May 31, 2019  Note for 3440x1440 users. If you are on 3440x1440, you must do this in the Mass Effect 2 Configuration Utility which is accessible from the game's launcher. At 3440x1440 your Options screen in-game will show as 800x600. This is just a design oversight with the game. Cannot import ME 1 character to ME 2! Thread starter. The configuration utility should be located here: Program Files. Origin Games - Mass Effect 2 - Binaries. Game's launcher. If you got the game from Steam, you have to look for it in the Steam folder. In any event, the config utility is in the Binaries folder in the installation.

1. Mass Effect 2 Romance

Motion Blur: If set to Yes, this option enables, a form of effect most noticeable when you change your view rapidly; the resulting slight blur in the image may improve visual quality and realism for some people, while others may find it distracting. A comparison is provided above however this is a difficult effect to capture in screenshots. Note that enabling Motion Blur does reduce FPS slightly, but ultimately you should decide whether to use it or not based more on how you feel about its visual impact, and bear in mind that it can also help cover up the shimmering from jagged edges in the game.Wait for Vertical Sync: Vertical Synchronization (VSync) is the synchronization of your graphics card and monitor's abilities to redraw an image on the screen a number of times each second, measured in Hz. It is explained more clearly on of the Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide.

When VSync is enabled (set to Yes), your maximum FPS will be capped at your monitor's maximum refresh rate at your chosen resolution, and more importantly in some areas your FPS may drop by as much as 50% or more if the graphics card has to wait to display a whole frame. Thus enabling VSync can have a major negative performance impact, and the easiest solution is to leave it disabled. However if you find the image 'tearing' annoying, you can enable VSync and counter the subsequent performance drop by also enabling Triple Buffering - see for details of how to enable it properly.Importantly, the game engine has an FPS cap regardless of whether VSync is disabled or not - by default, the game is capped to a maximum of 62 FPS. This is done by the developers to prevent FPS spikes and thus provide smoother performance, and in general it works quite well, especially since Mass Effect is not a fast-paced shooter. However if you want to remove or alter this FPS cap, see the bSmoothFrameRate, MinSmoothedFrameRate and MaxSmoothedFrameRate variables in the Advanced Tweaking section.Film Grain: If set to Yes, this option enables a mild grainy overlay. To see an animated screenshot comparison which highlights the impact of the effect, click this link: (317KB).

Mass Effect 2 Romance

When On, there is a dark grain on the image, most noticeable when contrasted against a lighter background. Film Grain also has tiny swirling motion when viewed on screen, and has a noticeable negative performance impact when enabled.

In the end however whether you enable it or not is up to your tastes, as despite the reduction in FPS, it also serves to cover up jaggedness and can make the game much more atmospheric for some people, while others find it annoying.SoundHardware Audio: If ticked, the game will use hardware acceleration which can improve audio quality and performance. I recommend ticking this option in most circumstances, unless you experience audio glitches or other issues. Note in particular that you will need to tick this option if you have a multi-channel audio system and want to use more than 2 channels. Vista users with Creative sound cards in particular should enable this option, as it allows for proper hardware acceleration without the need for.However there are many users experiencing problems with getting full multi-channel hardware surround sound in Mass Effect. First of all, make absolutely certain that your sound card's control panel as well as the Sound properties in the Windows Control Panel are set up correctly to use the number of channels you wish. The game uses Creative's proprietary ISACT OpenAL-based audio system, and this cannot be changed, but there are some issues with the way the game can incorrectly identify audio device capabilities, so if you are still having problems and want proper hardware audio, follow these steps:1.

Go to your (My) DocumentsBioWareMass EffectConfig directory and rename the BIOEngine.ini file to something else.2. Launch Mass Effect without running the Config utility. The game will recreate BIOEngine.ini using default values, and should correctly identify your audio hardware.3. In the in-game settings Hardware Audio should already be selected - do not change it back to software audio or make any other changes to the Sound settings.4. If the above steps don't work, follow the additional instructions as described under the ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice part of the Advanced Tweaking section of this guide.To see if your sound hardware is being detected properly at any time, exit Mass Effect and open the MassEffect.log file found under your (My) DocumentsBioWareMass EffectLogs directory with a text editor.

Look for the line starting with Init: Audio Device - it should say 'Generic Hardware' or the name of your audio device. The lines above it and below it should also have the correct information, and no audio initialization errors should be showing.Obviously, as also noted under the Troubleshooting Tips section of this guide, you must ensure that you are running the latest version of the game, as well as the latest drivers for your audio device. You can also try installing the latest version of OpenAL for Windows, available. Creative sound card owners in particular may find the latest drivers might resolve their issues if nothing else does.Dialog, Sound Effects, Music Volume: These sliders control the volume level for spoken dialog, the various sound effects, and the background music in the game respectively.

Set them to suit your preference, as they have no performance impact.InputInvert Y Axis: If set to Yes, pushing your mouse forward will make your character look down, and pulling your mouse back will make him look up. Set to suit your taste, has no impact on performance.Hardware Mouse: When ticked this option uses your graphics card hardware to optimize rendering of the mouse cursor, which should give the best performance and smoothness.

With Hardware Mouse enabled, the cursor switches from the standard white Windows mouse arrow to a custom blue outlined graphical arrow. If your cursor disappears when you select this option, restart the game and it should be fixed. If you experience problems with your game crashing during loadup or any mouse-related issues, untick this option.Mouse Sensitivity: This slider controls how sensitive the mouse will be to your movements. The higher the value, the greater your view movements will be in the game when you move the mouse.

If you're experiencing 'mouse lag', that is a feeling of reduced sensitivity or sluggishness in your mouse, regardless of how high you set the mouse sensitivity slider, you should first make sure you are consistently getting sufficient FPS, especially in more complex scenes with lots of effects. Use or the Stat FPS console command (see the Advanced Tweaking section) to check your FPS, and keep in mind that typically anything below 15-20 FPS can bring about mouse lag in most any game, so you will have to lower your settings appropriately to prevent this as much as possible. Next, try disabling VSync as not only is it know to cause mouse lag, it also reduces performance which can make mouse lag even worse.ControlsHere you can adjust all the various keyboard and mouse controls. Note that if you wish to customize these further for any reason, see the Advanced Tweaking section.GameplayCombat Difficulty: In general the enemies in Mass Effect scale upwards to match the player's level. However the available options here can increase or decrease combat difficulty.

The initial options are Casual, Normal, and Veteran - each has successively harder enemies, with more protection/immunity. There are two additional difficulty levels called Hardcore and Insanity: you can access Hardcore only after you have completed the game on Normal or Veteran difficulty; you can access Insanity difficulty only after you've completed the game on Hardcore difficulty. Note that changing the difficulty at any time during gameplay can negate proper completion of that difficulty level and relevant achievements, so leave difficulty unchanged for the duration of the game.Auto Level-Up: This option has an important impact on the RPG aspects of Mass Effect. It determines what happens when your character or any members of your squad gain a level.