This mod is a compilation of many (hundreds) other mods. Those weren't authored by me.
As such, you can only use assets originating from ALOT for your own and release them if you've acquired express consent from the original file authors and adhere to their personal permission rules. Original authors are listed in the description. If you have a question on a specific texture, feel free to send me a PM.
Permissions relative to "Tarshana's Alternative Face Textures" by Tarshana : You are free to use them and send them back to Creeper to use in a future ALOT if you believe it is better, but do not re-upload as a standalone because it is meant for use with ALOT. Further, I give CreeperLava ownership of any textures I create and released for ALOT- he can do with them as he pleases.
File credits
Credit goes to smarteck, CDAMJC, JeanLuc761, commositore, MaryseDynasty, Mellin, ELE08, Ellise, AlvaroMe, DeadMeat_357, sulezraz, and ThinkBlueN7. I have asked and received their permission to use their mods.
Contains textures from Poliigon.com and textures.com - Those textures may not be redistributed.
Some textures were inspired from NASA and ESA pictures. ESO/S. Brunier NOAO/AURA/NSF NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech) NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory
Backported LE3 consistency fix for N7 breather helmet's lights
Backported fix with galaxy map transparency from LE
Fix vanilla bug with Joker's black teeth
Fix the colour of Samara's head piece in her default armour
Fix alliance logo relief on non-Alliance helmets
Fix Ashley's iris being misaligned
Version 2021.14.0
- Ported several hundred textures from the Legendary Edition (LE) to the Original Trilogy (OT)
- LE textures are only used as replacements of existing ALOT textures for now, and only if existing ALOT textures are inferior to LE. Future updates might expand the list of textures a bit, but memory limits for the OT are still there, so I need to be careful.
- Textures included for now: environments, armours, weapons, some squadmates, skyboxes, ...
- I removed most of the addons and replaced them by LE textures. This should make the installation of ALOT a lot less troublesome.
Version 2021.13.0
Cubemaps were missing in several locations, the texture that caused this issue was removed to restore them. Unfortunately removing a texture from ALOT requires a major update, hence if you already have ALOT installed you will need to vanilla your game, if you want to upgrade. Simply replacing the texture with the unmodded texture doesn't work.
Version 2021.12.1
[FIXES]
Miranda's eyelids slightly glowed, no more (Jenya)
Some Turian jaws were missing markings
[NEW TEXTURES]
Mercenary armours (ClearanceClarence)
Robots: Ymir, Fenris... (ClearenceClarence)
Cerberus Dropship exterior and interior
Kitchens
Warning signs (ClearanceClarence)
Vegetation background
Boxes
Blue hovercar (Mellin)
Version 2021.12.0
The goal of this update is to polish the already excellent state of ALOT and to fix any remaining bugs or inconsistencies. There's really little left to work on now. Many thanks to the users who helped point out missing textures and helped testing the new textures (cristi1990an, Dwailing, Hadrorex, InfinityBeing, Nukleon, Paragon, ScifiIsMyJam101, STEVE HARVEY).
[ALL]
ALOT Installer has been updated to version 4. All credit goes to Mgamerz.
Reworked GUI for better usability
Better integration of ALOV into ALOT
Support for standalone installation of mods, without ALOT
Maaaany small improvements and optimisations, mostly in the backend
[ME3]
New textures that were still missing in ALOT: Turian NPCs, weapon textures (Cain and Black Widow), cubemaps in Normandy monitor's reflections, armor locker normal map, computers, lamps, a bunch of chairs, Bray's armor, Vorcha NPCs (removed custom vorcha meshes), main menu clouds, large computers, VI and Avina, torture chair, cubemaps in Citadel doors, combat fatigues, drop ships
Static Lighting for ME3 has been updated to v2, lots of additional textures were upscaled. Now with a Lite version for lower memory usage. FPS performance is the same, only memory usage is lowered, only useful for heavily modded setups where the 3.5GB memory limit can be reached. Lite has slightly worse quality, but is still miles ahead of vanilla.
Fixed vanilla bug whereby C-Sec Turian guards' collar is rendered completely black, improved their armor textures
Fixed vanilla bug whereby some Turians displayed weird jaw colouring (bartender for example)
Fixed vanilla bug whereby FPS counter would be visible on the council stills at high FOV
Fixed TIM's suit being too dark
Redid normal and spec for DeadMeat's Defender armor, so it looks better and closer to vanilla
Fixed missing tongue in default femshep texture caused by corrupted PNG (thanks Jenya!)
Version 2020.11.3
Fixed red eyes glitch
Version 2020.11.2
Optimised a few more normal maps
Version 2020.11.1
Fixed grey eyes for certain characters
Fixed weird shimmering on some of the Normandy's walls
Fixed Vorcha heads' spazzing out
Version 2020.11
[NEW]
New textures for ALL faces, scalp and hair textures. Powered by AI, but manually tweaked to remove any seams and get the best possible quality
ClearanceClarence's textures: added Garrus outfit, Reckoner armor, Geth and Reaper units
New textures for the Mako
New textures for all gunships
New textures for the Shadow Broker's goons
New textures for all ammo cases
New textures for statues in Hock's vault
[IMPROVED]
Major improvement of facial hair (eyebrows, eyelashes, beards) by JimbobJeffers. Should look closer to vanilla now
Updated JimbobJeffers's Ultimate Miranda with v1.2
New AI models have enabled large improvements over many textures. I've only scratched the surface of what's possible, more is coming.
Improved ~50 normal maps for better detail and less artefacting due to compression of the textures. This includes objects like conduits on the Normandy, the pilot seat and many miscellaneous items
Removed lights on Quarian armour (including Tali) to be more in line with vanilla. An optional file has been uploaded that restores the lights
Improved all textures of the Normandy's outside
[FIXED]
Downscaled all 4K normal maps to 2K. This won't reduce quality, since the engine is by design only able to load up to 2K normal maps for 4K diffuse maps. This, along with new optimisations to the EGM and Project Variety mods should resolve all crashes due to the 3.5GB memory limitation.
Fixed vanilla bug on the Mako's normal map. The Mako uses 2 overlapped normal maps, one of them used the wrong UV, causing weird bumps where there shouldn't be. Credit to Mellin for the fix.
Better specular map Thane and Feron, should fix the weird eye shadow they currently have
Fix a graphical glitch in Miranda's alternate outfit
Fixed market stall glow
Removed starfield texture, since it creates a graphical glitch in TIM's room when upscaled
Fix for the Rachni queen's glowing effect (specular map)
[ADDONS]
Added ALOV to the Installer. Only the 1080p version is there, the 4K version would have to be installed manually.
Removed 4 addons that were rendered obsolete by the new hair and scalp textures.
Version 2020.10.4
Fixed the remote detonator texture
Version 2020.10.3
Improved torture chair texture because it really was too ugly
Improved James' torso textures and fixed a bug where his N7 tattoo would not be visible
Further optimized some lightmaps to fix some crashes until a better solution can be found
Version 2020.10.2
Fixed crash after the Mars mission when using ALOT with Project Variety and EGM: optimized a few textures for lower RAM usage.
Version 2020.10.1
Fixes a graphical glitch on headgear visors
Improves main menu background texture
Optimizes a number of lightmaps for lower RAM usage
Version 2020.10.0
[OPTIONAL]
Completely new, massive overhaul of the game's static lighting textures. This improves the game's pre-rendered lights and shadows (lamps, shadows under objects...). 14,000 textures in total across all 3 games of the trilogy. Don't let the file size scare you, any computer will be able to run it just fine, it's not costly in terms of performance.
[NEW]
- New 4K textures for all of Shepard's N7 armors in ME2 and ME3
- 200 environment textures (rocks, grass, wood, snow, sand...) were upscaled 4x by JimbobJeffers and CreeperLava
- High resolution textures for facial hair (beards, eyebrows) by JimbobJeffers
- 4K textures for the squad selection screen
- 4K sky textures
- 4K mercenary armors
- 4K Blood Dragon, Inferno and Terminus armor
- 4K texture for Jacob
- 4K texture for Shepard's jacket by JimbobJeffers
- New building textures for the Priority Earth map
- Prothean head
- Female krogan clothes
- New junk textures (computer parts...)
- Presidium Bank poster
- Citadel background textures
- Wounded Ash face
[IMPROVED]
- Much better cluster textures by Mellin and CreeperLava
- Improved weapon textures based on new AI models
- Improved Galaxy map texture
- EDI default outfit and head
- Jack default armor
- Javik default and alternate armor
- James face
- Better citadel door normal
- Omega holograms
- Liara alternate outfit
- Various miscellaneous
[FIXED]
- Fixed glowing red armor
- Various others, I honestly can't remember them all
Version 2019.9.0
[FIXES]
Fix Joker seam
Fix store stall texture
Fixed missing alphas on a few armors
Removed 2 normals that caused graphical issues on Vancouver and Omega
New 4K Blood Dragon, Inferno, Terminus and 6 miscellaneous armor textures
New Presidium Bank poster
New Citadel background textures
New Main frame and Normandy door textures
New 4K texture for Jacob based on JeanLuc761's ME2 texture
New textures for paintings, drawings
New texture for the Leviathan galaxy map
New junk textures (computer parts...)
New Prothean head textures
New 4K sky textures
New water textures
New quarian doors
New biotic field texture
New cubemaps for quarian visors, much better reflections
New Tali photo
New Krogan head textures
Added Mellin's DropShip textures
[IMPROVEMENTS]
Replaced most galaxy map cluster textures with AI Topaz upscales (better quality)
Some improvements to AlvaroMe's Normandy textures
Improved Liara's alternate outfit based on Ellise's default outfit textures
Better hologram textures
Improved Omega holograms based on waifu2x upscales
Better citadel door normal
Better James face textures
Better female krogan clothes
Better noise pattern texture (used in biotic fields, Purgatory screens)
Better Jack armor texture
Much better EDI head and armor textures
Improved Javik armor
Improved Legion emissive and normal maps
Updated CDAMJC's Wrex face texture
Much improved drell face textures
Better Samara armor norm
Better Samara face
Much improved volus textures
[PATCH]
I uploaded a patch for the Miranda Mod, which replaces Miranda's default armor texture. The patch replaces that texture with the one used in ALOT for consistency (and because it looks better, imo).
Version 2019.8.0
Added MaryseDynasty's Tali textures, for all four of her armours (default, alternate, from ashes, casino)
Cerberus units, Reapers and Garrus now use ClearanceClarence's textures
Updated Miranda's textures with JimbobJeffers' newest Ultimate Miri update
Added an optional file to revert Tali's textures to how they were before, if you preferred the old ones
Added a bunch of new textures, among others Vorcha, Talon armour and environmental textures
Fixed the alpha on some of the Normandy's walls
Fixed the seam on James' face
Version 2019.7.2
Updated MaryseDynasty's Quarian textures with the less visible faces option
Version 2019.7.1
Added more of MaryseDynasty's excellent Quarian textures for ME3
Version 2019.7.0
Bit early for a 2019 release, but there's probably not going to be one at the beginning of the year, and I don't want to make you wait just to have a beautiful 2019 in my version number. So there you go.
Not a huge release, but still some very welcome additions, and a bugfix !
[INSTALLER]
The installer has been merged with the textures download. It is now sufficiently stable and its autoupdate feature means it is unnecessary to separate the downloads. You can still download it separately from Mgamerz' github page : https://github.com/Mgamerz/AlotAddOnGUI/releases
[TEXTURES]
- Fixed lighting on the remote detonator object
- Added new London Graffiti texture by Mellin
- Added MaryseDynasty's Quarian textures
- Added MaryseDynasty's Aria textures
- Added hologram textures by Darziak
- Added Volus textures !!
Version 2018.6.4
Updated DeadMeat's textures with his newly improved reuploads on Nexus.
Replaced JeanLuc761's texture of Miranda with JimbobJeffers'
A dozen new 4K textures by CreeperLava for the Holograms in the Omega DLC and elsewhere
Improved my texture of Aria's outfit. Leather is now less pronounced
Added 65 new textures by Mellin. These textures were made exclusively for the upcoming Priority Earth Overhaul Mod (PEOM), and were generously shared with ALOT. https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6332841-introducing-priority-earth-overhaul-mod/
Many other various textures added. Total ~200 textures added or modified
Version 2018.6.3
Changes made in MEUITM's latest update were propagated to ALOT.
Version 2018.6.2
Fixed a bug whereby Windows would refuse to use DLLs because they come from the internet...
Version 2018.6.1
Fixed a weird bug whereby Windows couldn't extract his own zip format.
Version 2018.6.0
[INSTALLER]
- Entirely new installation procedure. Should now be more beautiful, less buggy, way more functional. All credit to Mgamerz and aquadran.
- Overhauled the additional mods available for download in the installer for better consistency with the rest of the textures. Added some mods, removed a few others.
[TEXTURES]
- Added and updated many, many textures with CDAMJC's recently released update for MEUITM.
- Added some new textures related to the solar system, made by myself.
- Added a hologram texture made by JimbobJeffers.
- Various bugfixes.
Version 2017.5.3
- Readded JimbobJeffer's Holograms mod to the main ALOT package. - Updated the addon with Ellise's face tweaks and Heleuss' face textures (there is no overlap). - Improved the Joker teeth fix.
Major changes to the addon in preparation for version 2018.
Version 2017.5.2.1
New upscale for Joker's face and scalp. - 4 new 2048px textures. - Reimplemented the Joker's Teeth Fix. - Should also fix the remaining seam with his face.
Version 2017.5.2
- Added ThinkBlueN7's Turian (Garrus included), Salarian and Quarian new textures, from Alien Aliens. - Fixed some of the environment textures I made in 2017.5. Should resolve the black texture issue.
Version 2017.5.1
Fix for the red eyes issue. It's possible that other textures present this issue due to a conversion error when building the update. Please report them :).
Version 2017.5.0
This is a major release mainly so that everyone uses the new version of MEM.
- Updated MEM to v167. The format of the texture scan file has changed in this version to fix some issues. If you had already installed ALOT, you need to revert ME3 to vanilla and reinstall everything. - Added something like 30 new environment textures (mainly walls) by myself, CreeperLava - Added JeanLuc's textures for some forgotten Asari face - Hopefully fixed or somewhat improved the blue eyes issue, not much more I can do - Fixed an inconsistency between the norm, spec and diff of Shepard's jacket (N7 symbol) - Fixed an inconsistency between spec and diff on the Terminus armor - Fixed a seam between Diana Allers' face and body
ALOT is now using a versioning system (Boar). This doesn't change anything on your side, it's all in the background. It means the textures are tracked much more professionally between updates, and are easier to revert in case of regressions.
Version 2017.4.4
Attempt to fix the M7 Lancer's textures. Added a spec map.
Version 2017.4.3
Added 66 new textures, mainly on the Normandy and the Citadel.
Version 2017.4.2
Minor fix to a blood texture.
Version 2017.4.1
Re-added some textures I forgot in the main 4.0 update, from previous version 3.7.
Added some more textures from MEUITM, that weren't known to be portable before.
Added a hologram texture made by Mgamerz.
Redone some of the SR2 Normandy textures, that you can see on on the cabin model.
Version 2017.4.0
New textures for Garrus' visor and some holograms. New texture for some of the fish in the aquarium. I've redone about 30 of the posters (advertisements) you can see eg in the Citadel (from 128x256px to 512x1024px or 1024x2048px, ie 4x or 8x vanilla size). Updated MEM to v159 (now with auto update)
Version 2017.3.7
Just a reupload, since apparently Nexus never implemented the previous update file. You can see what fixes are included by reading previous changelog entries.
Version 2017.3.6
Made Tali's face less visible, closer to vanilla.
Version 2017.3.5
Not much to write, despite the quantity of changes.
[ALOT] 41 new textures, generously contributed by AlvaroMe and mylastsong18. These cover the Normandy environment textures (AlvaroMe), as well as holograms and fonts (mylastsong18).
[ADDON] Brand new interface for the addon, brought to you by the author of "ME3 Mod Manager", Mgamerz. Beautiful and functional UI, no more batch file shenanigans.
Version 2017.3.4
Updated MEM in the addon (better DXT1 conversion quality). If you've already installed it, no need to update, unless you really care about the minor quality improvement.
Version 2017.3.3
Another very minor fix for the addon.
Version 2017.3.2
Minor fixes to the addon. Updated MEM to v117, among other things.
Version 2017.3.1
Fixed face seams for Diana Allers, Miranda, Jack (0x175A221F 0x39F09AAD 0x4BB5DC65 0xB241839B 0xD3E0AC15 0xF95D3472).
Improved Miranda's suit's norm (0xF98DBA55).
Fixed Presidium rock texture (0x0C715C98).
Updated the optional Addon to include MEM 1.116, which adds autofix and bulk TPF extraction functionalities. The installation of the addon feels less like a hack now :). The installation should be faster and more stable. Nothing else has been changed, so no need to update if you already have the addon installed.
Version 2017.3.0
MEM Updated (aquadran).
Removal of JimbobJeffer's textures, at his request. His textures will be redone, and made available on his Nexus account. Expect their inclusion in the addon as soon as they are available.
To anticipate your questions : no, I don't want to give any details ; no, sending Jimbob hateful PMs won't change anything (please don't do that) ; we're still in great terms and will continue to work together, in a different way.
Version 2017.2.0
"Major" update as in new full release (merges all previous updates), with updated MEM included, to reduce user error.
Not many changes apart from that. If you already have A.L.O.T installed, no need to update.
Fixes some minor face seams (Diana, Miranda).
Changelogs between version 2017 and 2017.2.0 moved here for clarity : https://github.com/CreeperLava/MassEffectTextureMapper/blob/master/moreOldChangelogsME3.md
Version 2017
Version 2017 is a complete overhaul of ALOT. Too many changes to list individually :). Full list of textures / authors : http://filebin.ca/3DmTH4gIsnvB/FULL.csv
[Textures] - We created an exhaustive database of "portable" (ie identical) textures between the 3 Mass Effect games. This means comparing through various means about 44 000 textures. - Bioware downscaled many textures and upscaled others throughout the development of the 3 games (eg a texture could be 1024px in ME1, 512px in ME2, 256px in ME3). We normalized the textures (same, highest resolution everywhere). - We compared each ALOT texture to its highest resolution vanilla counterpart. We removed all non vanilla-friendly textures and fixed many bugs. - We made plenty of new textures. More to come in the next updates :).
[Installation] - Switch from ME3Explorer to the much newer, faster and stable MassEffectModder (MEM). - Installation of ALOT has been simplified thanks to an installer made for us by the MEM author. - Installation should now take less than an hour on any computer. Much less than that on SSD. - MEM takes care automatically of INI settings. - No more DDS version. 7z version has been changed to MEM format. The DDS' can still be extracted from the MEM version, using MEM.
[Community] We are now on Discord : https://discord.gg/PSYR3Zb You can join us there to give feedback, ask (sensible) questions. We'll also make available there pre-releases for beta testing.
Older changelogs have been removed from Nexus. You can find them here : https://github.com/CreeperLava/MassEffectTextureMapper/blob/master/oldChangelogME3.md
A LOT OF TEXTURES (ALOT)
CREDIT : ALOT is a project that was initiated by myself, CreeperLava, but couldn't have come so far without the contributions of many artists, developpers and the input of countless users. A complete list of the textures in ALOT and their respective authors is available here.
Many artists contributed to ALOT, namely AlvaroMe, ClearanceClarence, CDAMJC, CreeperLava, Ellise, JeanLuc761, JimbobJeffers, MaryseDynasty, Mellin, mylastsong18, smarteck, sulezraz, ThinkBlueN7. Special thanks to CDAMJC for sharing his draft of a ME2 MEUITM with the ALOT project.
The ALOT team currently consists of three people : myself, aquadran and Mgamerz. AlvaroMe is the honorary fourth member, but he has left the modding scene for now. Mgamerz and aquadran developed and provided vital support for two essential tools used by ALOT, namely MassEffectModder and the ALOT Installer. Thank you also to KFreon for ImageEngine.
WHAT IS THIS MOD ?
A Lot Of Textures (ALOT) has been endorsed by Bioware as one of the main inspirations and benchmarks behind Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
ALOT is a visual upgrade of the Mass Effect trilogy (ME1, ME2, ME3). ALOT for ME3 in particular contains over 3000 high resolution textures. The result is a game that is much more pleasing to look at, and thus more enjoyable to play.
Now the long version :
ALOT is a project to provide a much needed visual upgrade to the entire Mass Effect trilogy. With over 20,000 high resolution textures and 40GB across all 3 games, it is also the largest modding project of its kind for any game. ALOT provides high resolution textures for squad mates, environments, weapons, armours, enemies, allies... Pretty much everything that is visually distracting due to low resolution has been overhauled.
Despite the large number of textures in ALOT, quality primes over quantity. Respect of vanilla (ie unmodded) style is paramount. Every single texture in ALOT was carefully handpicked with that in mind, from the work of many contributing mod authors.
Furthermore, ALOT restores a large number of unused, high resolution textures from the vanilla game, that were hidden away in the game files. This to replace the downscaled version of these textures that you see in game.
During the installation of ALOT, the installer will also modify the game's INI settings for improved dynamic shadows and texture rendering.
We welcome any contributions to the mod, you can come and talk with us on Discord if you're interested :).
Best viewed in fullscreen and high resolution - far from exhaustive Many 4K screenshots in the image section of Nexus to give you a better idea of what you'll see.
INSTALLING ALOT
Illustrated ALOT Installation guide available here. Static Lighting addon comparison pictures: here, here, here, here. The Lite version is a little blurrier than the Full version.
If you only want to use ALOT, these warnings don't concern you. Otherwise, read them. Do not, EVER, use ME3Explorer. It will break your game. ME3Explorer should not be used if you're not a mod developer (see FAQ). The descriptions of old mods aren't up-to-date, rest assured this applies to all mods. Installation order is crucial in Mass Effect modding. Always install content mods before ALOT (ME3Re, EGM, Controller Support, etc). Read the recommended mods section below if you're unfamiliar with the Mass Effect modding scene and want to try something new!
Other than that, it's quite simple: Open the ALOT Installer, download all recommended addons and click install to install ALOT, pretty much. Other texture mods come after ALOT: TPF, DDS, MOD, MEM files. You can install these very easily with ALOT: drag & drop all texture mods you want over the Installer and click install. Texture mods you add to the installer always override ALOT.
If you have any issues or questions: First read the FAQ below to see if it is already answered there. If it isn't, come over on Discord and discuss it with us. You can also join us there to talk about ALOT, modding, or whatever you want :).
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS
Driver settings (Anti Aliasing, Ambient Occlusion). The truly essential settings to enable are Anti-Aliasing and Ambient Occlusion. Guide for Nvidia available here. Other settings are already modified by ALOT, directly in the game's INI settings. Tweaking these settings will drop your FPS. Make sure your computer can take it. Bad tweaks may also cause graphical glitches (this video causes this glitch).
Recommended mods. These are mods I played with and enjoyed, they're my personal recommendation. I also recommend using M3 as a mod manager to facilitate installation of the mods. It's made by Mgamerz, who also developed the ALOT Installer and features similar ease of use. Drag & drop mods to install, pretty much. They are compatible with ALOT and each other unless stated, provided you install them before ALOT. Read each mod's description well and download compatibility patches where needed.
Spoiler:
Show
Anything related to Kinkojiro and the Expanded Galaxy Mod series. Very impressive mods from a technical standpoint, given how difficult it is to mod ME3, and very well executed. Seamless integration, feels like it was always part of the game. More like how the game was intended to be. I cannot say it enough, I wouldn't play the game again without EGM installed. If you install any mods, let it be these.
- Expanded Galaxy Mod : Huge number of changes, both large and small, to improve the overall gameplay of Mass Effect 3. Focus point is immersion. - Alliance Armor Pack : Additional armors for Shepard - Alliance Warpack : Additional armors for Ashley, EDI, James and Kaidan - Ark Mod : Stunning new N7 mission, new enemies, restored content - Miranda Mod : Miranda on the Normandy and new gameplay mechanics - Omega Hub : Return to a changed Omega after the Omega DLC - Spectre Expansion Mod : Expands the under used Shadow Broker and Spectre terminals. New difficult choices to consider via Spectre authorisations, improve the presence of background races in ME3, expand the galaxy map and provide clues to the battles happening beyond Shepard’s missions - Urdnot on the Normandy : Bring the varren Urdnot on the Normandy
Allers Redone : Better dress for Diana Allers BackOff : Improves relationship mechanics, various bug fixes Better Dreams : Replaces starbrat by actual nightmares based on Shepard's traumatic experiences in past games Bonus Power Packs : Adds multiplayer powers to singleplayer, with some balance tweaks CEM Citadel Epilogue Mod : Makes the Citadel DLC play like an epilogue, with many tweaks to dialogue CEM makes the most sense with one of the following ending mods : - JAM JohnP's Alternate MEHEM : Slightly modified Extended Cut ending with the MEHEM memorial scene. - LIME Less Is More Endings : More depth than JAM and MEHEM and an awesome new cinematic, unfortunately incompatible with Extended Anderson Conversation and ThaneMOD; unlike JAM. Extended Final Anderson Conversation : Restores cut content from the ending Hair Mod DLC : Lots of choice for a fabulous Shepard Improved Fitness and Encumbrance : Gameplay balance tweaks Interface Scaling Add-On and Interface Scaling Mod : Pretty much necessary for any high DPI screen given how badly the vanilla GUI scales ME3 Recalibrated : Unofficial patch for ME3. Also restores some cut conversations N7 Armour Mod : Additional armours for Shepard Respawn Mission Overhaul : Changes the number and type of enemies you face to create a more difficult experience Stimulant Pack : New bonus power from Citadel DLC TRM Tali Romance Mod : Much improved Tali romance from the greatest Tali fan out there ThaneMOD : Improved Thane romance. Difficult to install and has several compatibility issues, use with caution Screenshot Mode : Add keybinds to freeze the game and toggle the fly cam. Works well with ALOT, zoom in and drown in the high resolution tide Vignette Remover : Removes the vignette effect on your screen. This changes the game's colours quite a bit, use with care
Asari Remastered : Beautiful retexture of Asari skin. Strays quite a bit from the vanilla style, so up to personal preference. The only mod that should be installed after ALOT, as explained in the installation instructions above.
ME3 INI Settings. Optimal INI settings are automatically applied by the ALOT Installer. It is ill-advised to further change INI settings related to graphics. Full list of changes available here.
ENB, SweetFX and other graphical enhancement tools. Screenshots on this mod page were taken without any ENB / FX tool. You don't need one to make your game beautiful, but here are some : link, link, link, link, link.
UPDATING
1. Download the Installer from here, if you don't have it anymore. Run it. If you still have it, run it all the same. 2. The Installer will tell you if an update is available.
If it is a minor update (eg version 2018.6.4 came out and you have version 2018.6.0 installed), just download the update from Nexus, drag & drop it over the Installer and click Install.
If it is a major update (eg version 2018.7.0 came out and you have version 2018.6.4 installed), you will need to restore your game to vanilla and follow the instructions in the Installation section above.
UNINSTALLING
To uninstall, use the Installer's backup & restore functionality (see guide above). By restoring an unmodded (vanilla) backup, you can revert your game to its initial state. If you don't have a backup, the only way to vanilla your game is to remove the game's folder and reinstall it fresh.
FAQ
0. System requirements
Bare minimum: 4GB of RAM. Prepare for a very slow installation and possible crashes if you run out of memory. 8GB or more is ideal.
Bare minimum: 2GB of VRAM. A dedicated GPU with 4GB or more is ideal.
Any CPU
Any monitor: 4K=3840x2160 for monitors is different from 4K=4096x4096 for textures. You don't need a 4K monitor for 4K textures.
1.General Advice
Pirated copies of the game and its DLCs may or may not work. Either way, they won't be supported.
Turn Origin's auto update setting off. Otherwise, Origin can overwrite modded game files with the originals without asking. If that happens, reinstall everything.
Turn Origin's in-game overlay off. The overlay halves my FPS from a stable 60 FPS to less than 30.
2.Is ALOT compatible with [insert popular mod here] ? ME3Recalibrated users, do not run the AutoTOC from ME3Explorer. The ALOT Installer takes care of AutoTOC, and running ME3Explorer before ALOT will break your game. Do note however, if you don't run the AutoTOC, your game won't work properly until you install ALOT with the Installer.
Some users experience crashes with mods that replace the file "BioD_End002_500Choice.pcc" (eg MEHEM, ThaneMod). The game will crash when it tries to load that file, with an error that looks like this. For MEHEM in particular, you can fix the problem with the MEHEM patch available in the file section. If you experience the crash after having installed ALOT, go to the BIOGame/DLC/DLC_CON_END folder in your ME3 installation folder, and copy the file "BioD_End002_500Choice.pcc" both to the main CookedPCConsole folder and to the CookedPCConsole folder of the DLC mod that was mentioned in the crash log. Either of these manipulations will require you to run AutoTOC from the ALOT Installer > Settings menu > Game Utilities > AutoTOC.
There are no known incompatibilities with any other mods. Just make sure to install them in the correct order:
Install all content mods (any mods that contain PCC files, including DLC mods) before ALOT.
Install all texture and meshes mods (mods that contain only TPF, DDS or MOD files) after ALOT, so they'll overwrite ALOT.
To install mods in TPF, DDS, MOD or MEM format, simply run the Installer, drag & drop them on it, and click install.
To install a mod that has both PCC files and TPF/DDS/MOD files, install the PCC files before ALOT and the TPF/DDS/MOD files after.
For more information about mod formats, read this article.
3.Crashes, freezes As a 32-bit process, once ME3 uses more than 3.5GB of RAM, it runs out of memory, freezes and crashes. For example, the armor locker crashes if you browse more than around 50 armors. You need to either wait 30-40 seconds for the memory to be released, or restart the game. Installing ALOT and ISL along with other large mods such as EGM or PV can also cause your game to run out of memory in busy areas like the Citadel. A workaround that reportedly fixes this issue (but hasn't been tested by myself) is to replace the game's DirectX DLLs with the Vulkan-based implementation of DirectX, DXVK, available here.
Here are a few workarounds to other crashes encountered by users.
Cracked EXEs can crash modded games.
Running the game in windowed mode and adding the command line argument "-nomoviestartup" to the exe was reported to fix some CTDs.
Disabling Motion Blur (in the GamerSettings.ini or Coalesced.bin) fixed crashes in some DLCs.
Disabling ReShade / SweetFX / other fixed crashes for some people.
Flawless Widescreen was reported as a potential cause for crashes.
6.Adding DLCs after the installation If you install a DLC after having installed ALOT, it is likely you will break the game. You have to vanilla your game completely, then redo the installation with your new DLC installed.
4.How do I make a backup ? You can backup and restore your game from the Installer's interface. Look into the Settings menu. Your game needs to be completely unmodded to make a backup. You can then restore at any time through the same menu.
5.Installer not running ? The installer requires Microsoft Framework .NET 4.7.2. If you don't have it installed, you can download it here. Avira, Bitdefender, RivaTuner and MSI Afterburner are known to cause issues with MEM and the Installer. Deactivate them when installing ALOT. OneDrive can also cause issues if the Installer or the mods you download are stored there.
7.MEM versus Texmod, ME3Explorer ME3Explorer is a toolkit for modders, not a tool made to install mods. It has a number of issues related to textures (list) and is quite slow. Count 10 hours to install ALOT. The ALOT Installer uses MassEffectModder (MEM) to install textures. MEM is built for speed and fixes many issues ME3Explorer has. It should be preferred to ME3Explorer for mod installation. All ME3Explorer features used for mod installation are present in the ALOT Installer and MEM: AutoTOC is ran automatically by the Installer, no user input required; TPF, DDS, MOD and MEM file installation are handled by the ALOT Installer and MEM. Texmod is a very old tool to replace textures. It loads all the textures directly in your RAM when you run the game, and replaces them on the fly, whereas MEM replaces the textures directly in the game's files. So, with Texmod, the game would take several dozen minutes to boot every single time you run it. You're also limited to 4 GB of mods. With MEM, you shouldn't experience loading screens longer than a few dozen seconds, at most, similar to the unmodded game.
8.Some textures aren't high-resolution / still look unmodded There are 27 379 textures in ME3. ALOT is huge, but not that huge. I'm always working on more textures, but I prefer quality over quantity, so it's a slow process. Feel free to make some textures yourself and share them, to fill the gaps :).
FEEDBACK
TheViper823x You saved my life
jurgcl29 Wow! I have been wanting to play ME3 again for sometime now, but I didn't want to have to re download and install all of the texture mods on my new computer. I will definitely be playing again now! Thank you!
anoddexperiment Wow... just, wow. It's like playing an entirely new game. [...] I play on a 4k monitor, and this has made the experience truly epic.
worthlessdaisey HUGE thanks to putting this pack together. Makes life a lot easier than trying to find all the little pieces.
Xayjyn Excellent compilation mod; adds a huge amount of immersion to the game.
furosuto81 I recently upgraded to a 4K monitor and it left the standard textures looking....wanting...to say the least. I've now played through the Earth tutorial and the improvement is astounding.
Spark9 Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to put this together. I was searching for exactly something like this. Thank you very much :)
Ironhead34 Just want to say thanks for putting this together. Recently built a new PC and this is my first time playing through ME3 with mods. What a difference. No hiccups with installation. FWIW - using Windows 10.