PC Tweaks

Mass Effect configuration option in the game, have very little tweeking possibilities and only support the basics. For this reason this page has been written, to further gamers knowledge of the options they can tweek.

All the changes that are described on this page should only be tested on the files in the documents folder:
 * On Windows XP/2000: X:\Documents and Settinges\[username]\My Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config
 * On Windows Vista: X:\Users\[username]\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config

(replace X with the drive letter where your Windows system is installed on, and replace [username] to the user that you are logging into the system with.)

Backup your data
Make sure to make a copy of any file you are about to change

To insure that your gaming experience will not be damaged, make sure to backup every file that you are about to change. A good way to do this is to copy the entire 'Mass Effect' folder, or the 'Config' folder - alternatively, you can archive the folder to avoid confusion.

Mass Effect game, will read the files inside the Config folder, if it fails to do that, or if the files have illegal data, the game will read the default files that are located where you installed your game to. By default this should be located at: x:\Program Files\Mass Effect\BioGame\Config - those files will have a slightly different name then the files in the Documents folder and will be prefixed with the word default (so you will know not to edit them). Be sure to leave those files alone, unless you know what you are doing.

Understanding the writing style
The configuration files uses what is called a CamelCase when writing functions and variables names. A CamelCase writing is the concatenation of separate words to form one word, with every first letter of a word becoming capitalized, example: the 'Caps Lock' key will be written as CapsLock, 'Right mouse button' will be written as RightMouseButton, etc.

Generally, there are two types of data used in the configuration files: To indicate a Boolean data type, the file uses the letter b at the start of the variable name - for example: bInvertTurn=False. Putting anything other then True or False, will have no effect.
 * Strings and integers data.
 * Boolean - a Boolean data type is a true/false variables - and can only except True or False.
 * Floating points - Any number with decimal point. Will be prefix with the letter f.

The Input file
This file is separated into six sections:
 * Engine.PlayerInput - Basically, how the game will handle the input device that the user is using. Generally, you don't want to change anything in that section. Changes made here could harm your gaming experience.
 * Editor.EditorViewportInput - Nothing here is worth changing, and applies to the editor the developers used while creating the game.
 * Engine.Console - This section defines the Console keys and behavior. Since this is already explained in PC Cheats, we will leave this section out of this article.
 * Engine.UIInputConfiguration - This, like the first section, defines the input itself - it defines how the mouse or gamepad will operate (sensitivity, movement emulation, etc.) Most likely you won't need to alter anything in here, but you are free to experiment.
 * BIOC_Base.BioPlayerInput - This is the relevant section that deals with the mapping of keys - and will be explained farther later on.
 * IniVersion - The version of the ini file. Nothing more.

Device Input (Engine.PlayerInput)
As noted above, this section deals with the way the controlls work:
 * MoveForwardSpeed - The in-game running speed, any changes made here, could ruin game experience by giving the player an advantage. If you want to shorten the time of traveling, then look at the section that refer to changing the game speed.
 * MoveStrafeSpeed - The same as MoveForwardSpeed but controls the movement sideways.
 * LookRightScale - Deals with Shepards neck, and how much he can turn it, to have more view while looking sideways. This can actually be useful when trying to take screenshots.
 * LookUpScale - The same as LookRightScale, but deals with the up/down motion.
 * MouseSensitivity - The sensitivity of the mouse, better to alter this from the in-game menu.
 * GamepadAnalogSensitivity - The sensitivity of the gamepad, better to alter this from the in-game menu.
 * DoubleClickTime - The time between clicks that register as double-click. Due to the fact that the game does not treat double-clicks any different then regular clicks, changing this should not have any effect.
 * bInvertTurn - Invert the Axis of the mouse/keypad, if you want to change this, do it from the in-game menu.
 * bEnableMouseSmoothing - addition smoothing to the mouse movement. Change this through the in-game menu.

About the numerical changes (if any), experiment until you get the desired result.

Player Input (BIOC_Base.BioPlayerInput)
This section has many behaviors that can be changed. It is advised to leave any line that does not start with the word Binding alone - the exception to this are:
 * m_fDPadCooldownTime - Handles some of the cooldown times of the input devices and should not be altered.
 * m_fStormCooldownTime - The same as m_fDPadCooldownTime.
 * m_fQuickOrderTime - Unknown function, but should not be touched, regardless. Experiment at your own risk.
 * m_bDisableCinematicAccelerate - Allow or deny the acceleration option for cinematic cut-scenes. This have no effect in the game.
 * m_bDisableCinematicSkip - Allow or deny the ability to skip cinematic cut-scenes (will be discussed later on).
 * m_fCinematicSkipTriggerDelay - The delay in milliseconds before the actual skip occurs.
 * m_fSlowMotionSpeed - The game has no slow motion scenes, so this option don't effect anything in-game.
 * MoveForwardSpeed - Mentioned in Device Input section.
 * MoveStrafeSpeed - Mentioned in Device Input section.
 * LookRightScale - Mentioned in Device Input section.
 * LookUpScale - Mentioned in Device Input section.

Changing anything other then the recommended, can cause severe gameplay bugs!

Binding overview
The binding of new keys, or changing behavior of existing keys is handled in the following way: Bindings=(Name="",InputMode=BIO_INPUT_MODE_NONE,Command="",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
 * Name - Define the key that will execute the behavior.
 * InputMode - Defines the engine predefined inputs, should not be changed.
 * Command - the command you want to associate to the key.
 * Control, Shift, Alt - Does the key work in combination of one of these keys. Make sure to only set True/False here.

Generally, you only want to alter the Name and Command, unless you have a specific behavior you want to achieve.

Common tweeks
Changes are marked as bold text, and any removal of text will be marked with red text.

Toggle HUD
The default method to view the HUD screen is to press the 'Spacebar' key and keep holding it until you want to return to the "action". A different approach, is to toggle the HUD so it will stay on by pressing a key, and return to the game when the same button is pressed again. it is recommended to use a key other then the 'Spacebar' to preserve the default method. In this change, we created a new key binding and assigned the 'Caps Lock' key (due to its relative proximity to the movement keys) to function as the HUD toggle button.

Skip cut-scenes
The game has allot of repetitive cut-scenes, like the docking on the citadel, or the travel through the Mass Relay. Those cut-scenes could be skipped, and there is no need to alter the binding keys. To activate the ability to skip the cut-scenes, just edit the lines: The first line enable you to skip the cut-scenes (make sure to only set True/False, here), the second line indicates the time that it takes from the button press to the actual skip. Notice that some locations have the cut-scene for a reason (Shepard walk or say something that triggers another event), without that reason you will find yourself stuck. Experiment at your own risk.

Quick-slot keys
There are eight lines for the ability keys, they are numbered from 0 to 7, and are easy to alter. There are two changes made here:
 * Setting the key to A instead of 1.
 * Setting the Shift option to True instead of False this combination will make Shepard use the first ability instead of moving to the left.

Full list of known keywords
[soon to come]