Mass Effect 2 Legendary: Z-Normal broken?

[jjensson]

I just tried to play ME2 Legendary Edition, but the geometry mode is missing the shadows. So i switched to Z-Normal to get the shadows back. It works, but the depth information/masking is all jumbled and over the place.

When i tried the same thing with ME1 LE, i didn’t have this issue. Am i missing something in ME2? Maybe i’m using the wrong profile (default)? Maybe it’s a bug?

[Ralf]

I never really tried Z3D with the second one TBH, but it’s possible the default depth buffer heuristics doesn’t catch the right one (or switches between two or more if it detects more than one). Ni promises, but I’ll check it for the next version.

In general I’d highly recommend to stick to the original trilogy instead of the remasters. Performance is so much better that any improvement in the visual department the remaster may have to offer pales in comparison.

Hint: keep the 3D-Strength at realistic levels (i.e. no ‘dollhouse 3d’). Without exaggerated stereo 3d potential G3D shadow glitches are often passable.

[jjensson]

Thanks, Ralf. Something weird is happening, though. My test was with the default profile, but later i tried a cloud profile (Mass Effect 2 LE) with a Nexus save. It worked well, so i thought that the default profile is faulty (can VorpX discern b/w the original and Legendary Edition? The EXEs have the same names i think.)

But now i see that it can’t be the cloud profile, because it required me to rename the EXE, which i did *not* do. So, my conclusion is that the first time the default profile did not work, the second time it did.

I know that the LE doesn’t change that much, but many people bought it to get all the DLC, and personally i think that some artistic changes are for the better (colors, lighting etc). So, i think it would be good thing to support it. Since all three games are DX11 now*, shouldn’t they be able to work with one single updated profile?

*source: PCGamingWiki

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