Launching exe files directly in 1.01? (Bypassing launcher)

[Jibby]

Hey everyone! Wondering if anyone would be able to help me out with this.
In version 1.0, you were able to launch the executables inside the "sm1" and "sm2" folders directly, bypassing the launcher. However I've noticed that in patch 1.01 beta, this ability has been removed and trying to load either executable will instead trigger the launcher to open.

Is there any possible way to run the exe files without loading the launcher anymore (command line arguments, hex edits etc.), or would this be impossible now due to the way Steam works?

Thanks!

 

[Raymonf]

Yeah, crack it (the Steam DRM). No instructions for obvious reasons :)

 

[Jibby]

Yeah, crack it (the Steam DRM). No instructions for obvious reasons :)

Haha, yeah I though as much. Ah well, not the end of the world!

 

[Sappharad]

Is there any possible way to run the exe files without loading the launcher anymore (command line arguments, hex edits etc.), or would this be impossible now due to the way Steam works?

Here's a modified launcher that accepts sm1 and sm2 as command line arguments:
http://projects.sappharad.com/tools/SM12_LauncherMod_101.zip

The launcher doesn't pass any command line arguments to the game. Basically, the game checks to see if Steam knows it's running and if it doesn't it tells Steam to launch the launcher. The original launcher has no code in it whatsoever to talk to Steam or the game executable, Steam just initially watches the exe it launched (the launcher) to confirm that it's still running until the game launches and then the game has Steam watch it instead. By replacing the original launcher with this launcher, Steam will launch it instead when you launch the game. So you can create a Steam app shortcut that launches the modified launcher with arguments. The readme mentions this but basically create a shortcut to steam passing in the app id plus sm1 or sm2.

Steam.exe -applaunch 758330 sm1

Your shortcut will launch directly into the modified launcher, which will directly launch the game from there.

The original launcher is just a C# WPF application. I decompiled it, added the additional logic to handle the new command line arguments and recompiled.

 

[Jibby]

That works perfectly! Thanks so much.

 

[Sappharad]

I threw the source code to this up on GitHub for anyone who wants it:
https://github.com/Shenmue-Mods/Shenmue12launcher

I'm expecting it to continue working fine with future updates, unless they intentionally make changes to prevent an unofficial launcher from working. Feel free to create an issue report on (Issues tab) on Github if it breaks and someone can fix it. (Probably me)

There's no license attached since it's based on the original. I've made sure to acknowledge this in the Readme.

 

[Sappharad]

Bumping this due to recent developments.

Codeweavers released a semi-public beta build of CrossOver 20 for macOS last week. For those not familiar, CrossOver is a paid version of WINE and CodeWeavers is responsible for a lot of WINE development. Valve also contracted them to build Proton, the compatibility feature that runs Windows games on Steam for Linux. WINE is an application compatibility layer to run Windows applications on other operating systems (Linux, Chrome OS, Mac) without installing Windows or a Virtual Machine. I say semi-public, because they don't seem to have publicly announced it yet but anyone in their beta program can download it. And I wasn't in the beta program until I found out about the beta yesterday and when I "applied" for it, they let me in immediately to download the beta. The CrossOver 20 beta on macOS added DirectX 11 support, which has been supported on Linux WINE for a couple years now but is finally available on Mac. Shenmue I & II require DirectX 11 which was preventing me from running it on WINE before.

The official launcher, (and my modified version of it from this thread) is not compatible with WINE.
So I built a replica of the official launcher that supports WINE and attached it to the same release as the modified launcher. The WineLauncher.zip download contains the WINE compatible build of the launcher.

Release Release for v1.01 · Shenmue-Mods/Shenmue12launcher

Should be compatible with future updates for the game, unless they make changes to the launching process. SM12_LauncherMod_101.zip - The launcher itself WineLauncher.zip - A basic replica of the la...

github.com

Like the modified official launcher posted earlier in this thread, you need to backup the original SteamLauncher.exe somewhere then rename the WineLauncher.exe to the same name as the original so Steam launches the modified launcher instead.

I tweeted some screenshots:

 

[Jibby]

Bumping this due to recent developments.

Codeweavers released a semi-public beta build of CrossOver 20 for macOS last week. For those not familiar, CrossOver is a paid version of WINE and CodeWeavers is responsible for a lot of WINE development. Valve also contracted them to build Proton, the compatibility feature that runs Windows games on Steam for Linux. WINE is an application compatibility layer to run Windows applications on other operating systems (Linux, Chrome OS, Mac) without installing Windows or a Virtual Machine. I say semi-public, because they don't seem to have publicly announced it yet but anyone in their beta program can download it. And I wasn't in the beta program until I found out about the beta yesterday and when I "applied" for it, they let me in immediately to download the beta. The CrossOver 20 beta on macOS added DirectX 11 support, which has been supported on Linux WINE for a couple years now but is finally available on Mac. Shenmue I & II require DirectX 11 which was preventing me from running it on WINE before.

The official launcher, (and my modified version of it from this thread) is not compatible with WINE.
So I built a replica of the official launcher that supports WINE and attached it to the same release as the modified launcher. The WineLauncher.zip download contains the WINE compatible build of the launcher.

Release Release for v1.01 · Shenmue-Mods/Shenmue12launcher

Should be compatible with future updates for the game, unless they make changes to the launching process. SM12_LauncherMod_101.zip - The launcher itself WineLauncher.zip - A basic replica of the la...

github.com

Like the modified official launcher posted earlier in this thread, you need to backup the original SteamLauncher.exe somewhere then rename the WineLauncher.exe to the same name as the original so Steam launches the modified launcher instead.

I tweeted some screenshots:

Great work dude! Works perfectly on Linux from what I can tell.