Shenmue II vs Shenmue III

[BlueMue]

I made a comparison video with the Shenmue III Kickstarter trailer and the original river crossing scene from Shenmue II side by side. The idea to this sprung up as soon as I saw the trailer the first time. Thought it would be interesting to look at the differences. They are of course pretty dramatic.

I had to adjust the scene from Shenmue II quite a bit to get the two to run together as well as possible. Two short scenes had to be slowed down to a crawl, please excuse the framerate there.

phpBB [video]

Wohoo, 1000 posts!

[Thief]

The richer green colors in Shenmue II Guilin has to make me prefer that version. Interesting video to see the two side by side though, thanks.

[Rika]

That's interesting seeing them side by side!

[Anthony817]

Man, Shenmue 2 still looks really impressive for it's time.

[JaySw34]

Yes it's incredible how Shenmue's visuals still hold their own even by today's standards

[Hyo Razuki]

Fantastic work, dude. However in my heart, nothing - and I mean nothing - will ever beat the Dreamcast Shenmue graphics. Shenmue 3 won't stand a chance. I reckon no matter what the visuals of S3 are I might always subconsciously see the Dreamcast look. Shenmue will forever be a Dreamcast game to me.

[Supa]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[BlueMue]

Looking at the video again just now I have to come out and say that they overdid the lighting in the trailer.
The game is simply too bright. The trees also feel a bit to open and not green enough. The biggest improvement is the water obviously.

[shenhaZ]

Shenmue 3 is too bright but Suzuki wants to fix it.

[life_247]

Im pretty sure its basically the default lighting engine used in the Unreal Engine 4.0 that its running under. I'd hazard a guess that they've only done a very quick proof of concept in the engine and very little real work has been done.

https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4

If you look at the screens there its a very similar lighting engine. The trend in video game grahpics has been for HDR (High Dynamic Range) over the past few years. Its a visual trend that it also seen in real world photos:

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr/

It shows great detail but it can look a bit too bright and "other-worldly"

[elfshadowreaper]

I hate HDR because 99% of the time it's horribly done and just looks terrible. They go for beauty but they get alien planet.