Shenmue II - Meshing Xbox audio onto Dreamcast

[ReRuss]

Anyone ever tinkered with this? I know there's a chopped up rip out there where they done some partial audio swapping, but can't do it all since normal CD-Rs are 700mb

I'm not asking for anything piracy related, since I have legit retail copies of Shenmue II XBOX , and the PAL version of Shenmue II on Dreamcast on it's way...

I came across the idea when browsing for a boot disc (NTSC console ya know) and noticed I didn't have CD-Rs, so I ordered some 99minute 870mb CD-Rs, and one of the reviews I read said they worked on dreamcast

So I figure MAYBE I could kill 2 birds with one stone, english dubs and self-boot, then I'd only have to worry about how to import my S1 save since my DC only have the 56k modem... And maybe reading a PAL dreamcast disc on my PC...

[Martin]

Can't help with the voices, but maybe you'd be better off getting the PAL version of Shenmue to go with your PAL version of the sequel? No hex-editing required, then.

[ReRuss]

Can't help with the voices, but maybe you'd be better off getting the PAL version of Shenmue to go with your PAL version of the sequel? No hex-editing required, then.

I COULD do this... but it'd defeat the purpose of continuing my shenmue story, that I played and finished nearly 10 years ago... Playing again I know there's no way I'd spend the time to collect as much stuff again

I did find some ways to grab my VMU save, but I found a tool that can be run on the dreamcast AND it has hex editing built in... I've yet to test it tho

[ReRuss]

I done some digging...

It seems the audio may be in the same format and not require conversion

the 'arcade' games such as outrun, and all those were actually converted tho, on xbox they are found in XBE format, and MAYBE (I havnt tested) can be booted and played without shenmue - this bit really isnt imprtant at all

But when I get my 99min CD-Rs I will see if the audio files can be swapped directly and still fit and of course , function...

It takes like a month to get anything from DX, so I'll post when I actually test this, unless I can get NullDC to actually run S2, then I can test sooner

[Master Kyodai]

From the audio files i looked at the header was completely different on the xbox, just try to compare 2 files and you will see they are different. I know there are tools to convert/play the dreamcast dtpk based tracks or create a generic header, but for the custom xbox header it failed. I only looked at the music files, but for these i fear it will be out of your reach. Generally from what i can tell they simply use another aica driver, so the dtpk python scripts COULD be converted to handle the xbox header, but that is if you understand the format and are good at python. I don't know any tool to play/convert any of the xbox dtpk files so without having tried this i would bet a grand on that you can NOT just put them on a DC disc because the DC version wont be able to read the header and it uses a different AICA driver.

If there is really a DC version with Xbox sounds i bow down to the makers of it. Because it would require really good programming skills and knowledge of the format. My bet is that the "english voices" are not from the xbox but from the PAL version.

I wouldn't worry about reading out VMU and converting them. I'm sure that while it's possible it would be so complicated that you'd be faster and cheaper off just playing it from the start again. So if you love Shenmue just play it again from the beginning, if you don't love Shenmue then what are you doing here???

[ReRuss]

There's an english dub rip on all 4 discs, but only main quest speech I beleive

I could possibly compare a converted file to a stock xbox file and figure out what changed and how to duplicate it

At any rate there could be common changes done and it'd take about 10 minutes to write a program to save a lot of time, or could be a time consuming thing

All the major things right now are english dub, and small stuff japanese, even taking the lazy route that's still better than before... and if I figure something out then I'll just convert all the little things and of course figure out an effective legit way to share my work (probably by patches to save size)

[Master Kyodai]

Imho it would be quite easily possible to port ALL voice files from PAL to NTSC without any major problems. However, as afaik all versions work on all consoles (Selfboot or just use boot disc) the public interest will prolly be quite low as it's obviously easier to just run the PAL version.

For the xbox files it will be tough to convert them i fear. I must admit i am by no means an expert on AM2s DTPK format or sequenced sound files at all, but as far as i understand it the xbox dtpk files have a completely different header. If i get it right the rest of the files is also different as it's based on a different AICA driver. If you completely understand the structure of the DTPK files you will prolly be able to edit the python scripts accordingly, but i lack that ability.

However I'd be glad if you'd get it done as i had problems converting some dtpk files from dreamcast versions (Some samples were glitched), so as the xbox version uses slightly different samples/instruments it would be very interesting to try a conversion of the xbox files.

[ReRuss]

Well the rip I have has all the major quest line english dubbed, but lacks free-roam speech

From what I've researched 2 english dub versions exist, one by a russian group/site that's dissapeared, and another by someone else that I found and contacted the individual and he claims his version is lacking the same

From what the latter claims, all the AFS files are the same format and work the same, the only file NOT copied is Free01.afs , because it goes beyond the 700mb limit on normal CD-Rs...

Sadly, I can't expect my 870mb CD-Rs to even be here till this time next month because dealextreme is SLOOOOOW... So I can't even test this yet

I can however, test under the 700mb limit, but that defeats the purpose...

[Master Kyodai]

I think in the common releases (ECHELON, etc) they compressed some stuff as it's notable smaller than a whole GD-ROM, not sure how they did that, but maybe there's a trick? These fit on 700 MB discs... Can the Dreamcast read these 870 MB CDR properly? I remember it didn't want to read CD-RW without adjusting the lens.

the only other idea i have is to delete unnecessary stuff. There are songs that aren't used in the game, temp files they forgot to delete, source files you could delete, models that aren't used and so on. Not sure how much space you need to fit it.

[ReRuss]

From estimates based on one of these 700mb "perfect" rips, I've noted in afs files, a 168mb difference, leaving 2mb free on the disc

Every source I've checked says Dreamcast reads 99 minute CD-R with no problems, obviously dreamcast is logical when checking the disc for it's minute value (a 2 digit value) which at maximum is 99 minutes

Given a list of unused files to cut, I see no problem at all with space

[Master Kyodai]

Well then that should work, be sure to keep us updated on your progress.

[ReRuss]

Well I checked my order status, and it's still "waiting on supplier"

I'm gonna tinker with the xbox version for now till I get my S2 on DC in, and see what works, and what breaks... If I can get one of the dreamcast emus to run S2 it would help a lot though

I'll update with any progress

[ReRuss]

No real progress as of yet... chinese supplier still taking their sweet time, and I don't have the bba so ripping my own copy is sorta halted

No testing's been done yet seeing as I can't get S2 emulated well enough

And we have expressed interests... almost a sort of "team" if you will...

Lunchbox6954 has offered his help
SiZiOUS has pitched in possible leads

I dunno if I mentioned, but DealExtreme has 99 minute CD-Rs that work fine on DC, 50pk is $30, but expect a wait

[SiZiOUS]

If I can get one of the dreamcast emus to run S2 it would help a lot though

You can work with nullDC Emulator and use Daemon Tools with Dreamcast Test Environment. With these tools you have everything to build a Shenmue Dreamcast test image.

[ReRuss]

If I can get one of the dreamcast emus to run S2 it would help a lot though

You can work with nullDC Emulator and use Daemon Tools with Dreamcast Test Environment. With these tools you have everything to build a Shenmue Dreamcast test image.

Furthest I've gotten with NullDC is the sega screen that shows up right after it boots the image, Demul runs it but it has the HORRIBLE screeching sound and I cant hear speech over it

EDIT - the rips I have don't appear to have IP.BIN