So who's in? Who's going to be there? We have the potential for the biggest meet up, so it would be awesome to see a lot of you there!

I'd be interested in looking into it too. Does anyone know of a good free SH4 disassembler? The Demul one is too painful...
dcdis v0.4a by Lars Olsson

It's a free command line disassembler that dumps the entire 1ST_READ.BIN into a text file. I used it to come up with the hack to import US save files into Shenmue 2 EU. I also used the source code to write the SH-4 plug-in for Hopper Disassembler. (But that's not free)

Edit: It seems to be hard to find 0.4, lots of sites have 0.3.3a. Here is a direct link to 0.4 on his website:
https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~jlo/dc/

Kiske wrote:I should probably just stop drinking in the middle of the afternoon.

Maybe, but it definitely helps pass the time until Shenmue III comes out.

Kiske wrote:I should probably just stop drinking in the middle of the afternoon.

If anyone asks if you're okay... Just say:

In their defense, those head injuries were probably caused by consecutive hype trains that derailed ;)

Update! I've managed to make a small hack of the 1ST_READ.BIN file to skip the dial-up check on the Passport disc.

Now the various Passport disc screens can be accessed from the main menu, without needing to simulate dial-up.

Most of the screens display at least some images and other data, although there's obviously no online data displayed.

I'll put a post soon on the Phantom River Stone blog with the details.

Before hack:
http://i.imgur.com/FkN6sMsm.png

After hack:
http://i.imgur.com/XfcmYBjm.png http://i.imgur.com/YPVknIum.png

Great efforts have been made to exchange the dub and increase the visual fidelity of Shenmue, things that can greatly enhance the experience. One thing that is part of the experience but often easily overlooked is the Passport Disc and there is something that should be tackled to increase the enjoyment of Shenmue even more.

The reason why it's often ignored is as everyone knows it's too damn hard to access all it's neat still functional on disc contents and features. Things like long term weather forecast, status on the kitten or trading slot house prizes with Oishi for animal capsule toys, stuff that is actually aiding playing the game. Other stuff like the online manual, character database and an incredibly in depth statistic on what you've done in the game.

What we need is some kind of hack that either tells the game that it's on an active dial up connection or just remove the check alltogether. I've been thinking about this countless times but have no idea where to start to look for a solution. This is where brainstorming and some serious work should start to be put into. There must be a way...

This does not look like Ryo or Shenhua.

This looks more like Ryo's plastic filipino cousin and Shenhua's plastic french auntie.

They need to just use the CG original models.

And why did they replace the original logo AGAIN ?

Stick to the originals.

Environments look good thus far, though.

I find the models very ugly from an aesthetic standpoint. Compared to the original series and compared to modern games. Im not sure why matching the passport models should be such a fantasy.

An old classic about how much lighting angle can vastly change face's shape perception

Hi Guys!

Two years ago I have made a fan Art of Ryo (just after the annoucement of Shenmue 3 ).

Recently I have made a massive update on the character, I am happy to share with you the result :D
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/l4Xoa

I can't wait to learn more about Shenmue 3, and to see the official face of Ryo and Shenfa :)

I've made an easy patch for the PAL GDI version that contains the widescreen fix by Esspiral in addition to this fix, so you can apply both fixes without manually editing any files.
http://i.imgur.com/PcTlCjE.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/gE2xoqI.png

http://i.imgur.com/1vhKCdr.png
To apply the patch:

1- Download this zip file and extract it.
2- Copy track07.bin from your PAL Shenmue Passport GDI disc into the "Passport" folder you'll find when you extracted the zip file.
3- Run patch.bat.
4- Copy track07.bin file from "Passport\Fixed" folder back into the GDI folder of the Passport disc.
5- Enjoy the extra content in widescreen.

I don't have the widescreen fix code for the US version, so if Esspiral can dig it up, I'll provide an easy patch for the US GDI version as well if needed.

Thanks Switch for this great finding.

Feedback isn't necessarily bad.

But the way things have been phrased in this thread have been, well, unconstructive - to put it lightly. During the first ten or so pages at least; although cooler heads and largely more nuanced opinions have surfaced since.

I don't think it's fair to say just one side is acting out of passion either. Extreme reactions, positive and negative, have come from the same place.

I think I've also found Ryo in the "Great Wall" image.

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

Nothing too special. Used the existing parts on the model and made a few minor adjustments. I think it looks respectable enough for a quick dick around in Photoshop, and that the new model itself is largely on-track for getting where it needs to be.
http://i.imgur.com/UdhFrcT.png

I personally don't see how the cursive Shenmue logo is hard to read, I barely understood English when I first played Shenmue, but even I could still clearly spell out the logo. As far as Cursive fonts go, the Shenmue logo is fairly clear.

Hello PlayStation fans! This is Yu Suzuki, director of Shenmue III.

It’s hard to believe so much time has passed since we debuted the game at Sony’s E3 2015 press conference. Since then, the team has been extremely busy developing the game in Tokyo, but now it’s time to come up for air.

To coincide with Gamescom 2017, we are happy to share the news that we have inked a publishing partnership with Deep Silver! From the early days on the project, the team at Deep Silver really impressed me with their deep passion for the series and their desire to work with us to deliver a proper sequel that all fans will love.

To celebrate the news, I would like to share with you a teaser video built from a small slice of an in-development build of the game . As you will see, the latest chapter in Ryo and Shenhua’s journey begins with a beautiful set piece in China. You’ll also see that we’re aiming to significantly upgrade the game’s visuals , and you may also notice a new character during that quick glimpse of our new battle gameplay…

I’m pleased to be able to offer a small peek into what we’ve been building thus far, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to show you more as we get closer to our 2018 release.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all those who have supported me and the team. I will continue to work hard to deliver the best possible realization of Shenmue III.

Yu Suzuki


https://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/08/21/shenmue-iii-the-first-teaser/

http://i.imgur.com/g5yUqjb.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ufpkE9s.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/6aBGfXn.jpg

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

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

http://i.imgur.com/YLvset1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2HG6rvv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LMB9IsH.jpg

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

http://i.imgur.com/aB0cIOJ.jpg

Ryo & Shenhua Character Models (High Resolutions)

http://i.imgur.com/TAjc0zl.jpg

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

I've been playing Shenmue II for about fourteen years, and I just noticed the poem in the Thousand White Church. I took a photo with my phone, here's the poem:

A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
Refining the vegetables
Refining the vegetables


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

It's just too funny looking how that giant "god" Ryo watches over all the other little, or rather normal Ryos.

"I think that probably after we finish this, the next one, Shenmue 4 – it will be coming. I have to do something – I have to start something – so the next one will come."

https://68.media.tumblr.com/f87fc61d9d77c58fed997f6f6bede76a/tumblr_inline_o8dt71LMuG1t7bxs0_500.gif

UE4 is constantly updated by Epic, it means nothing that it has been released before Dragon Engine.
Yakuza team always had some very skilled modelers and animator. They put a lot of effort modeling believable characters, but that has little to do with the quality of the engine itself... their models were marvellous also during PS3 era.
On the other hand, I think this led to something I always hated about Yakuza series: the extreme discrepancy between main characters and generic NPCs. I missed recent releases and I don’t know if they improved this, but low poly, statics, redundant and undubbed NPCs always bothered me a lot, expecially when they stand next to the super-detailed Kazuma.
I understand it’s impossible to achieve the same main character models quality for all NPCs, but I hope for Shenmue III that Yu will take in account this aspect as he did for the previous episodes... I would prefer lesser detailed main characters and equally detailed NPCs!

The game sucks so bad it's even putting its developers to sleep!

Never understood the deal with sega releasing games in English all across the EU. Especially in France where there are so little people fluent enough to be able to play through the games comfortably.

Never understood the deal with sega releasing games in English all across the EU. Especially in France where there are so little people fluent enough to be able to play through the games comfortably.

It saves them money.
Not sure about that. It saves them in production costs but reduces potential sales.

Yes.. lets all shit on a clearly excited fan who made the mistake of thinking he was showing us something new.

Technophilz wrote:it's really painful to say I didn't like it at all

Oh there's a fucking surprise. Also a WIP of one of 400 NPCs isn't as good as the main characters of a Naughty Dog game? No shit.

For anyone having trouble locating Ryo...


Kickstarter #77 Commentary

Hey guys, how are you all doing today?

It's been a long time since I have posted here. I honestly tried to register an account, only to realize my account from 2004 was still open, lol. I think it has been about 11 years since my last post.

Any way, so in the several years since I had left, I have all but given up or lost my retro gaming collection (yeah, I know that is kind of sad :( ), but with Shenmue III on the horizon (finally!), I've really wanted to go back and experience Shenmue and Shenmue II again, in the way they were meant to be played.

So, I played the games on DEmul, which used to run kind of like a stuttery mess (version 221215)

Recently, DEmul has released new versions, with the newest version (at the time of this posting) being 0.7 121017
http://demul.emulation64.com/ is their website, and it has fixed almost ALL of the stuttering problems in the game, leading to a very nice gaming experience!

To celebrate the new version, and to do some testing, I have been doing a full playthrough and streaming it to my Youtube page to try to show how good emulation has gotten on DEmul, and I have been showing it off to the Facebook group Shenmue 500k that I sometimes post to, but I figured this would be a great audience to show the quality of emulation too, as well as I can assist people with getting the emulator to run if they are having issues.

Here's a link to my almost full playthrough of Shenmue II on the newest version of DEmul: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOsC6a40bWi-ujse2Xf7lDOqG5KWy5sB , and I'm going to be livestreaming the final disc probably this weekend at some point if people are interested.

Any way, it's great to be back, and I hope that you guys appreciate my video, and I'd be happy to assist anybody with the emulator, discuss the game, or anything else!

Bulshit all, you will never resist to try juste for move Ryo Hazuki. Everyone on the forum will play demo i'm sure.

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?

Hello everyone,

I'm doing a remake of Ryo's room, everything is done from scratch, I don't reuse models and textures of original game, I used models only to respect the proportions

Do not hesitate to tell me what you think or if you have suggestions to improve my work.

Work in Progress ! ;-)

Render 04/17/2018:

https://i.imgur.com/SUNDHdG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RtdNlG7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Pu7jk78.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x6hM2uL.jpg

Achievement Unlocked: Eat a carrot

However, it's possible that they'll be able to resolve the issues with it and present the entire game in 16:9 by the time it goes gold. I'm not expecting it, though, and I don't care either way. I'm just happy to be able to play the games properly again.
There's no guarantee things will change since the published information from Famitsu says event scenes will be forced to 4x3 (with Shenmue 2 being the exception based on the trailer, since those were letterboxed originally), but if they did decide to change and didn't want to zoom the few scenes that need it, I'd be okay with just the few scenes that need it having bars on the side. Just so we at least get most in 16x9 as an option. Sonic Adventure 2's HD release a few years back did that for the same reason (some effects were done as 4x3 animated overlays so no 16x9 was possible) and I was fine with it too because I knew why they had to omit it for those scenes.

Not having any Shenmue 1 event scenes in 16x9 isn't a deal breaker, but I'd prefer to see it whenever possible.

I will buy 3 copies for me (PS4/XB1/PC) and if they release the game on Switch I will buy it too. I dont even have a XB1 or a Switch but I want to have one for each system as a means to show support and for my collection.

I also plan to buy some PC keys, Im planning to buy around 10 keys to giveaway so I can help the game reach new players who might be curious but are unsure to buy one themselves.

If I can make at least one new person fall in love with the game then I will be satisfied.

There is something very familiar looking on that screen in the background in the photo of Haruka at the mic.
Anyone else spotted and recognized that bit from the cave?

https://i.imgur.com/SyyNYvj.jpg

Anyway, an unexpected update indeed. It's a bit sad another major character can't be voiced by the original actor or actress. I'm sure Haruka will deliver a compelling performance but one wonders if Masaya will be the only one returning for the original cast.

Hmm, an interesting update. However, I have to say, they've got Masaya Matsukaze's face all wrong. It's simply not what I envision when I think of Masaya Matsukaze working in a recording studio. I've taken the liberty of making big improvements upon the work of whoever designed him. I think everyone will agree - particularly everyone who hangs out in the depths of Youtube comments sections, the 'GAF crowd, and other prestigious comments fields across the internet - that what I'm presenting is the definitive headshot of Masaya Matsukaze.

http://www.zoonbats.com/s3/improvements.jpg

Muchas gracias Esppiral!

Came across this earlier today and bought a few copies. Cheapest price currently on the market.

https://www.voidu.com/en/shenmue-i-ii

Use codes SCHOOLSOUT or SUMMER18 at checkout for this price.

VoidU are an approved digital partner of SEGA.
http://www.sega.com/sega-approved-partner-list

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgSQgSWWsAA6rNV.jpg:large

I don't understand the sense in not zooming in and cropping the black bars off Shenmue 2's cutscenes. It's going to be incredibly jarring.

Here are some high resolution promotional game screenshots from the Xbox version taken many years ago.



Gallery link

https://imgur.com/a/2mxR58A

I agree all the negativity is excessive and there was no way they were going to get it to run higher than 30fps due to the way its all coded ; not to mention its entirely reasonable the cut scenes remain 4:3 because on-screen objects etc don't behave correctly in many situations (freeze or disappear) when they exit the 4:3 "border" because they were not meant to be visible anymore; but this isn't the reason they give in this video. The reason they give is "creative choice".. this random assumption makes them sound like they are so desperate to dispel negativity they'll just make stuff up. If they could have maintained the aspect ratio without visual issues it sounds more reasonable to assume they would have.

But their reasoning on why it can't run at 4K is utter garbage...in fact they don't really address it. if they can get the game to render native at 1080p when it used to render much lower then there is no reason it shouldn't render at 1440p, 4k.... etc. These are all the same aspect ratio. There isn't really any good reason not to offer multiple resolution options for PC. All that said, this port is "good enough" and doesn't deserve hate. but lets not make stuff up...

Yeah, it really doesn't look that much different to me, I barely notice it, but seeing the screen croppped is so jarring especially Shenmue 2's 4:3 Letterbox combo. I saw Adam did anotehr video recently explaining his thoery into why Shenmue 1 is in 4:3 While I don't 100% agree with it there is cetainly no excuse for Shemue 2 as the cutscenes are in widescene presentation boxed by borders anyway - Even the damn trailer they edited this! I'm grateful for many of the tweaks, faster loading and the subtitles look much better but not puttign effort into the cutscenes on a ground breakingly cinematic game simply does not do Shenmue justice.

Be careful calling it HD!