@eriscorp/dalib-ts

TypeScript library for parsing and manipulating Dark Ages (DOOMVAS v1) game client files.

Translated from eriscorp/dalib, the original C# implementation, under the MIT license.

Installation

npm install @eriscorp/dalib-ts

Supported Formats

| Format | Class(es) | Description | |--------|-----------|-------------| | .dat | DataArchive, DataArchiveEntry | Game data archives | | .map | MapFile | Map layout files | | .meta | MetaFile, MetaFileEntry | Metadata files | | .hpf | HpfFile | Tile graphics | | .spf | SpfFile, SpfFrame | Sprite frames | | .epf | EpfFile, EpfFrame | Entity / mob sprites | | .mpf | MpfFile, MpfFrame | Map sprites | | .efa | EfaFile, EfaFrame | Effect animations | | .lft | LftFile | Bitmap fonts (the format the client actually renders text with) | | .fnt / .hea | FntFile, HeaFile | Dormant fixed-cell fonts / light masks | | sotp.dat | SotpFile | Static-tile collision & render flags | | .tbl | PaletteTable, ColorTable, TileAnimationTable, EffectTable | Lookup tables | | .control | ControlFile, Control | UI layout files |

Usage

Reading a data archive (Node.js)

import { DataArchive } from '@eriscorp/dalib-ts';

const archive = DataArchive.fromFile('path/to/archive.dat');

// List all .spf entries
const sprites = archive.getEntriesByExtension('.spf');

// Get a specific entry's raw bytes
const entry = archive.get('sprite001.spf');
if (entry) {
  const buffer = archive.getEntryBuffer(entry);
}

Reading a data archive (browser)

import { DataArchive } from '@eriscorp/dalib-ts';

const response = await fetch('archive.dat');
const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
const archive = DataArchive.fromBuffer(buffer);

Parsing a sprite file

import { DataArchive, SpfFile, Palette } from '@eriscorp/dalib-ts';

const archive = DataArchive.fromFile('seo.dat');

const spfEntry = archive.get('sprite001.spf')!;
const palEntry = archive.get('sprite001.pal')!;

const spf = SpfFile.fromBuffer(archive.getEntryBuffer(spfEntry));
const palette = Palette.fromBuffer(archive.getEntryBuffer(palEntry));

Resolving the palette for a legacy entry

Legacy sprites do not carry their own colors. PaletteResolver applies the client's rules to find the correct palette for an entry:

import { DataArchive, PaletteResolver } from '@eriscorp/dalib-ts';

const archive = DataArchive.fromFile('legend.dat');
// The provider supplies sibling archives; return null when unavailable.
const resolver = new PaletteResolver('legend.dat', archive, name => null);

const resolved = resolver.resolve(archive.get('item001.epf')!, 0);
if (resolved) {
  // resolved.palette, resolved.paletteNumber, resolved.ruleId
  // resolved.luminanceBlended → render with straight (non-premultiplied) alpha
} else {
  // No rule matched, or data is missing — fall back to a manual picker.
}

Rendering to ImageData

import { renderSpfPalettized } from '@eriscorp/dalib-ts';

const frame = spf.frames[0];
const rgbaFrame = renderSpfPalettized(frame, palette);

// rgbaFrame.data is a Uint8ClampedArray — pass directly to ImageData
const imageData = new ImageData(rgbaFrame.data, rgbaFrame.width, rgbaFrame.height);
ctx.putImageData(imageData, 0, 0);

API Overview

Binary I/O

• SpanReader — low-level binary reader (LE/BE integers, fixed-length ASCII, byte spans)
• SpanWriter — low-level binary writer
• compressHpf / decompressHpf — HPF tile compression

Cryptography

• crc16(data) — CRC-16 checksum
• crc32(data) — CRC-32 checksum

Utilities

• decodeRgb555 / encodeRgb555 — RGB555 color codec
• decodeRgb565 / encodeRgb565 — RGB565 color codec
• quantizeFrames — palette quantization for image export
• cropTransparentPixels — trim transparent borders from frames

Palette resolution

• PaletteResolver — resolves the palette for entries of one open archive; returns ResolvedPalette (palette, paletteNumber, luminanceBlended, kind, ruleId) or null
• matchPaletteRule(archiveName, entryName) — the pure rule-match stage, for tests and hosts that only need the ruleId
• PaletteLookup.getResolvedPaletteForId(id, override?) — like getPaletteForId, and reports the real palette number plus the luminance-blending flag

Virtualized (lazy) Views

For large archives, avoid decoding everything upfront:

• SpfView, EpfView, MpfView, EfaView, TilesetView

These decode individual frames on demand rather than parsing the entire file.

License

MIT