Shenmue Dojo

My guess i that they don't have any 3D modeller who is good at doing faces who is working on that right now. We don't know how many 3D artists they have in total. They have Takashi Ito who worked on Shenhua in S1 and S2 but maybe he's not working full time. It's possible they will bring him and other artists later on when more of the gameplay has been completed. Still, I agree that it's kind of weird the didn't use the passport models as prototypes instead of the ugly models from the kickstarter reveal.

Esppiral wrote: As far as I remember the faces ( at least the passport ones and I bet some others too) Are digital scans from some handmade busts. [...] So the real reason why they aren't using faces close to the originals is beyond my comprenhension...

I have a few suggestions:
-they just don't want to use the old passports models (maybe they would look off next to other in-game models?);
-Sega threw those busts away (I hope not );
-they don't have the technology to actually scan again those busts and the old scans don't look good enough for this generation;
-even if they could scan those busts, they'd still need to be specifically rigged for whatever new facial expression engine they're now using, so it may take some time to make them look good;
-they never had digital scans to begin with and, back in the days, they had to make the 3d models only using blueprints and photo references, so they have to make everything again from scratch;
-even their old dreamcast models changed during development, so it may not be simple to remake that specific look again;

I also agree it wasn't their priority right now so, all in all, I think there's nothing we have to worry about and, in the end, Ryo will eventually look as expected for a current generation title

mjq jazz bar wrote: Esppiral's post is what I've been worried about.

Why are they having so much trouble doing even that?

Because they haven't gotten started on making the models final models and we haven't seen real footage of the game in two years?

Honestly, this:



Is the perfect Hazuki Ryo for me. If the one in III looks nearly as good as this, I'll be satisfied.

They wouldn't need the busts, they were more for reference I think, and several of them were part of the kickstarter rewards. I think this is more about the priorities of development and that they simply haven't focused their time that much on the faces yet. It could also be that they are experimenting with a slightly new look. Maybe a bit more realistic, since the main characters are slightly stylized, but who knows. Yu's comments from the MAGIC interview implies they will keep the look from S2 for Ryo and Shenhua.

Gen wrote: My guess i that they don't have any 3D modeller who is good at doing faces who is working on that right now. We don't know how many 3D artists they have in total. They have Takashi Ito who worked on Shenhua in S1 and S2 but maybe he's not working full time. It's possible they will bring him and other artists later on when more of the gameplay has been completed. Still, I agree that it's kind of weird the didn't use the passport models as prototypes instead of the ugly models from the kickstarter reveal.

If they can't scrounge up a good enough artist to do the faces properly then I'm really concerned. Plenty of great artists around on the interweb could knock up a good and accurate Ryo with a week or two.

I don't think it's got to do with skill, it's more they are using it for dramatic effect, we'll get Ryo and I'm sure it will be what we're expecting. Every other Ryo we've seen was done on the quick as was Shenhua, I think we should all chill about this and let it run it's course.

If we happen to get an E3 trailer with the same odd face, then I will be the first to worry.

I am not really worried about this, I think it's a matter of time why they haven't work on this matter yet.
There are a lot of amateur artist who are very capable of doing a very nice model of Ryo in little time so, how couldn't they professionals do a proper Ryo?

I am sure they are waiting for the E3 or the right time to show the new Ryo in a new re-reveal tráiler.

I think it's a problem with technology advancing so much in the time Shenmue has been absent that it's hard to capture the look of a very old looking character model and still try to make it look good with modern graphics and keep its characteristics.

Sega did a great job transitioning old ps2 models (desings) into more modern engines and you can still tell it is the same character.





Oh and by the way that's the level of care a Shenmue Remaster should get, anything less than this will extremely dissapoint me.





Ysn net should ask SEGA to take care of the charecter models, they have done a great jon with Yakuza Kiwami.

Esppiral wrote:Oh and by the way that's the level of care a Shenmue Remaster should get, anything less than this will extremely dissapoint me.

You should probably brace yourself, then.

Yakuza is a pet series at SEGA. Shenmue is something they've had to begrudgingly accept demand for. They're not going to throw Kiwami money at Shenmue HD unless we're exceptionally lucky.

Honestly if they can maintain a model that looks closer to the visuals from the Famitsu magazine into gameplay I think he'll look more than amazing. I also think the most recent rendition of Shenhua looks great. If Yu-san and the team aren't ready in this regard, there's still plenty more they can show of the game seeing much of them (similar to watch was achieved in the Shenmue 2 Dream On trailer). Just my overall thoughts on it.

FlagshipFighter wrote: Honestly if they can maintain a model that looks closer to the visuals from the Famitsu magazine into gameplay I think he'll look more than amazing.

This was the most perplexing thing about the E3 2015 model, because of how wildly different it looked at certain angles or in different lighting conditions.





Neither image is perfect, but damn dude.

I bet Peter have seen Ryo's face

celsowm wrote: I bet Peter have seen Ryo's face

As far as anybody has said on here, it was the E3 2015 models in the footage/trailer they saw.

jasonorme666 wrote: I think it's a problem with technology advancing so much in the time Shenmue has been absent that it's hard to capture the look of a very old looking character model and still try to make it look good with modern graphics and keep its characteristics.

Why are you posting Pac Man? Pac Man has had that design on the right for like 30 years dude.

Graphically, I think the best thing we can hope for would be a remaster similar to Final Fantasy X for PS4/PC. With some updated models with more polygons and updated textures but still retaining the look of the original and you can still see it's basically the same game. The new textures look identical to the old ones but in high res. They could have some additional shadows (similar to S2X) and ambient occlusion. Possibly 60 fps.

I would actually prefer this kind of remaster to a full remake. The graphics design in Shenmue is so amazing, it's kind of timeless. I recently played it on the dreamcast, which I hadn't done in a long time and even now, after playing it so many times I'm still amazed how stunning it looks, much due to the fantastic texturing that gives it its unique look. It doesn't really compare to Yakuza, which hasn't aged well graphically, it looks very mediocre now IMO, so a full remake is more justified.

But even a well made HD-remaster will require alot of work, and I'm a little worried they'll just make a cheap emulated version with higher resolution. Alot of the textures, though brlliantly designed, don't look that good in HD and need to be upgraded.