Today (1st October) I want along to a single-day event in Yokohama for Unreal Engine put on by Epic Games, with the venue being Pacifico Yokohama, the same conference center where Yu Suzuki held the Shenmue Premiere so many years ago.

A number of talks on developing with Unreal were held through-out the day by companies such as Capcom and Square Enix, as well as exhibition booths and even a stall selling Unreal stickers and other merchandise.

But the main reason I was there was for to get my hands on this Shenmue leaflet:

http://i.imgur.com/PxVuekYm.jpg

Positions being advertised:
http://i.imgur.com/YVGIAhal.png

And I'm thinking this looks like a new image...? (Or is it recycled?)

http://i.imgur.com/P8BB4Jz.jpg

I've put up a translation of the leaflet on my blog:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/10/shenmue-dev-team-expanding-leaflet.html

They are back...

Who knew! Found this Virtua Fighter animation of Akira's victory pose hidden away inside What's Shenmue.

Blog post: http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/1 ... irtua.html

I've written about what that famous quirky phrase "Especially since you bought merchandise" originally says in the Japanese version of Shenmue, and why it ended up as it did through the process of translating into English.

Read my in-depth analysis here: :)
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/10/especially-since-you-bought-merchandise.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuI0kZ8yybA

Just read this article about some of the nice little touches in shenmue, pretty interesting

http://devdocuments.com/index.php/2016/ ... n-realism/

Mathewmatosis and other game criticy types never really mention shenmue so it's kind of interesting to see it get some design analysis.

The little shrine located near Ryo's home in Yamanose is a remarkably accurate representation of a typical "Inari" shrine found widely throughout Japan. I've made an image comparison of its features vs some actual shrines in the Yokosuka area I've come across when wandering around the area.

Full set of images in the blog post:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/10/shenmue-realism-yamanose-shrine.html

http://i.imgur.com/lG2QtUEm.png http://i.imgur.com/JxMT6Rtm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2IxMocLm.png http://i.imgur.com/QInuD2Lm.png
http://i.imgur.com/1eXFTTPl.jpg

Well...last night I played some more. After learning Pit Blow again, and getting the soccer ball QTE right this time, I went to Abe Store to redeem my winning soda can...and didn't win anything. Feeling frustrated, I decided to buy one soda, just in case I might win again, and against all odds, I got ANOTHER winning can! I then proceeded to not win anything again. :mad:

I went down to Dobuita to do some investigating, but I went a different way than usual and ended up getting lost in an unfamiliar part of town. However, this ended up leading me to a place I had heard great things about...You Arcade! I played Hang-On (for the first time ever, actually) and made it through the first checkpoint, I got to Level 2 on Space Harrier, and I discovered that I have a talent for QTE Title, getting the high score! \:D/

However, by that time, it was already the middle of the afternoon. The day had whizzed by without me noticing. As I tried to get back to where I was, day turned into night, and this time around, Tom didn't seem to know about the black car! I had to find another lead, and someone kindly mentioned that the Hamburger restaurant owner knew something. Talking to him revealed that Nozomi had seen the car. By that time, though, it was already almost 8 PM, so I headed home for the night.

It wasn't a very productive day, but I don't care too much. I had so much fun at the arcade that it didn't really matter. I'll talk with Nozomi in the morning and get back on track then.


In other news, I finally found and purchased a manual for my copy of Shenmue, so with the game migrated over to the new 4-disc CD case I got previously, the game almost looks brand new, or at least well taken care of.

Amazing new Shenmue video from the very talented "Dreamcaster's Tube"!

Japanese site Famitsu.com today published a new interview with Yu Suzuki, in commemoration of the release of the recent Powerdrift 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, centered mainly around various arcade games he worked on at his time with Sega.

http://i.imgur.com/a2DJnVQ.jpg

The good news for Shenmue fans is that the interview contains mention of Shenmue 3 in a few places, including some direct comments by Yu Suzuki.

I've extracted and translated the relevant parts here:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/11/yu-suzuki-comments-on-shenmue-3-nov-2.html

My favorite part is where he states that his ideal graphical vision, going back to the early arcade days, has never changed - and he gives a Shenmue 3 image as an example of that ideal.

EDIT, SORRY I posted by accident the post is still under construction.

HI!

Since it seems those HD remaster we are waiting for will never come to fruiction, I was wondering, what we could do to improve even further the games ( appart for making them widescreen :))

First thing that came to my mind is, well a simple HD remaster would feature some kind of improved lighting, and some "modern" tecniques such as Screen Space ambient occlussion or depth of field, someting that happened to Code Veronica HD.

So I first knew about reshade not so long ago, it is a PC tool that allows you to inject some sort of cool post proccesing effects to any game, the thing is it needs acces to the z buffer in order to inject the most advanced effects, such as the before mentioned SSAO and Depth of field, and whenever I read about it everyone would tell me that the Dreamcast does not have a z buffer nor any Dreamcast emulator. so it was impossible.... well... It turns out they were mistaken.

Both Demul and NulldC have z-buffer and Reshade can actually make use of it to inject advanced postprocessing effects.


You will need Reshade (I use Mediator for convenience)
Demul 5.8.2
http://demul.emulation64.com/
or this specific version of NullDC
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46995
And Reshade
https://reshade.me/

So set up everything.
In demul you should select the directx 10 plugin in order to make it work.
In nullDC you should set the z-buffer option to D2468 mode 2 (lower precision) otherwise Reshade will not have access to the z-buffer.

Once you have everything in place just add the emulator to Reshade and tweak anything you want at your will.

The most impressive effect you can actually add to the game is SSAO, you have different options HBO, SGI SSAO etc, it uses the depth buffer to determine objects that are close to each other and makes them project a soft shadow, it gives depth to the game and personally it is pretty impressive,
Basically it does this.

http://i.imgur.com/Ox9krGg.jpg

Some comparissons with the effect turned on and off, notice how closer objects cast soft shadows to each other.

http://i.imgur.com/lY3bk9A.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CS1jTtY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QleNjyi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mj6rKRk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oY0vjM9.jpg

You can also add Bloom, HDR, Lens flare and so on so lights will look that are actually emiting light.

http://i.imgur.com/t5j19kq.png

http://i.imgur.com/eYiSdqQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XS6DKb2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/kZRS4ER.jpg

[img]http://i.imgur.com/TTBOIKK.jpg[img]

http://i.imgur.com/bXrSgQF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xbIKGR4.jpg

HDR lighting

http://i.imgur.com/DODN68F.png

http://i.imgur.com/sj9ParV.png

http://i.imgur.com/gJEkrWd.jpg

Tonemapping for a more natural looking lighting

http://i.imgur.com/ucd9IcM.png

http://i.imgur.com/qtBZsLa.png

http://i.imgur.com/u9RrCdm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/csBuuy8.jpg

Depth of field ( once an object gets closer to the camera the background will become blurry, I love this effect too :))

http://i.imgur.com/l5OzfC9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BMfuUr2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3E74rM5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/O6VcAoH.jpg



Sorry for the overload of images :D

Sorry for the double post (though I'm sure the statute of limitations has passed :lol:), but can anyone explain what in the hell these things are:

http://i.imgur.com/qtBZsLa.png

I always imagined them as some kind of marshmallow-like thing, but, looking at them now, they have the appearance of something submerged in liquid.
I'm guessing they're rice crackers. There's another jar in the shop (shown below) which has just one left.

The "liquid" effect may be an unintentional side-effect of the way they've modeled them.
http://i.imgur.com/2I8sqGg.png

I explained this last night during the stream, but at the time, I wasn't totally sure of myself.

The "MJQ" in MJQ Jazz Bar stands for Modern Jazz Quartet, which was a very popular band in the 50's. Therefore, the full name would be "Modern Jazz Quartet Jazz Bar," which is obviously quite redundant.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d0/6f/22/d06f22ed99a6928e9ba2bbd79a4378a6.jpg

The Shenmue series changed my life for the better, it is a videogame series that made me realise the importance of things in life, the small little things shown in the story of Ryo and his quest for vengeance is very emotional and an experience that can never be forgotten. I am only 17 years old and I will be telling you why I love Shenmue.

In 2012 after being convinced all the time throughout my life to play Shenmue 1 and 2 (which I was very keen on doing) by my elder brother that played them both at release, I finally play my brother's copy of the original Shenmue for Sega Dreamcast for the first time, I was only 13 years old at the time. I began the game as I see Iwao get killed by Lan Di and then make my way through the game experiencing a chilling and heartwarming journey through Dobuita and into the Yokosuka Harbor. Meeting many of Ryo's beloved friends as well as new people that hurt (such as the skinheaded Chai) and help on the way. Finally after beating all the thugs called the Mad Angels, they help us find out about Lan Di and his departure. Seeing Ryo leave Japan and board on the boat I was ready to continue the story through action packed Shenmue 2 and I could already feel the energy and bravery within Ryo himself.

Shenmue 2 begins and I am impressed with the very intense and epic boat intro, the music, angles and visual detail was incredibly welcoming and exhilarating. Yet to this day I would say that Shenmue 2 has the greatest opening intro to a sequel ever! I was immediately immersed in the huge new open world in Hong Kong getting robbed and eventually finding the guest house to sleep in. I felt as an actual stranger in a new town full of danger and people I do not know exactly like how Ryo would feel. I made my way through Hong Kong and then eventually to Kowloon then finally meeting Shenhua at Guilin until the stone pit where the game finally ends, I get chills and was ready for Shenmue 3...

Until E3 2015 It was finally announced! I waited 2 years but my brother had waited ever since such as most fans. Me and my brother are absolutely delighted to continue the story thanks to the one and only Yu Suzuki for making this all possible with his masterful vision.

I cannot wait for Shenmue 3!!! I know it will exceed expectations and be one of the greatest games of all time just like Shenmue 1 and 2, we have to give them time and it will be possible I truly believe so.

Added information about mapinfos from S1 beta. IPAC sector maps collision information documented as well

I've always wanted an HD version of the "Shenmue II Special Trailer" that Sega released at some point in the middle of 2001. I remember back then IGN usually had 640x480 versions of most of the trailers, but those have been lost to time. The only remaining copy that I can find is the low res-version on Disc 4 when you place it in a PC. This project was to remaster the trailer in HD.

Version 1 completed trailer:
https://youtu.be/oRhlxgtr1ps

My primary video source has been Mr357's Shenmue 2 movie, but there are several clips that are either from the wrong time of day, different in the final game (the lighthouse scene in Beverly Hills Wharf for example), or just aren't part of the 9 hours that Mr357 recorded. (7pm night transitions, Fengmei scene in the diner, etc.) Also, the font used in the trailer doesn't appear to be publicly available. A font search engine found me one that's close, but as you can see some letters are slightly different.

There are also some interesting differences to be noted in the scenes that do match. For example, the scene with Yuan and Duck Race Man in the basement of the warehouse, one of the random henchmen is different in the trailer. In some cases characters blink at different times.

This project has given me new appreciation for the time and effort required to produce a trailer, and it make sense now how time consuming it would've been for YSnet to produce a Shenmue 3 trailer for MAGIC this year. Putting together what you've seen so far took over 8 hours, and it's less than 2 minutes long. There are several scenes where things are chopped together not only in small bits, but out of order that they appear in the game. I wouldn't be surprised if the original version of this trailer took someone a few weeks to make.

I'm hoping to have a finished "draft" of the base trailer using the clips I have already have finished in a few weeks, then I can go back and replace some of the stuff that's inaccurate. I might also consider using something like SVP to interpolate the source footage to 60fps, but my current video editor actually only does 30. (There's a newer version that does 60, I just haven't had a reason to buy it yet.) I wanted to post the WIP here in case anyone's interested in helping to improve the accuracy at all. I can replace the font for example, if someone either finds the original or wants to recreate the existing text as vectors. Or if someone is interested in recording more 1080p source footage, it would save me time. Either way, I plan to finish this since it's over half way done.

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z04hUT23RiQ


***Trailer at the end of the video***

Will run in 1080p
PS4 & XBOX ONE - Physical release
Dual control scheme - updated & classic
Both audio dubs - English & Japanese
New user interface
Release - by end of 2018

Topic discussion

I've translated another early design diagram extracted from the 1998 Shenmue art book, and this one relates to the very start of game play in Shenmue I.

There is no Ine-san mentioned and instead (somewhat optimistically) it is Fuku-san who has been taking care of Ryo for the whole week that he has been in bed. There are also several other interesting differences compared to the final version of the game.

https://i.imgur.com/QV11viZ.png

Start of the flowchart:
https://i.imgur.com/slsO2hM.png

Link to the blog post highlighting differences & points of interest:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/04/shenmue-1-start-of-game-flowchart-early.html