny because back when I played the game on PS3, all the aliasing everywhere didn't make it stand out. But now, because everything else is sharp I instantly notice how certain textures shimmer.

This is a bit off topic but since you seen to be bothered by aliasing I really recommend you to check vort_shaders in Reshade. He made a shader that applies TAA and it works really well, especially with DLDSR, you have to activate first SMAA and then activate TAA.

The only downside is that it will blurry the HUD and subtitles but it can be really effective. I can't play certain older games without tbh
 
What does this mean for laymen? I love the trilogy series and seem to play through it once a year or every other year.
Much less of a hassle to mod. Before this, you had to decide which mods you want and then install textures. You couldn't mod the game afterwards because doing so had a high chance of breaking something.

And texture mods in general took a LOOOOOOOOONG time to install which just added to the pain.

With the new way texture mods are installed like any other mod and you can add or remove other mods afterwards without having to go through the whole modding process again.
 
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