Using Unity 3D, plot all the points based on COLI data (floats) onto a scene. COLI is a subsection of COLS, which is found on MAPINFO.BIN files of areas of Shenmue I.

README.md

Using Unity 3D, it takes a text file where each line contains a float value. It reads the float values in pairs; the first value is considered the X coordinate and the second the Z coordinate, and so on. For each of these pairs, it instanciates a prefab (a sphere), with its position based on these coordinates, in order to plot all the points onto a scene.

The text file is generated using a Ruby script, which takes a binary file of raw COLI data.

The raw COLI data is extracted from a MAPINFO.BIN by hand. Specifically, you find COLS in the bin, and you copy the first COLI section, but only the bytes (that is, without the string COLI and without the next 4 bytes after COLI; these 4 bytes is the size of the COLI section, and this section starts after these 4 bytes).

By inspecting the results, it is obvious that you are looking to the boundaries (collision data) of the map.

coli2floats.rb

def error_and_exit(error_message)
  print error_message
  exit
end

argv_size = ARGV.size
((argv_size > 1) and
error_and_exit("Expected 1 argument (found #{argv_size}).")) or
((argv_size == 0) and
error_and_exit("Expected 1 argument, found 0."))

filename = ARGV[0]
bytes = IO.binread(filename)
word_size = 4
lines_last_index = bytes.size/word_size - 1 # fist index is 0

new_line_str    = "\n"
pack_command    = "c*"
unpack_command  = "e"

output_file = File.open("coli_floats.txt", "w+")

index = 0
bytes.each_byte.each_slice(word_size) { |word|
  index += 1

  first_3_bytes_sum = word[3] + word[2] + word[1]
  word_sum          = first_3_bytes_sum + word[0]
  
  ((first_3_bytes_sum == 0) or
  (word_sum == 1020)) and
  next
  # Exclude words from [00 00 00 01] to [00 00 00 ff],
  # and words equal to [ff ff ff ff].

  output_file.print word.pack(pack_command).unpack(unpack_command)[0]

  (index < lines_last_index) and output_file.print new_line_str
}

output_file.close

PlotColiData.cs

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class PlotColiData : MonoBehaviour
{
  [SerializeField]
  TextAsset asset;
  [SerializeField]
  GameObject prefab;

  void Start()
  {
    string[] lines = asset.text.Split('\n');
    List<float> values = new List<float>();

    foreach (string line in lines)
    {
      float value = float.Parse(line,
      System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.NumberFormat);

      values.Add(value);
    }

    Quaternion rotation = new Quaternion(1, 1, 1, 1);
    for (int i = 0; i < values.Count; i += 2)
    {
      Vector3 position    = new Vector3(values[i], 1, values[i+1]);
      GameObject obj      = Instantiate(prefab,
                                        position, rotation) as GameObject;
    }
  }
}

This was generated from the "0000" COLI of COLS of MAPINFO.BIN of MFSY (Harbor area) on Disc 3: