Mass Effect LE Custom Launcher for Unlocking All Language Options (MELo v2.3)
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Some Mass Effect LE players have an artificially limited selection of languages in their
original BioWare Mass Effect LE launcher. This custom launcher can be used to unlock all
of the possible language options.

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How to install
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In your "Mass Effect Legendary Edition\Game\Launcher" directory, replace your original
"MassEffectLauncher.exe" (i.e. the one that shipped with Mass Effect LE) with the custom
one that you downloaded in the zip file. Make sure to unzip it first of course.

If you wish to do so, make a backup of your original "MassEffectLauncher.exe" beforehand,
by renaming it to "MassEffectLauncher.exe.original". You should always be able to restore
the original launcher anyway by verifying the game's integrity through Steam or Origin,
but it is still probably best to make your own backup.

The custom launcher MUST be placed in this directory; it should NOT be placed anywhere
else or run from anywhere else. When it is in the correct place, just run the game
through Steam or Origin like you normally would.

Do NOT try to double-click on the EXE and run it manually as this will probably not work.
You would see the custom GUI appear, but when you try to run a Mass Effect game, it will
not launch. As I said, just run the game through Steam or Origin like you normally would.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT set the EXEs to run as administrator (by going to the files'
Properties -> Compatibility options). This includes the custom "MassEffectLauncher.exe"
and the game EXEs themselves ("MassEffect1.exe", etc.). This has been confirmed by
multiple people to make it NOT work.

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How to compile
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If you wish to compile your own "MassEffectLaucher.exe" from the AutoHotkey source code,
the "MassEffectLaucher.ahk" script file is also provided. Thankfully it is quite easy to
do so. First, go to https://www.autohotkey.com/ and install AutoHotkey. Next, right-click
on the "MassEffectLauncher.ahk" file provided and choose to compile the script. You can
choose 'Compile Script' or 'Compile Script (GUI)'. The first option will simply create
the EXE in the same folder (you may need to hit F5 in your file explorer for it to show),
whereas the GUI allows you to specify where to create the EXE. Once you have compiled the
script, make sure your EXE is called "MassEffectLauncher.exe". Do NOT simply rename the
"MassEffectLauncher.ahk" script file to an EXE file, as this will not work.

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* Changelog *

Version 2.3
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- Added a RestoreGUIOnExitGame setting to the config file (MassEffectLauncher.ini). This
defaults to disabled, which now causes the custom launcher to close itself automatically
when a Mass Effect game is exited, rather than the GUI being restored. It can be
annoying when the GUI pops back up and steals your keyboard focus some time after you
have already quit the game. If you prefer the old behaviour, which is more similar to
the behaviour of the original BioWare launcher, you can enable RestoreGUIOnExitGame.

Version 2.2
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- Now supports changing all of the other options that were present in the original BioWare
launcher, through editing of the config file (MassEffectLauncher.ini). Note that the
config file is initially created when the custom launcher is first used.
The options include:
- Subtitle font size
- Disable controller vibration
- Enable gameplay telemetry (EA collects data)
- Enable crash reporting (EA collects data)
- Changed the 'English VO' language option to be enabled by default.
- Added the original BioWare launcher icon to the pre-compiled EXE.
- Added the option to launch the games from the system-tray menu.

Version 2.1
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- Now remembers your language choice.
- Added the ability to select English spoken dialogue separate from the subtitle language
(feature of the 7 June 2021 patch).
- Renamed the launcher from AVX-Bypass to MELo. As of the 7 June 2021 patch, the original
BioWare launcher no longer requires AVX instruction set support on your CPU. Now the
most common use-case for the custom launcher will likely be to unlock all of the
possible language options.

Version 2.0
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- Added the ability to select from all of the supported languages of the Mass Effect games.
- Removed the need for each user to edit the source code of the launcher and compile it for
themselves, as the script now uses its own location to determine where the game EXEs are.

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URLs:
- https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/46
- https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mass-Effect-Legendary-Edition/Mass-Effect-Legendary-Edition-on-Origin-does-not-start/m-p/10341661#M1785


-dvidebyzero