[Demul, NullDC]Shenmue II cutscene bars removing tool [WIP]

[BlueMue]

This is awesome progress! The previous cheat engine method to get rid of them was complicated as hell and a mess to use. I'm gonna have to check this out soon in combination with the widescreen code.

[johnvivant]

Can you guys check, on a cutscene at the moment where guy with camera appears, does black bars flickers like for half a second here, or nothing of the sort happens? it should be at about 4:09 on video .

no, for me running on a dreamcast, no such flicker occurred at this point.

johnvivant

I expect 64 lines of code for Disc 1 only. Hopefully it all will work without any "surprises".

its a lot of pain entering it all - but definitely worth it! proper unimpaired 16:9 image and all running on my original dreamcast! i never would have believed it.

[Radar]

This is awesome progress! The previous cheat engine method to get rid of them was complicated as hell and a mess to use. I'm gonna have to check this out soon in combination with the widescreen code.

huh? complicated? just run SII_NoBars_.exe and it will automatically modify emulator's memory during game, you don't even have to press any buttons.. well obviously it only works for emulators..

[BlueMue]

I was talking about an older way to do this with cheat engine where you had to search for a specific byte while playing the game during each and every cutscene.

[Radar]

I was talking about an older way to do this with cheat engine where you had to search for a specific byte while playing the game during each and every cutscene.

ok, sorry, misunderstood, my bad

Alright, if anyone wants to test their luck , here is list of codes, I separated them for better readability, it should work for whole disk 1, except one cutscene, which i'll add codes for later.

0E020001
00432C04
00432C04
00000000

0E020001
0045C4E4
0045C4E4
00000000

0E020001
00448144
00448144
00000000

0E020001
00442C64
00442C64
00000000

0E020001
0043D884
0043D884
00000000

0E020001
00445E64
00445E64
00000000

0E020001
0042D9C4
0042D9C4
00000000

0E020001
00439AC4
00439AC4
00000000

0E020001
0043E8E4
0043E8E4
00000000

0E020001
0042E4C4
0042E4C4
00000000

0E020001
00441E64
00441E64
00000000

0E020001
004343E4
004343E4
00000000

0E020001
0042D004
0042D004
00000000

0E020001
0042D884
0042D884
00000000

0E020001
004409A4
004409A4
00000000

0E020001
00459BC4
00459BC4
00000000

[Shenmue_Trilogy]

Does this only work emulators or also with the dreamcast original version using codebreaker?

[Radar]

Does this only work emulators or also with the dreamcast original version using codebreaker?

Hopefully it will work for all of them, but for now it is in test mode.
And I do hope people will find it useful, at least until better solution found .

Thanks for this. I managed to find addresses for turning them off in certain scenes myself, but none which switch them all off. It does seem like we should be able to predict which addresses switch the bars off for which scene, though. But yeah it's probably worth testing each scene anyway just to be sure.

Well, it possible to predict it approximately, like in case when cutscene happens on location, for example Aberdeen address code will turn bars off at all curscenes that happens there,(except Wong chase). Same with Green Market. etc..

I can only get one set of codes to work at a time.

I also found why it didn't work.
I think there is mistake in 0D-code description i found here - http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/91641 ... faqs/11357 it says -" it 'activates' the next two line code" but it is WRONG, it activates all following lines, not just two, but with 0E type code it possible to specify how many lines needs to be activated, here is better description
http://gamehacking.org/faqs/hackv500c.html

for example, how it works:
0E020001 -- If byte at 00432C04(below) = 1(Bars On) then - activate next two lines
00432C04
00432C04 - replaces address with zero bytes(below)(Bars Off). (First line)
00000000 (Second line)

[Miles Prower]

Awesome stuff, this always annoyed me about S2, kinda spoiled the immersion a little bit IMO.

[johnvivant]

I was talking about an older way to do this with cheat engine where you had to search for a specific byte while playing the game during each and every cutscene.

ok, sorry, misunderstood, my bad

Alright, if anyone wants to test their luck , here is list of codes, I separated them for better readability, it should work for whole disk 1, except one cutscene, which i'll add codes for later.

0E020001
00432C04
00432C04
00000000

0E020001
0045C4E4
0045C4E4
00000000

0E020001
00448144
00448144
00000000

0E020001
00442C64
00442C64
00000000

0E020001
0043D884
0043D884
00000000

0E020001
00445E64
00445E64
00000000

0E020001
0042D9C4
0042D9C4
00000000

0E020001
00439AC4
00439AC4
00000000

0E020001
0043E8E4
0043E8E4
00000000

0E020001
0042E4C4
0042E4C4
00000000

0E020001
00441E64
00441E64
00000000

0E020001
004343E4
004343E4
00000000

0E020001
0042D004
0042D004
00000000

0E020001
0042D884
0042D884
00000000

0E020001
004409A4
004409A4
00000000

0E020001
00459BC4
00459BC4
00000000

i've been using this today.

observations.

during the transitions from the wong qte chase to the cutscene after you jump over the fence and then to free battle, there is a very momentary flicker of the border appearing then disappearing. it really is so quick as to be hardly noticeable, but its definitely there. this only seems to happen when transitioning to or from a qte or free battle. it doesn't happen when a cutscene begins from the normal free roam mode.

i've watched all cutscenes up until getting the crate lifting job from joy and there have been no other issues so far
i've also been using this in combination with the widescreen code without any problems so far.

i'm not planning on doing a full playthrough of shenmue 2 for a few more months so i can't check everything until then. its looking good though.

edit;

ok think i just found a glitch,
when entering white dynasty quater from south carmain qr, just as you approach the map stand to your left, a huge piece of geometry glitches accross the screen from the building on the left.

this only occurs with black bars code, so its not caused by the widescreen code

[Radar]

i've been using this today.

observations.

during the transitions from the wong qte chase to the cutscene after you jump over the fence and then to free battle, there is a very momentary flicker of the border appearing then disappearing. it really is so quick as to be hardly noticeable, but its definitely there. this only seems to happen when transitioning to or from a qte or free battle. it doesn't happen when a cutscene begins from the normal free roam mode.

Yes, I expected it to happen, and I kinda have a different approach to it in my head that should fix it.

i'm not planning on doing a full playthrough of shenmue 2 for a few more months so i can't check everything until then. its looking good though.

yeah.. About the same with me I just really can't continue to search for rest of the codes for now, it is simple but very time consuming playing through the whole game, this is why I hope to get some help.
And THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! for testing!

[johnvivant]

edit;

ok think i just found a glitch,
when entering white dynasty quarter from south carmain qr, just as you approach the map stand to your left, a huge piece of geometry glitches across the screen from the building on the left.

this only occurs with black bars code, so its not caused by the widescreen code.

[Radar]

edit;

ok think i just found a glitch,
when entering white dynasty quarter from south carmain qr, just as you approach the map stand to your left, a huge piece of geometry glitches across the screen from the building on the left.

this only occurs with black bars code, so its not caused by the widescreen code.

I see, strange... but unfortunately I don't think this can be fixed
Anyway, don't get your hopes up, before it all tested, it can't be considered as working. Altough, I hope everything will go smooth, all kinds of unexpected things can happen...

[BlueMue]

I made a quick capture of it running on my DC with the full widescreen code. Video is streched to proper 854x480. The black bars do pop up when the camera changes towards the photographer. Also before Ryo puts in the money.

phpBB [video]