ME3Explorer - Using the Texplorer

A video demo of the amazing ME3 modding toolset ME3Explorer, specifically focusing on the Texplorer. The tool that is used for mass modding textures in the game.
Links:
Download ME3Explorer - sourceforge.net/projects/me3ex...
ME3Explorer Forums - me3explorer.freeforums.org/
Written tutorial - me3explorer.freeforums.org/pos...
Mod Downloads - me3explorer.freeforums.org/me3...
Texture Mod Downloads - social.bioware.com/forum/1/top...
Desktop background: whalec.deviantart.com/art/Year...

[@RaphaelDallas]

Legendary Explorer is out for those who want to extract from that version.

[@alalmeida1ify]

Watched it on my cellphone, nice presentation can't wait to watch it on my PC and download this tool, thanks again.

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

The Texplorer only deals with the textures in the stock game. So the Krogan Vanguard and Collectors won't appear since they're DLC. The cannibal's texture in MP is also taken from a DLC file so that won't change either. We can replace existing textures in DLC files, but unfortunately can't upscale them as yet. Not without having to use a cracked *.exe. It's good to hear it's working for you!

[@OriginOfWaves]

nice vid mate and Texplorer is a great tool. I've been using it to transfer some 40+ texture mods directly into the ME3. my ChatTextures.ppc rose to almost 2 GB :D Unfortunately it pretty much broke my game and made some lvls unloadable :( I formatted and injected all of the textures correctly but something still went wrong. :( I believe Texmod is still the way to go for now (even with all it's faults) since u can even mod DLC textures with it. but as i said this is an amazing tool nonetheless

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

Yes it's absolutely possible. This tool works for any textures in the game. In fact there's already a guy who's released a HD mod on the Fan Creations forum of the BSN and I made another one there as well. There's also a HD mod for ME1 available.

[@davidhamilton6626]

There seems to be a problem with the ME3 explorer registration hanging - I'll try again later .. However the tool works reasonably well and your video helps a bit

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

You should keep checking the sourceforge page for updates because I make bug fixes and feature additions all the time. Something new that you should definitely look at is the automatic mod installer. If you go to the Mod Downloads page that's in the description you can simply download and run the mods to install them. Didact's already put up a mod that contains HR versions of pretty much all the main characters and a lot of NPCs.

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

Depends on what you mean by map, but I'd say no. This tool lets you customise the appearance of virtually any graphic that appears in the game but doesn't affect the models themselves or change the world maps or whatever. There is however a rudimentary level editor in ME3Explorer that may be able to do that. I'd recommend checking that out.

[@Oeufcoque]

*Unhanded exception error when starting texplorer...* 7/15/2015

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

Cheers mate :) I love that picture of Liara. The artist did a great job with it. I've put a link to the page it's from in the video description so you can grab it.

[@LiaraLili]

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the work that has gone into this tool by all of you guys and the further work that is still being done on it. I can't wait to finally be able to play the trilogy with high-resolution textures. Also, do you have a link to that desktop background image of Liara? It's beautiful.

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

It's not Origin that's the problem with playing with cracked executables, it's BioWare. They're the ones who monitor cheating in MP after all. They've said that they're okay with modding as long as it doesn't give you an unfair advantage, and whilst you could potentially give yourself an advantage through texture modding it's unlikely. Still, a cracked executable is something they should be able to pick up through monitoring and personally I wouldn't risk it. But you may be okay.

[@MaelstromExceptions]

Everything good here but one problem, when scanning file images, some files are not valid, thus, not all of the valid texures will be installed. Anyone else have this issue? Using latest stable build, 3.0.

[@triumvir_hunt]

since version 3.0.0 does not work anything like this anymore will there be an updated video ? also the site you mentioned is no longer accessible

[@devilin790]

Also when i put Blood Dragon Armor.tpf in TPFextract it doesnt show anything i tried it with several files but nothing so i'm doing something wrong :(

[@Onefuturist]

I'm having problems with ME3 explorer, with its "first setup". When I scan (with the Texplorer) to create the ME3tree, at some point the scan pauses and does not finish. I've tried shutting down the explorer and starting the scan again so it would finish successfully but with no success. Last time, it stopped at "Temp extracting DLC: DLC_UPD_Patch02. It often stops when it has but a couple dozen scannable files remaining. Hints, anyone?

[@Onefuturist]

Also, I have the SF release.

[@Janic99]

When I go to me3explorer and add face skin texture for my shepard, it kind of works but not the way it should it turns out to look really like her skin is shiny and she has a mas on and the textures are no in a good quality... I don't really know what I'm doing wrong :D

[@devilin790]

I've been trying to learn how to mod stuff and such but i wanna mod dragon blood armor i particular now i got a problem with it tho. Everything opens as it should (previews) but blood dragon armor gives an error: "offset and length were out of bounds for the array or count is greater than the number of elements from index to the end of the source collection" any idea what i can do to fix this? =) it only occurs with Blood dragon. its in HMM_ARM_FBDh_Diff.

[@Yozzeus]

I'm trying to import head.morph but even by following all steps ...it still start the game with the default face...

[@bogdanz9162]

Have you ever run into the corrupted DLC problem due to the increased size of the .sfar of the DLCs ?

[@beasthunt]

Perhaps I'm just absolutely incompetent but I did not see how we add mods in this video.

[@weenislickah8897]

Why does a fucking mod manager have to be complicated? This is why I like Nexus Mod Manager.... Just fucking make the game work with it already!

[@shakharixsaints]

honestly I've given up on mods for bioware games I'm gust going back over to Bethesda were it's nice and simple and doesn't require 20 steps just to download one mod.

[@The_Nightsong]

is it possible to make Kaidan look like Thane?

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

That's the idea.

[@Shepps95]

So is this an editor that can be used to create custom maps from the scratch? Has my dream finally come true?

[@IxE909PxG]

Is it possible to do a complete overhaul of the in-game textures? Or is this tool limited to only character/NPC modifications? I know someone who is interested in creating a universal HD textures pack for the game, similar to the pack that MaLDo did for Crysis 2.

[@DaiNonyt]

How to i add armor mods?

[@AshleyGraham96]

Does anyone know why my scan pauses while creating ME3tree ? :/ I can't figure out what is wrong..

[@hzzolo774]

Tengo una pregunta como hago para cambiarle el color de la piel a mi femshepard ya que le instale el mod head asari y la piel de mi personaje sigue siendo la misma de siempre solo que la cabeza es azul como la de las asaris me podes ayudar

[@Greenwind999000]

i have "texplorer tree not found" what can i do ? :(

[@Yozzeus]

You have to choose the right game path , and let it finish the search ..which may..takes up to an hour depending on Ur system power .

[@Elzaneo288]

how do i install a hair mod useing the explorer mod has a .pcc and a .tpf file

[@TheScouseSicario]

Hi, I have a problem. I am able to install .mod files. I used texplorer to get the tree in order to use TPF files. Every time I use texplorer it makes the game crash when I enter the citadel. I have no idea why. I can go around the Normandy without any issues but the second I try to go to the embassies or anywhere else in fact. it freezes on the loading screen and never loads. Could you please help, because there are so many cool TPF files out there and I cant use them because it wont let me progress through the story.

[@habibi8502]

i know this video is old but i need help, i downloaded a mod that changes how the Cerberus ajax armor look into a black version, but i don't know what to do to change the textures, i got really confused while following this video and also i don't know where i can find the ajax armor textures in the texplorer please help

[@PB-Trinity]

Hello ! I downloaded the explorer so I could install HR mods and a few other ones and everytime I try to load even just a single mod in it the program freezes and is not responding any of what it could come, it freezes when the debug window appears when I want to load the mod in the explorer. Any ideas ?

[@thaares]

how to install "alot" mod for ME3 all this seems really really advance stuff

[@ricardogazeta1526]

can you put the link gfor the background and calendar you are using. thanks for the video!

[@headbangerdnb]

I just downloaded the latest version of ME3Explorer and I cannot for the life of me find Texplorer. It is NOT under "Developer Tools" and all of the modding installation instructions are outdate, so I have no idea how to build a tree to mod ME2. If anyone can help, please let me know

[@VloggBoy]

Your desktop widgets blew my mind! How did you get those?

[@HoodedMushroom]

Texplorer stucks at 3660/3678 :( anyone know why?

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

Yes, though it's not as easy as just changing textures. You need to use the Meshplorer tool in ME3Explorer to extract Thane's model, use that to replace Kaidan's one and then replace all the relevant textures. Mesh importing is a little buggy since the objects themselves are more complex but in theory it's possible. The other problem you might encounter is that Kaidan's body model is the same as a lot of NPCs and so replacing it might also replace their models, which would look pretty bizarre.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

Man thats a lot to read through and to dig up. All I want is to convert JPEG to TPF. There are 9 or so games in my library no one has done anything for, or they didnt really do enough to warrant using their work except for objective graphically superior reasons. Looks like im going to be using a good chunk of my weekend and thats not even the actual task of open sourcing texture mods.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

Body is telling me it wants sleep. Im looking at all these what looks like physics equations to hunt down a simple conversion, and really not feeling it right now. Might take nap, and pray to Gaben you see this and give me the straight to the point nuts and bolts since im familiar enough with everything else.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

Ill have to recreate some mods that were lost to time. People pull their work because they can. Maybe they enjoy taking photos of it and showing people what they cant have. Sometimes thats the impression you get in rare cases.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

So it begins.

[@DeMoN7090]

when saving using windows 8.1 it just hangs and does nothing i have to end the process to close it

[@HandleMyBallsYouTube]

For fucks sake is no one else getting a ''tree not found'' while trying to do a tree scan????

[@gameanimeking]

pitkane100 Same problem here

[@metoosmutator1850]

yo saltisgood can you help me out a bit i've used the extractor but i apparently lack a program which allows me to see the .tga file as more than just a blank page(icon) and when click on it it's wanna find a solution on the internet please some help would be appreciated. sincerely metoos

[@noevalle8281]

im stcuk on checking toc bin after installing me3 character texture overhaul in the tpf tool 2.0

[@robertcomeau6873]

Noe Valle you ever get this figured out? I'm having the same problem now.

[@tejasbasagare2207]

where is the link in discripsion

[@DeathScytheAkuma]

where are the characters textures?

[@The_Nightsong]

Hm... do you think you could make a tutorial for that? Would really appriciate it :)

[@mat2574]

hi. thanks for this usefull tutorial. I have 2 questions:1)using texplorer, I have applied AOF mod (a lot of texture) to the tree I built. first time everything gone well but , since I was not convinced of the outcome, I deleted ME3 main folder and replaced it with a vanilla backup and I modified the game again same as above. but now texplorer stuck while modify the tree. debug log says that everything is working fine but installing mod green bar stuck. I let it works for bunch of hours but nothing.2) I have 2 .dds mods files. what have I to do with them? I know how to install tpf and .mod but nothing about them. thanks for help

[@redbasher636]

So my game doesn't have music playing in it anymore for some reason :S

[@simintaheri7119]

How do you install it though

[@BoredOfWeakness]

my texplorer is stuack at temp extracting DLC: DLC_UPD_Patch02 help pls

[@Corruo91]

I know it's possible to play Multiplayer online with a cracked .exe file, but would Origin cause problems with that? I'd love to be able to use the high res versions of the N7 characters :)

[@carla.n.5078]

How do i add more textures to the installer? I'd like to use smarteck's textures.. I see that the installer and switcher have a few of them, but miss alot of teh other good ones.

[@TimelessOne123]

I'm losing my mind here. I've been doing this "first time setup" tree scan so many times, and yet it ALWAYS gets stuck while scanning either MEHEM (latest, 0.5) or THANEMOD (latest, before even TRYING to patch it). Can somebody help me with this? I really want to replay this game with those 2 mods, since I don't like the idea of Thane dying at all, and I want to finish the game with MEHEM's ending.

[@jackamphlett8138]

TimelessOne123 I get the same thing, every time on MEHEM.

[@viperswhip]

+TimelessOne123 In case you are still wondering, you don't need to use ME3 explorer at all in that case. You can easily install MEHEM, Citadel Ending (with the mount file, and compatibility patch), Anderson Conversation and Galaxy Map. You only need ME3 explorer for other stuff. I don't use Thanemod because him dying is fine within the story for me, but I expect it is much the same.

[@nastassiajoubert8678]

+viperswhip where did you install your mehem ? The directory ? The one i have has no instructions :/

[@viperswhip]

Nastassia Joubert MEHEM has a self exec file, just point it to your game directory.

[@kaneolivera9445]

Umm I have one problem that I cant figure out. I try to load the tpf file with the ME3expl. and I get a debug window error saying tree not found after that I cant add any tpf files at all...please I tried looking an forums but no solution so far. Please help

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

I'm not actively developing this anymore but I believe that means you haven't scanned your game files yet to create the texture list. If you've already done that then you might just need to run it with administrator privileges.

[@chadsknnr]

saltisgood Do you take requests? I'm surprised no one has tried swapping the meshes of the Galaxy At War multiplayer characters. For example: Krogan Warlord Sentinel = Thor or Ronan the Accuser, or Paladin Sentinel = Captain America, or N7 Shadow Infiltrator = Shinobi or Strider Hiryu. Get the picture?

[@HandleMyBallsYouTube]

saltisgood What do you mean scanned?

[@HandleMyBallsYouTube]

pitkane100Just need to know how to scan whatever so i can get this mod installed for christs sake this is the 5th time i try in a year and they still haven't found a more user friendly way to install simple texture replacements.. Sigh.. If i had acces to the texture files i could retex the whole game myself.

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

Probably because the people who develop it (speaking in the past for myself) are programmers or modders, not UI experts. And in some cases learned programming in order to help the project so they don't have the experience to do it better (again speaking for myself :) ). Now on to your issue. I will preface this with a big caveat that I haven't followed the development of the project for a LONG time so things may have changed, but I'll tell you what that would have meant when I last saw it. In the game, textures aren't just located in a single place, they're distributed all throughout the files. So in order to make sure that the textures are correctly replaced in all instances, the program first scans your files to find where they are. This is the scan. You'll know that this is correctly finished when in the Texplorer there is a tree generated that you can browse and look at the textures. I imagine that when you open the Texplorer it prompts you to perform the scan, but if not there should be a button on the menustrip that allows you to initiate the scan manually. If you try all these things and it's still not working then you may have to check out the source yourself (apologies in advance haha). Good luck!

[@farlight7871]

how do i do this with the new interface thing? or is there a tutorial for that please link it if there is. thanks

[@knownasgeeks]

how to i install .mod files using this program? i read on bioware forums it says it will replace the files automatically.

[@lr5866]

Hey, i've been trying to play around with me3 explorer, so i wanted to import a hair mesh to it. but i got the following error puu.sh/ank8G/bbca8f771a.png Which is pissing me off, cos even if i try to fix that on maya, still get the same error

[@nickSTEVOstephen]

You'll probably have to contact the dev of that tool on the me3explorer forums but if it's not a bug with the program then I guess you'll have to match up the bones from the original mesh to your modified one and make sure they're identical.

[@lr5866]

I see, that could probably be my problem. Thank you very much for your fast reply. I will try that. It's the first time I'm trying to upload a file in, and I still need to fix the issue that's causing with my dlc's. Looking forward to ME4 ay?!

[@Corruo91]

(I keep two installs, one cracked and one legitimate and I accidentally clicked multiplayer on the cracked one and it worked online o.O)

[@Supergodzilla118]

Does this work on consoles?

[@sargeth06]

Im not english but i can understand pretty much about what are you saying. I have to say this tutorial is pretty hard to follow and damm too long. I want to install a Liara armor texture mod and i haven't been able to understand the process. a simplier tutorial step by step without explanation would be much more useful.

[@alvinlepik5265]

aussie aussie aussie :)

[@val7287]

You do realize that you are making things even more complicated then they were before? Come back to Earth and understand that unless one is a developer it all sounds chinese!