Shenmue Dragon And Phoenix Collection

[Snoopbob2018]

While I think Virtua Bros did a good job of exposing this project to the masses, I think it would be best if we get someone on social media with a lot more reach like Digital Foundry to report on this project.

I think when this project has some public releases it will get huge exposure as its going to be incredible and a huge achievement for a fan based project.

I only worry that Sega will do a Nintendo on us.. So I am happy for its attention to be minimal until release.

Also great work guys!! Loving the updates!

 

[MistaL]

I think when this project has some public releases it will get huge exposure as its going to be incredible and a huge achievement for a fan based project.

I only worry that Sega will do a Nintendo on us.. So I am happy for its attention to be minimal until release.

Also great work guys!! Loving the updates!

I don't think there's any real precedent for Sega to do anything. None of the game's assets are going to be distributed as part of the mod, it just uses what's already on the user's PC. Plus, Sega has been okay with full-on remakes that do use their assets in the past, so if those are safe then this should be A-OK.

 

[Sergeynest]

While I think Virtua Bros did a good job of exposing this project to the masses, I think it would be best if we get someone on social media with a lot more reach like Digital Foundry to report on this project.

That is a great idea; John Linneman is known for being a fan of the series; i'm almost certain he would be glad to report the project and considering that their videos tend to focus more on the technicall aspects of the games it would be perfect to show the improvements and changes made in both the Dragon and Phoenix editions of the games.

 

[spud1897]

Given the various press articles around the Eric Kelso mod since that released I'd be pretty confident that this project will catch fire once a demo/gameplay is shown.

Remember IGN ran a story on it and that was "only" screenshots and without the push of a stream + YouTube release as well.

 

[Lord Tentei]

I wanna know how far we off from a playable demo...

 

[Old Snake]

This is extremely amazing.

And I am really excited to see how Shenmue 2 will benefit of this, because of the first 2 it's the one that needs this visual revamp that make Hong Kong truly shine.

 

[code l name]

This is extremely amazing.

And I am really excited to see how Shenmue 2 will benefit of this, because of the first 2 it's the one that needs this visual revamp that make Hong Kong truly shine.

That’s an interesting point, I assume one area of the game that does feel and look dated was the foliage and with UE4 with no repeated textures Guilin would really shine.

With that said I’m sure those large urban environments will look great with a lot of modern techniques and visual tweaks.

 

[MJC The Great]

Are you allowed to accept financial donations from people or would that put you at risk of being sued? This project looks really exciting and I would like to be able to support it in some way.

 

[Jibby]

New screenshot!

 

[code l name]

New screenshot!

Amazing, so hyped for this!

 

[Sergeynest]

New screenshot!

🦅 👧 He shall appear from a far eastern land across the sea.

 

[Suzaku]

I don't know how far you're in development, but do you plan to ask Sega to make it an official remake eventually? Now they are more open to this kind of initiatives.

Of course there is always a risk involved, but it would be great to have an official remake of this kind, imagine working side by side with Am2, like Sonic Mania people had Sega's Sonic Team at their side.

 

[Kirino_Matsuyama]

This project is like a wonderful dream 😭🥰.

I cannot believe that there are such talented people out there, willing to spend their time in creating something so special 🌠. Thank you all so much.

 

[LemonHaze]

Are you allowed to accept financial donations from people or would that put you at risk of being sued? This project looks really exciting and I would like to be able to support it in some way.

Right now, individual team members are still allowed to take donations (for example, I still accept donations for my reverse engineering and research work and coffees etc; CashApp: £lhreversing), but we're not taking donations directly for the project.. yet.

We're still looking into the possibility of seeing how this can be achieved for the project as a whole.

I don't know how far you're in development, but do you plan to ask Sega to make it an official remake eventually? Now they are more open to this kind of initiatives.

We've definitely thought about it but it's not something we're focusing on right now.

 

[Sergeynest]

I recently replayed Shenmue 3 and while was playing the forklift mini game it got me thinking that it would be great to add the same variety of objects to transport in the Phoenix edition of Shenmue 1; it would really make it feel more modern and at the same time more interesting to play.
I think you should have already considered implementing this improvement in the Phoenix edition; but if not I think you should really consider adding it.

 

[Sic86]

When do you think we eill be able to download it???

 

[orient]

We're still looking into the possibility of seeing how this can be achieved for the project as a whole.

I imagine that could be tricky because, as you already know, the moment you start "making money" (LOL) from someone else's IP, that's when these companies start to pay attention. You'd probably have to create a generic Patreon/whatever for the team, not the project, that encompasses any/all mod projects you work on. Who knows what you could have in the works!

 

[Sergeynest]

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Shenmue Dragon & Phoenix Collection is an engine replacement mod for the 2018 release of Shenmue I+II for PC that replaces the original engine with Unreal Engine 4, allowing for massive improvements across the board. This also modernizes the games, and brings their gameplay more in line with Shenmue III, while still maintaining the original look, feel, and core gameplay mechanics. Assets such as models, textures, and animations are extracted from a legitimately owned copy of Shenmue I+II, and placed into Unreal Engine 4 at install time which allows us to avoid many of the pitfalls other attempts at remakes have fallen into. This also allows us to cut back on some areas of development, such as recreating various gameplay sequences, and focus instead on smoothing out rough edges in the original gameplay, adding new features, and making the world look absolutely stunning and feel more alive than ever before.

Features​

Thanks to our use of Unreal Engine 4, we’ve been able to utilize modern rendering features such as PBR materials and real time raytracing to really bring out the best in the original models and textures, the world truly looks better than ever before. On top of this, we’ve also managed to stitch the whole game world together in one congruous map; this has necessitated some minor map changes to avoid clipping, such as expanding the exterior of the You Arcade, but no significant changes have been made. We’re also utilizing libretro for the arcade games such as Hang-On and Space Harrier, however, this also means other emulation cores may be used with minimal effort, allowing a potential for even more games to be included in the arcade or even for Ryo’s Saturn (or perhaps for you, the player, to add games yourself). Many, many more features are also planned, too numerous to list here even; however we cannot go into detail at this time, which we’ll discuss in a minute.

Dragon -AND- Phoenix Collection?​

Okay, now for the interesting part. Included in Shenmue Dragon & Phoenix Collection will be not one, but two ways to play the games. Dragon Edition, a true 1:1 port of both Shenmue I and II to Unreal Engine 4, or at least as close as we can make it, warts and all. For Dragon Edition, we plan to do very little in the way of new features, aside from small changes within reason, to preserve the original gameplay experience. However, there will also be Phoenix Edition, a full UE4 reimagining of the games. Again, all the core assets and gameplay present in Dragon Edition will be present in Phoenix Edition, but with more emphasis on modernizing the game, and adding new features. These features can be something as fundamentally game altering as the stamina system from Shenmue III (although less intrusive, before we get shot for saying that), or as minor as new cassettes in the Tomato Store. We’ve not really locked down any of those features just yet as we are still working on Dragon Edition, which means we can still use your suggestions and help if you’re willing and able.

So when can I play this?​

We have no set release date or even window at this point, the best we can say is “when it’s ready”

I want to help you. How can I do this?​

Join the Shenmue Modding Discord, contact us, and we’ll see what can be done. https://discord.com/invite/QRtyQR3dWK

You’re lying! There’s no way you managed to do this when Sega couldn’t do it themselves.​

Don’t believe us? That’s fine, have some screenshots; none of these are mock-ups, these were all taken in-engine, and in some cases even in-game, and most are out-of-date by now at that, so just know that any screenshots you see now, or in the future, are likely to be out-of-date by the time you’ve seen them/they’ve been posted here.

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Please note, these are 'Dragon Mode' screenshots and not representative of 'Phoenix Mode'.

This project is in no way affiliated with SEGA, YsNet or any original developers of the series. This is a non-profit, fan project.

Just watched the Shenmue Dojo interview with RyoX; he's a Shenmue Fan that makes some really great Synthwave music mixes of Shenmue music tracks and I suggested that he should get in touch with you; because I think it would be really great to have a collection of cassete tapes with his music tracks in the Phoenix edition of the project.
I believe they could give a more modern twist to the music in the game and since they are inspired in eletronic music from the 80's they would fit very well in the game.
Don't know if you ever heard of him; but I'm going to leave the link to his youtube channel so you can check out his music:
Shenmue Synthwave - YouTube

 

[Dewey]

When do you think we eill be able to download it???

We really have no strict release window in mind, the only answer we can give without being dishonest is "when it's ready" that could be 6 months from now, it could be 2 years from now. Remember, we're all doing this in our spare time, and we're trying to make this as high quality a project as we can. Putting any timeframes on it at this point in development will only lead to disappointment, both for you guys, and for us

 

[Evermor]

Hello, i cant' access the Discord. The link is expired.