@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
.fnt / .hea	FntFile, HeaFile	Bitmap fonts
.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));

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

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