I just can't justufy 99% of the choices they've made with this re-lelease, let's call it that way instead of "HD"

If its true that they are working with source code I don't see a single reason why they are taking so many wrong decisions.

Specially the one related to resolution, But I see lots of people defending the direction d3t has taken with this port, I just can't believe it.... as much as I love Shenmue, I'm incredibly sad with this re-release.

People defending the lack of resolutions higher than 1080p arguing that it is not necessary saddens me, specially when we have seen tons of screenshots of emulated S1 and S2 at crazy resolutions and they look awesome, specially on 4k panels..

Xbox version emulated at 4k
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/293096509019258880/419947200651722753/Cxbx_2018-03-04_18-53-57-927.png

The bad audio quality, the lack of passport... I just can't...

Then the artistic vision about 16:9 cutscenes.... I mean it's more a technical constrain of the time than an artistic vision, and if that werent the case, and they are just trying to preserve the original vision...I don't Thinks Yu's vision was to see S2 cutscenes this way.


https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_940ecda42072e04923152dbaf489e254b99a8d9d.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621

It looks hideous

I don't care if I get hated by my opinion about what I think about this port, but they just couldn't do the simplest of the things like swapping Ryo's texture jacket in Shenmue 1 to use the higer resolution one from the xbox version ( wtch in return is the Passport texture for Ryo's Jacket), something that simple jet they didn't care.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_fd6d03b1bf64bd77589ef70570fe745a5b83ee2a.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_5c72fc3b023665b84ffbba49030aa7cfb7fcae8a.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621

Right now I am just as sad as mad about this, I should've relaxed before writing this post but the amount of posts defending such bad choices from d3t is driving me crazy.

Just to be clear, I am happy the games are getting re-released and we can play them on modern systems and can be enjoyed by modern audiencies but I've would preferred something....

https://media.giphy.com/media/o7ncE7UgxAUE0/giphy.gif

Thanks for sharing your controversial opinion, dude. It's discussions like this which make a forum worth participating in.

I can see your point but honestly, I personally don't care about the passport feature. Don't get me wrong, I used to play F 355 and especially PSO online a lot in the early 2000s but the Shenmue passport? Nah...

The character videos explaining game mechanics are beautiful and I love the character character profiles but I have always had the feeling that this was just online functions for their own sake. Kind of like Sega telling Yu to shoe-horn some online elements into S1. Never really understood why that thing even exists.

About the aspect ratio... Yeah, I also don't get what kept them from making the cutscenes 16:9, especially since S1 and 2 don't have any pre-rendered cutscenes if I remember correctly. I agree that this is kind of a bummer. That being said, I used to play a lot of Dreamcast and PS2 on modern televisions. 4:3 on a 16:9 TV never bothered me.

But the one thing that really pisses me off is the fact they are using the Xbox version of S2 as a source. A lot of textures wrong, Yen signs on the vending machines in Hong Kong, wrong music in the intro scene to Guilin and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, please don't look past all the hell of a lot of right decisions they've made on this release.

1. Save anywhere in S1.
2. Choose between old and new UI.
3. Dual Audio
4. Adding subtitles in more languages for people who don't speak English, such as French, German (European version) and Chinese (Asian version).
5. Choosing the right time to release those games. August, before Red Dead Redemption 2 will come and also long enough before S3's release.

Dozens of people have said this before but a semi-lazy port is all we could have ever hoped for. It was only after the S3 Kickstarter and slacker backer campaigns being as succesfull as they were, that Sega realized there may be money to be made with Shenmue so they didn't wanna take too many chances. I'm saying semi-lazy port because with a real lazy port we wouldn't have gotten any of the points I mentioned above.

I always respond to this question with this:

http://zoonbats.com/s3/shenmue_stylized.jpg (c/o Centrale et al)

So, personally, my answer is no. Shenmue has always been highly stylized imo, and I believe it's just the difference in fidelity and graphical tech between a 20 yo game and an UE4 game that is causing the perceived dissonance between the old games and 3. Just my personal opinion, though.

When other characters in Shenmue III look like this:

https://abload.de/img/4mlliieg0kt5.png

https://abload.de/img/l4qfq2uo6kzz.png

https://abload.de/img/ylwpa5h7tjt6.png

- singling out Mr Muscles as the definitive representation of Shenmue III's in-progress graphical design is a bit silly. These characters don't look like they're from Street Fighter 5, and I'd argue neither does Mr Muscles, really. He may be a big ugly bastard, but that's by design.

http://sm.ign.com/ign_mear/screenshot/default/screen-shot-2017-05-29-at-80305-am_aj23.png

Ren's gang in Shenmue II, by comparison:

https://i.neoseeker.com/ca/shenmue2_conceptart_VfMWk.jpg

Even if AM2 were pushing for the most realistic graphics the world had ever seen with the originals, the manga-inspired design still runs through the characters pretty heavily, and I'd say that's more recognisable now that realism in graphics has moved on so considerably.

Redream is a work-in-progress 64bit Dreamcast emulator for Windows, Mac and Linux that's getting a lot of attention lately, and for very good reasons.

One of the best features of Redream, is simplicity. It's one of the most simple and straightforward emulators, as it runs directly without the need to have a Dreamcast bios or to go through a complicated configuration process. It also detects and auto-configures many popular controllers like Xbox 360, Xbox One and PS4 controllers.

https://i.imgur.com/wat9L5B.png

Another advantage Redream has over other Dreamcast emulators, is that it's being actively developed. The lead developer is actively working on improving and debugging the code, and he has expressed to me a special interest in improving compatibility with Shenmue games further.

Redream comes in two flavours: a free Lite option and a Premium which can be licenced for $5. Both flavours share basically the main features, except for high-res rendering which is enabled in the Premium version.

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

When enabled, high-res rendering makes a huge difference in terms of visual fidelity. I have been testing Shenmue running in 4K with widescreen and no-clipping fixes by Esppiral, and the main game looks and plays beautifully from start to finish. Redream has a clear edge in raw performance over every other Dreamcast emulator I've used to date, and the latest build performed exceptionally well in high-res on my mid-range PC.

In terms of compatibility with Shenmue games, What's Shenmue is playable however, I noticed some audio and frame pacing issues, the first Shenmue is almost fully playable without any issues, the only thing missing is Hang On arcade game which is not yet supported, but the developer is aware of those issue and they should eventually be fixed.

Shenmue Prologue in 4K widescreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0MKofTK_iU

Shenmue iconic intro in 4K widescreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzV0ss7d0OE

Shenmue disc 1 gameplay in 4K widescreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8xucpFedUY

Shenmue disc 2 gameplay in 4K widescreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9xz_YtTWww

Shenmue disc 3 forklift gameplay in 4K widescreen with extended draw distance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbi0KvaISfo

Shenmue disc 3 bike gameplay in 4K widescreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zrjNIn2SLE

Another really neat feature I noticed in Redream is the ability to uncap the framerate on-the-fly to fast-forward emulation, which is conveniently mapped to the menu button of the Xbox One controller, this feature can be extremely useful in almost getting rid of loading screens and make loading times almost non-existent with a press of a button.

Sound emulation is decent enough but not perfect yet, I noticed some sound issues especially in some cut-scenes and Shenmue Passport sections, the developer is aware of those issues and told me that they are being worked on.

Shenmue Passport in 4K widescreen and offline patch by Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvIRQoTEDDQ

Official discs of Shenmue II currently boot fine with Redream, and the game is playable in its letterboxed format and in 4K, except for some of the arcade games which aren't supported yet. Widescreen-fixed discs of Shenmue II have currently loading issues with Redream, this has been already reported to the developer and I will provide an update once this has been fixed.

In conclusion, Redream is a great Dreamcast emulator highly recommended to anyone looking for an easy-to-use and powerful piece of software to replay Dreamcast games.

Redream official site : redream.io

Original Shenmue 2 Full English Xbox Speech mod for Sega Dreamcast (aka Smith releases) which can be found here has incorrect disc information data (aka meta-data), and this data is usually used by Dreamcast hardware as well as emulators and some debuggers to correctly detect the played disc. This can be useful in correctly identifying game title, region and disc number etc ...

With the original Smith release, discs cannot be correctly identified and that could cause some issues in some cases, so I made this simple fix for that.

After applying the fix, the correct meta-data is restored to each disc so emulators (like Redream) can correctly identify each disc, download the correct title cover and sort it in the correct order in the library.

I've basically made three patches for the 80min, 99m, and 1GB versions of Smith release. I've also made another three patches to correct discs meta-data and add Esppiral's widescreen fix as well.

To use the patch:

1- Make sure to download the correct patch for your Smith release from the download links below.

2- Extract the zip file and copy the four cdi image files from the correct Smith release into the extracted folder.

3- The patch uses the original disc names as they were originally included in Smith release, if your disc image files are named differently please rename them before applying the patch.

4- Run patch.bat file .. and follow on-screen instructions.

5- Fixed discs will be created in "fixed" folder.

Download links:

For Smith 80min version : Meta-Fix , Meta-Fix and Widescreen Fix
For Smith 99min version : Meta-Fix , Meta-Fix and Widescreen Fix
For Smith 1GB version : Meta-Fix , Meta-Fix and Widescreen Fix

^ I seem to recall him mentioning some sort of crippling medical/anxiety issues; it might provide some context here.

In any case, he’s a good poster, so it’s unfortunate (and frankly a bit silly) to just abruptly quit like this, especially over an informative discussion.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Come back dude, it’s a good time to be a Shenmue fan.