Shanghai.EXE 0.550e1: Cancelversary 2021

[Anonymous No.]

>Latest Release (0.550e1):
https://gitgud.io/SHNecro/shanghaiexe/-/releases

>What this is:
Shanghai.EXE was a Touhou-themed Megaman Battle Network clone.
Then the original developer got a C&D from Capcom and shut everything down, just before it was completed.
Luckily, someone leaked a donor-wall demo build, and the whole thing was made in C#, which meant it could be decompiled.
This is a modified/translated version of that demo build, implementing the end of the game following teased content, as well as various QoL changes and bugfixes.
The intent is to finish the rest of the game, which at this point consists of the postgame and some sidequests, with netplay being the final goal.

>New stuff since last thread:
With this thread, 0550e1 is the next full release, containing essentially "chapter 1" (of 2) of the postgame, if anyone was waiting for a milestone before "fully complete".
This includes the full implementation of Postgame Area 1 from the in-progress build from last year, with the next section properly gated off.
New enemies, addon rewards, and area features are all in and pretty decently tested.
Some of the rewards are keyitems meant to be used in the next area (unimplemented), but I think I kept them at an acceptable level.
If you've been keeping up with the WIP builds since last year's thread there's not much new, just that the in-progress parts are now at a point I feel is complete.

>Various other changes (since 0504)
Much less exciting, but for the sake of completeness/time tracking:
Linux port using OpenGL/OpenAL - I don't use linux regularly so it's only tested on Ubuntu 20.04, but it seems to work alright (maybe some audio issues), compiled (natively? idk exactly what that means) with Mono. Unfortunately for any hopes about continuing down that path (mobile/tablet, switch?, etc.), I have next to no knowledge about CPU architecture, toolchains, etc. and even less hardware, so the next steps will have to be taken by somebody else. Door's open at least, it's under the "linux" branch in the repo.
Music Player - Music player's back, was a trial run of the OpenAL stuff needed for linux.
Internal changes - Mentioned a bit in the last threads since I was working on them around then. Mostly for my own sanity, several sections were essentially rewritten such as the Library page, the chip number/PA system, and the render order front/back system (which then needed the framerate stabilization system to be adjusted). Key Items, Mail, etc. were also moved out into external files so editing them (now with map editor support) wouldn't require recompilation.
Various bugfixes, bit and pieces - Added a handful of flavor NPCs to otherwise glaringly empty areas, enabled some SP viruses that were tied to flags that weren't being used, cleaned up a couple of places where L hints weren't updated, etc. Fixed some crashes, cutscene irregularities, and odd cases in battle, added some QoL ex. CrakTools or made things more consistent ex. Wing style evade w/ ADD.

>Other
Been getting some good mileage out of the issues tracker if anyone's interested in contributing: https://gitgud.io/SHNecro/shanghaiexe/-/issues
Similarly for the WIP builds which hopefully made sure this release doesn't suffer from crashes, or stuck-on turbo, or sequence-breaking sprites, or flags not being set so I don't have to make 0550e2 within a day of release.
I'm not dead yet, we're getting to the finish line step by step. Getting some real firsthand experience with scope/feature creep, bloat, and all those buzzwords, but I've been trying to pick up the pace. Still got a (growing) pile of notes on scratch paper for stuff coming up, potential reworks, and of course the final goal, going to have to tackle it one thing at a time.
Happy cancelversary.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
New, up-to-date folder link, I've seen an old one floating around
https://mega.nz/folder/AzogiDrJ#UjH8cmUI2-DyL1jQOXYFGQ

[Anonymous No.]

Long time no see buddy.

[Anonymous No.]

Hell yeah anon, new release. I'm going to test this on a distro based on Ubuntu 21.10 and see if it plays well. This is my first time playing Shanghai.exe so I hope I enjoy it.

[Anonymous No.]

Fuck me, it's been 3 years. Good to see you're still at it, Anon.

[Anonymous No.]

Thank you for your service.
It's amazing that , either one person or an entire group, keep this project alive with either bug fix or new contents.
Good luck for the future.

[Anonymous No.]

Thank you for your service.
It's amazing that, either one person or an entire group, keep this project alive with either bug fix or new contents.
Good luck for the future.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37788922
>it's been 3 years
Time moving too fast!

[Anonymous No.]

How do I run the Linux port? When I downloaded the experimental Linux release, I can't find a .sh file, only a .exe file. Am I supposed to run the Linux release through Wine?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37789104
Seems to be broken on Linux. The Linux release only gives an .exe, which requires a .NET framework that doesn't work with WINE right now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37790807
>>37789104
Somehow readme-linux.txt went missing, I guess I put it into the zip manually once and completely forgot about it for the rest.
I'll add it in and reupload the linux versions without upping the version number, it's a packaging issue rather than an update.

You'll need to install the packages
> sudo apt-get install libfreetype6 libopenal1 libgdiplus
and run the .exe through the commandline (.exe's just a leftover extension from compiling I think)
> ./ShanghaiEXE.exe

I don't run linux for regular use, how do you normally run/install(?) a standalone application like this? (non-steam, non-apt-get, from a .zip file, etc.).
Couldn't figure out a way to make double-click run the program (that is preserved in a zip file), so I figured if you had to pull up bash you might as well just run the .exe directly (if the readme were there to tell you, anyway).
A .sh wrapper essentially would just be "./ShanghaiEXE.exe" so I didn't see the point, but if people instinctively look for a .sh it might be worth it. Might give some options to automatically check/install packages too.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37792632
Thank you! I don't have time to fully respond to all your questions, and /jp/ isn't the best place to have a conversation about Linux anyway, but I can safely say that after following your instructions the game launched and was playable. Unfortunately:
>It started windowed, at an incredibly small screen resolution and I don't know how to adjust it.
>BGM would stop playing after one loop (Wonder if I can capture this)
Regarding the rest of your questions (how do Linuxfags run applications) I will answer that later. Thanks for the support OP!

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
Thanks for giving me something to check out this Holiday season man!

[Anonymous No.]

>>37795298
Sorry, I hadn't really done the port with new players in mind, the side programs like KeyConfig which would normally let you set resolution all have the same specific quirk that make it tough to port the same way I did the game.
Those I think should be compatible with WINE, but if not you'll have to edit the "option.xml" file to set ScaleFactor to a better value (base resolution x1 being 240x160).
Render and Audio engines will have to be OpenGL and OpenAL though, those are the only ones with Linux support.

The sound problem is unfortunate though, and at the moment doesn't have a fix, I was mostly hoping it was a one-off thing. It's definitely my OpenAL engine, and I've seen it myself, but I've only ever been able to repro it on my Linux VM which doesn't have the debugging tools I need or the ability to run at a speed that won't drive me insane trying to figure it out.

Apologies again, especially if this is your first time playing, I might even suggest holding off playing or switching to Windows until I can get a chance to polish/fix it more. Then again that might take a bit, so your call.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37798326
Not him, but thank you. As another linux user, this post makes me happy. The entire story of how ShanghaiEXE was saved makes me happy, so thanks again.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37792632
>Readme-linux.txt will be added in
Thanks anon!
>I don't run linux for regular use, how do you normally run/install(?) a standalone application like this? (non-steam, non-apt-get, from a .zip file, etc.).
Linux has many ways to run something. From cli (./Application.sh), GUI (allowing .sh file to be run, then right click and run), to a .desktop file (like windows desktop icons, can be automatically or manually created).
Installing can come through multiple methods. It can be extracted from a tarball(tar.xz), or from your package manager (apt), installing a .deb like a Windows install wizard, or portable installs with dependencies built in(flatpak,appimage).
>Couldn't figure out a way to make double-click run the program (that is preserved in a zip file), so I figured if you had to pull up bash you might as well just run the .exe directly (if the readme were there to tell you, anyway).
For your use case of minimal fuss, just making a .sh file and asking users to give it permission to run is best. Users can right-click the .sh and run it that way.
>A .sh wrapper essentially would just be "./ShanghaiEXE.exe" so I didn't see the point, but if people instinctively look for a .sh it might be worth it. Might give some options to automatically check/install packages too.
Linux gamers usually have WINE installed. Seasoned users will assume that an .exe file is to be run through WINE. New users will right click the .exe in the GUI, see an option to run it with WINE, and run it through WINE. A .sh script prevents this confusion, and also allows you to scan for dependencies if you choose to write that in.
I will provide some pictures of what a Linux user sees when dealing with a .exe in the file manager. Your other comment also raised some interesting points. More to follow.

I played to the school and Marisa seems to be both a human and a NAVI. What's up with that?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37800544
Here is what I mean when I said that .exe files show up differently in the file manager.

[Anonymous No.]

The start of the game reminds me of picrel.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
nice

[Anonymous No.]

>>37798326
>You'll have to set resolution with the "option.xml" file to set ScaleFactor to a better value (base resolution x1 being 240x160).
Done. Set it to a scale of 7. I don't want to go any bigger.
>Render and Audio engines will have to be OpenGL and OpenAL though, those are the only ones with Linux support.
Well, you do have other options. There are Linux compatible reimplementations for DirectX9 and Xaudio (which I assume you use because you are using DirectX). These are:
>Faudio, which is meant to be a reimplentation of Xaudio
https://fna-xna.github.io/
>DXVK Native, which is a "drop-in" replacement rendering engine for DirectX9
https://github.com/Joshua-Ashton/dxvk-native
I'm not a developer so I can't give you specific advice, but if you contact the project maintainers on github you should receive help.
>The sound problem is unfortunate though, and at the moment doesn't have a fix, I was mostly hoping it was a one-off thing. It's definitely my OpenAL engine, and I've seen it myself, but I've only ever been able to repro it on my Linux VM which doesn't have the debugging tools I need or the ability to run at a speed that won't drive me insane trying to figure it out.
I'm able to reliably replicate this on my bare metal Ubuntu install. It runs the game at a reliable 60fps. If you can point me in the right direction re: debugging, I can help test for you.
>Apologies again, especially if this is your first time playing, I might even suggest holding off playing or switching to Windows until I can get a chance to polish/fix it more. Then again that might take a bit, so your call.
Quite honestly, besides the fact that controllers don't work yet, and that the music doesn't loop, it is a pretty good port so far. There have been worse Linux ports from bigger teams. See CSGO's attempt to port Vulkan render to Linux.I would be willing to help you test and get around these errors. Until then, I will just mess around in the first area.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465

I will see if I can add this to the issue tracker but I'll post it here too:

Anyone here who ever decides to play Shanghai.exe in Hard Mode: the MagStorm F chip is not the sidequest lady tells you. It seems to olnly be found in Shrine Comp 2 and is attainable by killing it last in a spawn of the Drilbit, Hatfrog2, Raijin with an S rank. Raijin shows up in other areas but it is impossible to S even with a 00:00:00 busting time.

Also, if you happen to be reading OP I cannot thank you enough for continuing to see this project through. This game has been the best game I've experienced in a decade.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
Does anyone else have issues running this on Windows 11? The loading screen appears for a second and promptly closed itself.
Was playing it just fine on my previous PC (Windows 10) but shit happens so had to buy a new one.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37809032

Did you reinstall SlimDX on 11?
It commonly fails on 10 for me if I don't have that installed first.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37809068
I probably haven’t. Might try later

[Anonymous No.]

>>37807756
I regret posting this image. Didn't look carefully at it before downloading. Sorry anons.
Where are the L and R buttons located on keyboard?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37809125

A & S, I believe.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784485
>>37784485
>>37784485
Are these the versions with the original graphics or is there no patch for that on the newest release?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37800544
>>37807756
Good info, next version will have a .sh in there and probably rename the .exe to just the filename to reduce confusion.
Will prioritize porting keyconfig and maybe the music player since conceptually they're pretty simple, but the map editor will probably have to stay windows-only unless Mono gets WPF working and porting becomes trivial.

Thanks for the offer to help debug as well, but unfortunately it seems to be the type where I'll need to set breakpoints and step through the code line by line, and the main problem is that the C# debugging tools I use on Windows don't seem to have a similar (working) Linux-side equivalent.
If I can get it to happen windows-side (and I haven't tried that hard yet), then I should be able to propagate the fix over to linux.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37809032
>Does anyone else have issues running this on Windows 11
Anon... What happened?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37809032
https://gitgud.io/SHNecro/shanghaiexe/-/issues/44 might be related?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37811218
I don't wanna talk about it...

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
I'm just glad to hear you're still alive and truckin on this thing dude. keep up the great work

[Anonymous No.]

Thanks catalog for reminding me to finish this game i downloaded years ago.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37824080
Make sure to redownload it first since it's been updated though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
Linux version isn't working on gentoo it starts up and immediately exits. I've made sure I have all the dependencies. Is there some way to get logs?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37825581
Not OP but have you tried using Lutris? There is an option to run applications in CLI. Maybe that will give useful logs.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37825678
>lutris
No. I'm already running it in a console. It produces zero output on stdout or stderr. It returns an exit code of 1. Running anything using mono under gdb is impossible because of how mono uses signal handlers.

[Anonymous No.]

Okay, never mind. LD_DEBUG=libs revealed that either my mono install is fucked or you compiled against a windows symbol that can't work.
/usr/lib64/libMonoSupportW.so: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: GetKeyboardLayoutList (fatal)

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
What a wonderful early Christmas present! Thanks for keeping up with development of this game, devanon! Your work is very much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.]

Holy shit now this is a Christma present.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
take my bump and energy anons

[Anonymous No.]

>>37825581
>>37825737
>gentoo
Not the best sign in terms of getting this fixed, but you've already lost me.
I wouldn't call myself linux illiterate, but my knowledge is entirely from the point of an end-user, mixed with some completely useless academic trivia.

If this can help you, this and the pic are what I eventually got working through trial and error:
https://gitgud.io/SHNecro/shanghaiexe/-/blob/linux/mono-config (edited copy of the default /etc/mono/config, I think)
Hadn't even considered the differences between distros, all my testing was between my Ubuntu build VM and a fresh VM / liveusb, both of which were also Ubuntu.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37838443
wait, shit, that's just the mkbundle step that I think bundles the libs inside so you can run it without mono installed(?)
For actual compiling I just open a frankensteined-together version of the windows solution in MonoDevelop and click Build > Rebuild All
Figuring this out might be a problem.

[Anonymous No.]

bump

[Anonymous No.]

>>37784465
Amazing
Thank you for keeping it going, anon
I always liked MMBN(-style) gameplay

[Anonymous No.]

>>37847431
is that new?

[Anonymous No.]

Is this implemented in the game?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37852217
Realizing now that could cause some confusion especially since it's pretty common to have a guy signposting right next to whatever you're looking for, but no he's completely off-base.
Those are just the directions of the things in the grid squares, I was looking at that map when coming up with text for the filler NPCs.
A sidequest involving the UnderTreasure is what that's meant to foreshadow, but there's nothing there until whenever sidequests start getting worked on.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37848814
I'm pretty certain I remember that NPC, it's in the clock tower area.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37852875
Speaking of sidequests, are there plans to add any secrets to Remilia's piano?
That comp was really well hidden btw, can't believe I missed it after three playthroughs.

[Anonymous No.]

[Anonymous No.]

>>37798326
>>37807756
https://mega.nz/file/piRXnCzL#q5rmpcLbRIl-LZ1A7ir3wakRFQ23hmoqeWvxLCn-PmM
special bgm loop fix build just for you, haven't gotten around to implementing it into the main repo or some other stuff I wanted to get in before a 0550e2.

Legitimately turned out to be a 3rd party library issue, the .ogg reader failed to seek back to loop start, only on linux, and only on background threads.
Lucky for us, an update 3 months ago reworked exactly that section to fix a (semi?)unrelated bug, so all I had to do was pull in the newest version and we're good to go.

For controller support I'll have to play around a bit more, especially to figure out if it works through VM, with bootleg/legit controllers, etc. Unfortunately that's another one I'll need an eye on the code to work on, so that may be a bit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37853329
I must have missed him then.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37867460
Thank you fren. I will test this out after the celebrations. For controller "support" I will use a third party controller mapping program like AntiMicroX for now.
If it helps, when testing controller support I tested both xinput and dinput via usb.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37869226
I let it run for a few minutes. BGM plays without stopping. Thanks anon! I can finally enjoy the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37867460
BGM loops properly in this build. There's still a weird stutter that happens every few seconds. Running through the terminal reveals this:
[ALSOFT] (EE) Failed to set real-time priority for thread: Operation not permitted (1)

[Anonymous No.]

New to the game. Where is the point where the top and bottom parts intersect in Genso Area 2? What button do I press once I reach that area?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37875409
There's a spot in Genso Area 2 where a walk way runs over a path below it. On the path below the walkway spam the chip button and it should eventually work.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37876890
Thanks anon. Figured it out.
I also managed to beat KedamaSP. That was a challenging fight despite only having one move. I realised that by just using blasters, Marisa and Cirno, I would be able to counter hit it reliably and win. Fun fight.

[Anonymous No.]

Hey, quick question. I redownloaded the game from the Gitgud link, but I can't find the .exe anywhere in the files. Can anyone help?

[Anonymous No.]

On keyboard, which keys are the keys for start and select? I want to use that combination to clear my folder of chips.
>>37878392
Did you unzip the download? You should do that first. It should be in the main folder.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37878392
I thought you just cloned the repo, but it turns out the Windows release actually lacks the main executable.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37878535
Okay, I wasn't sure if it was just me. That's good to hear, I guess. Hope it gets fixed soon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37878535
>>37878687
I feel like I would have noticed that, or it would have come up earlier, I just checked again and everything should be there.
Might want to check your antivirus, the map and resource files are encrypted/obfuscated and the code to do that has been flagged for similarities to ransomware before.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37879089
Alright, thanks for letting me know! I really appreciate it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37879089
I downloaded the archive on a different machine and the executable is indeed there. Antimalware shenanigans confirmed.

[Anonymous No.]

How do the elements work again? What is strong against what? And is knowledge of that needed to beat the game?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37884644
Here's a handy diagram from the guide. Exploiting elemental weaknesses isn't strictly necessary to beat the game, but it does make a huge difference since it lets you deal double damage (or more).

[Anonymous No.]

>>37884970
Thanks. Where can I find this guide? Would it also explain keyboard controls?

[Anonymous No.]

Help.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37885152
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vecpjlMnu202iWxbELK54L-RqLWR2DkyrdvF30kC4Js
There you go, and launch the KeyConfig.exe if you want to check your keyboard bindings.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37885403
Yeah I'm using Linux so KeyConfig.exe isn't ported over. Can I trouble you to open up KeyConfig and show the default settings for the keyboard? Alternatively, if I post the xml config, would anons be able to help me figure out where start and select are?

[Anonymous No.]

>>37885640

[Anonymous No.]

>>37889646
Works for me, thanks.

[Anonymous No.]

[Anonymous No.]

>>37885294
What the fuck, this game has illegal card/chip too?

[Anonymous No.]

It's great to see that this is still being updated.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37905341
You eventually straight up get Crimson Noise as an equip option late game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37910243
It's like the game just combined every subsystems of all BN and SF.
I love it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>37911785
There's cheat codes to give you add-ons that literally give the game SF battle rules. i.e. 1 row of panels but you get a shield and lock on.