Mass Effect Modding Tutorial: Replacing Textures

Well, now you’ve extracted the texture and edited it to your heart’s content.  Time to upload all your hard work into the game!

STEP 3. Replace the Old Texture With the New one

Again, this can be done using Texmod or manually through ME3 Explorer. Using Texmod (.tpf) will create a temporary texture replacement that will only take effect if you run the game through Texmod using the desired .tpf. Manual replacement through ME3 Explorer is PERMANENT so make sure to make copies of the originals before replacing!!!

Replacing with Texmod:

Go into Package Build and find your Texmod.log file. Your screen should look like this:

Press “Build” at the bottom and it will create a .tpf file! To use that .tpf in your game, go into Package Mode and select the .tpf files you want to use. Then launch the game by pressing the “Run” button at the bottom:

You can use as many .tpf files as you want, but the more you use, the more time it will take to load the game initially.

Replacing Manually:

This requires ME3 Explorer. You need to know which texture you’re wanting to replace – you can use my handy spreadsheet to guide you. Make sure you make copies of the original textures by extracting them, just in case you want/need to revert back.

1. Open ME3 Explorer and go to Texplorer (Developer Tools > Texplorer).
2. Find the texture you want to replace and right click on the appropriate diff, norm, or spec file. Go to Easy > Add Biggest Image and replace the file with your new .dds file (here is my example, using the texture for the Defender Armor):
   
3. Don’t forget to hit File > Save Changes at the end! Now the texture will be permanently replaced in the game.

Wow, that was actually pretty easy, right?  Are you ready for the more advanced stuff, like Mesh Modding?  Read on …