Better Colors and Lighting ReShade Preset

Q: What does this Mod do?

A: It's a simple ReShade preset I made since I thought that the Legendary Edition was looking too flat. The preset aims to make the games look more in line with the original titles. Especially the first Mass Effect features much more contrast and saturation compared to the Legendary Edition. I also added some lens flares and bloom since you cannot have enough of that in Mass Effect.

Q: Does this Mod work for all three titles?

A: Yes, but you have to install it seperately for each title. Instructions below. So far, I've played the entire first game with the preset and had no issues. Currently playtesting Mass Effect 2 and no playtests for Mass Effect 3. Since it's just a simple ReShade tweak, I'm not expecting any issues regardless of which title.

Q: Will you add seperate versions for each title?

A: Maybe. I created this mod specifically for the first Mass Effect. But from what I've played of Mass Effect 2, the preset looks perfectly fine as well. If I find things in Mass Effect 2 or 3 that need the preset to be updated for the specific title, I'll provide those updates.

Q: What specific effects did you add?

A: 1. Increased clarity

2. Adjusted levels (darker blacks, brighter whites)

3. Adjusted curves (more contrast and saturation)

4. Additional tonemapping

5. Additional bloom effects

6. Additional lens flares

Q: Will this Mod make my game look super cinematic?

A: It depends. The game does look pretty good already. But my intention was not to drastically change the look of the games. Instead, I just wanted to enhance what's already there. This is more a tweak than a drastic visual change.

Q: How much does this preset affect my performance?

A: About 5-10 FPS loss. Sometimes when highly detailed characters fill the screen in dialogue scenes with a lot of stuff going on in the background, it affects the framerate a little bit. Also some of the optional planets have pretty big performance issues already since they covered everything with grass. But that's a problem of the base game already.

Q: How do I install this preset?

Simply place the content of the folder into the Win64 folder of each Mass Effect game.

For Mass Effect:

(Your Harddrive):\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect Legendary Edition\Game\ME1\Binaries\Win64

For Mass Effect 2:

(Your Harddrive):\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect Legendary Ed