{"id":55229,"date":"2018-10-15T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/328647"},"modified":"2018-10-15T20:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T20:47:00","slug":"canceled-version-of-a-shenmue-hd-remaster-shows-what-couldve-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/10\/15\/canceled-version-of-a-shenmue-hd-remaster-shows-what-couldve-been\/","title":{"rendered":"Canceled version of a Shenmue HD remaster shows what could&#8217;ve been"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s always a shame when a game\u00a0is canceled.\u00a0However, being able to see the canceled iteration\u00a0of a project\u00a0before the plug was pulled could provide\u00a0valuable insight into\u00a0the behind-the-scenes of game development, especially for\u00a0the remaster of\u00a0<em>Shenmue.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>An HD remaster\u00a0of Sega&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Shenmue\u00a01<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>and <em>2\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>was released earlier this year for modern consoles, but there was a more ambitious, totally-overhauled version of\u00a0<em>Shenmue\u00a0<\/em>that was in the works &#8212; and eventually axed in favor of a more straightforward remake.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=200&amp;v=7O7x0Urgvz4\">Digital Foundry<\/a>\u00a0broke down the differences between the released HD remasters and the unreleased, more ambitious version that uses completely new assets.<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s not clear why Sega changed direction, it can be assumed the canceled version of\u00a0<em>Shenmue\u00a0<\/em>was pulled due\u00a0to budget constraints and development delays.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/canceled-version-of-a-shenmue-hd-remaster-shows-what-couldve-been.png\" \/>Based on the work-in-progress video provided by Digital Foundry, it seems\u00a0the canceled iteration of\u00a0<em>Shenmue<\/em>\u00a0contained\u00a0graphical upgrades which weren&#8217;t included in the HD remaster.<\/p>\n<p>It looks as though there are major\u00a0improvements to the rendering, where proper shadow maps are implemented. Textures and foliage\u00a0a much higher resolution,\u00a0while the geometry is more complex. When comparing structures, flat\u00a0textured roof tiles and fence posts become fully 3D objects.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the same <em>Shenmue\u00a0<\/em>game\u00a0but\u00a0reworked completely. Foliage, trees and stone work benefits from all of the same improvements, light shafts are added in one location showcased in the video, and\u00a0ambient occlusion (not a feature of the original game) is also included.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/canceled-version-of-a-shenmue-hd-remaster-shows-what-couldve-been-1.png\" \/>NPCs are also touched up, with increased geometry and new normal maps designed to increase the perception of detail. While the video also provides very little\u00a0footage of\u00a0<em>Shenmue\u00a02,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0texture detail is bumped up\u00a0and the addition of shadow-maps adds depth to the environment.<\/p>\n<p>The video of the\u00a0discarded version of\u00a0<em>Shenmue\u00a0<\/em>is incredibly interesting and offers an interpretation as to why Sega decided to move in a different direction, so be sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=200&amp;v=7O7x0Urgvz4\">watch the entire analysis here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s always a shame when a game\u00a0is canceled.\u00a0However, being able to see the canceled iteration\u00a0of a project\u00a0before the plug was pulled could provide\u00a0valuable insight into\u00a0the behind-the-scenes of game development, especially for\u00a0the remaster of\u00a0Shenmue.\u00a0 An HD remaster\u00a0of Sega&#8217;s\u00a0Shenmue\u00a01\u00a0and 2\u00a0\u00a0was released earlier this year for modern consoles, but there was a more ambitious, totally-overhauled version of\u00a0Shenmue\u00a0that was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}