A guide to editing Character Meshes
When replacing meshes for NPC's such as Squadmates or well known characters you have to edit what is called a pcc (package) but sometimes the pcc's are shared between multiple characters. So these types of mods do sometimes come with incompatibility problems however that is where Mounts, Patching, Moddesc oh my comes in to save the day.
I suggest a read of this tutorial as it gives a good idea of how patching works in Mass Effect modding. However don't be discouraged as modding and seeing your mod in action is a great feeling.
I also highly suggest to check any patches for the games for files that have been fixed so your mod can include those fixes instead of overriding them. Due to your mod mounting higher than the Patches.
I also suggest the LE3 Community Patch's optional Framework if it has a character you want to edit included.
If you are looking to edit hair colour, eye colour or skin tint then I advise this tutorial instead: How To Change Hair, Eye, and Skin Color for NPCS
Legendary Explorer
- Asset Database
- Package Editor
- Mesh Explorer
- TFC Compactor
ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager
- ASI Manager (Streaming Levels HUD)
From this point onwards I will assume you have your meshes ready for import if not follow these tutorials;
The Streaming Levels HUD ASI is super handy to help work out what PCC you want to edit.
You can find it in ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager > Mod Management > ASI Mod Manager (see image 01)
Once open click on the game you want to install the ASI for, then click on Streaming Levels HUD and then install ASI (see image 02)
Then in game you get to the area you want to edit. On top left you will green and yellow text such as image 03 below. In my case I went to the area Garrus is to see what PCC's are being used there.
So why do we do this? We do this to better work out what PCC we may need to edit in the area we go to. So when we use asset database we can compare what we search for there with what is being used in the scene we take screenshots of to see currently used packages in that area/scene. This is especially helpful when you are looking for one specific location/scene to edit.
Now for companions or others such as Joker or Anderson we need to edit all PCC's their meshes show up in, in order for our edits to show up. Unless you are just editing one instance of them, however its still good to use Asset database. As it is a great tool to use to find these PCC's if you know what you're looking for.
In Legendary Explorer go to the utilities tab and the asset database (see image 04)
If you have already scanned the game to create the database for the game you're editing it will look something like this (see image 05)
For more detailed information on the other tabs we won't be using in this tutorial for Asset Database including setting up the dtatabase see this tutorial Finding in game assets quickly by Kinkojiro
Some are straight forward but I will still write them, others have unique code names. So this list will show what they are known as usually in packages as well the short hand used in their unique meshes and textures. When not listed it means they don't have a unique mesh/texture and instead use generic outfits that are shared, and/or use morphs to define a unique face.
LE3
Table below is for LE3, scroll along to find the character you want to search for.
| Character | Ashley | Aria | EDI | Cortez | Brooks | Garrus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | Ashley | Aria | EDI | Cortez | Femme | GAR |
| Texture | ASH | ARA/Aria | EDI | N/A | FTL | GAR/ProGarrus |
| Meshes | ASH/ProAshley | ARA | EDI/ProEDI | N/A | FTL/ProFatale | GAR/ProGarrus |