Load times have always been a factor in Shenmue (for example, my Shenmue any% WR is not as much of an improvement over puri's as it seems - my Dreamcast loads a little faster than his).

However, with a PC version now being available, differing load times are more significant than ever. To make matters worse, it's possible to run the Xbox version of Shenmue II from the hard drive of a modded Xbox, resulting in differences in loads of several minutes.

As such, we need a method of removing loads. Generic load removers that rely on video simply don't work, as loading starts before the load screen appears, and ends before the load screen fades out (and the load screen fading out is a problem too). Relying on memory addresses is more effective, but unfortunately will only work for the PC version.

I suggest a compromise; although the load screen start/endpoints are not discrete, the UI appearing/disappearing is. For loads bookended by gameplay, we can use the time between the UI disappearing and the UI reappearing (perhaps minus two seconds to account for the fade out/fade in) as "loading time".

For loads involving exiting to the menu, there's no fade out - so we can time these accurately using only the black screen as loading time. For loads from menu to game, we can go from black screen to UI appearing (again, perhaps minus a second to account for the fade in).

For loads with a cutscene on either end, we'll have to ignore them - there's no reliable timing point.

Pros/cons:

• it helps level the playing field, so that having a PC that takes longer to load isn't a disadvantage, and running the game from the hard drive on the Xbox isn't an advantage.

• it's consistent across both games and all platforms, both old and new.

• depending on how it affects the route taken (remains to be seen), it may mean that Dreamcast, Xbox, and Re-release runs are comparable, so we can recombine them into one - at least for some categories.

• it has to be done manually; this would take a while (especially bringing old runs up to date) and require verification.

• it doesn't remove all load times, only most of them.

It's important we get this sorted, so let me know what you think of the above solution, as well as bringing up any other potential solutions.

This post goes for shenmue 1 as well so I won't repost.

I think we should just stick to RTA if you can't remove all loading times. Doing it manually is prone to human error also so it's never going to be truly accurate so I'd rather it never be a thing. Sometimes there just isn't an easy answer to a problem like this so it's best to stick with what works over trying to fix it. I will say though that I don't believe softmodded consoles should be allowed. It's a clear cut advantage over running on disc.

I would just like to clarify that running on a softmodded console doesn't mean you're running off of the harddrive, and as such banning softmodded consoles don't make a whole lot of sense. Just require running the game from the disc.

Sticking with RTA, at least for the consoles, would be my choice. As for PC, I don't really have a preference.

I mean, if you take away the faster load times what's even the point of running the games on PC besides that it's easier to get?

Here's what I'd like to see:

For consoles: Focus on figuring out the reasons why certain consoles load faster than others and use RTA. This would be much easier than a mod manually removing load times and would help reduce variances in the load times.

For PC: Use the load time remover since people's hardware differs and that would affect run times.

The problem with using a load time remover on PC (note that we don't yet even have a consistent load time remover) and not on consoles is that it means we have to split up PC and console versions; we're already splitting up the categories enough already, and that's because these different versions of the game require different routes.

To get the fastest time on the PC version of the game, you take exactly the same route as you would in the Xbox One version of the game, and exactly the same route as you would in the PS4 version of the game. It makes no sense to divide them from a speedrun perspective.

Personally I think the HD remake should just be a separate leaderboard anyway and splitting up the platforms then wouldn't look nearly as bad that way. It would make the leaderboards look way cleaner and much easier to navigate.

A separate leaderboard as in a separate game page? That's almost definitely not going to happen.

It's already a separate leaderboard otherwise.