Really glad to hear the project is not forgotten!
When you're at it then try to also take a short peek into the mapinfo. All scripts for the "room" are in there. Possibly fairly easy to make Ryo mount a motorcycle if you steal from the "Save Nozomi" scene? But yeah just guesswork here. Good luck from all of us =)
Yeah the save Nozomi scene was the original target for the bike ride since a lot of the motion data gets called automatically. It saves time and allows for some easier work arounds.
Quick question, are you trying to enable a sort of work around to ride the bicycle around all areas or only on the road to Amihama?
The original bike mod was tailored to use the Road to Amihama. I got a hold of LanDC and another member who wishes to remain unknown, and got the tools needed to get a method to swap the motor cycle with the bicycle.
This was the breakdown:
Create save file at Road to Amihama scene
Hacked RAM (via Action Replay) to glitch the timer to make it infinity
Live hotswap Bike model variable with Cycle variable to chain load motion data
I actually got most of the mod to work but one little issue occurred.
The Dreamcast's RAM and processor can go into protected mode. Shenmue stores the bike model in protected RAM so you need to half crash the ALU to calculate in system/non-protected mode. To do this, you need to boot DC Linux, probe the mainboard, and chain load the OS from the Shenmue disc into RAM with the hotswap. My method here actually worked but my Dreamcast shorted out when the bike loaded.
I managed to swap the motor cycle with Wang's bike from Ajiichi and get a hybrid motion data chained into it. Ryop akwardly road the bike before my DC gave the magic black smoke of death.
Unfortunately, my DC died before I could get some footage.
The NEW method is now underway and is 100% software based.
Two members brought this idea to me before I posted here.
In the Japanese 1st Read binary there is a string/block of hex that will allow for a debug menu to show. It is HIGHLY rumored that it may allow for spawning of objects/physics, potentially including the bike.
So to answer your question, the old method was for Road to Amihama, the new method is for actually getting the Bike in the game as shown in the What's Shenmue video demo.
james