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About this mod
The original Mass Effect trilogy UI does not work well with 21:9 ultrawide resolutions. Flawless Widescreen improves support but does not properly scale the UI. The goal of my mod is to fix the problems and properly scale the game's GUI to 21:9 ultrawide resolutions.
- Permissions and credits
If you have not already, check out my mod for the first Mass Effect: Mass Effect Ultrawide
The GUI of the original Mass Effect trilogy is a mess when you play at 21:9 resolutions. Flawless Widescreen helps, but does not provide a complete solution. That is not a knock against Flawless Widescreen. But Flawless Widescreen alone doesn't provide a complete solution. My mod actually modifies the game's UI directly in order to fix the scaling and placement. In tandem with Flawless Widescreen for its FOV and black bar fixes, it's now possible to have a true 21:9 experience with Mass Effect.
Additional 3440x1440 screenshots available here: https://imgur.com/a/UDOGUgy
Bonus: A few 3440x1440 screens of ME3 Ultrawide: https://imgur.com/a/URt7Iyn
Before we begin, there are a couple of things to know. Please ensure that you carefully review the information on this page before proceeding.
Installation:
1) Back up your game folder.
2) Copy the CookedPC folder from the archive and paste into the BioGame folder where
Mass Effect 2 is installed. Overwrite existing files.
3) If you have DLC, you'll need to update those files as well. Under the BioGame folder is a folder named DLC. For any DLC folders listed, copy that same folder name from the mod archive, paste to the DLC folder and overwrite existing files.
4) After updating any DLC files, you will need to install the binkw32 DLC patcher. Download the Mass Effect 2 files and follow the instructions on the Github page: https://github.com/Erik-JS/masseffect-binkw32
5) If you are already using Flawless Widescreen, go to the settings for the Mass Effect 2 plugin. Disable HUD scaling. Set 'FOV Fine adjustment' to 0. Values other than zero may cause weird effects with some UI items. Go to the Settings menu, and open Configuration. Go to Display Detection and uncheck 'Enable Display Detection Override' then save changes. If you're NOT already using Flawless Widescreen, install it, install the Mass Effect 2 plugin, and configure your settings the same as above.
6) If you're using the Origin version of the game, disable Automatic Game updates in your Origin application settings. If Origin automatically
updates the game, things may break.
7) Set the game's resolution. If you are on 2560x1080, you can do this through the in-game Options screen.
Note for 3440x1440 users. If you are on 3440x1440, you must do this in the Mass Effect 2 Configuration Utility which is accessible from the game's launcher. At 3440x1440 your Options screen in-game will show as 800x600. This is just a design oversight with the game. Don't try to change the resolution while in-game or you'll get some weird effects and you'll have to exit out and change it in the configuration utility again.
Uninstall:
With the number of files involved that had to be updated, the easiest option is to simply restore the backup you made of the game folder during the installation steps.
Mod Compatibility:
Please note that any mod that changes the same PCC files and does not have a compatibility patch is NOT compatible with this mod. Attempting to combine such mods together is asking for problems, so don't do it. At the moment, this mod only has a compatibility patch for ME2Re.
Mass Effect 2 Recalibrated compatibility
The official compatibility patch is now available under the Optional Files section.
Before installing, there are a few things to be aware of.
1) This patch was created with the approval of ME2Re's author, and therefore, follows all permissions as set out by moho25/giftfish. For further details, review document "ME2Re_ReadMe_v2.txt" included in the archive.
2) I have playtested this patch and did not run into any problems or broken things. But keep in mind this is an initial release.
3) This does not make the controller mod compatible. That will still be a ways out.
Installation
1) Install Mass Effect 2 Ultrawide and ME2Re as normal.
2) Create a backup copy of the ME2Re DLC mod folder.
3) Copy the patch files into \DLC_MOD_ME2Re\CookedPC and overwrite the existing files. Do not place these patch files in any other location or it will not work correctly.
4) That should be it. If you have problems with the compatibility patch or questions about it, let me know. Do not post about it on the ME2Re page
or contact the author.
Thanks:
Mgamerz for the mod tools and tips that make this possible.
moho25/giftfish for the excellent Mass Effect 2 Recalibrated mod, and being so cool working with me to make ME2Re and MEU2 compatible.
Known issues:
-There may still be placement issues with ambient dialogue subtitles in pre-rendered cutscenes. I have not seen this with in-game cutscenes. It's ultimately a minor issue, but it may be one that does not have a good solution. I believe the problem is caused by how the game is stretching pre-rendered movies but I have not been able to solve this.
Resolved issues:
-Fixed a mistake where a DLC subfolder was missing from the main archive. Replaced main archive download with a corrected version.
-Fixed a problem where ambient dialogue subtitles and tutorial popups were in the wrong place (resolved in 0.6 patch)
-Fixed issues with multiple mission debrief screens in DLC content (resolved in patch 0.6)
The GUI of the original Mass Effect trilogy is a mess when you play at 21:9 resolutions. Flawless Widescreen helps, but does not provide a complete solution. That is not a knock against Flawless Widescreen. But Flawless Widescreen alone doesn't provide a complete solution. My mod actually modifies the game's UI directly in order to fix the scaling and placement. In tandem with Flawless Widescreen for its FOV and black bar fixes, it's now possible to have a true 21:9 experience with Mass Effect.
Additional 3440x1440 screenshots available here: https://imgur.com/a/UDOGUgy
Bonus: A few 3440x1440 screens of ME3 Ultrawide: https://imgur.com/a/URt7Iyn
Before we begin, there are a couple of things to know. Please ensure that you carefully review the information on this page before proceeding.
- I consider this mod to be a beta. The game's file structure is messy. I believe I've updated all GUI items but there may be some that have not been fixed yet. Bugs may be introduced that I'm not yet aware of. I will do my best to knock out any problems or GUI elements that are not working right. If you want to report an issue, please provide details about when and how you encountered the problem, and screenshots.
- As with other mods which change the game's base files, install this before any texture mods. Installing this after texture mods WILL result in black triangles and other texture problems. This includes even minor release updates for my mod. As with any other mods, make a backup before installing.
- I have only tested this on a 3440x1440 display. The mod uses a resolution which should also scale to 2560x1080. This is NOT intended for other aspect ratios like 32:9 or eyefinity setups. They may be improved by the mod but I will not be supporting those resolutions. 16:9 is not intended either, but then if you're on 16:9 you shouldn't be installing this.
- I have not tested compatibility with any other Mass Effect 2 mods except ME2Re, and to use this with ME2Re you MUST use the compatibility patch in the Files section of this mod. Mods that are simple .ini or Coalesced changes should be fine. Any mods which replace the same PCC files as my mod and do not have a compatibility patch listed are 100% NOT compatible. You are guaranteed to experience problems at some point and will possibly wreck your game. Before installing multiple mods that change the game's PCC files (whether you're using my mod or ANY mod) I suggest reviewing the changed files from each mod. If both mods you want to install change startup_INT.PCC for example, and there is not a compatibility patch between those two mods, they will NOT work together correctly.
- This does not fix the pre-rendered cinematics. Neither does Flawless Widescreen. Expect some cutting off and stretching on any pre-rendered cinematics. I've done a little testing on modifying those and got a couple of them to work with only minor stretching. May update those if there is enough interest.
- While Flawless Widescreen is not a requirement to use with this mod, I strongly recommend it. Some menus such as the main menu will not display correctly without Flawless Widescreen's FOV correction. The menu is perfectly functional but will be skewed out of place.
- I'm playtesting ME3 Ultrawide and working on a ModMaker installation. This will make for a smaller download, easier installation, and hopefully easier compatibility with other ME3 mods. I'll upload when I feel it's ready for a beta release. Coming soon.
- I've gotten a few requests regarding the series of controller UI mods. I have not tried yet but I believe it's possible to update those mods in a way to support ultrawide resolutions. There are certain challenges involved. The biggest one is that the two mods change the same files, so making things compatible would pretty much mean a fork or repackage of one mod including the other. This is not difficult to do but it is time consuming. For the most part I would have to take the controller mod and then go through each GUI component and apply my changes to it. Practically doing my mod again from scratch. I'm trying to get the base game UIs for each game updated first before I look at bigger changes. But I get that this is important to a lot of users. Once I get each game's base UI finished, I'll revisit this topic and see what can be done.
Installation:
1) Back up your game folder.
2) Copy the CookedPC folder from the archive and paste into the BioGame folder where
Mass Effect 2 is installed. Overwrite existing files.
3) If you have DLC, you'll need to update those files as well. Under the BioGame folder is a folder named DLC. For any DLC folders listed, copy that same folder name from the mod archive, paste to the DLC folder and overwrite existing files.
4) After updating any DLC files, you will need to install the binkw32 DLC patcher. Download the Mass Effect 2 files and follow the instructions on the Github page: https://github.com/Erik-JS/masseffect-binkw32
5) If you are already using Flawless Widescreen, go to the settings for the Mass Effect 2 plugin. Disable HUD scaling. Set 'FOV Fine adjustment' to 0. Values other than zero may cause weird effects with some UI items. Go to the Settings menu, and open Configuration. Go to Display Detection and uncheck 'Enable Display Detection Override' then save changes. If you're NOT already using Flawless Widescreen, install it, install the Mass Effect 2 plugin, and configure your settings the same as above.
6) If you're using the Origin version of the game, disable Automatic Game updates in your Origin application settings. If Origin automatically
updates the game, things may break.
7) Set the game's resolution. If you are on 2560x1080, you can do this through the in-game Options screen.
Note for 3440x1440 users. If you are on 3440x1440, you must do this in the Mass Effect 2 Configuration Utility which is accessible from the game's launcher. At 3440x1440 your Options screen in-game will show as 800x600. This is just a design oversight with the game. Don't try to change the resolution while in-game or you'll get some weird effects and you'll have to exit out and change it in the configuration utility again.
Uninstall:
With the number of files involved that had to be updated, the easiest option is to simply restore the backup you made of the game folder during the installation steps.
Mod Compatibility:
Please note that any mod that changes the same PCC files and does not have a compatibility patch is NOT compatible with this mod. Attempting to combine such mods together is asking for problems, so don't do it. At the moment, this mod only has a compatibility patch for ME2Re.
Mass Effect 2 Recalibrated compatibility
The official compatibility patch is now available under the Optional Files section.
Before installing, there are a few things to be aware of.
1) This patch was created with the approval of ME2Re's author, and therefore, follows all permissions as set out by moho25/giftfish. For further details, review document "ME2Re_ReadMe_v2.txt" included in the archive.
2) I have playtested this patch and did not run into any problems or broken things. But keep in mind this is an initial release.
3) This does not make the controller mod compatible. That will still be a ways out.
Installation
1) Install Mass Effect 2 Ultrawide and ME2Re as normal.
2) Create a backup copy of the ME2Re DLC mod folder.
3) Copy the patch files into \DLC_MOD_ME2Re\CookedPC and overwrite the existing files. Do not place these patch files in any other location or it will not work correctly.
4) That should be it. If you have problems with the compatibility patch or questions about it, let me know. Do not post about it on the ME2Re page
or contact the author.
Thanks:
Mgamerz for the mod tools and tips that make this possible.
moho25/giftfish for the excellent Mass Effect 2 Recalibrated mod, and being so cool working with me to make ME2Re and MEU2 compatible.
Known issues:
-There may still be placement issues with ambient dialogue subtitles in pre-rendered cutscenes. I have not seen this with in-game cutscenes. It's ultimately a minor issue, but it may be one that does not have a good solution. I believe the problem is caused by how the game is stretching pre-rendered movies but I have not been able to solve this.
Resolved issues:
-Fixed a mistake where a DLC subfolder was missing from the main archive. Replaced main archive download with a corrected version.
-Fixed a problem where ambient dialogue subtitles and tutorial popups were in the wrong place (resolved in 0.6 patch)
-Fixed issues with multiple mission debrief screens in DLC content (resolved in patch 0.6)