Playing Shenmue in realtime 60FPS (Proof of concept)

[Jibby]

So before I start, I want to make it clear that this is a proof of concept. It's not really practical at all and you wouldn't want to play the game this way (bad latencty, occasional stutter, general instability etc.), but it is my hope that with enough tweaking and exploring different methods I can change that.

With that being said, let me guide you through the process of playing Shenmue in realtime 60FPS.

You're going to need the following things:
A pretty beefy machine (I'm using a R9 290X and an i5 4690k, so something along those lines should work)
DEMUL (or whatever emulator you prefer)
A Shenmue ROM
SVP (https://www.svp-team.com/wiki/Main_Page)
XSplit Broadcaster
MPC-HD (32 bit!!)

First of all, you're going to need to install all of the software above. (You might need to make an account for XSPLIT I'm afraid).

Once you've done that, launch SVP. It should run through some tests and eventually bring you to this screen:


Match your settings to the one in my screenshot.

The next thing you'll need to do is launch 32 bit (VERY IMPORTANT!) version of MPC-HD. Upon doing so, go to View > Options. Then look on the left hand list for "Internal Filters". Once that is selected, there should be a button named "Video decoder". Click on that and a new window will popup. On the right of this window should be a panel titled "Hardware Acceleration". Click on the dropdown box and set it to "DXVA2 (copy-back)". You can then click ok to close out of that window. Here's a screenshot to clarify:


Next, look on the left hand list again for "External Filters". Once that is selected, click "Add Filter", look for "ffdshow raw video filter" and add that. Make sure it's checked and that it is set to "Prefer". Again, apply the changes.


Finally, you're going to want to look on the list for "Capture" and select that. Under "Analogue settings" change "Video" to "XSplitBroadcaster". Leave everything else as default as it shouldn't make any difference. If you don't see this option, try opening and then closing Xsplit and trying again. You can now apply and close the settings window.


Next, open up your emulator (I suggest DEMUL) and set it to a low resolution like 640x480 (Realtime interpolation at high resolutions makes the game stutter a lot!). Save these settings and launch the emulator.

With the emulator running, launch XSplit and create a new scene (you can do so in the bottom right hand corner). Once you have done this, in the bottom left click "Add" > "Game Capture" and then there should be an option that depicts your emulator. In my case it was "gpuDX11nghw" but this may vary depending on your emulator/plugins. After adding this, stretch it as large as it will go in the preview window. You should now have something that looks like this:


With the emulator and XSplit still running, lauch MPC-HD (32 bit!!) again. Click on "File" > "Open Device". You should hopefully see Shenmue within MPC-HD now (if not, read on anyway). We're almost done. On the left hand side you should see two numbers next to a "Set" button. Ensure both of these numbers are set to 0 and then click "Set".


If you followed the guide correctly, the video feed within MPC-HD should be in 60FPS. Drag your emulator window offscreen but keep it the active window (so that you can control the game). And there you have it, Shenmue in realtime 60FPS! However like I said at the start, I cannot stress enough that this is a proof of concept. There's going to be latency and there's going to be stutter. I just thought it was a cool little thing to try.

[Yokosuka]

Thanks man. This is the future of gaming you brought here.

Have you tried this on other 30-fps locked games?

What happens to SVP if the game is suddenly below 25 fps when Ryo is in a place with a lot of NPCs? I suppose one of your problems comes from there.

[shengoro86]

This is a great tutorial! Thank you for sharing

[Jibby]

Thanks guys!
I haven't tried it on any other games at the moment (at least, not in realtime) but I imagine the results will be similar. I can't say for sure what happens when the emulator drops below 30FPS, but my guess is that it will still use interpolation resulting in a framerate around the 50FPS region. In other words, you'd still get something above 30FPS.

That being said though, the realtime interpolation is really shaky at the moment. It kinda snaps between 30 and 60 causing a stuttering effect (but on the occasion it does lock on to 60, it looks really good!). I think most of the problems are coming from XSplit as the interpolation is actually being applied to the XSplit preview and not the direct emulator feed. My next goal is to remove XSplit from the process and find a way to get the feed directly from the emulator into MPC-HD or another player that supports SVP. That should solve a lot of the stuttering and reduce some latency.

[Jibby]

Annoyingly, the feature I need is only available in the Pro version of SVP. May take one for the team and buy it to investigate. Will search for alternatives first though.

[Esppiral]

Really awesome!

Thanks.

[Jibby]

Thanks Esppiral! Since writing this guide, I've already made a lot of improvements. I've managed to reduce the latency to the point where the game is actually playable now. It's still there and noticeable, but walking around town and actually getting where you're trying to go is possible now (unfortunately this comes at a visual cost though). Also, turning V-Sync on inside the emulator seems to have fixed the stuttering a lot!

It's getting there!

Edit:
Just got a winning can during testing . A sign of good things?

[Mr357]

Also, turning V-Sync on inside the emulator seems to have fixed the stuttering a lot!

That's typically the case with Demul (I assume that's what you're using).

[Jibby]

Also, turning V-Sync on inside the emulator seems to have fixed the stuttering a lot!

That's typically the case with Demul (I assume that's what you're using).

Mhm, but I meant the stuttering between 30fps and 60fps in MPC-HD as opposed to the actual emulation. V-Sync really messes up my sound though in a lot of places (everything sounds like it's in slow motion and really choppy). Any idea why?

[Mr357]

Also, turning V-Sync on inside the emulator seems to have fixed the stuttering a lot!

That's typically the case with Demul (I assume that's what you're using).

Mhm, but I meant the stuttering between 30fps and 60fps in MPC-HD as opposed to the actual emulation. V-Sync really messes up my sound though in a lot of places (everything sounds like it's in slow motion and really choppy). Any idea why?

It's because the emulator is slowing down the game speed (and as a result, the framerate) in order to prevent crashing or the like. This can be solved by either using a more powerful computer, or running identical segments of the game twice without turning off or restarting your computer (a combination of both yields the best results).

I'm not sure what causes the latter to be effective, but that's how I've been able to get a constant 30 fps for both of my Shenmue movies. Sometimes, when there's enough strenuous effects like dust clouds, achieving 30 fps is impossible without lowering your settings (and even then it can be a struggle).

Shenmue II has exhibits cutscenes where the game speed stays at 60, but the framerate is intentionally lowered, most likely to sync up animations that were recorded too quickly. These are fairly sparse, but you're bound to run into them if you play the whole game.