Shenmue IV Models (MetaHuman)

Also have to see that this realistic ryo looks great. Still prefer the old look but would not mind that type visual approach for another Shenmue Game. The others models of Nozomi and Shenhua also look quite good.
A complete revamp and remake of the series with these kinds of visuals would be the dream for me.
far fecthed dream I know.
 
I assume these will be fully compatible with UE5, riggable skeletons and faces etc.? Maybe?

You just gotta hope there's awesome facial animation tech to go along with it, or we could end up with some serious uncanny valley moments :p
 
I assume these will be fully compatible with UE5, riggable skeletons and faces etc.? Maybe?

You just gotta hope there's awesome facial animation tech to go along with it, or we could end up with some serious uncanny valley moments :p
Metahumans come rigged out the box using the control rig tools that are now in UE4 and UE5. The facial controls the Metahumans team have built are really sophisticated but if you're animating by hand it's a looooooong labourious process to get anything that looks good. Having played around with it myself the poses can definitely look good (so long as you don't push the model's geometry so it clips), but it would take an experienced animator to make something truly great out of it.


Anyway, have a look at Ryo's Shenmue III model in a vanilla UE5 project (apologies for the eyes and hair, either something didn't transfer with the model when it was ripped or I need to change some stuff in the materials editor):

desktopscreenshot20211wkmd.png

desktopscreenshot20219ujma.png

desktopscreenshot2021djku4.png


Lumen is amazing. That's just a regular old directional sky light being used there, but the soft indirect lighting of Lumen gives a great place for artists to start from. Here's what a similar setup looks like in UE4 by comparison:

desktopscreenshot2021eckz0.png


Still a great engine mind you, and it's come a long way even since Shenmue III released, but UE5 is a big leap forward.

Oh, and as a bonus, a Ryo rig I'm working on:

 
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Metahumans come rigged out the box using the control rig tools that are now in UE4 and UE5. The facial controls the Metahumans team have built are really sophisticated but if you're animating by hand it's a looooooong labourious process to get anything that looks good. Having played around with it myself the poses can definitely look good (so long as you don't push the model's geometry so it clips), but it would take an experienced animator to make something truly great out of it.


Anyway, have a look at Ryo's Shenmue III model in a vanilla UE5 project (apologies for the eyes and hair, either something didn't transfer with the model I have ripped or I need to change some stuff in the materials editor):

desktopscreenshot20211wkmd.png

desktopscreenshot20219ujma.png

desktopscreenshot2021djku4.png


Lumen is amazing. That's just a regular old directional sky light being used there, but the soft indirect lighting of Lumen gives a great place for artists to start from. Here's what a similar setup looks like in UE4 by comparison:

desktopscreenshot2021eckz0.png


Still a great engine mind you, and it's come a long way even since Shenmue III released, but UE5 is a big leap forward.

Oh, and as a bonus, a Ryo rig I'm working on:

Damn that could really look awesome
 
Metahumans come rigged out the box using the control rig tools that are now in UE4 and UE5. The facial controls the Metahumans team have built are really sophisticated but if you're animating by hand it's a looooooong labourious process to get anything that looks good. Having played around with it myself the poses can definitely look good (so long as you don't push the model's geometry so it clips), but it would take an experienced animator to make something truly great out of it.


Anyway, have a look at Ryo's Shenmue III model in a vanilla UE5 project (apologies for the eyes and hair, either something didn't transfer with the model when it was ripped or I need to change some stuff in the materials editor):

desktopscreenshot20211wkmd.png

desktopscreenshot20219ujma.png

desktopscreenshot2021djku4.png


Lumen is amazing. That's just a regular old directional sky light being used there, but the soft indirect lighting of Lumen gives a great place for artists to start from. Here's what a similar setup looks like in UE4 by comparison:

desktopscreenshot2021eckz0.png


Still a great engine mind you, and it's come a long way even since Shenmue III released, but UE5 is a big leap forward.

Oh, and as a bonus, a Ryo rig I'm working on:

Damn spags. Good work man. never knew you were going deep on unreal.

Looking awesome
 
Damn that could really look awesome
The facial controls on Metahumans? Totally. I played around with them in my test UE5 project a few days ago and the expressions you can get with them are great. The only drawback is the sheer amount of controls is almost overwhelming and you still need to be a good animator to make the best use of them.

Damn spags. Good work man. never knew you were going deep on unreal.

Looking awesome
Thanks! I wish I could say I've gone deep on it, but ultimately I'm still dipping my toes in because of the depth and breadth of the engine and game creation technology in general. Seriously gained a fresh appreciation for what YsNet were able to do with Shenmue III without a fixed budget for half of development and relying on contract workers/non-specialised staff to get the bulk of the work done.

People should really take a closer look at the credits on Shenmue III and compare them to other games and the originals. Besides the obvious - that a lot less people worked on III - what stands out is that there weren't specialised teams who focussed on a specific aspect of gameplay. The designers had to be a Jack of all Trades, which is likely why aspects aren't as polished as we or YsNet would have liked them to be, but meant they could ship the game and have something to build on if they got another shot.

Ryo with Lumen looks like the (pre-rendered?) scene at the end of Shenmue 3 on top of the great wall.
Not sure it was pre-rendered (has anybody been able to explore the map like the mirror cave?), but probably using baked/fixed lighting because there was no need for dynamic time of day lights, so it'd look better/be easier to art direct.

But yeah, Lumen is a huge step forward for great looking dynamic lighting, and coupled with the Sky & Atmosphere system developers could make some amazing day/night cycles.

I want to try making one myself at some point but still have to get my skills in Blueprints up to scratch. Reckon I have to attach it to a timeline that then moves the sun disk relative to the global location, but I also want values on the sky atmosphere and lighting to change based on that position so I can dial in different colour balances depending on the time of day. Like having a golden hour/blue hour dynamic, dawns being balanced towards a pinkish sky, sunsets being more red and orange, etc.
 
The facial controls on Metahumans? Totally. I played around with them in my test UE5 project a few days ago and the expressions you can get with them are great. The only drawback is the sheer amount of controls is almost overwhelming and you still need to be a good animator to make the best use of them.


Thanks! I wish I could say I've gone deep on it, but ultimately I'm still dipping my toes in because of the depth and breadth of the engine and game creation technology in general. Seriously gained a fresh appreciation for what YsNet were able to do with Shenmue III without a fixed budget for half of development and relying on contract workers/non-specialised staff to get the bulk of the work done.

People should really take a closer look at the credits on Shenmue III and compare them to other games and the originals. Besides the obvious - that a lot less people worked on III - what stands out is that there weren't specialised teams who focussed on a specific aspect of gameplay. The designers had to be a Jack of all Trades, which is likely why aspects aren't as polished as we or YsNet would have liked them to be, but meant they could ship the game and have something to build on if they got another shot.


Not sure it was pre-rendered (has anybody been able to explore the map like the mirror cave?), but probably using baked/fixed lighting because there was no need for dynamic time of day lights, so it'd look better/be easier to art direct.

But yeah, Lumen is a huge step forward for great looking dynamic lighting, and coupled with the Sky & Atmosphere system developers could make some amazing day/night cycles.

I want to try making one myself at some point but still have to get my skills in Blueprints up to scratch. Reckon I have to attach it to a timeline that then moves the sun disk relative to the global location, but I also want values on the sky atmosphere and lighting to change based on that position so I can dial in different colour balances depending on the time of day. Like having a golden hour/blue hour dynamic, dawns being balanced towards a pinkish sky, sunsets being more red and orange, etc.
I dabbled a bit with unreal engine and it is mind blowing. I may look into it more
 
Not sure it was pre-rendered (has anybody been able to explore the map like the mirror cave?), but probably using baked/fixed lighting because there was no need for dynamic time of day lights, so it'd look better/be easier to art direct
Yes, James was able to explore the cave map-


To my recollection only the end of Shenmue 3 as they are on the Great Wall was pre-rendered cutscene.
 
ryo_sunsetbwkr2.png


I'm not kidding when I say the Sky & Atmosphere system in UE4/UE5 is some powerful shit. Haven't even really done any art direction on the volumetric clouds here, and this is from my UE4 project so no Lumen either.

Yes, James was able to explore the cave map-


To my recollection only the end of Shenmue 3 as they are on the Great Wall was pre-rendered cutscene.
Interesting, didn't know that. Guess they might have figured there was no point having it play in-game as there's no need for any costume/time of day continuity... or they just didn't want us exploring the map.
 
Metahuman is obviously an incredible tool to use in upcoming games, but I don't feel it's right for Shenmue. I think this will definitely speed up development times for future games.
 
All the pedestrians in the recent Matrix tech demo are generated Metahumans, I couldn't help but feel the Asian ones would fit right into Shenmue, as Shenmue made pedestrians/shop owners have way more realistic facial features than the main cast.

The challenge would be in YsNET making non-Metahuman's 3D models for the Main Cast (since their designs aren't photorealistic) that stands tall when compared to Metahumans's polycounts, materials, and facial expressions.
 
This and new Unreal could be good tools for next Shenmue games in my opinion.
Matrix demo looks amazing, surely that they are planning some games of the franchise on the future.
 
The Matrix demo, truly felt like a true next-generation and peek at the future. Honestly, I am just stunned looking around in free mode, driving cars and seeing the size and scope.
 
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I will be perfectly fine with the next Shenmue using this going forward.
 
Some new backdrops/lighting setups from the Matrix demo have been added to the Metahumans creator. Decided to check them out with the last attempt I made at a Ryo model.

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Yes, James was able to explore the cave map-


To my recollection only the end of Shenmue 3 as they are on the Great Wall was pre-rendered cutscene.
how does he do this?
 
MetaHuman has a new feature where you can convert an existing 3D model to a Metahuman


I tried messing around with Ryo's model from SEGA All Star Racing (its the one that popped up after googling 'Ryo 3D model') After stumbling my way through the entire process ,,, The result... is a horrifying eldritch abomination.

yuuuuu.PNG


There is a slider that controls how much influence the original 3D model has over the Metahuman photo realistic style... If I turn that slider all the way down (aka reduce the original's influence) it becomes slightly less horrifying:

suzuuu.PNG


I hope actual tech savvy people on this board can try this out and maybe have better results lol
 
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