Is it me or does Mass Effect not look that good even on ULTRA

I just got mass effect today and have been tweaking around with the game setting for hours and hours now and i g2 say Im fairly disappointed.

I noticed no difference between high and ultra settings and honestly ultra doesnt even look that good. Im on the first planet and the world texture is really sloppy, the water trails are just crappy, overall graphics just doesnt look close to recent graphical awe of recent titles.

I also playing under 1280x800 native so im doing nothing wierd in that sense.

Im running a 8600gt ddr3 OCed, is the game forcing lower quality intentionally because of my gpu? That seem like the only explaination.

anyone else share my observation?
Ill post pictures later.

 

compare your screens with others guys in here, start by posting youjr Ultra high

 

This game is a breath of fresh air with all the other mindless action shooters we have been getting of late.

I think your being too picky and missing just enjoying the game. You should be paying more attention to the atmosphere and story of the game.

And i don’t see how the graphics inadequate, they are above average and the amount of work put into the character/race designs is quite evident during the in-game cutscenes. And this is my own opinion on an 8400M GS.

Keep in mind the game was probably built for the lowest common　denominator. In this case the XB0X360. Some of the textures being lower quality is due to a consoles limited amount of Video Ram compared to a PC. It wouldn`t be unreasonable to assume the PC version is a port like many other multi-platform games.

This game reminds me a little of Space Quest, Gundam, Star Wars and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Gamers these days have it so good. Back in the days of space quest you had a 2D low-Res 256 colour game that fit on 6x 5.25 floppy discs and you had to use keyboard and type in what you wanted your character to do (Talk, look, see, pickup, take ,etc) and that was for $60





And for the hell of it, here is some pics i found of space quest

 

Another thing is.. when devs release games like lets say "Crysis" with stunning Graphics which you would never dream of, People will be Crying about why it doesnt work on thier hardware, so Mass effect is trying to make a balance between gamplay and the Graphics. you should be thankful that such title works @Ultra high on your GFX card

 

I think its a beautiful game, especially the closeup facial animations, its amazing how they managed to envoke a sense of intelligence in the characters eyes, its not perfect no, but its extremely well done, I'd like to see you try and do better.

 

I have to agree with the other two fellas here. Mass Effect may not be the most graphically powerful game, but the gameplay and story and immersiveness are awesome. I have not been this drawn into a story since Deus Ex.

BTW/ thanks for the Space Quest screens Bunbuns, those bring back some memories. That was the glory days for me as far as gaming goes. Between that and the WC series, sci-fi gamers were in heaven!

 

Actually I reinstalled the whole game, playing now under the same settings and it looks alot better. I really should have saved a picture of the previous graphics, its so much worse than what you guys are imagining, but the new images are look great, i'll post later on. Hopefully its the same that you guys are all getting.

What fps are you guys getting under your settings btw? Anyone find a way to smooth over the hu

 

did you restart the game after changing the texture quality?

 

Actually not restarting wasnt the problem, the apparently bad graphics version came from me messing with advance ini game engine files. I attempted to manually disable depth of field along with some other performance taxing settings. Turned out to be a disaster. So word out to the wise, wait for a tweak guide from Tweakguides.com before attempting any advanced tweaks.

 

I haven't checked but some of you may be running out of texture memory when trying to go from medium to high to ultra. 256 vs 512megs, there may be charts posted if not already.

 

If you want to start doing basic tweaking you can dig around in the:

C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config\BIOEngine.ini

Shadow Tweaks (find the following vairables and change them, sometimes they are listed twice in the file)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

ShadowFilterRadius=0.000000 (Turns off Smoothing effect on Self Shadows)
MaxShadowResolution=256 (Default is 512, change it to 1024 with the above setting for sharper shadows)

-

 

Mass Effect conjures up all sorts of fond memories and in-game moments of Deus Ex, though, the two games have very little in common regarding plot development.

The graphics are top-notch; the cinematic presentation is a extra treat.

 

Settings:
1600x900 (external monitor and looks great, worth the performance hit)
Textures: Ultra High (worth the FPS hit over High)
Particle Effects: Medium (thinking of upping this to High and checking out the performance hit)
Filtering: Point? (I forget)
Motion Blur: Off
Film Grain: Off

GPU Clocks at 550/1100/460

FPS: I get a steady 25, never going below 22 (except for some cut scenes, but no gameplay anyways), goes above 30 indoors in non-action sequences.

I saw a huge difference going from High on 1366x768 to Ultra High on 1600x900

Check the screenshot thread for... screenshots.

 

To me, the game looks nice,and it's a must have for the genre fans...

 

I think the graphics are very weak, very disappointed looks like an arcade game.

 

Uh, what? What arcade game has facials that good?

 

Come one the facials are OK and the rest of the game is very basic.

 

Do you even own the game? How are any of the textures THAT bad? I don't quite understand how one person can thing the graphics are THAT bad, when no one else mentions it. I do have the game btw, and beaten it...the ending i spectacular.

Even on my G1s, at medium settings, it looks no worse than any standard FPS out there right now.

 

Well I'am not the only one the person that started this thread thinks so. I guess AOG is spoiling me.

 

The OP borked his graphic settings trying to tweak for max performace, rendering and ugly looking game as a result, he changed his opinion upon reinstalling.

The closeup opposing profile views of Wrex and the other kroggy are just breathtaking, and thats just with high textures and dynamic shadows disabled, the detail and facial animations are just awesome IMO, and as stated before, the sense of intelligence they get out of the eyes is just stunning.

My only real complaint with the game is I wish the main story arc was longer, granted I skipped most of the side quests, but lets face it, the sense of urgency the story portrays about imenent galaxy wide genocide doesnt really compel one to go run multiple errends like blow up borked computer systems or look for lost relics on the way.

 

I'm impressed by how little each setting actually affects the fps. I noticed like a 2 fps difference between high and ultra high. And surprisingly shadows only costs me like 5fps.

 

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I've been really blown away by the character models in Mass Effect, easily the best I've seen since Half-Life 2: Episode Two. They emote beautifully and the game FEELS like you're the integral part of a grand science fiction movie. You don't mind listening to the voice acting, and the writing is really top notch.

I've been really stunned by the art direction in the game. Maybe it's the kid in me that grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, but this is one of the most immersive games I've ever played. While I think combat is a little bit weaksauce, everything else is golden. In its own way, I'm finding it more immersive - and enjoyable - than even Bioshock.

But then again, Bioshock didn't let me command a flagship piloted by Seth Green, or form away teams to scour surfaces of alien planets, so that might have something to do with it.

 

Its easily the most enjoyable game I've played in an extremely long time. Its been ages since a games gone above the I've got nothing better to do status, before I completed the main story, there was nothing better to do period.

 

19 days till game arrives to Palestine.. Mass effect 2 will be released by then rofl

 

Finished this game on the 360; loved it. Especially the dialogue, very clever. You could go through the game twice and have a completely different experience depending on what you choose to say. Don't think I'll bother with the PC version though, unless someone convinces me it looks twice as good as on the 360!

 

Only put the game and recorded video. To reduce the size of encrypted in a flash, but more than 640 х 480 format does not support. Setting 1152 x 768 games, all at their highest in more than 25 fps.

Mass Effect Video

 

Anyone have a for date when the mini expansion "bring down the sky" is going to be released? Its not a full fledged expansion but basically a big sidequest with new races and hour or two of gameplay. All it says on their web page is its coming soon.

 

I have to say some parts of the game look dull, but for the most part the graphics are very good. It might just be because im playing on a low resolution but I am playing with Ultra High textures...I notice that things in the background seem to look blurry, especially light fixtures and character models. Maybe it is for effect to focus your attention on who is talking (whoever is talking looks amazingly detailed) but its annoying that the person two feet behind them looks so much worse.

 

It's a depth of field effect, it's coupled with the "film grain" option (which I leave on because that's probably how the game was intended) to give the game a cinematic feel. When you watch a conversation scene in a modern movie, you'll notice the people/scenery behind the primary character will sometimes be out of focus. Even at two feet away, they can be rendered almost completely out of focus.

Anyway, it's an effect I really enjoy in this game, enough that I would even be seriously interested in "how it was intended."

 

I must admit that we've been a little spoiled recently with games that feature beautiful, detailed environment. I find Mass Effect's graphics a little disappointing in that regard. I haven't played it much yet, but the opening level where you shoot those floating things looks really...bland. It's not 'alive', if that makes sense. Character models are wonderful though, that's a fact! I'm playing this game maxed at 1920x1200.

 

All great comments, I g2 admit that the game really shines in several aspects, its character modeling is really unparalleled with the system demands that it puts you through.

Has anyone messed with the engine ini file yet to see where they can safely push performance?

For those of you who have never done this b4 its probably because you never needed to, or been too wierded out by messing with a system info file.

Its really safe, just make a backup copy and your pretty much in the clear. The file is called Base engine in the Engine->Conflig folder.

I tried disabling depth of field, and it didnt really return performance. Disabling dynamic lighting gave a bunch of problems for instance the character model in the inventory screen was all black, which was too much a bargain for the performance gain.

Also there was an entry called bEnableMatureLanguage at the beginning, its naturally set to false. I enabled it and have yet to notice any differences, but im only an hour into the game play. Veteran players out there can turn it up and see if you notice any differences.

Anyone have other experiences messing around with that file? I really want to find the entries that cripple performance or maybe to get it to run in direct x9 mode, so far i havent been able to crack that.

 

Plus my game seem to downclock its graphics after playing for a couple of hours. Right now I see no difference between ultra and medium settings, and the graphics LOOK like its medium. With my system this shouldnt be happening should it? Wtf is going on?

 

thats kind of what my games look like on ultra high

 

As I've read through this thread the past few days what strikes me is the variety of responses from people. But it also seesm like it boils down to two different camps: those who really enjoy graphics i.e Crysis and those who really enjoy plot and story i.e Deus Ex, Half-Life, etc...

I realize that those two concepts are not always mutually exclusive, but nowadays it seems like that's what the major distinction is among most gamers.

Obviously, all of this is subjective, but IMO, I think some younger gamers have been spoiled by graphical advances recently in the same way that my kids would rather watch a DVD than sit down and read a good book and use their imagination.

Just my two cents...

BTW- I think Mass Effect is great. I have not stayed up past midnight playing a game in a LONG time. I've done it now for two nights in a row with this game.

 

Personally, I tend to be a graphics junkie, not plot, but was absolutely hateful of Crysis.

Part of Mass Effect's problem is that it IS a good looking game - great in fact - but I have yet to see a screenshot that does the game justice. It's the kind of thing that really needs to be seen running to be appreciated.

 

Also, what the hell is up with no anti-aliasing?

 

It's a shortcoming of Unreal Engine 3. You get used to it because everything is so post-processed and bloomed to hell.

 

I havent tried this yet, but apparently there is a way to get AA with radeon cards.

http://rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33924948