The Very Best ME:A Screenshot Thread (with tips)

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Using ME:A Cinematic Tools

(This section will be expanded if the CinTools are updated.)

Camera

Enable (Keybind = Insert) - enables/disables the freecam.

Reset - centres the freecam back on the player (or wherever the main game camera is meant to be)

Keybind = Home - hides/unhides the HUD

Keybind = Delete - pauses/unpauses time

Movement Speed - the speed of the camera

Rotation Speed -  the speed of camera rotation

Roll Speed - the speed of camera roll

Override FoV - default is -1

Disable all input - stops gamepad and keyboard from controlling the game/your character while in freecam

Disable gamepad input - stops only the gamepad from controlling the game/your character while in freecam

Freeze time - freezes time!

Lock to player - locks the camera to the player as soon as the player moves

Fix LOD - uses a higher level of detail for far away objects (but also screws up some close objects - do not use if your character will be in detailed view)

Keyboard - camera movement can be controlled via keyboard controls

Gamepad - camera movement can be controlled via gamepad controls

Post Process

Depth of Field

Main checkbox - allows DoF to be used (not the same as Enable, but is required for everything else to work)

Enable - turns the effect on/off

[Ironsights DoF & Circle Blur - unimportant]

Focus Distance - the focal plane, everything at this point is in focus

Blur Factor - blur amount

Blur Add - extra blur (little control)

Blur Filter - strength of Blur Add

Max Blur - blur amount

Far Start/End - controls position of blur behind the focal plane (from the focal plane and away into the distance) - this is blur behind your subject

Near Start/End - controls the position of blur in front of the focal plane (from the camera/you/the screen to the focal plane) - this is blur in front of your subject

Film Grain

If you have Film Grain turned ON in ME:A's graphics options, you can further control its settings here.

Main checkbox - allows the other options to be used (not the same as enable)

Enable - turns film grain on/off

Vignette

Main checkbox - allows the other options to be used (not the same as enable)

Enable - turns the vignette on/off

Misc/About

Shadowmap size - this is the resolution of the shadowmap, it generally controls how fuzzy/aliased or sharp shadows are. Higher values come with a large performance drop - use carefully (4096 is a good, sharp value, 2048 is a reasonable compromise for gameplay)

Resolution scale - values >1 provide a result similar to downsampling, but in my experience it's never as good as hotsampling with SRWE or proper downsampling. Recommend leaving at 1

Game timescale - slows down/speeds up time

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Tips

General

Consider using a gamepad to control the camera for finer control.

If you use a gamepad to control the camera and kb&m to play the game, check the following boxes: Disable gamepad input; Keyboard; Gamepad. This allows you to use the gamepad or keybaord to control the camera, and still control your character using kb&m while freecam is active. The gamepad won't move your character if you unpause, however (which is good!).

Don't check Lock to player - you'll be able to unpause the game and make changes to your character's position without ruining your composition.

If the camera looks strange when you enable it or is nowhere near your character, hit Reset.

If using the CinTools on the Tempest, first stand in the area you want to take pictures of (not all the Tempest will render at once). Make sure you are facing an interactable object/NPC (so the E icon is visible). When you enable the camera you'll see nothing but black space. This is because the space the Tempest is rendered in is a special 'fake' location and not in the middle of the planets that are outside the window. Leave the HUD turned on, and you should see the E somewhere in front of you. Turn up the movement speed of the camera (into the hundreds) and head towards the E. You'll eventually fly into the rendered part of the Tempest. You can now turn down the movement speed and shoot as normal. If you hit Reset at this point it will fling you back out into darkness.

When you've finished using the freecam, change Override FoV back to -1 (if you've been controlling it via the gamepad it will still say -1 anyway, in which case click the up/down arrow next to it up then down (or down then up!) to go from -1 to 0 to -1 (or -1 to -2 to -1 it doesn't matter which as long as you end up back at -1). This will reset your FoV to whatever you have it set to in the game's options.

Camera values

This is what I set the values to as soon as I load the CinTools.

Movement speed - 1.3 (up/down on the D-pad of a controller increases/decreases the speed by 1 per click - 0.3 is good for fine control, anything higher to get around quicker)

Rotation speed - 0.6 (slow enough for finer movements but not so slow as to be annoying)

Roll speed - 0.1 (I want fine roll control)

Depth of Field values

This is what I set the values to as soon as I load the CinTools.

Focus distance - 1 (I only change this if I want near blur, otherwise I leave it at 1)

Blur factor - 0.2 (I never change this)

Blur add - 0

Max blur - 5 (I use this to control strength of blur - 7 is where nice bokeh shapes start to happen, don't go too high or it looks ugly)

Near start/end - I tend to leave these as they are as I rarely use near blur

Far start - 1 (this starts the blur right behind the focal plane (focus distance), which since we have it at 1 is right at the camera - for portraits a value of 1-3 is ideal, but for blur starting far in the distance in landscape shots you'll want a higher value)

Far end - 5 (this controls when the blur starts to reach its strongest point - for portraits with walls/objects right behind the subject a number similar to Far start will be ideal; for blur that gradually goes from soft to strong choose a number higher than Far start)

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DoF in particular is quite fiddly to get used to, so play around with it until you find something that works for you. I'll update this tutorial if more functions are added to the CinTools in future releases.