I truly wish noone would ever change their name unless it is a real emergency. In my private forums i made a function so users can only change it once in their lifetime and admins are asked to only do it in truly acceptable emergencies. Just a stupid old man's own 10 cents - so disregard my opinion if you dislike it. But personally I usually have problems keeping track of who is who if people change their name often. In my forums i often had old members i simply didn't "know" because they changed their name and avatar on a regular base. But yeah prolly just my personal problem that i lacked time to keep track of all name changes. </rant>

Three best friends on vacation in Venice...

To be fair here - Ryudo is pretty right. There's not much that differs from the 90s VR helmets. If you had a 1994 Forte VFX-1 you get pretty much exactly the same thing, just better Field of View and resolution. And the current dev kit versions aren't even HD. But when the final version comes out in full-HD (or even 720p) I'd consider buying one, but yeah I have a big collection of VR Helmets at home, not saying it's for everyone, but Skyrim on the dev oculus already looked promising. I just hope the Viero drivers will soon support more games. I think Fallout 3 and GTA IV would be fun on these.

I've had VR helmets since the first "consumer" priced ones came out in the mid 90s. Seen their raise and fall. Back then they were pretty much gimmickery because the normal consumer could barely afford then, they were a bit impractical (Large, heavy, not portable) and few games supported them.

I think for the oculus it's pretty much the same. If they manage to bring out a kinda "universal" driver, like something that hooks onto the nvidia stereo driver or so then maybe it would have at least some support. Last time i checked the vireio perception driver supported something like 7 (in words: SEVEN) games, let it be 10 now, but that's not so impressive. I won't be an oracle telling you about the future of that device, but if it wanna have some they better get some decent game support soon.

If you regard it as a gimmick or not... I actually do. Most people do. And if apple or google would release it it would instantly be a "hit" not a gimmick. But yeah so far I wouldn't be surprised if I am among the very few buying that thing. The only fact thaat saves it here is that unlike 1994 Forte VFX-1 VR Helmet it is not supposed to come with a 2000 Dollar price tag. So maybe it will gather some fans simply because it will be affordable?

I'd like to see a comparison like "NullDC true 1080p Shenmue vs upscaled conversion box DC Shenmue". I'm curious if the difference is visible at all, so far the upscaled version looks pretty nice. But if you have a PC with HDMI out NullDC is maybe the cheaper solution although not always 100% glitch free.

Lmao, that GTA IV Ryo model really looks nice. Well seems Ryo is not really a good driver...

Kinda unfair, but if they "donate" a thousand dollars to a disabled person that also might enjoy the day a little bit (I guess they just need the disabled person at the entrance...) maybe it's not the worst outcome for them. Not saying it's great but at least the money goes somehow into the correct pockets here...

Couldn't resist to buy that Fujitsu F-07C. It's sold as a "phone" but actually comes with an Intel ATom Processor and runs windows 7. Smallest X86 Notebook ever made. Trackball, multitouch display, GPS, wifi, SSD, you name it. pretty cool device. Never had a computer that was sooooo small. Totally love it...

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1370935306.jpg

I think maybe there could even be different approaches for the Bike mod. OK I'm mainly just guessing here, but possible approaches that came to my mind:

- Replace the Motion data from Ryos walking to the bike motion data. Not sure about the format in S1, in Shenmue 2 you have seperate .mot files for some motions. In Shenmue 1 i think the motions get switched in mapinfo.bin, quote from a Whats Shenmue mapinfo "FTLK: Set motion %d to %s 2"

- Maybe it's also in the 1st_read.bin, if you search the 1st read.bin of Whats Shenmue for "BIKE" you find a reference. Other references in 1st read i suggest at least looking at are "BikeRoot" (I think that might be the definition of the bike) and "Mo_HoldBike" (I think maybe thats the motion for sitting on the bike).

- Edit the motion.bin. Prolly the hardest part since that file is not really human readable. But the 1st read refers to it, i think it refers to hex codes for the start byte to read from if i understand it right.

Sushi bar near come over guesthouse

Nice idea, but a bit too much speculation for my taste. Would have been nice to see some real world background info about scrolls or mirrors (as antiques) instead of being like "I claim the mirrors are scrolls, too". I have many old japanese scrolls at my home and also some ancient chinese mirrors in my possession (Though the mirrors are made of metal, not of stone - as pretty much all real mirrors that the shenmue ones were based on). Personally I'd have wished more research and less self-made mythology. But oh well, if the majority of readers is pleased then i guess that's what counts. Still i like the idea, personally hoping for a stronger next issue.

Finally got married. Not always easy. But then again I'm getting too old to like the idea of dieing alone.

Thanks a lot. Nah dun think I will leave the dojo. I still gotta go to work and got some time to burn there... But yeah my wife is not really a Shenmue fan, actually she never played it. But well maybe she will. In Japan we played Ryu ga gotoku 3 on PS3 together. Well I did the fighting stuff and she translated some phrases from the thugs ("I feel like Ramen").

Ah well it wasn't meant to be harsh. Just my opinion. Well I probably have too many (real) scrolls myself to agree to the statement that they "symbolize an element of mystery and wonder within the world". Fact is that in the game they rather symbolize written knowledge as "learning" a new technique from a scroll is highly desirable during the course of the game. Another aspect of them as written knowledge is the one in the Hazuki Dojo (the decorative one) which simply says "Keep your mind as clear as a polished mirror". Although Shenmue 3 was planned to reveal much more magic and mysticism the original 2 games merely give a hint at the end of Shenmue 2. I also don't agree on the part that the mirrors must be read and understood like scrolls. That's a bit like comparing the scrolls to Hang on, I mean come on you also must master hang on to be good at it?

The real role of the mirrors would have been revealed in Shenmue 3 - but since the majority of users here does not like the "mystic & magic" touch i fear few people would like it. if you want a big spoiler of their real role then watch the Shenmue Online CG trailer. In a nutshell they were supposed to be remote controls for giant monsters. Ah yeah okay, i guess it's time to duck down, i can already see the beer bottles flying in my direction...

The whole notion of having things in common is overrated, I think. It may sound silly to anyone with an ultramodern mindset, but think about it: people used to fall in love and get married all the time without having similar interests in something as trite as entertainment . Yet nowadays -- ridiculously -- that seems to be one of the major things people look for.

We've grown as people together. We surprise one-another. We give eachother experiences that we both may never have had if we didn't meet. And we want to keep doing all of these things.
All of that is much more important than relating to eachother over tv or videogames.

Also what Rakim said.


Hell yeah, if it was about finding someone who got loads of stuff in common with me I'd better had married Ryudo or so. my wife doesn't like sci-fi, she doesn't like Action movies, she doesn't like Shenmue and she's not even into motorc<ycles or sports cars. I can't even tell what it's about, but i have a feeling OL expressed it pretty well already. Oh well all that plus good sex (30 seconds count, too!) and making each other laugh sometimes. Actually i think if my wife also liked Jagged Alliance 2 I'd be scared... 8-[

ShenmueTree wrote: Maybe we should have asked for him to hold up a note to prove that it was truly him in that photo?

In any case, guy is gone in the wind.

Put a shoe on your head!

That guy must lick escalator handrails to pull that with us. How heartbroken can we be after that already happenned to us 47587394579347 times? Still... MAN THE MACHINE GUNS!

I got less and less hopeful over the years. Not saying it's impoossible but at least very unlikely. I think even the trolls have given up. Ages since i last read someone being like "OMG, I WORK AT SEGA AND PLAYED SHENMUE 3!".

There's a good Wong Kar Wai Movie called "Chungking mansion". In the WKW Flic "Fallen Angels" the father of the mute guy is also working in chungking mansions. I recommend both movies if ya wanna get a glimpse of what it's like.

Personally i think the Bike mod might even be easier than we suppose. Probably just a line commented out in 1st_read.bin or so. The old whats Shenmue one might be the be the best bet since it is the oldest one. I don't think they did rocket science to take it out. there's so much unused stuff in the files and some NPC ride a bike as well. the timeline between that old VHS video demo where Ryo rides a bike and the whats Shenmue Demo is not too long... Anyways, I think there's several approaches to this, not sure which one would be the easiest. Hardest part is understanding stuff like 1st_read.bin and such, but once you edited it successfully you can prolly stremline the process so you try out mods at a pace like sausages get processed in a hot dog factory...

Well this just came out of boredom. Was playing a bit with Mr. Bikkers Real Time Raytracing engine. Pretty useless but for me it was fun to toy around with it.

W,A,S,D -->Move around
R,F --> Up and down
Cursor keys --> Turn camera

The Raytracing is really slow compared to the GPU based engines. SO to get a good picture you have to stand still for a while...

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1376032499.jpg



DOWNLOAD:


http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1376382987.zip



Version 1.1:

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1376417638.zip


Ver 1.2 - Now 2 exe: One with Depth of Field and one without it.

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1376524144.zip

OK, new Version that includes all debug dlls and manifest files. AT least this one worked on my test machine.

http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1376382987.zip

Well yeah i guess it won't qualify as a "game engine". The whole gag here is that it is not a typical DirectX 3D engine based on Transform and Lighting but rather a real raytracing that accurately traces every single ray of light to give physically accurate reflections and shadows. More of a toy than anything else. Think of it as "3D Studio max for homeless people".

Diary update:

Found another place where absolutely no sailors hang around. I get a feeling they just hide from me.

WHAT, YOU LEFT MANCHESTER??? LIES!!!


Lol, just kidding.

Well the article, neither discouraging nor encouraging i guess. Maybe we are indeed a little bit closer to Shenmue 3. Feels better than being closer to Shenmue Online or Shenmue Gai 2... Well after over a decade i guess the only article that could really make us drool would be a Preview or at least a HD remake of the first 2 games... I guess we've all just had way too many encouraging articles over the past 12 years.

I'm not sure if the memory address changes are the best approach. I would probably try finding the references in the files and hex edit these. That way the hack can also be distributed easily and should be much more stable.

I might be wrong but i believe that pretty much all bike motions are in SCENE\01\FREE\M_BIKE.BIN... If you look at the first 1024 bytes it already gives the descriptors for the content. So "AKI" is actually Ryo. You can see references to the motorcycle motions - i think "AKI_TAOSU_FOR_TURN180_AMERICANBIKE_F" for example is a 180 degree turn on the motorcycle. What is interesting is that there is also a "AKI_TAOSU_C_TURN180_JITENSYA"... Well if you don't speak Japanese that doesn't mean much but "Jitensha" means "bicycle", like one without an engine.

My memory is foggy, but i think Ryo pulls the 180 degree turn when he has to race the motorcycle to get Nozomi, right?
Since the beginning of that file is kinda index i guess it would be suitable to just swap "AKI_TAOSU_FOR_TURN180_AMERICANBIKE_F" and "AKI_TAOSU_C_TURN180_JITENSYA" and see if Ryo suddenly does the 180 degree turn on a bicycle instead of a motorcycle. AT least taht's what i would try first since it's easy to pull off - maybe 20 minutes of work, it won't affect the file size and thus be pretty safe and it would shed some light on these motion files. A second step would be to swap all motorcycle related ones with bicycle ones and see what will come out.


Another thing to look into would be the M_FREE.BIN in the same dir. These are the normal motions - like "AKI_AKI_SUWARU" (Ryo Sit). Obviously there must be some reference to these, prolly in the scene file scripts or main binary. Swapping these references successfully would mean you could make Ryo ride a bike instead of sitting.

The 1st_read.bin also holds many interesting things - since it is kinda "main exe" for Shenmue loads of manipulation can be done here. You did a good job at editing the beta disc, so take a look at its 1st_read...

If you search a bit you can find a line starting with "NL_POINTXZ BikeRoot%02d[]"...

A few lines above that is something like "NL_POINT3 Root%02d[]=", why not try swapping that, so it will be "NL_POINT3 BikeRoot%02d[]=" and "NL_POINTXZ Root%02d[]", see what happens? ALso around that area in the 1st_read you will see more interesting stuff... "JUMP CHARA(Now Dead)", so obviously they originally had jumping in the game as well...

Also search for "Mo_InitBikePos" a few lines under that spot. Maybe you can swap "Mo_ExecSit" with "Mo_InitBikePos" to make Ryo ride a bike instead of sitting here...


I think there are still a few things left to try out with hex editing and it is probably easier than memory juggling.


MOTION.BIN in the MOTION directory might also be a place to try some edits. Try swapping "AKI_AKI_PUSH_DOOR" and "AKI_AKI_PULL_DOOR", can you make Ryo pushing doors instead of pulling them? Might look funny... But easy testing to see what you can get done here...


Another very interesting find:

compare MISC\CM_D000.BIN and SCENE\01\D000\CYCLEMAN.BIN - same size. Same file? Nearly i would say. Maybe swapping these two would be worth a shot?


D000\MPK00.PKS also seems interesting, if you search for "BIKE" it reveals some QTE motions...

M_FREE.BIN might also be worth taking a look at. Try swapping "AKI_ORIRU_FORKLIFT_F" and "AKI_AKI_BIKE3_LP" ?

If you wanna see the references mapinfo.bin uses then just search for the keyword "/scene/" in the file. There you should come up with something like "/scene/03/D000/" if it uses data from Dobuita map for example.

The mapinfo is not really cleartext as you noticed so it is much speculation to talk about the structure of the file. From my understanding the top part defines the placement of models in the scene (But I am guessing here) and around the bottom there is "scene initialization" data, like "Which music track is played?", which seqdata files are laoded (Scripting for scene events!!!), where is ryo placed when he enters the scene, and so on.

On the first look the PKS/PKF files look a bit uninteresting since they are merely a better "zip file", most just contain models for the scene. However, some also contain the important sequence (Scene scripting) files which control most scripted behaviour, these will definitely also be worth looking into.

Definitely looking forward to any updates. I am sure even that even if you don't succeed immediately you will find out interesting stuff to tweak or hack if you keep going. Keep up the good work!

This just ain't ebay. I mean if it's some really rare collectables related to Shenmue i guess you could interest people here. The big problem is that when you start to allow selling stuff here on a big scale then sooner or later you have some scammers on board that just run away with your money and there is no way Yama could compensate you and we hate having people whining around here. So if you just wanna sell random console games or stuff then it's probably best to just put them on ebay or so. That way you will also have much more people seeing what you have to offer and thus a way better chance of getting it sold.

Actually the voice acting in the Japanese Version is really good. Some stuff is also hard to translate and sounds a bit dumb in English. For example Ryo's "So desu ka?" is translated as "Is that so?" in English which is nominally the correct translation, but sounds a bit weird in English. There are some other aspects of the voice acting which are really great in japanese, for example Ine-San who really talks like a polite old woman, but in the English language there simply is no difference between a male and a female person speaking while in Japanese - traditionally - there are loads of words and idioms that are used by female speakers that would not be used by a male speaker. Loads of stuff like this got lost in the translation. If you speak proper Japanese you will agree that the Japanese language voice acting is much better than the "dull" English translation. Some stuff like Setsu Abe's "Ryo-Kun" being translated as "Baby Ryo" is at least kinda funny in English, but also far from being extremely precise - "kun" does not really equal to "baby", it is rather used for (male) youngsters in Japanese, a baby would rather be "chan". In the Japanese House of Representatives the house president calls the representatives "-kun" - so you guess that "baby" is maybe not a perfect translation.

Another problem is that the Japanese voice actors are often treated like "Super stars", just take the Ryo and Ren voice actors, there was a video series of them, they gave loads of autographs and the guy who voiced Ryo has his own cafe in Akihabara and even today is often asked for autographs and such. In other countries it is rather rare that anyone could name a voice actor from a computer game. Corey Marshal is sure an exception to the rule, but even for Shenmue pretty much the only one... That also means that the voice acting job is taken with a different approach outside of Japan and rather regarded "Not so important"...

There are loads of other problems that occur when translating Japanese to English, so imho it is not just "bad" voice actors but a rather difficult to translate text that thus is also very difficult for voice actors. I'd claim that if the translators and the voice actors had a much better understanding of the Japanese culture and language then the result would be much better.

I would definitely contribute, but I'd prefer to be filmed from an interview standpoint, not a head on camera shot. Thats what I would advise people to do when making Shenmue documentaries because people talking into the camera makes a bit uncomfortable for me to watch and also less professional. Just my opinion though.


I guess he won't realistically send a reporter to Ireland to interview you for 3 minutes. Even though that would be cool i guess he's rather on a tight budget. But maybe you can have a friend or relative play the "reporter", just think of some questions, give it to them and answer accordingly.

Let me add to this about as I mulled this over a bit more tonight. When Ryo gets off the boat and talks to people in that very small village, there are people walking the trail which Ryo starts trekking on. When the weather all of a sudden goes from blue skies to thunderstorm and Ryo goes into the river and eventually blacks out, he then wakes up to find Shenhua and the goat, but the most interesting thing which may completely go over our heads is that since that point, nobody else is seen on all those trails, not one other person passing through.... In fact the whole rest of the game you see not a soul other than Shenhua. Maybe he's not dead per se, I doubt that given what we know that happens after of what has been disclosed. However, maybe all of that was sort of an alternate universe kind of like in Sonic Adventure, or even a dream? It did seem way too magical at the end compared to the theme of the entire game from Chapter One. Maybe after the cave Shenhua sort of dissappears, at least for a time and Ryo goes back to the home to find it's in a state of disrepair as nobody could have lived in there for years. However Shenhua's spirit guided Ryo to Guilin as the Phoenix is the spirit that protects life.



Now i got it! Ryo is a ghost! He drowned when he tried to rescue Shenhua and the goat.

Good to see a veteran member being back. You sure missed loads of drama here... XD

So much unused stuff. Really nice video, James, feels a bit like David letterman with a special guest - just that the special guest is Shenmue 2... =)


Also loads of unused sounds, music, ambient tracks and such. Ziming did an excessive cataloguing of the music tracks.

Personally i also like some ideas that "disappeared" due to time and money limitations, but in "What's Shenmue" you can still find an example of the original idea of what I'd call "Adaptive music" in English. The main FREE track exists in 3 versions and as far as i know it was originally intended to become more agressive the closer you get to your current goal, like it starts with light drums and the theme changes to moderate and then extreme drums in that musical piece to make the pace more intense. Some concepts like these were brilliant and even though they were dropped the game itself is still intense. But good to know they were there...

First time i ever rendered Yuan...

Gonna be back in Japan in 6 weeks. Will spend a few days in Nikko, the wife got us a hotel near the Ninja theme park (Edo Wonderland). Gah, i never get old. Wish our daughter was old enough already to throw a few shurikens and discover sunken bamboo forests with me. Well soon i hope...

If you do a reversed Chawan sign at Blue sky beer garden some biker gang will come and beat you up with chains.

Just kidding, i always hoped they would have added some cool easter eggs for it, but unfortunately the few mentioned cutscenes are all you can get.

Ah a meetup in the UK? How uncool. How about meeting in Yokosuka? I got some spare time around the beginning of June... ^^

Guilin. Go big or go home.

I don't have the time or the money now, but I'd be down for a Shenmue Tour 2016 or 2017. Dobuita, Yokohama, Aberdeen, Kowloon, Guilin... Something I've been meaning to do for years, there were those guys who did that documentary recently, right?



BTW - Dobuita is part of Yokosuka, not Yokohama. Yokohama is also nice though, my wife is from Yokohama, Tsurumi to be precise. My mother-in-law still lives there. The area reminds me a bit of "Always - sunset on third street". I always call it "San Chome" because of the movie.

You might be a bit disappointed by Hong Kong if you expect it to be like in Shenmue. No gambling or arm wrestling on the streets and the "kowloon" from Shenmue was more like a pun on the Kowloon walled city which doesn't exist any more. Mostly just modern skyscrapers, dense traffic, modern stores and such. Not that kinda run-down city feeling you have in Shenmue 2, Kong Kong these days looks more like Shibuya or Shinjuku then what you see in Shenmue 2. And Guilin... beautiful, but soooo huge.You can still take a river cruise on the Li River and see these green peak alike mountains, visit one of the many caves (No floating swords there though!!!) and catch some of that feeling, but don't be fooled - Guilin is a city of 5 million people. Not the flair of New York or so, but you get that it is not a Village. You can find Villages of only a few dozen houses, but these days i think even the most remote ones are with satellite TV, fridges and Playstations, so not that romantic flair from Shenmue 2.

My wifes best friend lives in Yokosuka. It's been a while since i have been there... 3 years? Or 4 years? She lives in that small residential area on a hill that immediately lets you think of Sakuragaoka.

To say it with the words of Hunter Thompson:

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Yokosuka and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.


Not saying that Hong Kong or Guilin are not interesting places, but when i think of Shenmue then i always have drink vending machines, small run-down arcades and convenience stores in Yokosuka in mind. But yeah, prolly hard to understand the fascination unless you've been there.


Seriously - noone in yokosuka in june? But yeah even if you were you'd prolly bail out like AXM. Was funny though, i was in Tokyo and phoned him from a public phone booth and when he answered the phone i just said "Father's heaven" and he hung up. guess he didn't get it... I thought it was funny. Well i guess he was busy with other stuff.

Wow, i totally missed this one. Simply brilliant. Bricks were shat.

I'm still here, just very quiet. I'll check this place out maybe once a month. These days I seldom play video games though I have a PS4 and an Xbox One. I use my PS3 as a video streaming device for my bedroom. I mostly go on nature walks these days, drive my diesel VW Passat, stream netflix, watch Top Gear (or should I say reminisce given recent developments). Try to crack the biggest anomaly known to man, women. Do DIY projects to my condo. Try to attempt cooking. Serve as president of a rotary club, vp of a brokerage firm, member of a couple chamber of commerce's. Play with my dog. Take a train into NYC occasionally and just wander around Manhattan. I guess that sums it up really, the phase of life of a 31 year old man looking forward to the next phase.

Do I care about Shenmue 3 at this point? Honestly?... A small amount. Games these days don't tickle me like they used to. I hate online gaming. I tried to get into it with GTA 5 online. Started that with the sounds of teen screaming and cursing on it and found myself being chased in the woods by a man with a chainsaw for a good 10 minutes and that was about it for me. The others seem to be intense shooters and I've become too subdued to get that wound up anymore. Sports games which I'm not really into. It's not like how it used to be. Liked Assasin's Creed Black Flag and Unity but the story lines didn't captivate me. Really liked Last of Us and wish there was more of that quality, but there isn't. Seems like most developers are interested in phone games than console games. Cheaper to make and greater customer base. I drove a jet ski off the gulf of mexico a few weeks ago and found that more fun than any video game I've played so I'd rather do that given the option. I guess I'm more looking for new things in my life. When I do play I could use some friends on them, so my gamertags are below. You are far more likely to see me on there than here. :mnky:

xboxone gamertag= jgkny
ps4 gamertag=jgk1020



OMG, a VW Passat, these are so common here in Germany. Didn't even know they were available in the U.S.

I actually drive a Ford Focus with all the extras that are available in Germany (Traffic Sign recognition, Lane keeping assist, Self parking and so on). hell I just wanted a car that is at least somewhat american even though it's assembled here in Germany.


Jet Ski is loads of fun. I always thought that when i retire i might talk the wife into moving to Ibiza, get a Jet Ski and an ATV. All you need.


I also rarely play games these days, but "Life is strange" got me out of hibernation recently. Rotary club... Hmmm i thought about getting into Lions club (I guess they are what rotary club is in the US) but i just lack the time. maybe when the kids are older. I'd like to do something good.

Here's another silly mod. I had the basic idea to this floating around for a couple of weeks now and since James mentioned in his interview that I do mods I thought it was good timing to get this done. Enjoy! :mrgreen:

https://youtu.be/FTuHM284DLE

Getting Shenhua in Ryo's place is something new that I've been trying earlier. It's some sort of duplicate model that comes with a couple of bugs. It's the only compatible model to use as the players character so far. I tried other things with partial success but it's really nothing I'd call "showable".


Totally missed that one. "Father! Mother! Random old guy!" I laughed my ass off.

Ah, come on - 400,000 Dollars for subtitles? Well i guess we'll have to take them,eh? I mean I'm German, so honors me that German comes first on the List, but i could have lived well without them... Give us a playable Iwao Flashback instead where you have to kill Lan Di's father after he catches you stealing his mirror... XD