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About this mod
A large-scale overhaul for the faces of human and asari characters in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Features high quality textures based on Ellise's original trilogy complexions.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
- Donations
Above you can find screenshots showcasing this mod's textures - Though there aren't many at the moment I will try to continue to add more when I have the time.
Also please feel free to submit your own images using these textures for others to check out!
These screenshots were taken using the Mass Effect - Color Reshade Preset and is highly recommend for best visual quality.
~
This project has been a big labor of love of mine for a couple of years now. Back when I first fell in love with the Mass Effect games and their characters, I was so inspired by the amazing complexion mods that I discovered. Although I am still learning, this is essentially a really large compilation of everything I've picked up since I began texture modding!
My hope is that this mod might be able to bring a new sense of replayability and life when you play these fantastic games. However, the appearance of characters can be very subjective and these textures were made using my basic abilities and with my personal aesthetics in mind. That being said... I hope that if you give this mod a try, that it adds to your experience playing these games again!
This project would have never been possible without the work of Ellise, who has made such amazing facial textures for the Mass Effect games. The characters' complexions in this mod use many of her textures as a baseline for my own edits - so a lot of the credit for their detail and quality belongs to her!
If you happen to be unfamiliar with Ellise's work, then please check out her and her mods for amazing retextures of many of your favorite characters!
The goal of this mod is to provide high quality, consistent textures for human and asari characters across the trilogy. A lot of close attention was paid to improving general aesthetics, while attempting to maintain or enhance the realism, diversity, individuality of the characters.
I wanted to keep realistic sense of consistency for the characters, especially Liara whose face infamously changes in each game. Though I also found the idea of a static, unchanging face for everyone pretty boring and unsatisfying. To hopefully remedy this, I tried my best to provide a sense of visual evolution for character where I could, by adding changes to their facial textures as they reappear in the series. Some of these may be hard to spot so I've broken them down here for anyone interested:
- My textures for Liara have the most amount of changes from game to game than any other characters I cover. This is because while her original faces where pretty inconsistent, she had a cool visual evolution to her that I wanted to keep. In the first game she starts out with a pretty bright, youthful appearance. Her appearance changes the most drastically from one to two, because of character reasons and because it's the biggest jump in time. In the second game, her features and makeup are darker and more tired. Finally in the third game, her face and makeup darkens even more and I actually tried to make her resemble how Matriarch Benezia appears in the first game. I thought that would be a cool, full circle way to represent her evolution from game one to three!
- The other characters in the first game who reappear in the later games, Anderson, Ashley, Kaidan, Joker (and Femshep/Sheploo) all receive indicators of aging, combat, and stress as it makes sense for them. Specifically Ashley and Kaidan start with a some scars but gain more, in addition to some signs of maturing and roughness as the games progress. Anderson starts out in the first game with scarring and roughness to reflect his background, but in the later games his features become darker and more tired to reflect the stress he's under. The changes for Joker are more subtle because he's not a soldier, but he does receive some signs of stress and tiredness.
- For the characters who appears in the second game and reappear in the third (basically just the squadmates), they also receive slight changes in their facial appearance and/or makeup where it makes sense. Because the span of time between the second and third game is pretty small, it didn't make realistic sense to give them a lot of changes. So they do receive additions similar to the ones I've already mentioned, but toned down to where they might not always be noticeable.
~
Since this mod aims to retexture all aspects of facial appearance, there ended up being hundreds of textures replaced across the trilogy.
I've broken down exactly what kinds of textures this mod replaces here:
- Unique Complexions: for characters that have individualized facial appearances (like Liara, Femshep, Kaidan, ect)
- Generic Complexions: for non-individualized human and asari characters, as well custom Shepards
- Eyes and Eyelashes: for all human and asari (new cubemaps for eyes as well)
- Miscellaneous Textures: for other aspects of character appearance including:
Eyebrows, Facial Hair, Makeup, Freckles, Asari Tattoos and Specularity Multipliers
Almost all of these textures have been remade and with higher resolution than vanilla to enhance detail, especially the miscellaneous ones. While all unique complexions are made in 4k, generic complexions were reduced from vanilla 4k to 2k. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that having every ambient NPC have 4k facial textures isn't really necessary and can bring down performance - especially if you have mods that add lots of NPCs to populated areas. On the flip side though, that means this mod may not decrease performance hardly at all, in fact it may actually increase it in areas with tons of NPCs. This is untested though, but so far there have been no reports of performance issues from this mod.
I wanted to keep realistic sense of consistency for the characters, especially Liara whose face infamously changes in each game. Though I also found the idea of a static, unchanging face for everyone pretty boring and unsatisfying. To hopefully remedy this, I tried my best to provide a sense of visual evolution for character where I could, by adding changes to their facial textures as they reappear in the series. Some of these may be hard to spot so I've broken them down here for anyone interested:
- My textures for Liara have the most amount of changes from game to game than any other characters I cover. This is because while her original faces where pretty inconsistent, she had a cool visual evolution to her that I wanted to keep. In the first game she starts out with a pretty bright, youthful appearance. Her appearance changes the most drastically from one to two, because of character reasons and because it's the biggest jump in time. In the second game, her features and makeup are darker and more tired. Finally in the third game, her face and makeup darkens even more and I actually tried to make her resemble how Matriarch Benezia appears in the first game. I thought that would be a cool, full circle way to represent her evolution from game one to three!
- The other characters in the first game who reappear in the later games, Anderson, Ashley, Kaidan, Joker (and Femshep/Sheploo) all receive indicators of aging, combat, and stress as it makes sense for them. Specifically Ashley and Kaidan start with a some scars but gain more, in addition to some signs of maturing and roughness as the games progress. Anderson starts out in the first game with scarring and roughness to reflect his background, but in the later games his features become darker and more tired to reflect the stress he's under. The changes for Joker are more subtle because he's not a soldier, but he does receive some signs of stress and tiredness.
- For the characters who appears in the second game and reappear in the third (basically just the squadmates), they also receive slight changes in their facial appearance and/or makeup where it makes sense. Because the span of time between the second and third game is pretty small, it didn't make realistic sense to give them a lot of changes. So they do receive additions similar to the ones I've already mentioned, but toned down to where they might not always be noticeable.
~
Since this mod aims to retexture all aspects of facial appearance, there ended up being hundreds of textures replaced across the trilogy.
I've broken down exactly what kinds of textures this mod replaces here:
- Unique Complexions: for characters that have individualized facial appearances (like Liara, Femshep, Kaidan, ect)
- Generic Complexions: for non-individualized human and asari characters, as well custom Shepards
- Eyes and Eyelashes: for all human and asari (new cubemaps for eyes as well)
- Miscellaneous Textures: for other aspects of character appearance including:
Eyebrows, Facial Hair, Makeup, Freckles, Asari Tattoos and Specularity Multipliers
Almost all of these textures have been remade and with higher resolution than vanilla to enhance detail, especially the miscellaneous ones. While all unique complexions are made in 4k, generic complexions were reduced from vanilla 4k to 2k. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that having every ambient NPC have 4k facial textures isn't really necessary and can bring down performance - especially if you have mods that add lots of NPCs to populated areas. On the flip side though, that means this mod may not decrease performance hardly at all, in fact it may actually increase it in areas with tons of NPCs. This is untested though, but so far there have been no reports of performance issues from this mod.
Spoiler:
Show
The only textures related to facial appearance I have not covered are scars which only appear in LE1. Certain characters in LE3 are also not covered by this mod because they were not covered by Ellise (and they don't really need retexturing). The complexions in question are for characters like Admiral Hacket and Ann Bryson. I may add complexions for them in the future though.
This mod consists only of textures, so almost all gameplay-related mods will work together with this one seamlessly.
Here's a list of mods related to mine that are either required or recommended to be used together:
LE1 Community Patch - Required
Unofficial LE2 Patch - Required
LE3 Community Patch - Required
Liara Consistency Mod (LE1) & Liara Consistency Mod (LE2) [LE3 Face version only] - Required
Sheploo Appearance Consistency Project for LE2 - Required
Anderson & Hacket Consistency Mod for LE2 - Required
Diana Allers Overhaul for LE3 - Required*
Kasumi Eye Tweaks for LE2 & LE3 - Highly Recommended
Kaidan Alenko Overhaul for LE1, LE2 & LE3 - Recommended
Aria Consistency Mod for LE2 - Recommended
Ashley Consistency Project for LE3 - Recommended
Oriana looks like Miranda's Twin for LE2 & LE3 - Recommended
Mods that may not be compatible with mine are ones that directly change the facial textures a character uses, of which in most cases I already have made them a requirement! If a mod does change someone's facial texture and I have not made listed it here, it just means my textures will not replace the one that mod does. Also if you do not wish to install a mod that is a requirement, they'll just simply have vanilla faces since my textures for them won't replace anything. So worst case issue is just a character not having my facial textures! :)
Since this mod contains only textures, installation is going identical to any other texture mod you'd use. It is still very large compared to most, with around 400 new textures across the trilogy so it will probably take longer to install than usual.
You'll need the Mass Effect Modder (MEM) tool to install textures.
~
For those unfamiliar with how to install texture mod - You can get a standalone version of MEM from GitHub here or use one built into your ME3Tweaks Mod Manager located under Tools, Additional Tools, Mass Effect Modder (for legendary edition).
Here is a guide borrowed from the ALOT page that gives pretty simple instructions on how to install their texture mod, which applies to this one as well.
I've also created a guide of the steps that you should follow when modding ME, including how to install this mod using MEM below:
Since this mod is comprised of just textures, everything is modular and you can leave out any textures you don't want to install. You can also install any other texture mods before or after mine freely. Any texture mod that includes textures I have will replace my own if installed after mine however. It's basically just a matter of layering what you want on top of what you don't.
I've included individually packaged .mem to help with that and individual textures if you want to replace specific ones manually.
I've also created a long explanation of how to only install specific textures, if the separate .mems I have created don't break down enough for what ever it is you want to do. That is included here:
FUTURE PLANS
While this mod can be considered basically finished as it is - I would like to include new GUI textures of each character at some point! Basically what this would look like... is that I would individually edit each GUI image of a character, like their squadmate selection picture. I would have to piece in screenshots of their new appearance, but it would be a nice thing to have for immersion.
There is of course always going to be pre-rendered cutscenes that I cannot edit to reflect the changes of this mod... But cases where they feature characters' faces are thankfully few and far between.
KNOWN ISSUES
I really, really tried my best to fix any seams that occur between the new facial textures and vanilla scalp textures. That being said, I have noticed some seaming around certain characters' faces. Between Mass Effect's infuriating systems for texture formatting that change for each game, mods that swap out entire head models and textures, and Reshade presets that clarify and sharpen - I honestly don't know if there is any way to actually fix this on my end. I have tried... And failed. This might be something I revise in the future, but not for right now.
* There are additional issues I have be made aware of since releasing, please check out the post tab for more details *
If you do come across issues in your game, which tends to happen with Mass Effect mods, please feel free to post about your issues and hopefully I or someone else can help you out! But before you do so, please double check you have carefully read the mod's requirements.
Firstly, I have to thank my brother Axios for his continuous feedback and support. Without him to keep pushing me, I never would have been able to release something I'm this proud of! Thanks for your help bro <3
A massive thank you to Ellise of course! I've already sung her praises, but she really is the foundation of this whole project and much of the credit for the complexions goes to her. Thank you so much for your creative example and generous spirit.
Thank you so much to Kharr for his huge help when I had texture trouble and for creating such amazing, quality mods! I'm so grateful to you and your presence in the ME modding community!
Thank you also to Jenya for her amazing advice and helpful words!
Also thank you to Audemus, Catachrism, Beccatoria, and anyone else who has helped or given me advice in a modding server!
And lastly... Thank you to anyone and everyone who has supported my modding efforts! I know I have been teasing this mod forever and to anyone who has had to keep waiting to use these textures - I'm sorry lol and also thank you for your patience!
It's finally here! Finally!
~
Here's a list of mods related to mine that are either required or recommended to be used together:
LE1 Community Patch - Required
Unofficial LE2 Patch - Required
LE3 Community Patch - Required
Liara Consistency Mod (LE1) & Liara Consistency Mod (LE2) [LE3 Face version only] - Required
Sheploo Appearance Consistency Project for LE2 - Required
Anderson & Hacket Consistency Mod for LE2 - Required
Diana Allers Overhaul for LE3 - Required*
Spoiler:
Show
The Diana Allers Overhaul mod is only required because I edit that mod's textures and not the base game's. If you do not wish to install it, nothing bad will happen, she'll simply keep her vanilla textures. Additionally, if you use a mod that replaces Allers' model entirely like Emily Lives, you'll never notice that the textures weren't installed! So have no fear, if you wish to use a mod that replaces her, just don't install Diana Allers Overhaul and continue on like normal! :)
Kasumi Eye Tweaks for LE2 & LE3 - Highly Recommended
Kaidan Alenko Overhaul for LE1, LE2 & LE3 - Recommended
Aria Consistency Mod for LE2 - Recommended
Ashley Consistency Project for LE3 - Recommended
Oriana looks like Miranda's Twin for LE2 & LE3 - Recommended
Mods that may not be compatible with mine are ones that directly change the facial textures a character uses, of which in most cases I already have made them a requirement! If a mod does change someone's facial texture and I have not made listed it here, it just means my textures will not replace the one that mod does. Also if you do not wish to install a mod that is a requirement, they'll just simply have vanilla faces since my textures for them won't replace anything. So worst case issue is just a character not having my facial textures! :)
Since this mod contains only textures, installation is going identical to any other texture mod you'd use. It is still very large compared to most, with around 400 new textures across the trilogy so it will probably take longer to install than usual.
You'll need the Mass Effect Modder (MEM) tool to install textures.
~
For those unfamiliar with how to install texture mod - You can get a standalone version of MEM from GitHub here or use one built into your ME3Tweaks Mod Manager located under Tools, Additional Tools, Mass Effect Modder (for legendary edition).
Here is a guide borrowed from the ALOT page that gives pretty simple instructions on how to install their texture mod, which applies to this one as well.
I've also created a guide of the steps that you should follow when modding ME, including how to install this mod using MEM below:
Spoiler:
Show
1. Once you have the ME3Tweaks Mod Manager installed to begin use gameplay-altering mods, create a backup of you games before you install anything. You can find this in the Backup tool under the Backup & Restore tab. If you mess up at all in your modding process or want to install gameplay mods after already installing a texture mod... This will save you a massive amount of time for the small trade off of some extra space.
2. Install all the gameplay mods you want. If you are using this mod, make sure to install all of the required mods. Always install the Community Patches for their respective game's first.
3. After this is done and you are SURE that you have all the gameplay mods you want AND you have tested them in game with no issues - Open up the MEM. Navigate to whichever game you want to play first and therefore texture mod first, usually ME1. Select Texture Manager. It will then prompt you saying it need to do a scan the game's textures and you should have installed gameplay/doc mods you want. Let it scan and wait until it is done and you can navigate in the Texture Manager. Exit the Texture Manager.
4. Now you can install this mod or whatever texture mod you want for ME1. To do this select under Mass Effect 1, Texture Modding and select Install Texture Mods. Now select Add to List and navigate to respective the LE1 MEMs you want to install. If you are using the All in One version of this mod, it should be one simple file. One you have done that, select Install all mods and the textures should begin installing. This might take some time depending on your computer. One it is done though you can exit the mod installer.
5. Now that you have completed this for one game, you can continue to do the same steps with each respective game! Remember to select each corresponding texture mod version for each game you are installing for. Example: Primitives (LE2) for ME2/LE2.
You have successfully installed your texture mods! You can continue to keep installing texture mods and using the Texture Manger to replace textures anytime... But keep in mind you will have to restore your game if you add/remove any gameplay mods.
2. Install all the gameplay mods you want. If you are using this mod, make sure to install all of the required mods. Always install the Community Patches for their respective game's first.
3. After this is done and you are SURE that you have all the gameplay mods you want AND you have tested them in game with no issues - Open up the MEM. Navigate to whichever game you want to play first and therefore texture mod first, usually ME1. Select Texture Manager. It will then prompt you saying it need to do a scan the game's textures and you should have installed gameplay/doc mods you want. Let it scan and wait until it is done and you can navigate in the Texture Manager. Exit the Texture Manager.
4. Now you can install this mod or whatever texture mod you want for ME1. To do this select under Mass Effect 1, Texture Modding and select Install Texture Mods. Now select Add to List and navigate to respective the LE1 MEMs you want to install. If you are using the All in One version of this mod, it should be one simple file. One you have done that, select Install all mods and the textures should begin installing. This might take some time depending on your computer. One it is done though you can exit the mod installer.
5. Now that you have completed this for one game, you can continue to do the same steps with each respective game! Remember to select each corresponding texture mod version for each game you are installing for. Example: Primitives (LE2) for ME2/LE2.
You have successfully installed your texture mods! You can continue to keep installing texture mods and using the Texture Manger to replace textures anytime... But keep in mind you will have to restore your game if you add/remove any gameplay mods.
Since this mod is comprised of just textures, everything is modular and you can leave out any textures you don't want to install. You can also install any other texture mods before or after mine freely. Any texture mod that includes textures I have will replace my own if installed after mine however. It's basically just a matter of layering what you want on top of what you don't.
I've included individually packaged .mem to help with that and individual textures if you want to replace specific ones manually.
I've also created a long explanation of how to only install specific textures, if the separate .mems I have created don't break down enough for what ever it is you want to do. That is included here:
Spoiler:
Show
Okay to start with... There are two methods of using the MEM that allow you to control precisely what texture you install.
The first is to create your own .mem texture package. You will need to collect the texture files you want to install in a folder named whatever. I have provided these texture files in the Separate Installation version of this mod. They are organized to be easy to find whatever textures you want. Once you have that folder of textures you want installed, either all of them or some of them... In the MEM, Select Texture Modding under the corresponding texture's game. Select create texture mod. You will then navigate to that folder you created and select it. Once you do, it will ask you to name the new .mem and navigate to the location where you want it to be made. This can be anywhere, including your folder with textures. Once you have done this, it will create the .mem. Once this is done you can install that .mem the same way you did using this mod's installation directions.
The second way to install specific textures is by individually replacing them using the Texture Manager. This might be more difficult for anyone who has zero texture modding experience, since this is the same way modders mod textures. If you this is too hard to follow, then just do the first method.
So go to the Texture Manager under your respective game. Here you can individually examine and interact with the game's textures, which are located in larger game files you can scroll through on the left side. We will want to be finding specific textures though, so the Search for a texture tool will be our friend. So select search and it will prompt you to enter the name of the texture you want to find. Let's do Ashley's texture, just for example. So the name of Ashley's diffuse complexion texture is: HMF_HED_PROAshley_Face_Diff_Stack_0x763FC1C6.dds
You can copy and paste this texture into the bar and it should take you directly to that texture in your game. Or if you want to find any of Ashley's textures you can enter a shared keyword used in the name like *Ashley* and that will pull up multiple for you to choose. The * symbols basically indicates that other characters can precede or follow the ones given when searching. Anyways... When you have located whatever texture you want to find can right click the file name and you basically have the options to "replace" or "extract". Extracting means that you create an actual texture file copy of the one in your game - it is what I used to export this mod or create specific vanilla backups of textures. Replace allows you to select another texture file to... Well replace that one. This is essentially what installing is, just by a specific texture by texture basis, and is useful when you are editing textures and don't have time to package everything. You can use this function to individually find and replace each texture you want in game. And you can use it with my textures to only install one texture at a time.
If you encountered any problems, you can feel free to let me know... But honestly a lot of this kind of process is best helped through discord servers for ME modding. That is where I learned most of this information, I'm just regurgitating it the best I can so anyone can do this on their own. So yeah... Best of luck and if you are genuinely wanting to learn about all of this, there are many in the ME Discord servers who are much better at helping and explaining things than I am.
The first is to create your own .mem texture package. You will need to collect the texture files you want to install in a folder named whatever. I have provided these texture files in the Separate Installation version of this mod. They are organized to be easy to find whatever textures you want. Once you have that folder of textures you want installed, either all of them or some of them... In the MEM, Select Texture Modding under the corresponding texture's game. Select create texture mod. You will then navigate to that folder you created and select it. Once you do, it will ask you to name the new .mem and navigate to the location where you want it to be made. This can be anywhere, including your folder with textures. Once you have done this, it will create the .mem. Once this is done you can install that .mem the same way you did using this mod's installation directions.
The second way to install specific textures is by individually replacing them using the Texture Manager. This might be more difficult for anyone who has zero texture modding experience, since this is the same way modders mod textures. If you this is too hard to follow, then just do the first method.
So go to the Texture Manager under your respective game. Here you can individually examine and interact with the game's textures, which are located in larger game files you can scroll through on the left side. We will want to be finding specific textures though, so the Search for a texture tool will be our friend. So select search and it will prompt you to enter the name of the texture you want to find. Let's do Ashley's texture, just for example. So the name of Ashley's diffuse complexion texture is: HMF_HED_PROAshley_Face_Diff_Stack_0x763FC1C6.dds
You can copy and paste this texture into the bar and it should take you directly to that texture in your game. Or if you want to find any of Ashley's textures you can enter a shared keyword used in the name like *Ashley* and that will pull up multiple for you to choose. The * symbols basically indicates that other characters can precede or follow the ones given when searching. Anyways... When you have located whatever texture you want to find can right click the file name and you basically have the options to "replace" or "extract". Extracting means that you create an actual texture file copy of the one in your game - it is what I used to export this mod or create specific vanilla backups of textures. Replace allows you to select another texture file to... Well replace that one. This is essentially what installing is, just by a specific texture by texture basis, and is useful when you are editing textures and don't have time to package everything. You can use this function to individually find and replace each texture you want in game. And you can use it with my textures to only install one texture at a time.
If you encountered any problems, you can feel free to let me know... But honestly a lot of this kind of process is best helped through discord servers for ME modding. That is where I learned most of this information, I'm just regurgitating it the best I can so anyone can do this on their own. So yeah... Best of luck and if you are genuinely wanting to learn about all of this, there are many in the ME Discord servers who are much better at helping and explaining things than I am.
FUTURE PLANS
While this mod can be considered basically finished as it is - I would like to include new GUI textures of each character at some point! Basically what this would look like... is that I would individually edit each GUI image of a character, like their squadmate selection picture. I would have to piece in screenshots of their new appearance, but it would be a nice thing to have for immersion.
There is of course always going to be pre-rendered cutscenes that I cannot edit to reflect the changes of this mod... But cases where they feature characters' faces are thankfully few and far between.
KNOWN ISSUES
I really, really tried my best to fix any seams that occur between the new facial textures and vanilla scalp textures. That being said, I have noticed some seaming around certain characters' faces. Between Mass Effect's infuriating systems for texture formatting that change for each game, mods that swap out entire head models and textures, and Reshade presets that clarify and sharpen - I honestly don't know if there is any way to actually fix this on my end. I have tried... And failed. This might be something I revise in the future, but not for right now.
* There are additional issues I have be made aware of since releasing, please check out the post tab for more details *
If you do come across issues in your game, which tends to happen with Mass Effect mods, please feel free to post about your issues and hopefully I or someone else can help you out! But before you do so, please double check you have carefully read the mod's requirements.
Firstly, I have to thank my brother Axios for his continuous feedback and support. Without him to keep pushing me, I never would have been able to release something I'm this proud of! Thanks for your help bro <3
A massive thank you to Ellise of course! I've already sung her praises, but she really is the foundation of this whole project and much of the credit for the complexions goes to her. Thank you so much for your creative example and generous spirit.
Thank you so much to Kharr for his huge help when I had texture trouble and for creating such amazing, quality mods! I'm so grateful to you and your presence in the ME modding community!
Thank you also to Jenya for her amazing advice and helpful words!
Also thank you to Audemus, Catachrism, Beccatoria, and anyone else who has helped or given me advice in a modding server!
And lastly... Thank you to anyone and everyone who has supported my modding efforts! I know I have been teasing this mod forever and to anyone who has had to keep waiting to use these textures - I'm sorry lol and also thank you for your patience!
It's finally here! Finally!
~