A new converter for Shenmue geometry including textures

[hellwig74]

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

[IlDucci]

I'm afraid I need to repeat myself, is there a chance that an importer could be made? Right now, for the MT5 format, I'd only need to edit What's Shenmue's main Dobuita map (TIKN), in particular, Tomato's and other shops "Closed" signs.

S2's where I'd need more stuff, but it can wait.

[ShenmueTree]

Man, together with GDEMU and an importer there could be some sweet potential mods that could work on an actual Dreamcast. I wonder if you could actually add models to "Wish Road" to make it more fleshed out.

[Master Kyodai]

Wow, thanks for posting, this is really interesting. GOnna need to try this out later on. =)

[mrslig100]

Linux is my native operating system so offering a Linux version is a pleasure for me

Somebody new pops out of nowhere offers better asset ripping tools than anyone on this forum has ever seen and even offers a copy for the linux community.

So how does this work?
Did you work for sega and get fired and want to exact revenge helping the shenmue community or do you want to know who would rip shenmue assets so that when we go to japan sega can have our heads up against the wall?

Somethings the matter!

[ShenmueTree]

Can't wait for the linux version. I know this would make my projects much easier.

[Master Kyodai]

I tried to extract the arcade machines from Whats Shenmue. Geometries look OK, but textures somewhow a bit messed up.

Also not all MT5 convert, some just crash the tool. Gonna try a bit more if i have time...




Tried the Sushi bar and some textures are still messed up but generally already looking very promising...




Maybe just the beta, maybe just the renderer (Vue 2014). Not sure.

[ReeceKun]

Its soo awesome , I just extracted 'Wish Road' and its complete , (that was the area I was most worried about ripping)

[Fenix]

With this we can finally make complete maps for games like GTA, lol.

I've always wanted to add the forklift, the motorcycle and the arcade machines as vehicles. The Hang On bike could be the NRG500, haha.

Ryo needs some vehicles.

[Master Kyodai]

Well so am I just too dumb to use it or is there a trick?

[ReeceKun]

Well so am I just too dumb to use it or is there a trick?

Most PKS / PKF files are compressed , they can be opened and extracted with winrar (and apparently 7zip)

inside them is another PKS or PKF with a long silly name (just rename the extension to PKS or PKF)

Inside either the extracted PKS or PKF ('S' I think) , it contains Multiple MT5 files (the other 'F' usually just has a few textures)

Also Im not sure if the unpacker and DAE converter work in WIN7 or WIN8 ( I got it to work in WinXP)

You can drag and drop them omtop of the unpacker , it extracts the individual MT5 'PVS and PNG' (textures)

I'd love a GUI , but command prompt will convert the extracted mt5 (which has an odd extension) to DAE

I HATE blender , with all my being (although the most recent version looks nicer, It still acts like a drug users program)
I'm still working on sorting out my XP setup , so its causing some issues with me importing the models with textures
I will know more tommorow , Im still wondering if I can run DC emulator in XP on a virtual machine or if I can dual boot with XP and Win 8 (my version of XP is 32bit and my system is 64bit and comes with WIN8 (also hate , its trying to be all Xbox)

[ReeceKun]

Also not all MT5 convert, some just crash the tool. Gonna try a bit more if i have time...
.

I havent tried many MT5s in this new converter but the ones that failed in YMT5 ripper sometimes worked when I removed a few lines of 00 00 00 00 00 00 in Hex Editor ( I have NO idea where each MT5 is really supposed to end )

I originally extracted multiple MT5s by extracting from one 'HRMC' to the start of the next 'HRMC'

[ShenmueTree]

Is an importer possible? Think of all the great mods we could make, just replace Dobuita with another city entirely. Or maybe that wouldn't work because of physics or some such but if you can replace models couldn't you theoretically replace all of the models? Hmm.

[ReeceKun]

Is an importer possible? Think of all the great mods we could make, just replace Dobuita with another city entirely. Or maybe that wouldn't work because of physics or some such but if you can replace models couldn't you theoretically replace all of the models? Hmm.

I dont think an importer is outside the realms of possibility , I just think that the Dreamcast Engine is SO Slow , why bother when Shenmue can now just be imported into another engine (I suppose LA Noir comes close with picking objects up, but I would rather use Skyrim or GTA4)

[south carmain]

I love how you came out of no where and fixed an issue the modding community has had for at least a decade as if it was nothing. I have to agree with mittenz here and back your legend status.