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All the way back in 2012 we were talking about installing a texture pack mod to replay the early Mass Effect games, only with slightly prettier versions of our bro, Garrus. Tireless modders have.
- Mass Effect Texture Overhaul
- Mass Effect Texture Mods Minecraft 1.14.4
- Mass Effect Texture Mods 1.12.2
- Mass Effect Texture Mods
- Mass Effect 1 Pc Mods
- Mass Effect Texture Mod
- Mass Effect Texture Mods 1.8.9
It is a fact commonly known that Mass Effect is not easy to mod – some (I) might even say it’s the most frustrating modding experience ever. Even though I’ve written countless tutorials and guides, and even created a video on how to mod, things don’t work for some of you. I don’t always have time to answer the questions you guys leave on my blog (sorry!) … so, if you’re looking for help or answers, try the FAQ first, and if that doesn’t help, try this troubleshooting guide!
What’s your major malfunction?
I can see the hair mesh but my texture is just one big black blob.
This Mass Effect 1 mod brings texture overhaul, shadow engine fix, and visual effects enhancements. Features: MEUITM Anniversary Edition 2018. Improved performance, simpler preinstall (more things automated for user), more features within the installer including customizing using variants, ReShade, and indirectsound all optional installs with just a click. Up to date Mass Effect 3 Modding Tutorial (2020) is here:are all download links ↓DLC download-link ONLY for. This is a headmorph which uses Ashley's face texture to make a unique face in ME2.-Jimmy's Jane Headmorph - Jimmy's Lee Headmorph - -TEXTURE MODS. A new Shirt for Jack (Link) TexMod You will need this to use any texture replacement mods. (Linked at the bottom of the page.).
This happens when the texture is not applying to your mesh. Are you running the .tpf file through Texmod? Is the hair mesh you’re replacing the one that is Allers’ hairstyle (named Jessica in Meshplorer)? The .tpf will ONLY apply to Allers’ hair, so if you’re replacing another hairstyle, it won’t work. You’ll have to create a new .tpf using the hash of the new hairstyle (so much effort).
After installing a mod, Shepard’s ears and neck are black!
This is a black texture bug caused by ME3Explorer/Texplorer NOT MY MODS. My mods (mesh and texture) do NOT touch the “scalp” part of Shepard. I repeat, THIS IS NOT A MOD PROBLEM. This has happened to me once and I have no idea why, unfortunately the only fix was to reinstall the game.
I can see the modded mesh, but my textures are messed up
This means your texture changes aren’t applying.
Are you using a .tpf file with Texmod? Try putting your texture higher in your load order. It might be conflicting with another mod.
Using one of my hair mods? Using hair texture .tpf with Texmod? Make sure that you changed your hair_diff to “BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_PROJessica.HMF_HIR_PROJessica_MDL” using Gibbed save editor.
Trying to replace the intro outfit? Sometimes, the game will autosave with the “dirty” version of the CTHi texture if you reload the game from the beginning and you’ve already gone through the intro scene once (i.e. the part where the council room explodes and you’re thrown against the back of the wall). Replace the “dirty” CTHi texture with the one that you want and you should be golden.
I can’t see the modded mesh
Mass Effect Texture Overhaul
Did you copy over a .PCC file (containing the mesh)? Check that you actually overwrote the original file when you copied it over.
Trying to mod an outfit? Check that you’re wearing the right one. Unlock all the possible outfits in your closet using an edited coalesced file.
I can see both the mesh and the textures but it’s super shiny and/or weird colors
The glow happens when you manually install my mods and try to use a Casual Outfit as an Armor instead, or try to replace any armor other than FBDa (Defender). The spec map for Casual Outfits is completely different from Armors, so it will always be shiny, especially the skin areas that are showing. If you want to wear a casual armor as outfit, try using Mother of all Mods (MOAM) which allows you to equip Casual Outfits as armor.
When I try to open the game, it crashes or infinite loads
Mass Effect Texture Mods Minecraft 1.14.4
You probably didn’t run Tocbinupdater in ME3Explorer. Almost all CTD are caused by forgetting to run Tocbinupdater.
Next, make sure you have all the DLC. I made all these mods with all the DLC installed (From Ashes, Leviathan, Citadel, Extended Cut, Omega).
If it keeps crashing, keep trying to launch the game – sometimes it takes me four or five attempts before the game actually launches successfully without crashing. No idea why, but persistence seems to make it work eventually.
If it keeps crashing after a dozen tries to relaunch, you might just have to reinstall. Sorry!
When I try to open a save, it crashes or infinite loads
You probably have an extra blank space somewhere in your Gibbed save file. This usually happens if you copy/paste the hair_diff or hair_mask code for my hair mods and you accidentally copy an extra space at the end.
If you’ve checked for spaces and it still crashes/infinite loads, try loading a different save. It can help you pinpoint if the problem is the whole game or just an area of the game. For example, if you’re trying to load a save where you’re in the Normandy and it’s not working, try loading a save where you’re in the Citadel instead.
If a different save works, the problem is probably with whatever environment you’re trying to load. Try reverting back to the original .pcc file for that environment.
ME3Explorer gives me an unhandled exception error
Usually, this means your system is out of memory – I don’t know a fix, but it seems like you need to upgrade to a better computer :)
ME3Explorer’s Tocbinupdater says “No updates” even though I just installed a mod
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes mod files happen to be the same size by some happy coincidence. Try launching the game and see if your mod works – if it doesn’t, and it’s still saying “No updates” when you run Tocbinupdater, you’re shit out of luck, sorry!
When I try to replace textures using ME3Explorer/Texplorer, it tells me I don’t have enough mips
Mass Effect Texture Mods 1.12.2
This is a new “problem” in ME3Explorer after Rev 653. It’s not really a problem but it is a hassle. You just need to resize your texture image (.dds) and then resave it to generate new mip maps. The number of mip maps depends on the image size. So, if your image is 512px x 512px, you’ll have 10 mips. If ME3Explorer/Texplorer is telling you you need 11 mips, just resize the texture to 1024×1024 and resave it. If you need 12 mips, resize to 2048×2048 and resave. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this tutorial on editing textures.
Texmod won’t load any textures
This weirdly happens sometimes – certain .tpf’s don’t load, while others do, all in the same instance of running Texmod.
First, make sure there are no mod conflicts, e.g. two texture mods affecting the same mesh. If that doesn’t change anything, try applying textures manually via ME3Explorer instead.
I see black textures
Not sure exactly what causes this problem, though I’ve read that it might be ME3Explorer rev 753. Try downloading the dev build 717 and using that instead.
I don’t see the armor/outfit I modded in my closet
You need a modded coalesced file that unlocks all of the bonus outfits for Shepard to wear. You can download mine here.
My closet crashes when I get to a certain outfit
My game sometimes crashes when I scroll all the way to the last outfit or last armor in the closet. My only solution is not to scroll all the way to the last outfit or armor, naturally. Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything good at the end anyway :)
I have another problem
Sorry, kid, you might be screwed.
Required Programs:
ME3 Explorer
Texmod
Photoshop or another editing software
Texmod
Photoshop or another editing software
The Basics:
There are actually two different ways to go about modding textures in Mass Effect (and any other video game, really). You can use Texmod to create a temporary texture replacer (.tpf) or you can go into the program files and mess around with the base files (using ME3 Explorer, in this case). There are pros and cons to each
Texmod
Pros – it’s temporary so you can’t mess up your game
Cons – it makes your game take longer to load (just at startup, not throughout the whole game)
Pros – it’s temporary so you can’t mess up your game
Cons – it makes your game take longer to load (just at startup, not throughout the whole game)
Mass Effect Texture Mods
Manual Replacement Using ME3 Explorer
Pros – you don’t need to use Texmod to run your game
Cons – if you mess up, it’s harder to fix (but just be careful, you should be fine)
Pros – you don’t need to use Texmod to run your game
Cons – if you mess up, it’s harder to fix (but just be careful, you should be fine)
In general, here are the steps you take to edit textures – I will go over each one in detail:
1. Extract the desired texture
2. Edit the texture using Photoshop
3. Replace the old texture with the new one
2. Edit the texture using Photoshop
3. Replace the old texture with the new one
Simple, right? Ok, keep going:
STEP 1. Extract the Desired Texture
The Basics:
Extracting is the easiest step! There are 3 different files you’ll want to extract for each texture – the “diff”, “spec”, and “norm” files.
Diff – The actual texture that shows up in the game
Spec – Controls how much light reflects off the texture
Norm – Controls bumpiness of the texture … a lot of times, you won’t need to edit this file.
Spec – Controls how much light reflects off the texture
Norm – Controls bumpiness of the texture … a lot of times, you won’t need to edit this file.
Extracting can be done with Texmod or manually. There are already detailed instructions out there that deal with Texmod, so consider my Texmod information a supplement to this tutorial.
Mass Effect 1 Pc Mods
Tips for Extracting Textures with Texmod:
Mass Effect Texture Mod
Run logging mode with Texmod – your setup should look like this:
In logging mode, use + or – to select the desired texture. I set it to log the texture when I hit “enter” but you can set it up to use whatever key you want.
![Mods Mods](/uploads/1/1/8/7/118791969/147356054.jpg)
Helpful Hints:
- Your keyboard needs a numpad! Maybe I’m an idiot, but I kept wondering why it wasn’t working with the + or – keys on my numpad-less keyboard.
- Most people save the textures as DDS or TGA – I personally prefer TGA because you don’t need an extra plugin for it to work in Photoshop, and you don’t need to worry about what format of DDS to save it in.
- You’ll want to extract the diff and the spec files for sure. Usually, you won’t have to mess with the norm file.
- As you scroll through logging mode, you’ll see that the target texture will change colors as you select them. Diff will be bright green, spec will be shiny white, and norm will be black-ish.
- If you want to capture the norm file, you’ll notice that Texmod doesn’t capture it in the same way as it does diff and spec files. The texture will still be logged in the TexMod.log file, but it will NOT save a copy of the file to your computer.
Mass Effect Texture Mods 1.8.9
How to Extract Textures Manually Using ME3 Explorer
![Mass Effect Texture Mods Mass Effect Texture Mods](/uploads/1/1/8/7/118791969/970744282.jpg)
This is a little harder if you don’t know what you’re doing. It will probably take some trial and error.
- Open up ME3 Explorer and go to Texplorer (Developer Tools > Texplorer).
- If it’s the first time you’ve used Texplorer, it will take a while to load all the textures. When it’s done, you’ll have a list like this:
- Find the texture you want to extract … this can be hard to find the right folders if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. You’ll want to extract the textures that end in “diff”, “spec”, and “norm”. To make it easier, here is my master list of textures so you don’t mess up.
- You can double-click your desired file to preview it, then click it again for the image to go away. Do this to double check that it’s the right file.
- Right-click and select Extract to extract the file. You’ll get a pop-up – check the top box (the largest image size) and hit Extract:
- Do this for all the files you want to extract (diff, norm, and spec).
Well, that’s it for extracting textures … not too bad, right? Now for the next part, editing the texture! Read on …