Mass Effect Andromeda

About this mod

--NOW WITH Depth of Field-- This ReShade changes the game's atmosphere to something far more cinematic. This mod invokes the feeling you get when you see pre-rendered cinematic trailers for games and are in disbelief because of how stupidly-good everything looks. Lights will be more pronounced.

Permissions and credits
Donations
Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition Version - https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/84?tab=description (ME2 LE and ME3 LE versions coming in the near future. Please remember to endorse if you like it).

800 ENDORSEMENTS!!! You guys are mad (awesome)! Thank you all so much for the support and kind words over the years, it's really meant a lot to me! Wish you all well and hope you and your loved ones are safe in these awful times. 

Cheers,
Merc





--12/14/2017 | Wahoo! Finally ported Cinematic Realism properly over to Assassin's Creed Origins:

1) Cinematic Realism - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/8725/
2) Also, check out my new Grim and Cinematic ReShade also for Assassin's Creed Origins - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/8715/

--8/29/2017 | New ReShade released (Cinematic Realism Redux Beta). Download on the file page here for now, and pics are here: https://www.facebook.com/MercsAssassin/

--9/6/2017 | Major update released for Cinematic Realism, bringing us to version 2.3. New screenshots on the last two pages (of that desert planet that's not Eos finally!) Patch notes are on the download page. Sorry it took me a little longer than I'd anticipated. Cheers!

-- Use DoF_Radius to increase overall Depth of Field. Will start to blur looting menus again after about 50... But man does it look good... Change DOF_NearBlurCurve to 6 to be engulfed in DOF. Definitely turn off in menus. Leave the radius at 30 if adjusting the NearBlurCurve.

-- 4/10/17: New ME:A ReShade RELEASED in main file section. Will be moved to standalone page soon. Please go to YouTube and upvote if you like what you see. High-quality pics here: From the released version: http://imgur.com/gallery/xvrwg --



Cinematic Realism Lighting Overhaul changes the game's atmosphere to something far more cinematic. This mod invokes the feeling you get when you see pre-rendered cinematic trailers for games and are in disbelief because of how stupidly-good everything looks.

Well you'll no longer need to merely wonder when graphics will get that good. With this mod, they are that good. 

Light sources will be more pronounced than in the vanilla game :)

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If you find you're looking for something a little different, I strongly recommend checking out Generation Enhancer (Graphical Realism) by ilker BAHAR and his team: http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/187/?

It's the best graphical overhaul available for MEA, imo.
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-- Some new pics here: http://imgur.com/gallery/0GNqv Optional Depth of Field Released in Update 2.0. Pics Updated. All pics from page 3 and on are from versions 2.0 and 2.1 Check Images section to see captions on what pics are from what version number. Pics from Nexus all from 2.1. Pics on Eos all from 2.0 - 4/5/17 --

-- DoF works properly with mouse and keyboard now. FIXED in version 2.1 (4/5/17) --
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--
Hey all! The biggest way you can support me is to subscribe to and like vids on my YouTube channel. Trying really hard to grow my channel very bigly ;). No but seriously. Subs, likes and comments there make a tremendous difference to my channel growth. Ok I'll stop now. Thanks for all the support thus far, you guys and girls have been fantastic! - From Merc, with love --

-- Follow me on twitter, if you'd like: https://twitter.com/MercsAssassin --

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-- Full list of released mods for other games at the bottom of this page. And here:https://www.facebook.com/MercsAssassin/ --

-- I am AssassinsDecree on ReShade database site - https://sfx.thelazy.net/users/u/AssassinsDecree/ In case this comes up --



Update 2.0 with Depth of Field Demo on display in this first vid. Update 1.2 on display in Let's Play Part 3. Fire redder, blue lights(weapon fire, jets) little more vivid and bloom reduced. Let me know feedback in comments, please. Comparison pics in 1.1 to 1.2 in images section, the ones with the fire.

First vid shows Update 2.0 Demo w/Depth of Field Demo and [HIGHLIGHTED PORTION NOT RELEVANT FROM VERSION 2.1 and onward] a visual right in the beginning of the vid of what you need to do to make Depth of Field work in your game. Very easy once you watch). Version 2.0 brings higher bloom than 1.2 but still toned down from 1.1 while keeping the stronger fire effects and blue lights from version 1.2. I had a version 1.3 planned, but upon getting depth of field working, which took a literal day of tweaking and testing, I jumped straight to 2.0, since this achieves my intended vision for the mod. I'll still tweak and improve things from here, but unless someone asks me for a specific feature or custom version, I'll probably start working on my next ME:A ReShade soon ;).

I'll always monitor the comments (posts) section and my youtube vids for feedback (positive or negative) and see if folks need help.

Depth of Field/Version 2.0



Fantastic showcase of Cinematic Realism 2.1 here from The Game Show showing many parts of the game not in my pics or vids because I've not got pass Eos yet. A note, he mentions the text being obscured, as I point out in this mod page, the depth of field will sometimes block the text, especially on the various menu screens. To combat this I've given people two easy options: I made an optional patch with a weaker DoF effect that should get in the way less, but is also less cool. OR I've set the DoF to be toggleable with the "/" key, on the numberpad. It's instant and remappable. Pick your poison. With that:



Beautiful showcase of Both Cinematic Realism and RRLO (RRLO starts at about 4:00, I think) on Snowy Planet, Eos, Nexus and Some Other Planet by YouTuber rtwo channel. Please watch this on youtube and give him likes on this amazing video. Trust me, creating these types of vids is extremely time consuming and a lot of hard work. The likes are super important for increasing visibility on youtube. Let's help him get to at least 1000 views and 300 likes, can we folks?

 

My Let's Play (Nexus and Dialogue Demos, Version 1.3)



Let's Play (Combat Video Demo. Version 1.2)



Version 1.0




CONTROLS:

- F1 toggles ReShade menu
- END toggles the ReShade itself on and off 
- F11 takes screenshots. You'll need to fix the file path in the "settings" tab of the ReShade in-game menu.
- Toggle film grain off and on by pressing 3 on the numberpad.
- Toggle sharpness with 5 on numberpad
- Toggle cinematic black bars with 0 on numberpad
- Toggle vignette with * on numberpad 
- Toggle bloom with 6 on numberpad
- Toggle Depth of Field (DoF) off and on with "/"



INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

1. For me, the game has to be in borderless-windowed mode or windowed mode. Fullscreen crashes ReShade on most games for me. Change this in the in-game options menu before installing ReShade.

Also, disable the in-game film grain if you have it on. My ReShade has a custom film grain that's better than the one already in the game. Having them both enabled will make your game too grainy, for most people.

2. Download and extract the folder from FILE section above and then open the folder and copy/paste the three files and one folder inside it ("dxgi.ini", "dxgi.dll", "Mercs Cineamtic Realism.ini", and "reshade-shaders") into to your Mass Effect Andromeda main folder where MassEffectAndromeda.exe is located.

For most, the file path will be, "...Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda"

3. Open the dxgi.ini file in your main Mass Effect Andromeda game folder and locate these two lines under "[GENERAL]":

EffectSearchPaths=D:\Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda,D:\Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda\reshade-shaders\Shaders
TextureSearchPaths=D:\Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda,D:\Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda\reshade-shaders\Textures

Replace the 4 highlighted parts with the proper directory path to your game. This is the same file path we used to find your MassEffectAndromeda.exe file in Step 2.

4.  Run the game.

5. If the effects load but you don't see a change in your game, press F1 to bring up the ReShade menu and click the drop down arrow in the top-right of the ReShade menu box. Choose my "Mercs Cineamtic Realism.ini" file and select it. The effects should load from there. Further details on the controls below.

6. PROFIT! 

ALTERNATIVE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. TRY THEM IF THIS METHOD OF INSTALLING DIDN'T WORK FOR YOU, PLEASE. After that, I'm happy to try to help.

CURSOR BUG?!

Try this, thank user
tom-az if this helps you: 

"I also had the problem with the cursor in the middle of the screen. I tried many things, until I came to a solution that works for me:

I start the game via the 'MassEffectAndromeda.exe' in Windows Explorer with the setting 'Run program as administrator', 

Have now played 3 hours and the problem is no longer occurred."

You can set games (or other programs) to permanently start in administrator mode by going to the ME:A main folder and right clicking MassEffectAndromeda.exe, going to properties, compatibility, and then clicking the "run as administrator" box. Don't forget to hit "apply."

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE:

You may save a few frames by putting the game reshade into performance mode. I just found out about this and it should make the effects load faster too which should improve load times all round. Haven't been able to test to say how much it helps performance but it should help a little. 

The option can be found under the ReShade's in-game settings tab. Please note, you can't edit the reshade while in performance mode, which is why it saves some performance costs. Would love to hear feedback if this helps anyone. 

Also, it'll definitely save you some startup/load times if you go to the "reshade-shaders" folder, then "shaders" subfolder and just delete all the effects you don't use. Best to have the game closed while doing this. This should improve start-up time enormously. 


ALTERNATIVE INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to https://reshade.me/ and download the Reshade 3.0 (or higher) framework from there. Scroll to bottom of page and download whatever the latest version advertised is.

2. Run the .exe that you just downloaded. Probably best to copy it to your desktop or someone first outside your downloads folder.

Follow the steps it tells you selecting yes everything it asks.

3. Select your "MassEffectAndromeda.exe" which is in the main folder of the game. For most it's usually: "...Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda"

4. Select the DirectX 10+ version after you select the "MassEffectAndromeda.exe"

5. Run your game

As your game loads up, you should see a grey box popup in the top of the screen saying it's loading all the reshade effects.

Once it's done, hit "shift+F2" and follow the promps. The most important thing is to hit the plus symbol next near the top of the Reshade GUI and type any name you want.

Follow the other prompts until the boxes turn from red to black or grey or whatever indicates you're done with the very short tutorial.

You can leave your game open or close it for this next step.

6. Go back to your game's main folder, where the "MassEffectAndromeda.exe" is and look for that file you just created with whatever name you gave. It should be a .ini file.

7. Open the .ini file and replace all the text with the text from my .ini file in the download here.

Save the file. Run your game or alt tab back to it. And then do step 8 if you your game is still running.

8. Reopen the Reshade GUI with Shift+f2 and click the click "reload". The new effects should start loading with my custom settings.

Profit and enjoy!

HOW TO UNINSTALL:

Don't. :)

But if you insist...

1. Delete the Reshade folder, dxgi.ini, dxgi.dll, and dxgi.log from your game folder. That's it.

THANKS AND FEEDBACK:

OMG, the support and feedback from you guys (and girls?) has been incredible! Thank you all for making my effort to create and continue updating this mod well worth it. I would love to hear even more feedback in the "posts" section. I'm happy to do custom requests for ME:A if people ask and I have the time, btw.

Check out my other ReShades by clicking my name.

-Merc

OTHER:

Click my screen name to see my other ReShades for Ghost Recon Wildlands (I have 2) and For Honor (1).

Enjoy, leave comments below if you're having trouble installing or better yet youtube a Resahde 3.0+ install guide. It's extremely easy. You may notice a slight decrease in performance, but it should still be pretty similar FPS to what you usually get. The visual difference is night and day to me and I can't ever go back to vanilla.

Feedback is encouraged and I may take request if someone wants a particular change. Definitely let me know if you issues with installing or if if a particular effect makes it too hard to see in a certain condition.

Check back every few days or so for updates for this first week or two. I'll try to create a depth of field version of this soon, especially if a lot of people say that's what they want the most. Let me know, please.

Cheers fellow Pathfinders!!!


CONTACT:

-- Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for lets plays and demos of my upcoming and released ReShades... who knows, one day maybe you'll an ENB up there: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn5KAZuLeVmeQLXSMJNBMcA --

-- Please follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/MercsAssassin --


MY MODS FOR OTHER GAMES:


https://www.facebook.com/MercsAssassin/ -The first post has the whole, most updated list.

Assassin's Creed Origins

-- Cinematic Enhancer: https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/8521/

-- White Hot Desert ReShade: https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/8551/

-- Revelations ReShade: https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/8550/


Skyrim Special Edition

-- Live Action Trailer Graphics, The Dragonborn Comes, a ReShade for Vivid Weathers: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9990/?

-- Dovahkiin Rising ReShade for Dolomite Weathers: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9942?

-- Dragon Breaker ReShade, a Bright and Bold Look for Vivid Weathers: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9991/?

-- Skyrim SE Ashen ReShade: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9060/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrimspecialedition%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D9060%26preview%3D&pUp=1 --

SQUAD

-- Cinematic Shooter Project: https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7474/

Mass Effect Andromeda ReShades

-- Cinematic Realism - http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/2/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fmasseffectandromeda%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D2%26preview%3D&pUp=1

-- Neon Bomb - http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/4? --

Fallout 4 ReShade

-- Cinematic Realism - http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23442/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Ffallout4%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D23442%26preview%3D&pUp=1 --

Dirt Rally ReShade

-- Cinematic Racing Project -  https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7323/ --

Dirt 4 ReShade

-- Cinematic Racing Project, Dirt 4 Edition - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7333/

-- Cinematic Racing Project (vibrant version), Dirt 4 Edition - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7348/

Mad Max ReShade

-- Cinematic Excellence (Bleak version) - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7438/

-- Cinematic Excellence -
 https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7434/

Far Cry 4

-- Cinematic A.F. - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7416/

Ghost Recon Wildlands Mods

-- Stunning Light and Atmospherics - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7525/

-- Cinematic Excellence 2.0 ReShade (best neutral enhancer with lots of options) -
http://www.nexusmods.com/ghostreconwildlands/mods/1/?

-- E3 2015 Graphics - more realistic, cold ReShade, inspired by E3 2015 trailers for the game with a more gray look - http://www.nexusmods.com/ghostreconwildlands/mods/2?

-- Borderlands-style Oil Painting ReShade - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7175/

-- Uncharted-looking ReShade - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7115/

-- Sun Soaked Graphics Overhaul - insane lighting amplifier. Sunsets, sunrise and clear days look nuts! - https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/6992/