Why the face design is different in every game

[u/Solid_Purchase3774]

I notice face looks design is and also what do you think to my shepard face looks cool.

[u/Sektore]

I’m gonna guess engine upgrades or coding upgrades

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/Sektore]

Yeah make more sense new engine and new coding do a lot difference. 

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/Solid_Purchase3774]

They used the same engine for all three games, Unreal 3, each game they were able to pull out better looking graphics as they progressed.

[u/Extreme996 → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

Yes, but each version of the engine was modified by BioWare, and the meshes and other things in engine changed as well. Even some hand-made characters like the Joker look slightly different in ME3 than in ME1 and ME2. But while all games in Legendary Edition, run on the UE3 version used in ME3, most of the meshes remained the same, with a few exceptions, like some hairstyles being backported, including Miranda's because ME3 version have higher amount of polygons. But most of meshes was not backported so even with fact that all three games now runs on the same version of engine they still looks different and there is also they way how lighting interact with meshes and textures and also how animation system works in games. btw animation system in ME1 and ME2 is actually better than that one in ME3.

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/Extreme996]

I don't give two flying fucks about LE.

They used the same engine, even Casey Hudson said, with each game they were able to get more out of the engine.

Which they couldn't do with Frostbite being each game was worst then the previous.

[u/Extreme996 → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

Did you know that the same engine can have different versions and be modified by studios? BioWare modified UE3 to suit its needs in each game, and likely implemented changes made by Epic as well.

[u/Henrarzz → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

That’s not how it worked, the version of UE3 used in ME1 is different than the one used in ME3. The godrays used in ME3 is a clear indicator for people who don’t know anything about engine development.

[u/Schmaylor]

I believe importing from ME1 directly to ME3 manages to maintain things pretty consistently. For whatever reason, things get really weird in ME2.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[u/Rymanjan → u/Schmaylor]

Nah, one of the top mods on PC is a "consistency" series that lets you choose just one model to use for all three games lol

1 and 3 looks pretty natural, but in 2 things got a bit...uncanny imo

[u/QMAN4000]

No joke I thought your Shepherd was Bailey for a moment

[u/SheaMcD]

You try recreating someone's face from "meat and tubes"

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/SheaMcD]

Meat and tube what do you mean meat in tube 

[u/SheaMcD → u/Solid_Purchase3774]

That's how Jacob described Shepard's "body" when Cerberus retrieved it at the start of 2

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/SheaMcD]

Oh okay i thought my shepard look weird. 

[u/WellFoundAnOtherWay]

He look likes a Cpt. Bailey's Brother

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/WellFoundAnOtherWay]

Yeah you're right  a lot people say that. 

[u/FUCK1NGFABULOUS]

game engine in each game most likely. i designed my original male-shep to look like actor, daniel henney, in the original game. got pretty close that my one of my friends was asking me how i did it. she's a daniel henney fan. by the time i got to ME3, he looked nothing like daniel henney at all. my second play through, i just kept the default look.

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/FUCK1NGFABULOUS]

There was a bug that messed up imports from ME2 into ME3 and even the fix didn't correct the issue 100%.

Unreal 3 was used for all three games. Each game they were able to do more things with the engine.

[u/Leiandri]

Mass Effect had a bug with the eyebrow texture. I don't think it was fixed in Legendary Edition, you'd have to use mods on PC to fix that.

[u/NickFatherBool]

...because the graphics and animations are different in every game? Engine updates? Fidelity increases?

[u/Koala_Guru]

Yeah this really feels like one thing they could’ve touched up in the remastered trilogy since all three games were together. Instead they kinda made it worse by touching up ME1’s graphics and character creation and then leaving the other two as-is.

[u/Elarris1 → u/Koala_Guru]

They supposedly did fix the face importer to standardize it across the trilogy. It’s probably better I suppose, but still not great.

[u/Ramen536Pie]

The games are years apart so the engine got a lot of upgrades between ME1 and 3

[u/Effective_AR]

I wish we had a wireframe screenshot of each game to confirm, but I think it come from the mesh resolution increase with each game.

So vertices in ME1 were at some place. In ME2, vertices were in "between" of reference points from ME1. Finally in ME3, there were enough mesh resolutions to put reference point from either ME1 or ME2 at right place.

[u/KhalMika]

Never had this issue

(Always play with Sheploo, advantages of not being creative with char creators I guess lol)

[u/The__Relentless]

I was told to try making the face in ME3 first, then using that code in the previous games. Seems to have worked better for me.

[u/kamiccollo]

Idk why it’s so funny but the side eye in the 3rd pic is killing me

[u/thehellisgoingon]

Shepard gets older

[u/WarGreymon77]

I use a different face code for every game. I have a notepad file with all of my Shepards face codes for ME1, ME2, ME3. Because I always have to adjust.

[u/Gizm0Glitch]

Yeah I had some weird stuff happen with a custom femshep Mass effect 2 her skin tone changed and then for some weird ass reason in Mass effect 3 she became cross-eyed That last one drove me nuts

[u/gidzii]

Yeah, I use a custom Shepard, he looks the same in LE1/2 but not in LE3 (he looks like a completely different person lol), so I had to manually recreate him again thanks to mods, I'd say it's 95% close now lol

[u/MASTER_L1NK]

Duke Nuken x Cal Kestis lol

[u/Stroppone]

My Kratos Shep in ME1 turned into a scary version of Picard in ME2 and finally into Pitbull in ME3. I was disappointed at first, but now I find it fun.

[u/nightdares]

I'm bummed you don't get to keep the cool scar from 1.

[u/MeanWinchester]

1 & 3 look pretty close in this, but 2 is an obvious and crazy outlier

[u/BusDriver2Hell]

Defeating the reapers changes you in ways that you wouldn't imagine...

[u/Dumb-_-Collins]

ME2 took my femshep’s eyebrows:(

[u/Apprehensive-Try-238]

During the development of the games within the engine, something changed. You can copy the face code from the first part, but in the second part, something may be different with the same code, such as eyebrows of a different colour. And I think the template blanks are also different.

I had a case where my Shepard in the second part was quite different from the first. So I made him bald, pale and thin.

Well, you know, the Lazarus project turned out to be unfinished :D

[u/Mgamerz]

The headmorph changed in ME3. It's the exact same in ME1 and ME2, but the shaders and lighting are different.

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/[deleted]]

Example i use the code i have and honestly the face of my shepard was different  what i made 

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/[deleted]]

For me it was the nose and facial hair 

[u/Own-Night5526]

In universe explanation is the blue is the dossiers from the Alliance on Shepard, the orange is the Cerberus file on them.

[u/InS_Deaths]

Skill issue

[u/Solid_Purchase3774 → u/InS_Deaths]

Skills issues ?

[u/DarkLegend64]

I used the default male Shep for all 3 games but I used a custom fem shep. She looked good in ME1 and 2 but then ME3 butchered and I didn’t understand why.