CANCELLED - Shenmue 2 80 min ISO - No Downsampled Voices

[shengoro86]

edit: this project is cancelled.

Hi All,

I am going to look into making an 80min CDr version of Shenmue 2 Full English Speech Mod without downsampling.

I have a feeling that Sm1th's project could be truncated a bit down to an 80 min CDR.

Big thanks to Sm1th for his awesome work!

Any thoughts?

[IlDucci]

Any thoughts?

I'd say check FamilyGuy's FullSpeech release as well. That's the only other FullSpeech release that exists.

[Snoopbob2006]

This is great news Shengoro!

I have been wanting this for months.. Even went to the trouble of buying 99min discs that didnt work for the sake of it.

Keep us updated I will be waiting!

[shengoro86]

It seems that Shenmue 2 has a lot of unused assets that could be eliminated off of the disc. Some of the veteran members even said this a couple of years ago.

Honestly, I don't know if its entirely possible to get a cdi down to one 80min threshold except for disc 4 but its worth a shot.

Ill update as the project continues. I'm doing a couple different mods right now so it may be a bit before I update the thread with some real progress. Still hypothesizing right now.

[IlDucci]

Just asking, with "No downsampled", you mean "No Hz quality downgrade" or "No BAP/AHX quality control downgrade"?

As for the unused data, well, you might start with the HUMANS.AFS files. But it'll need a truckload of testing.

[djemotion2]

I'm ready and waiting to test any results thoroughly

[IlDucci]

In any case, there's ways to find how many HUMANS.AFS files can be replaced with blank files, and also how to do the same with unused voice clips, but that'll be a long work to do. A lot of files to check.

If anyone's feeling like doing it or trying to do some tool to accelerate the process, you can comment that here.

[shengoro86]

I dont think the humans file goes under any type of CRC check, so a half assed file should be loaded into memory with no issues.

As for dummy data in the humans file, yeah i think its possible. I believe we can dump the humans file and then re-create it we should be good.

I know there should be a way to do this without even touching the audio files.

Ill be working on this more over the next couple of days and report back.

[shengoro86]

Keep us updated bro!

I will keep checking back weekly

[BlueMue]

I actually want such a version of the game. I wanted to make an english version of the video with all the Fangmei conversations but the modded version (the 99min one) that's already out there has pretty bad downsampling.
The voices sound strangely robotic and not like from a phone line as I expected. Anyway it no pleasure to hear these voices.

I'd even take a 99 min version that has just the cutscenes and dialog with Fangmei switched to unaltered files to begin with.

[shengoro86]

Any update Shengoro?

[shengoro86]

Still poking around so far but no success. I started a new job so my time is very tight.

Most of my focus is on the bike mod at the moment.

[shengoro86]

Cool man.. I will ask again in a month or so.

[shengoro86]

So far:
I made a selfbootable cdi of disc 1 that is only 890 MB.

In my first test, I ripped a lot out just to get the base game.

Ripped:
German, French, and Spanish localization files
Arcade games (wont be ripped in release version, this was for testing)

The next process:

Pull out beta Aberdeen map
Pull out unused character models
Create symbolic links for redundant files and map assets << Not sure if the DC can even handle this.

Those three steps alone should pull the final cdi down to hopefully 80 mins or lower.

If not then we are out of luck

[Snoopbob2006]

Woah sounds like some heavy stuff!

Thanks for updating us.

Looking forward to more news!

If you do get a version complete I would be more than happy giving a paypal donation for you hard work