RSS Newsletter

Mass Effect PC

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 27th May 2008

Graphics

So, one of the more important areas that has had some attention for the PC conversion of the Xbox 360 original is the graphics. BioWare has apparently added in some extra high resolution textures, plus allowing you all the usual options to tweak those settings. That’s important.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that being able to tweak graphics is twice as important as being able to customise the controls of a game – one of the big bullet points on the Mass Effect PC press release.

To me, that just reeks of someone searching for bullet points to add. That or nobody told them that control customisation should be considered as standard.

Below we’ve got the start of a full graphical break down of some of the most important settings in Mass Effect PC – starting with those textures...

Texture Detail

The textures on offer in Mass Effect come in four flavours – Low, Medium, High and Ultra High. For our part we played the game on the auto-detected settings, which put everything on full. Our GeForce 8800 Ultra and over-clocked dual-core CPU managed to toe the line perfectly at a constant 30+ frames per second.


The textures here really do show a wide range of detail levels, though it is worth pointing out that you’ll need to restart the game if you want to see any changes.

On the Low and Medium Settings the textures look very flat, with some basic mapping applied to try and give the texture some, uh... texture (groan – Ed.). The effect doesn’t work so well. On the High and Ultra High levels though the textures underneath the mapping are a lot more detailed and the game as a whole is starting to look much more lifelike and real. On the Ultra High setting (which is obviously the ideal), the textures look very impressive.

Particle Effects

Particle Effect are best seen wherever you have lots of little bits flying around, so for these screenshots we threw a basic grenade on the floor and self-detonated it. The process isn’t perfect obviously and there’ll be a frame or two difference, but the effects are still noticeable across the three settings; Low, Medium and High.


The difference between these screenshots is fairly obvious, but because the frames themselves are not identical they do bear some explanation.

This setting seems to actually directly influence the effect of the explosions, not just the particle clouds thrown up. The first thing we noticed was that the actual flash of fire caused by the explosion was strangely absent on the Low setting.

The smoke clouds formed afterwards are also more detailed on the Medium and High settings. On Low the particle clouds are basic black splodges that look rather out of place and dated compared to the clouds on the higher settings. On Medium the particles are blown out in different directions, appearing much large and more dramatic, while this effect is amplified even more for the High setting.

Related

• BioWare on Ports, Pron and Piracy
• Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky
• Mass Effect
• The Witcher
• The World of Indie Games
• Neverwinter Nights 2
• Latest Articles in PC

Shopping