The ALOT mods (ALOT stands for A Lot Of Textures) made some significant graphical improvements to the original Mass Effect trilogy back in the day, and were even used as benchmarks when BioWare was remastering the games for the Legendary Edition. Now things have come full circle, and a version of ALOT has been released to make more improvements to the remasters.
Why tweak the already remastered version? “While much of the work put into ALOT was rendered obsolete by the LE,” the mod’s description says, “many textures remain superior in ALOT even now. These textures were ported to the LE to get the best of both worlds.”
There are dozens of textures included for each game, “fixing the most glaring upscales in the LE” which apparently include Liara, Garrus, Tali, Legion, EDI, the sky over the Presidium, text holograms, and more. It also has a reconstructed version of the original ALOT’s lighting improvements, which changes pre-rendered lights and shadows “that have seen no improvement compared to the OT.”
I did notice a spot on the Normandy where a low-res shadow of Shepard’s hair flickered over their face in the first game’s Legendary incarnation, but not much else that seemed drastically in need of improvement. I may not be the audience for this mod, however, since I sometimes look at screenshot comparisons and struggle to notice which is the upscaled one.
The ALOT mods for the original Mass Effect games have been upgraded as well, with hundreds of textures from the Legendary Edition shifted over to replace those that weren’t quite as nice.
To install ALOT for Mass Effect Legendary Edition you’ll need to use MassEffectModder, but first you’ll want to install any other mods you plan on using. Say, if you want an FOV fix, access to console commands, or hanar who look sexier.