Hi,
thanks for the nice welcome !
In principle the converter is able to translate all MT5 files into Collada files (characters and maps). I just selected a random file of medium complexity to work on. Just tell me which files you are interested in and I'll concentrate on gettings these files to work. My first contact to Shenmue files on the file system level was less than two weeks ago so I'm still clueless how they are organized and I'm a noob in playing (I love it so far).
I'll upload a new version soon that also handles a larger number of files without crashing. Most of the files I checked look good. Transparency is now supported but the Blender import filter is not feature complete and the alpha settings inside blender are not set in the right way. I have to check whether the 3D Studio Max Importer works better.
Linux is my native operating system so offering a Linux version is a pleasure for me (dependencies on libpng and zlib).
The MT7 format is very similar to MT5. They just improved the format a bit. As soon as I'm happy with the results for the MT5 files, I'll add support for MT7 files.
I guess I can upload the source code in about a month. My goal is to parse at least the material properties and to figure out how the maps fit together (basic city topology of Dobuita is stored in 5 different files, the details of the individual stores and the moveable doors are saved in other mt5 containers). Reading the animation files and rigging the character models automatically would be my dream
But today I'll concentrate on supporting self contained MT5s (texture and geometry in one file).
Cheers
Marc