SHENMUE 2 "HUMANS" - PLAY AS ANY NPC (By CBNJ)

[cbnj]

SM2 HUMANS born whit the sole purpose to change ryo character in the battle mode but can be used to replace ryo whit any desired NPC for main game.

HOW TO:

DOWNLOAD HUMANS HERE: https://tinyurl.com/4jysub9k extract it, you will get a HUMANS folder.
HUMANS Folder contain:
zzApp Folder - Main application executables
PKS2MT7.bat - .bat file for conversion proccess
A folder for every NPC stored inside HUMANS.AFS from the 4 discs.
each npc folder contain:
PKF/PKS files for that NPC
NPC textures in png format for visual reference

1-Open any NPC folder and copy the PKF/PKS files in there to the root of HUMANS folder (where PKS2MT7.bat is located),
run PKS2MT7.bat file, ipac browser will open and you will see the model listed inside the .PKS file in .MC7 format, export this file to HUMANS folder, close ipac browser application.

2-Now you will get a file opened in HxD Hex editor, the byte 2 is a line of zeroes, select them and copy them (Ctrl+C), byte 3 holds a single HEX value, paste/insert (Ctrl+v) the line of zeroes we just copied the number of times this HEX value tells you to do it at byte 4 (if the HEX value reads 4 insert the line of zeroes 4 times, if reads 9 insert the line of zeroes 9 times, if reads C insert it 12 times,etc), this will "push" the rest of the file ahead as our lines of zeroes get inserted, close HxD hex editor and click yes to save the changes

3-A text file will open now holding some values, we should make a text replacement (Ctrl+r) write 0x (zerox) in the search field and press the button "Replace all", next close the replace text window (Esc.), select the whole text in the file (Ctrl+a) and cut it (Ctrl+x) to ensure we got the data, close the txt file and save or discart the changes, this file will be deleted so we wont need it anymore.

4-HxD hex editor will open again displaying the same file we modified earlier, locate your self at the start of byte 4 (where the lines of zeroes we added start) and paste/write (Ctrl+b) the values we just copied from the text file, lastly go to the very end of the file and locate your self after the last number you have in screen and check the offset value you find your self now, we will write this offset value in byte 2 using little endian format (by example, if the offset is 021325 should be written as 251302), if you are confused about the offset value you are located right now just look at the bottom left area of the HxD window and the offset will be displaying there. lastly close the hex editor window and save the changes when you get asked to.

5-you will have a file ryo_m.MT7 inside HUMANS folder now, copy ryo_m.MT7 file to your "GAMENAME" Extracted\SCENE\0n\MODEL\CHARA folder, overwrite (dont forget to make a backup of the original RYO_M.MT7 first), rebuild your GD-R disc image and enjoy!!

NOTE: Inside the folder from your chosen NPC there will be now also a .MT7 file whit the same name as the NPC, this is a backup of the .MT7 file
we just created, when you want to use this NPC character again, rename this .MT7 file to ryo_m.MT7 and copy it to your
"GAMENAME" Extracted\SCENE\0n\MODEL\CHARA folder, overwrite, rebuild your GD-R disc image and enjoy again!!.

Some events would bug, in base of the npc size you chose to play whit, if this happens switch back to ryo model to advance that event and then return to your npc, (only happened to me at liu barbershop event tough) scripted events will always have messed up cameras when you use a diferent heigth npc than ryo heigth.

[cbnj]

HANDS FIX
High poly hands are located in "GAMENAME" Extracted\SCENE\0n\MODEL\HAND folder, here you will find the hands for most of the main NPC characters, you only have to copy and rename the set of hands you want to use to replace the original Ryo hands RYO_TL.MT7 and RYO_TR.MT7, there is no "name"_UR.MT7 file for NPCs This hand should be build manually if you trully want to replace it.

The rest of the NPCs only have low poly hands and will switch to the high poly set of ryo hands for cutscenes, events, etc, a workaround to this is to use similar hands in "GAMENAME" Extracted\SCENE\0n\MODEL\HAND folder to use them as replacement, by example if you are using a girl NPC try the diferent female hands sets files in the HAND folder to find a suitable match, the same for the male NPCs hands.

SYE_TL.MT7 and SYE_TR.MT7 copied and renamed to RYO_TL.MT7 and RYO_TR.MT7 in HAND folder, her hands now are the correct ones.
(Dont forget to back up the original ryo hands first)

[cbnj]

Here are some NPC ryo replacement screenshots.