- description

For mass effect 1 the legendary edition.

Here are some tweaks with 3dmigoto to try
to alleviate the excessive darkness in the game and
some other visual issues.

shader tweaks with 3dmigoto:
- less glossy hair shepard
- thin out wind dust effect on planet surface
- reduce vignette and increase light slightly, removed dof also used for bloom and blur
- reduce glare in reflections glass possibly effects other surfaces as well
- reduce distance fog

update v1.1 03/03/2023
- added a custom shader for a slight curve
  can be disabled see 'further tweaking'
- added a custom shader with 3dmigoto to do
  tonemapping and lumasharpen, replaces reshade
- no longer use smaa by reshade switched to internal aa of game
- added dof reduction to certain overlooked locations
- added reduce color banding sky and or horizon
- added reduce bloom blur small light fixtures
- modified distance fog reduction fixed darkness

Note(s):
The  package has a customized shader 'upscale.hlsl' which
does some fullscreen tweaks as sharpening and color modification
it replaces reshade if needed remove old package se updating.

- updating (from v1.0)

if the old package (v1.0) was installed remove the following
folder(s) and file(s) in the folder which contains MassEffect1.exe

reshade
shadercache
shaderfixes

d3d11.dll
d3dcompiler_46.dll
d3dx.ini
dxgi.dll
dxgi.ini
ReShade.ini

Then copy the contents of the zip file to the install folder of
control, the folder which contains MassEffect1.exe.

- install

Copy the contents of the zip file to the install folder of,
mass effect legendary edition\Game\ME1\Binaries\Win64\
the folder which contains MassEffect1.exe.

- optional install

If you do not like using unverified dll's you can:

Download 3dmigoto from:
https://github.com/bo3b/3Dmigoto/releases
download version 1.3.16.0 (64bit) and place
the following dlls in the install dir of me1
d3d11.dll
d3dcompiler_46.dll
d3dx.ini
then copy ShaderCache and ShaderFixes from the zip file to the same dir aka folder.

note: if you choose to use the d3dx.ini contained in the github package
make sure to set (line 248):
hunting=0
the default setting is:
hunting=1
which sets 3dmigoto to a debug mode.

- verify

After running the game the folder ShaderFixes should
gradually (scene and level dependent) contain the .bin versions:

0a0568ab1fe0e197-ps_replace.txt
532e3dd061d10fa8-ps_replace.txt
886c83d229b76376-ps_replace.txt
8ba330e824c3359a-ps_replace.txt
9a311bd6585c1719-ps_replace.txt
a7dd446173258fd8-ps_replace.txt
b1a93cf610017406-ps_replace.txt
c9cc34c4e90734fb-ps_replace.txt
f4dcfe1b78811178-ps_replace.txt

of

0a0568ab1fe0e197-ps_replace.bin
532e3dd061d10fa8-ps_replace.bin
886c83d229b76376-ps_replace.bin
8ba330e824c3359a-ps_replace.bin
9a311bd6585c1719-ps_replace.bin
a7dd446173258fd8-ps_replace.bin
b1a93cf610017406-ps_replace.bin
c9cc34c4e90734fb-ps_replace.bin
f4dcfe1b78811178-ps_replace.bin

This means that the file(s) .txt have been compiled by 3dmigoto (d3d11.dll)

- tested

Tested with version 2.0.0 of me1 on win 10 (1903) / nvidia 1050gtx ti
See screenshot for settings game.

- performance

3dmigoto gpu usage 1080p@~60fps
without - clock 987Mhz gpu usage ~75%
with    - clock 987Mhz gpu usage ~77%
approximately 2% increase (1050gtx ti on win 10)
max gpu: 1750Mhz gpu usage 100%

- further tweaking

If you like you can compare the modified shader, ShaderCache contains
the original shader, to alter values.

The curve shader can be disabled by opening d3dx.ini
in a text editor and altering line 20 from:
include = ShaderFixes\curve.ini
to:
;include = ShaderFixes\curve.ini

To disable specific tweaks open the shader from
the folder 'shaderfixes' with a text editor example:
532E3DD061D10FA8-PS_REPLACE.TXT

Has a remark on the top line:
// less glossy hair shepard

So if you do not want that to happen
remove the shader from the folder 'shaderfixes'

532E3DD061D10FA8-PS_REPLACE.TXT

and if compiled remove:

532E3DD061D10FA8-PS_REPLACE.BIN

then restart the game.

All shaders <shadernumber>ps_replace.txt have
a similar descriptive remark (see shader list).

- tips

See articles
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition

- shader list

---------- 0A0568AB1FE0E197-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// reduce dof horizon B
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Tue Feb 14 10:15:24 2023

---------- 532E3DD061D10FA8-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// less glossy hair shepard
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Mon Jun 21 20:05:12 2021
  r3.xyz = r1.yzw ? r3.xyz : float3(7,30,4); // reduce plastic effect
  r2.xyw = 0.7f * saturate(UniformPixelVector_1.xyz * r2.xxx); // reduce plastic effect

---------- 886C83D229B76376-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// reduce dof horizon
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Tue Feb 14 10:11:04 2023

---------- 8BA330E824C3359A-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// thin out wind dust effect on planet surface
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Mon Jun 21 20:30:09 2021

---------- 9A311BD6585C1719-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// reduce vignette and increase light slightly, removed dof also used for bloom and blur
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Tue Jun 15 12:04:18 2021
  // reduce red and green
  r1.xyz = 0.5f * (float3(0.400000006,0.400000006,0.400000006) * r0.xyz); // sepia?
  r0.yzw = ColorGradingLUT.Sample(ColorGradingLUTSampler_s, r1.xy).xyz; // increase light
  //r0.w = 1 * r0.w; // reduce vignette
  // increase blue and green
  //r1.xyz = float3(0.0103630004,5.75000013e-006,0.0130924946) + r0.www;

---------- A7DD446173258FD8-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// horizon godray fx attempt to reduce color banding
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Thu Feb 16 10:25:10 2023
  r0.x = dot(r0.xyz, float3(0.2126f, 0.7152f, 0.0722f)); // bt709

---------- B1A93CF610017406-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// bloom blur small light fixtures global
// causes heavy jaggies when other bloom shaders are removed
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Fri Feb 10 10:15:57 2023

---------- C9CC34C4E90734FB-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// reduce glare in reflections glass possibly effects other surfaces as well
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Mon Jun 21 19:37:45 2021
  r1.xyz = TextureCube_0.Sample(TextureCube_0Sampler_s, r6.xyz).xyz * 0.1f; // reduce glare glass reflection

---------- F4DCFE1B78811178-PS_REPLACE.TXT
// reduce distance fog
// ---- Created with 3Dmigoto v1.3.16 on Wed Jun 16 20:19:17 2021
      // reduce density fog
    // keep ambient brightness

---------- SHADERLIST.TXT