How to Fix Really "Dark" Textures or Deep Black Shadows

[⚔️ ²⁶Ž ⏂ Ṛ³⁵ 🐉]

After playing the game I noticed that the shadows or the colors "Black" throughout the entire game are too dark. to make this go away and make the game look 100% Better do the following:

Go into your users folder, example...

C:\Users\yourname\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\BIOGame\Config

Open up the GamerSettings.ini and add this line under [systemsettings]

DepthOfField=False

If you want the game to look alot better than add the following under the same area and to me it made the game look really nice...

TEXTUREGROUP_Character_2048=(MinLODSize=64,MaxLODSize=2048,LODBias=0)
TEXTUREGROUP_Environment_2048=(MinLODSize=32,MaxLODSize=2048,LODBias=0)
MinShadowResolution=128
MaxShadowResolution=1024

Of course make a backup of your ini file before adding changes!! Enjoy

[Wever]

worked

[Rementoire]

Many thanks. Those settings fixed my black shadows.

[ErestarMedia千鶴[OP-MS]]

:D!!! Thanks so much!

Lol that all the responses are 2-3 years late XD

[Vellari]

Indeed, but atleast refreshing to see people actually bother with searching the forum for a solution rather than re-asking.

[GET TO DA CHOPPA!]

http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect2/mods/135/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fmasseffect2%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D135%26preview%3D&pUp=1

Just read this description and you'll get the REAL fix

[masternoxx1]

Interesting... but of course the game is designed this way with high contrast compared to ME1 if you play it on xbox360 it is the same way. I turned my brightness up one notch or so and put 1080p resolution (because the game does not support anti aliasing) and it looks very nice

[TriStormed]

My game won't run if I edit the DepthOfField. I changed the value to false in Notepad++, removed a 0 in one of the numbers that ended in .0000 to make sure the number of characters was the same, saved, and booted the game. I don't get an error, a crash screen, nothing. The game just doesn't launch or show any sign of launching other than the couple seconds of my mouse pointer showing the loading circle.

[pepoluan]

Originally posted by ForceofTri:

My game won't run if I edit the DepthOfField. I changed the value to false in Notepad++, removed a 0 in one of the numbers that ended in .0000 to make sure the number of characters was the same, saved, and booted the game. I don't get an error, a crash screen, nothing. The game just doesn't launch or show any sign of launching other than the couple seconds of my mouse pointer showing the loading circle.

I personally don't like changing DepthOfField; it causes the graphics to have less "realism". Also, because in effect it forces the engine to draw everything in high-res, it might cause behaviors such as you experienced.

Rather, in the [SystemSettings] section, change (or add) these two settings:

DynamicLights=True
CinematicLights=3

The first one ensures that the engine will try adding/changing "light sources" when necessary, and the second adds more "light sources" during cinematics. (CinematicLights=3 might cause cutscenes to be too bright; you can try reducing it to 2 or 1 in that case).

Also, find the file UberPostProcessBlendPixelShader.usf (it should be in the <SteamDirectory>\steamapps\common\Mass Effect 2\Engine\Shaders folder), and change the following line:

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour-0.004);

to

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour);

(please notice the ending semicolon there)

NOTE: Edited this post just in case someone saw this and don't follow the conversation.

PS: The game doesn't care about the size of the GamerSettings.ini file. Feel free to add/delete/change values as you want, as long as you don't change the type (integer values must not have a dot ".", while float values must have a dot ".")

[TriStormed]

Originally posted by pepoluan:

I personally don't like changing DepthOfField; it causes the graphics to have less "realism". Also, because in effect it forces the engine to draw everything in high-res, it might cause behaviors such as you experienced.

Rather, in the [SystemSettings] section, change these two settings:

DynamicLights=True
CinematicLights=3

The first one ensures that the engine will try adding/changing "light sources" when necessary, and the second adds more "light sources" during cinematics.

Also, find the file UberPostProcessBlendPixelShader.usf (it should be in the <SteamDirectory>\steamapps\common\Mass Effect 2\Engine\Shaders folder), and change the following line:

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour-0.004);

to

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour);

(please notice the ending semicolon there)

Alright, I changed these values to match the ones you listed (however doing a search in Notepad++ for "CinematicLights" turned up nothing so I didn't edit that one) and the saturated shadows were gone! Thanks so much for the help!

[pepoluan]

Originally posted by ForceofTri:

Originally posted by pepoluan:

I personally don't like changing DepthOfField; it causes the graphics to have less "realism". Also, because in effect it forces the engine to draw everything in high-res, it might cause behaviors such as you experienced.

Rather, in the [SystemSettings] section, change these two settings:

DynamicLights=True
CinematicLights=3

The first one ensures that the engine will try adding/changing "light sources" when necessary, and the second adds more "light sources" during cinematics.

Also, find the file UberPostProcessBlendPixelShader.usf (it should be in the <SteamDirectory>\steamapps\common\Mass Effect 2\Engine\Shaders folder), and change the following line:

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour-0.004);

to

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour);

(please notice the ending semicolon there)

Alright, I changed these values to match the ones you listed (however doing a search in Notepad++ for "CinematicLights" turned up nothing so I didn't edit that one) and the saturated shadows were gone! Thanks so much for the help!

Ah, yes, forgot to mention that "CinematicLights" need to be added if it doesn't exist.

The value ranges from 1 to 3, if not specified then the game "auto-guesses" how many additional lights to add... but usually fails to get a nice value :P

I suggest experimenting with that, too. Setting to "3" like I did might be a tad too bright for some. In which case, reduce to "2" or "1".

But anyways, glad to be of help!

[TriStormed]

If I were to add that line to the SystemSettings, would I be able to place it anywhere as long as it's in its own line? Or do I need to put it in a specific line for it to work?

[pepoluan]

Originally posted by ForceofTri:

If I were to add that line to the SystemSettings, would I be able to place it anywhere as long as it's in its own line? Or do I need to put it in a specific line for it to work?

Anywhere in the section will do. As long as you don't accidentally duplicate it.

[TriStormed]

Originally posted by pepoluan:

Anywhere in the section will do. As long as you don't accidentally duplicate it.

Welp, added the line, deleted 17 0's (from numbers like 1.000000) to keep the number of characters the same, and I get the same issue with DepthofField. Game won't start
Forgot to test removing 18 0's in case the game thought an extra line counted as one character. The game runs now, thanks!

[pepoluan]

Originally posted by ForceofTri:

Originally posted by pepoluan:

Anywhere in the section will do. As long as you don't accidentally duplicate it.

Welp, added the line, deleted 17 0's (from numbers like 1.000000) to keep the number of characters the same, and I get the same issue with DepthofField. Game won't start
Forgot to test removing 18 0's in case the game thought an extra line counted as one character. The game runs now, thanks!

Just a tip: The game doesn't care about the size of GamerSettings.ini; it's freely editable :-)

HOWEVER, you must make sure that parameters that expect integer numbers have no decimal point, parameters that expect boolean values have only "true" or "false", and so on.

(You might be thinking of "Coalesced.ini", which has so many gotcha's that you're better off using a dedicated editor such as the "Mass Effect 2 Coalesced Editor".)

[whispers]

honestly though, this thread should be pinned at the top of the forum. thanks for the tips, I was going crazy.