Modding Japanese Subtitles back into Steam version possible? Any ideas?

Joined
Sep 4, 2018
It looks like Sega is planning to remove the Japanese subtitles and interface from the steam port of Shenmue 1 & 2 since they removed the ability to force them for Shenmue 2 via the ini file in beta version v5 and am wondering if it would be fairly easy to mod them back in?

It's worth noting that the Japanese subtitle and fontdef files can still be found in the Shenmue 2 beta v5 TAC/TAD files but you can't force them via ini but there is a chance you can hex edit the Shenmue 2 executable to load the Japanese ui and subs but I have no idea how to use cheat engine to do so...
 
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Also does anyone have any ideas how to replace the French, English or Korean .etc subtitles with the Japanese subtitles?

I tried extracting the Japanese subtitles and renaming them to french.subs.xxxxxxxx.00000000 and loading them via forklift mod loader and it resulted in all text becoming a question mark and also tried renaming Japanese fontdef files to french ones but that resulted in there being no text displayed at all and have no idea if there is corresponding french and japanese frontdef files and have no idea how I would go about identifying them.
 
It looks like Sega is planning to remove the Japanese subtitles and interface from the steam port of Shenmue 1 & 2 since they removed the ability to force them for Shenmue 2 via the ini file in beta version v5 and am wondering if it would be fairly easy to mod them back in?

It's worth noting that the Japanese subtitle and fontdef files can still be found in the Shenmue 2 beta v2 TAC/TAD files but you can't force them via ini but there is a chance you can hex edit the Shenmue 2 executable to load the Japanese ui and subs but I have no idea how to use cheat engine to do so...
How were the Japanese subtitles enabled before update v5?
I got that it was through an ini file, but which ini file exactly and what parameter was used to set it?
I could try and take a look at the v4 executable and maybe patch the exe for v5.
It will also depend if they removed the entire function that did that or if they just defaulted it to ignore the parameter.
 
How were the Japanese subtitles enabled before update v5?
I got that it was through an ini file, but which ini file exactly and what parameter was used to set it?
I could try and take a look at the v4 executable and maybe patch the exe for v5.
It will also depend if they removed the entire function that did that or if they just defaulted it to ignore the parameter.

The config file is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\xxxxxxxxx\758330\remote\sm2saves\Settings and you want to change "SubtitleLanguage": -1, to "SubtitleLanguage": 1,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
 
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The config file is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\xxxxxxxxx\758330\remote\sm2saves\Settings and you want to change "SubtitleLanguage": -1, to "SubtitleLanguage": 1,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I took a quick look at this and from what I could see, the routine that parses the settings file works exactly the same as in v1.04.
The same cannot be said of the contents of the (TAC/TAD) resources in the archives folder, they seem to be quite different, so much so that previous executables do not work with resources from v1.05, yet resource from any update up to v1.04 were compatibe with any executable from previous updates (v1.00 through v1.04). You mentioned that the subtitles can still be found in the beta v2 TAC/TAD, what about the v5 TAC/TAD, are they still present there? I understand that it may be related to the upcoming Japanese release of the game, yet it's somewhat idiotic to have Japanese dialog available and remove the subtitles of the same language, it's not as if they take a lot of space either.

EDIT: Japanese subs are still present inside the TAC/TAD resources.

EDIT2: It's still possible to force the Japanese subtitles by tweaking the exe, I've been able to do it on the fly but haven't yet found the trigger that assumes 1 = english or any of the other numbers. If I don't find it, at least I may be able to hardcode Japanese as the only available language - not sure if this of any use anyway seeing as the Japanese release should be out soon.

<> (default) eng 0 eng 1 ja 2 fre 3 ger 4 kor 5 zh-t 6 zh-s
 
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I took a quick look at this and from what I could see, the routine that parses the settings file works exactly the same as in v1.04.
The same cannot be said of the contents of the (TAC/TAD) resources in the archives folder, they seem to be quite different, so much so that previous executables do not work with resources from v1.05, yet resource from any update up to v1.04 were compatibe with any executable from previous updates (v1.00 through v1.04). You mentioned that the subtitles can still be found in the beta v2 TAC/TAD, what about the v5 TAC/TAD, are they still present there? I understand that it may be related to the upcoming Japanese release of the game, yet it's somewhat idiotic to have Japanese dialog available and remove the subtitles of the same language, it's not as if they take a lot of space either.

EDIT: Japanese subs are still present inside the TAC/TAD resources.

EDIT2: It's still possible to force the Japanese subtitles by tweaking the exe, I've been able to do it on the fly but haven't yet found the trigger that assumes 1 = english or any of the other numbers. If I don't find it, at least I may be able to hardcode Japanese as the only available language - not sure if this of any use anyway seeing as the Japanese release should be out soon.

<> (default) eng 0 eng 1 ja 2 fre 3 ger 4 kor 5 zh-t 6 zh-s
I think it matters because as far as I know the only Japanese version that will be available is the PS4 verison as it is the only one listed on the official Japanese shenmue website and steam users with Japanese IP address haven't been able to access the Shenmue store page on steam... also sorry about mistyping beta v5 as beta v2 as it resulted in you doing a little more work than you had to...
 
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Oh, I wasn't aware of that... what a dick move.
Anyway, yes, it is completely possible - thus far.
There is surely a way to mimic the previous behavior where the settings file would be just enough to change to Japanese.
Unfortunately I didn't find it so far and I'm not sure I'll be spending much more time on this.

For those really wanting to enable Japanese subtitles, you will have to hex edit the game and replace the English language with Japanese. It's pretty easy and quick though:

Code:
Find pattern: 48 8D 0D 7F 63 31 00
Replace with: 48 8D 0D 9F 63 31 00

Find pattern: 48 8D 05 1C 4C 20 00
Replace with: 48 8D 05 BC 4B 20 00

Note1: This merely replaces the addresses of the subs and font def with Japanese instead of English; all the other languages should work just fine. Likewise, you can replace any other language with Japanese, the only thing to keep in mind is that the non-Japanese parts (Main Menu, for example) will probably be in the original language.

Note2: Values above are for v1.05, possible future versions may differ.

 
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I've made a CheatEngine-based memory patcher that forces Japanese subtitles on.
It's not ideal, but it avoids hex-editing the executable in case that happens to be your choice.

Here's the link: http://tiny.cc/shm2jap

Unpack, run the app and then run Shenmue2.exe - exactly in that order.

Disclaimer: Executable files packed by CheatEngine are commonly flagged and quarantined by anti-virus solutions; if you don't trust this, don't use it. Otherwise, you may need to create an exclusion for this file.

VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/42a4d9265031a58114b1c2321380efbbbdf5269dbfa5a4f3d0ebf275e2585dbc
 
Oh, I wasn't aware of that... what a dick move.
Anyway, yes, it is completely possible - thus far.
There is surely a way to mimic the previous behavior where the settings file would be just enough to change to Japanese.
Unfortunately I didn't find it so far and I'm not sure I'll be spending much more time on this.

For those really wanting to enable Japanese subtitles, you will have to hex edit the game and replace the English language with Japanese. It's pretty easy and quick though:

Code:
Find pattern: 48 8D 0D 7F 63 31 00
Replace with: 48 8D 0D 9F 63 31 00

Find pattern: 48 8D 05 1C 4C 20 00
Replace with: 48 8D 05 BC 4B 20 00

Note1: This merely replaces the addresses of the subs and font def with Japanese instead of English; all the other languages should work just fine. Likewise, you can replace any other language with Japanese, the only thing to keep in mind is that the non-Japanese parts (Main Menu, for example) will probably be in the original language.

Note2: Values above are for v1.05, possible future versions may differ.

I've made a CheatEngine-based memory patcher that forces Japanese subtitles on.
It's not ideal, but it avoids hex-editing the executable in case that happens to be your choice.

Here's the link: http://tiny.cc/shm2jap

Unpack, run the app and then run Shenmue2.exe - exactly in that order.

Disclaimer: Executable files packed by CheatEngine are commonly flagged and quarantined by anti-virus solutions; if you don't trust this, don't use it. Otherwise, you may need to create an exclusion for this file.

VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/42a4d9265031a58114b1c2321380efbbbdf5269dbfa5a4f3d0ebf275e2585dbc

Thanks for the help and hopefully they won't completely remove Japanese Subtitles so hex editing will still be an option... I'm beginning to think d3t ltd. left them in on purpose as it seems also the original dreamcast brand textures are still hidden in the tac/tad files and a simple change to texture override script will re-enable them that the following mod does https://www.nexusmods.com/shenmue/mods/25
 
Thanks for the help and hopefully they won't completely remove Japanese Subtitles so hex editing will still be an option... I'm beginning to think d3t ltd. left them in on purpose as it seems also the original dreamcast brand textures are still hidden in the tac/tad files and a simple change to texture override script will re-enable them that the following mod does https://www.nexusmods.com/shenmue/mods/25
That mod, did the textures come from the PC or were they ported from the Dreamcast?
 
the textures come from the PC version and the all the mod does is change a file called SDTextureOverride.8f5015c9.json

Dreamcast JSON mod =
{
"Mappings": []
}

Original JSON(example) =
{
"Mappings": [{
"Source": "/misc/abr02mpg.mt7_/abr02mpg_1.dds",
"Destination": "/textureoverride/abr0hmpg_1.dds"
}, {
"Source": "/misc/abr0hmpg.mt7_/abr0hmpg_1.dds",
"Destination": "/textureoverride/abr0hmpg_1.dds"
}, {
"Source": "/misc/hksmh01g.mt7_/hksmh01g_0.dds",
"Destination": "/textureoverride/hksm201i_0.dds"
}, {
"Source": "/model/item/2gabbr1i.mt7_/2gabbr1i_1.dds",
"Destination": "/textureoverride/2gabbr1i_1.dds"
}]
}
 
I've made a small variation of the CheatEngine-based memory patcher above which forces Japanese subtitles on.
This one works almost exactly the same, the main difference is that it is supposed to be used when the game is already running live, it forces the UI to reload Japanese as the currently cached language instead of English.

Here's the link: http://tiny.cc/shm2japL

Unpack, run Shenmue2.exe and then run the app - exactly in that order.
The patch process is not constrained to timings, as long as the game is already running when it is launched it should work fine.

Disclaimer: Executable files packed by CheatEngine are commonly flagged and quarantined by anti-virus solutions; if you don't trust this, don't use it. Otherwise, you may need to create an exclusion for this file.

VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/4aaff3d1224c3a093ccaae918666da81cbb8b7e0f8771dde4a8929841ebc2eab
 
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Oh, I wasn't aware of that... what a dick move.
Anyway, yes, it is completely possible - thus far.
There is surely a way to mimic the previous behavior where the settings file would be just enough to change to Japanese.
Unfortunately I didn't find it so far and I'm not sure I'll be spending much more time on this.

For those really wanting to enable Japanese subtitles, you will have to hex edit the game and replace the English language with Japanese. It's pretty easy and quick though:

Code:
Find pattern: 48 8D 0D 7F 63 31 00
Replace with: 48 8D 0D 9F 63 31 00

Find pattern: 48 8D 05 1C 4C 20 00
Replace with: 48 8D 05 BC 4B 20 00

Note1: This merely replaces the addresses of the subs and font def with Japanese instead of English; all the other languages should work just fine. Likewise, you can replace any other language with Japanese, the only thing to keep in mind is that the non-Japanese parts (Main Menu, for example) will probably be in the original language.

Note2: Values above are for v1.05, possible future versions may differ.

The hex patterns have changed slightly for v1.06, here they are:
Code:
Find pattern: 48 8D 0D 9F 72 31 00
Replace with: 48 8D 0D BF 72 31 00

Find pattern: 48 8D 05 1C 36 20 00
Replace with: 48 8D 05 BC 35 20 00

Unless someone really wants me to, I don't think it's worth releasing an update to the memory patcher, most people should be comfortable with hex-editing, and it is even more practical in the mid/long-term.
 
The hex patterns have changed slightly for v1.07, here they are:
Code:
Find pattern: 48 8D 0D 0F 73 31 00
Replace with: 48 8D 0D 2F 73 31 00

Find pattern: 48 8D 05 7C 36 20 00
Replace with: 48 8D 05 1C 36 20 00
 
There seems to be some confusion about these hexadecimal patterns and their target.
To be clear, the hex patterns are meant for Shenmue 2 (Shenmue2.exe) since the developers removed the ability to enable Japanese subs for it as of v1.05. Example from v1.07, as described in the previous post:

s2_v107_hex_jap.png



Shenmue 1 on the other hand, oddly, still allows enabling the Japanese subtitles from within the Settings file, which can be found in the same folder as the save files, typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<Steam_User_ID>\758330\remote\sm1saves, then changing the value in the line "SubtitleLanguage" to 1, example:

s1_Settings_jap.png
 
Hi everyone, just registered on the Dojo after I got the game on sale on Steam.

There seems to be some confusion about these hexadecimal patterns and their target.
To be clear, the hex patterns are meant for Shenmue 2 (Shenmue2.exe) since the developers removed the ability to enable Japanese subs for it as of v1.05. Example from v1.07, as described in the previous post:

View attachment 1793



Shenmue 1 on the other hand, oddly, still allows enabling the Japanese subtitles from within the Settings file, which can be found in the same folder as the save files, typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<Steam_User_ID>\758330\remote\sm1saves, then changing the value in the line "SubtitleLanguage" to 1, example:

View attachment 1794

Thank you for the info.

Unfortunately, I tried switching to Japanese subtitles in Shenmue 1 by changing subtitle language to "1" like you described, but it didn't do anything. Even if I select "English subtitles" settings, everything still appears, from the interface to the subs. Were Japanese subtitles patched out in 1.07 or something? I couldn't find anything on the subject. Any help?
 
Hi everyone, just registered on the Dojo after I got the game on sale on Steam.



Thank you for the info.

Unfortunately, I tried switching to Japanese subtitles in Shenmue 1 by changing subtitle language to "1" like you described, but it didn't do anything. Even if I select "English subtitles" settings, everything still appears, from the interface to the subs. Were Japanese subtitles patched out in 1.07 or something? I couldn't find anything on the subject. Any help?
I just tried it, it worked fine.
Some of the interface is not translated, but 99% appears in Japanese.
I just change this:
"SubtitleLanguage": -1,
to this:
"SubtitleLanguage": 1,

Save the changes to the Settings file and start the game normally.
 
I just tried it, it worked fine.
Some of the interface is not translated, but 99% appears in Japanese.
I just change this:
"SubtitleLanguage": -1,
to this:
"SubtitleLanguage": 1,

Save the changes to the Settings file and start the game normally.

For whatever reason, I tried again today, and this time, it worked first try. Computers, how do they work? Thank you at any rate.
Side question: have people found a way to back up JP subtitles in case SEGA keeps people from using them in a future patch?
 
For whatever reason, I tried again today, and this time, it worked first try. Computers, how do they work? Thank you at any rate.
Side question: have people found a way to back up JP subtitles in case SEGA keeps people from using them in a future patch?
Great.

The game is out, so are all of its resources, there is no putting the genie back into the bottle. I doubt they would go to that length though, mainly because their profit window is over, at this point might as well patch them fully into the interface, also Sega isn't Nintendo.
 
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