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Mass Effect

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 18:15, 4 November 2017 by Solarstrike (talk | contribs)
Template:Infobox game/row/winporter
Mass Effect
Mass Effect cover
Developers
BioWare
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Eastern Europe CD Projekt
Engines
Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows May 28, 2008
Mass Effect guide on StrategyWiki
Mass Effect on Wikipedia
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2008
Mass Effect 2 2010
Mass Effect 3 2012
Mass Effect: Andromeda 2017
Mass Effect Legendary Edition 2021

Key points

Use Mass Effect Mouse Fix to remove the game's mouse acceleration.

General information

Official game site
Mass Effect Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Requires online activation
SecuROM PA DRM, three machine limit.[1] A De-Authorization Tool is available.
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Windows
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v4 DRM[Note 1]. Only in Hungary and Czech Republic. The provided CD-Keys are invalid to Origin, needs contact through Origin Support.
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Windows
Amazon.com
Requires online activation
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Amazon.co.uk
Origin
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Origin
Windows
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
Origin
Windows
Origin
Origin
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Steam DRM late v1.5. The key that Steam provides is invalid to Origin, need to contact EA Support
Icon overlay.png
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

DLC and expansion packs

Origin version includes all DLC (existing Origin owners can install the latest update to get the DLC).
Separate installers have been made free and are available for other game releases
Name Notes
Bring Down the Sky
Windows
Pinnacle Station
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Instructions
Instructions

Patches

The latest patch is update 1.02 which fixes various issues. The Steam and Origin versions are already patched.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17460/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17460/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
[4]
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Template:Video settings

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Instructions

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Instructions

High frame rate

Instructions

Input settings

In-game general control settings.
In-game general control settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.

Template:Input settings

Controller support

Instructions

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
Retail only.[5][6] Patch for this release here. Doesn't contain translation for Pinnacle Station.[7] Unofficial patch which brings localization to digital release here.
French
German
Hungarian
Retail only[8]
Italian
Polish
Retail only[9]
Russian
Spanish

No surround sound

Instructions

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Mass Effect for better support.
iZ3D

Issues unresolved

Some menu screens have sides "cut off" on 4:3 screen resolutions

Playing in 4:3 resolutions like 1600x1200(useful for non-widescreen monitors and projectors) results in some menu screens displaying incorrectly: the left and right hand sides of the screen are clipped (as if "zoomed in" too far), so important information cannot be seen (like journal details and the map legend). Screens affected include: Map, Party Selection, Planet details, and Journal. Currently the only known fix is to use a 16:9 screen resolution when playing, like 1920x1080.

People and objects become black

Instructions
Instructions

Black screen after loading a save

Instructions

FIX: activate the console (instructions on how to enable the console further down) and type At BIOA_NOR00 Start_BIOA_NOR00_01 and press Enter. This will place you at the entrance to the Normandy and you will be able to save and load your game with no problems. If you fall through anywhere else in the game, pctweaks has a comprehensive list of all the "At string newArea" commands.

Issues fixed

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game[10]

Game simply doesn't start

Instructions

Crash after splash screen or black screen

Instructions

Launcher crashes (retail)

Instructions

Game always asks for admin permissions

Instructions

Failed to compile shader ** error

Instructions
Instructions
Instructions

Therum missing textures

If when you get to Therum most of the ground is black, then you've got a common texture problem. Some of the black area is safe to drive on but some of it will kill you outright, making it quite hard to navigate.
Instructions

IGameExplorer --> Verify Access. Unable to verify access to the game

Instructions

No high resolution option

Instructions

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Shader Model support 3
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX 2.7.2
Audio ISACT,[11] OpenAL
Interface Scaleform
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.8v

Large Address Aware

Improves stability on 64 bit systems with at least 3GB RAM by allowing the application to use more than 2GB RAM.

Low res textures fix

Instructions

Mods

Mass Effect 1 Updated/Improved Textures Mod

Instructions

Enable developer console

Instructions

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB (XP)
2 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6800
ATI Radeon X1300 XT
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[3]
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/17460/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (17460) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References