Vague speculation from insider on problems with this port...

orient said:
Trolling or...? Are you honestly confused as to why it would be harder for a completely different team (at a fraction of the size), 17 years later, with zero access to the original dev team, and missing code, to port the game to not 1 but 3 modern, 64-bit platforms?

*edit* Removed unnecessary comment.
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Yes, I realize why it was harder for them. I'm saying that the project was not handled properly
 
B-Man said:
True, but there are free Dreamcast emulators available for download that do a better job at emulating the MIDI processing.

Also, how did Sega/Microsoft do such a fine job on the original Xbox back in 2002 if it's so difficult? The music in Shenmue IIx is even quite accurate to the Dreamcast version when it's being emulated on the freaking Xbox 360. So, there's no valid reason that these ports should have ended up with such music issues if they had been handled correctly.
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Not quite, the 360 had significant audio issues. The original xbox did not have the same specific issues but there were some differences with music placement.

 
pilman said:
Not quite, the 360 had significant audio issues. The original xbox did not have the same specific issues but there were some differences with music placement.

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I know that the game on the 360 has some issues with certain music tracks cutting out (which can be remedied, temporarily at least, by pausing and unpausing the game), but that's still not as bad as what's going on with the music in the re-release. For the vast majority of the game on 360, the music is playing and it still sounds good.

As for whatever differences there might be between the Xbox and Dreamcast versions, I know that it's fairly minor. Shenmue IIx's music was for the most part fine, whereas the music the new ports is simply awful.

Anyway, I remember being glad when I heard about this collection because I figured that it wouldn't have any of the same issues as the Xbox version has when played on a 360. For over nine years, that had been my only way to play Shenmue II. The funny thing is that it turned out even worse in my opinion. The slight musical problems and bugs that occur when you play the game that way pale in comparison to the ones in the new version (at least in its current state).

I'm actually considering re-buying an original Xbox for playing Shenmue II on if they don't fix this to an acceptable degree.

EDIT: I just watched some of the video you posted and I'm not sure what was going on with parts of the music there, such as the way the intro music ends before the cutscene does. That's not what normally happens when you actually play the game on a 360.
 
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I'm so glad I started playing II and gave up waiting for the patch. I hadn't realised there was even more hyperbole surrounding its issues than with Shenmue 1 (and that had some serious hyperbole).

I'm really enjoying these modern re-releases ready for Shenmue 3 next year! :)
 
Reprise said:
I'm so glad I started playing II and gave up waiting for the patch. I hadn't realised there was even more hyperbole surrounding its issues than with Shenmue 1 (and that had some serious hyperbole).

I'm really enjoying these modern re-releases ready for Shenmue 3 next year! :)
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Glad to hear. I'll be jumping into Shenmue 2 starting tomorrow night.
 
I played through 2 and yes the music was annoying but after a while I didn't notice it.

Hopefully next time I play it's patched. Also oddly the music in Guilin is perfect. I've not a clue as to technically why this is the case but it does show in my opinion it can be sorted.
 
Telekill said:
Glad to hear. I'll be jumping into Shenmue 2 starting tomorrow night.
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Just watch out for the crushed blacks (upping the contrast helps a little bit) and sustain on certain music. Otherwise, it plays and looks as beautiful as ever. The reduced bloom effect and motion blur effect makes it the definitive version without a shadow of a doubt, once the music and crushed blacks are hopefully fixed.
 
catonkatonk said:
Even something like emulating the MIDI processing... How many other Dreamcast ports have Sega done? You're telling me they don't already have an emulator for Dreamcast's sound processing chip? Come on.
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As Zoyous suggests, I believe most if not all other Dreamcast ports use pre-recorded audio which is the norm for DC games.

I can't remember if Skies of Arcadia used samples, though, or pre-recorded audio but I do know that the Gamecube version sounds much worse.

I believe most other ports are fine in that regard.

B-Man said:
Also, how did Sega/Microsoft do such a fine job on the original Xbox back in 2002 if it's so difficult?
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That much should be obvious if you just consider the circumstances.

I think d3t did the best they possibly could within a very short time frame. This must have been a nightmare of a project to work on.
 
If I remember correctly, the Skies of Arcadia audio was compressed on the GameCube version to fit the game onto one disc. The dreamcast version came on two discs (although DC discs are of course roughly 1.2gb in size, whilst I think the Gamecube ones were 1.4gb).
 
spud1897 said:
I played through 2 and yes the music was annoying but after a while I didn't notice it.

Hopefully next time I play it's patched. Also oddly the music in Guilin is perfect. I've not a clue as to technically why this is the case but it does show in my opinion it can be sorted.
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I swear I almost quit and waited for the patch right before I walked into the Come Over Guest House after getting off the boat because the music in the Green Market Quarter sounded awful. At times a random note would play out of nowhere like "diiiiiiing". But I pushed on or else I would've had to wait like a month and pray it's fixed. Truth be told I kind of got used to all of the botched music but I really hope they still fix it if they can. The music didn't seem to have any issues from what I heard in Guilin, at least that's how I remembered all of it. I thought the music was fine in Kowloon apart from that song that plays in the Stand Quarter and marketplace areas inside all of the buildings. Wishful thinking but maybe they delayed the patch to sort out the music. Guess we'll find out but I'm gonna try to not get my hopes up, just fix the damn darts in Shenmue II and Excite QTE in Shenmue I please.
 
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schoolboy said:
I swear I almost quit and waited for the patch right before I walked into the Come Over Guest House after getting off the boat because the music in the Green Market Quarter sounded awful. At times a random note would play out of nowhere like "diiiiiiing". But I pushed on or else I would've had to wait like a month and pray it's fixed. Truth be told I kind of got used to all of the botched music but I really hope they still fix it if they can. The music didn't seem to have any issues from what I heard in Guilin, at least that's how I remembered all of it. I thought the music was fine in Kowloon apart from that song that plays in the Stand Quarter and marketplace areas inside all of the buildings. Wishful thinking but maybe they delayed the patch to sort out the music. Guess we'll find out but I'm gonna try to not get my hopes up, just fix the damn darts in Shenmue II and Excite QTE in Shenmue I please.
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What puzzles me is how is Guilin all fine but other areas not So?
 
Honestly, I barely even notice... I mean, don't get me wrong, I hear the issues on certain music tracks, like the sustain and reverb that causes certain instruments to blend. Or the bits with weird pitch issues. It's just it really doesn't bother me all that much... *shrug*
 
Reprise said:
I'm so glad I started playing II and gave up waiting for the patch. I hadn't realised there was even more hyperbole surrounding its issues than with Shenmue 1 (and that had some serious hyperbole).

I'm really enjoying these modern re-releases ready for Shenmue 3 next year! :)
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That's actually refreshing to hear.
Personally though, I'll wait some more. It's been 10+ years since I visited either game, so I'm not letting anything even come close to hindering my first playthrough.
 
punkmanced said:
That's actually refreshing to hear.
Personally though, I'll wait some more. It's been 10+ years since I visited either game, so I'm not letting anything even come close to hindering my first playthrough.
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The thing with Shenmue 2, is it just feels on the whole far more of a smooth ride compared to Shenmue 1. I know the botched music is a huge deal to a lot of people here, but it isn't for me. Other than the music though, it's far less buggy than Shenmue 1 (at least that's how it feels so far). QTE's flash, cutscenes run perfectly, there doesn't seem to be any missing audio or cases of audio cutting off (I think?). On the whole, the game seems to run perfectly as far as I can see. Although I have heard darts doesn't play well (hopefully that is fixed in the upcoming patch).
 
Reprise said:
The thing with Shenmue 2, is it just feels on the whole far more of a smooth ride compared to Shenmue 1. I know the botched music is a huge deal to a lot of people here, but it isn't for me. Other than the music though, it's far less buggy than Shenmue 1 (at least that's how it feels so far). QTE's flash, cutscenes run perfectly, there doesn't seem to be any missing audio or cases of audio cutting off (I think?). On the whole, the game seems to run perfectly as far as I can see. Although I have heard darts doesn't play well (hopefully that is fixed in the upcoming patch).
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To be fair I didn't experience half the bugs in Shenmue 1 so my experience was on the whole great.

Shenmue 2 plays nicely. Crushed blacks is a minor issue and the music yes it's off but I turned it down a bit and it was again fine. I turned it up for Guilin as this was excellent.
 
spud1897 said:
I played through 2 and yes the music was annoying but after a while I didn't notice it.

Hopefully next time I play it's patched. Also oddly the music in Guilin is perfect. I've not a clue as to technically why this is the case but it does show in my opinion it can be sorted.
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Reading about how the Dreamcast had a dedicated soundboard, I wonder if a mod could be implemented to interface this board to a PC..
 
pilman said:
Reading about how the Dreamcast had a dedicated soundboard, I wonder if a mod could be implemented to interface this board to a PC..
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That would be awesome. Might be worth a request in the mods topic
 
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