Shenmue 3 Demake

S

stillsense

Joined
Oct 31, 2019
Since we now know the story, setting and characters of Shenmue 3 it would be nice to see it somehow made for the Dreamcast, using the very engine for Shenmue 1&2 meaning Ryo and Shenhua's character models will be the same.

This is probably an impossible dream taking too much work and might feel worthless since it'll make Shenmue 3 feel even more old but still... it would be amazing to see how Shenmue 3 would have been like in 2003 on Dreamcast.

Is this even possible? There has to be a source code somewhere since D3T used it for the 2018 re-releases of 1&2.
 
stillsense said:
Since we now know the story, setting and characters of Shenmue 3 it would be nice to see it somehow made for the Dreamcast, using the very engine for Shenmue 1&2 meaning Ryo and Shenhua's character models will be the same.

This is probably an impossible dream taking too much work and might feel worthless since it'll make Shenmue 3 feel even more old but still... it would be amazing to see how Shenmue 3 would have been like in 2003 on Dreamcast.

Is this even possible? There has to be a source code somewhere since D3T used it for the 2018 re-releases of 1&2.
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Great point, I'd play this!
 
A demake using shenmue 3 as template would be a good start to me, but my main concern is that I don't know if it can be an easy task to demake the npc to make them match the graphical art style of the ones from the old games.
 
Shenmue III running on dreamcast would take a crazy amount of effort and talent. Not impossible, but it will take one crazy dedicated fan. Now a mod to Shenmue III that replaces the character models and graphics to make it look dreamcasty is much more likely.
 
Would take way too much time, talent, and money. A Dreamcast Shenmue 3 would cost much more than what we got with unreal. Theres a lot of needee software thats incredibly hard to find as well, whats more there may be licensing issues. DC S3 is nigh impossibe.

The best alternative is to somehow make Dreamcast character models and maps work with S3 unreal engine. Youd also have to remake low poly S3 maps and models. Im not sure just lowering the resolution is gonna cut it. The current models might have an option to be scaled down but even at their lowest they may exceed what DC was capable of.

Youd need to totally reprogram the camera as well. Taking a dual analog control scheme and making it fit one stick sounds like a daunting task, and is reminiscent of developers trying to make FPS feel good on PSP/DS, which hardly ever turned out well.

I mean, it took Playtonic a long time to make their N64 looking version of Yooka-Laylee and they are seasoned professionals with an actual budget, and even then it still doesnt look entirelty faithful to N64 platformers.

Unlike DC, its not impossible to make a DC Shenmue inspired mod with unreal. Itd still take a lot of talent and time though.
 
Vasid said:
Shenmue III running on dreamcast would take a crazy amount of effort and talent. Not impossible, but it will take one crazy dedicated fan. Now a mod to Shenmue III that replaces the character models and graphics to make it look dreamcasty is much more likely.
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I would also make the Naiowu roads narrower and add more people and also add a stone walkway path across the river as well as a water wheel and change the Naiowu curfew to 12am, and add those traditional Chinese headdresses the women wear on their head (that was used in that one Shenmue Online trailer)

Basically....this:
 
I had a very detailed dream about something like this! In my dream, some Sega executives were talking about releasing Shenmue 1 and 2 HD (the real remastered game that was scrapped) on the condition that Yu made the third game on the same engine. Allowing you to transfer moves, toys, etc. It was retailing for like 30 bucks in the dream :LOL: seems like a steal to me.
 
chaikilla said:
I had a very detailed dream about something like this! In my dream, some Sega executives were talking about releasing Shenmue 1 and 2 HD (the real remastered game that was scrapped) on the condition that Yu made the third game on the same engine. Allowing you to transfer moves, toys, etc. It was retailing for like 30 bucks in the dream :LOL: seems like a steal to me.
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Sign me up.
 
Out of curiosity, is Shenmue 2 moddable enough for someone to add new areas, making their own level geometry and dialogue? Still a ton of work, I know, but I wonder if it would be technically possible to implement S3's story that way. Just using S2's limitations and mechanics, rather than a full demake of 3.

Like in this screenshot, I wondered if someone was making a version of Bailu village? Unless I'm just not remembering a part of the actual game for some reason.
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jabberwok said:
Out of curiosity, is Shenmue 2 moddable enough for someone to add new areas, making their own level geometry and dialogue? Still a ton of work, I know, but I wonder if it would be technically possible to implement S3's story that way. Just using S2's limitations and mechanics, rather than a full demake of 3.

Like in this screenshot, I wondered if someone was making a version of Bailu village? Unless I'm just not remembering a part of the actual game for some reason.
5B432721C85C68EB4671210B4779DB7AE308DB1D
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As far as I'm aware, this is cut content from the actual game, not a fan project.
 
Not speaking for anyone and it is 100% not planned afaik, although I always thought future Phoenix mode updates for the Unreal project had potential for a Shenmue 3 "Demake"
 
Making a Dreamcast version will never happen. However, though it would be a colossal effort, a DC-looking mod would be doable if the mod community are capable of 3D asset replacers as well as textures.

A very simple way would be to down-scale the texture resolutions (easily automated using Actions on PS) and bake in the lighting. Simplifying the poly count could also work, but would likely lead to deformities, requiring people to manually fix them. Changing the models in such a way could also fuck up the animations though.

If the above methods work, it would also be possible to swap out returning characters for their models/textures from previous games.

Still haven't played the game myself, so don't know how much the GUI or owt has changed, but assuming texture replacements have already been confirmed to work, they'd likely be the easiest place to start with giving it a more "Dreamcast" feel.
 
Mittens2317 said:
Making a Dreamcast version will never happen. However, though it would be a colossal effort, a DC-looking mod would be doable if the mod community are capable of 3D asset replacers as well as textures.

A very simple way would be to down-scale the texture resolutions (easily automated using Actions on PS) and bake in the lighting. Simplifying the poly count could also work, but would likely lead to deformities, requiring people to manually fix them. Changing the models in such a way could also fuck up the animations though.

If the above methods work, it would also be possible to swap out returning characters for their models/textures from previous games.

Still haven't played the game myself, so don't know how much the GUI or owt has changed, but assuming texture replacements have already been confirmed to work, they'd likely be the easiest place to start with giving it a more "Dreamcast" feel.
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I could use lower res textures, anyway. Wouldn't mind having the game run faster, and I usually want good AA and lighting more than I care about high res textures.

Still, it's fun to imagine what Bailu would've looked like with the sort of level geometry they could manage in the DC era. I don't usually think of games from that time doing natural environments well, but S2 is an exception.
 
Unfortunately the idea is not realistic... Would love it but the time and cost would outweigh the benefit of delivering project as it would be niche to the extreme. Not enough people still own a Dreamcast to make this worthwhile
 
I think the simplest way to go about this is to directly mod Shenmue 3 itself. You'll have to replace Shenmue 3 character models and environment geometry and textures with those from Shenmue 1&2.

You'd have to still actually design a lot of environments yourself. It's a massive undertaking but actually working with Shenmue 3 is the easiest way to achieve a demake, as the script and story are already intact.
 
ShenmueTree said:
I think the simplest way to go about this is to directly mod Shenmue 3 itself. You'll have to replace Shenmue 3 character models and environment geometry and textures with those from Shenmue 1&2.

You'd have to still actually design a lot of environments yourself. It's a massive undertaking but actually working with Shenmue 3 is the easiest way to achieve a demake, as the script and story are already intact.
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Seeing the game reskinned with DC-era textures, with the same resolution and colour restrictions, would be pretty cool. Of course, being realistic with the approach would mean replacing all models with low poly versions, adding in fake load screens, etc. -- still an insane amount of work -- but hey, someone's making Bloodborne for PS1 lol
 
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