Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?

Agrajag

Thanks.

I got DLE2.1 running, but the key thing to understand was one thread on here explaining that you treat it like it's its own game and thus it has it's own entire structure. That was a critical piece to grasp. Essentially the key was to name everything "dle21" that was named "lair" under Dragon's Lair as in 'lair.daphne" becoming "dle21.daphne" and "lair.zip" becoming "dle21", etc. Simple when you see it after the fact. Not so obvious before the fact.

However, the readme doesn't cover things like the enhanced HD graphics and such.

jamrom2

@agrajag Hiya, as Agrajag has pointed out, it has nothing to do with the version of the game. Daphne doesn't really care as long as all your files and folders are set correctly.

so in my "roms' folder, I have 3 folders for Dragon's Lair named as such for each version.

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne
lair.daphne
dle11.daphne
dle21.daphne

Then in each named folder above I have the following:

The framefile named exactly as the folder it sits in... ex: dle11.txt is in dle11.daphne
all the .mv2, .dat and .ogg files for the game (if they need them)

In the same "roms" folder along with all the *.daphne folders, I have another folder named "roms" as well. So in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne I also have a "roms" folder as such... /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/roms.

In that folder sits all the required rom.zip files for each version. And that has to be named the same as the folder and frame file as well. So for DLE 1.1.. the rom is named dle11.zip, for DLE2.1... it's dle21.zip.

One more thing... make sure you open your frame and DELETE the location at the very top. Just put a "." (a dot) at the top like this.... this is my dle11.txt framefile.

.

151 dl-slates.m2v
323 dls00.vob.m2v
1366 dls01.vob.m2v
2044 dls01d1.vob.m2v

If there is a location written there... Daphne will be blonde and do blonde things... lol.

The downside of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is that if you want to run the other versions, you need to have copies of each movie set separately. You can't point several at the same location. Daphne needs to see a sa.daphne and sae.daphne folder for each. This of course takes-up a lot of space.. especially Dragon's Lair that has 3 versions...but I highly recommend it. The three versions of Dragon's Lair are all different and run a totally different sequence for each.

One more thing... I HIGHLY recommend going out on the web and finding the HD converted versions of the movie files. What a massive difference it makes on an LCD Screen. The are easily found with a simple Google. You can get them for Cliff Hanger as well... another great laserdisc game.

I hope that helps.

JR

Agrajag

@jamrom2 Thanks for this. That's right on what I was after.

I did just grab sirdrak's 4:3 HD files (I assume those are the ones you referenced above) and was just wondering how they get set up for RP's Daphne as it appears what he put in the archives was just a copy of his PC-based Daphne structure.

The videos of this look incredible, though I believe I read in a few posts that there are potential playback issues with this, though those posts pre-date the pi4 which is what I'm running this all on. Frankly, just getting the core arcade version going was a blast yesterday. It's been 30 years since I've seen this.

(Update: I just ran the 4:3 HD files. Stunning. Now I have to get this running on the RP setup. Could definitely use assistance on getting what sirdrak provides and converting that over to run in a retropie instance. Not even sure which roms he uses as there are literally 21 sets in his archives just for Dragon's Lair. I'm suspecting it's not just a simple matter of dropping the new m2p files over the old ones.)

Agrajag

@jamrom2

Sorta wondering if maybe the light didn't just go on for RP setup for this stuff. Is this correct?

A. Under /configs/daphne/ you just place your dainput.ini. This will take care of your controls. There will also be the standard emulators.cfg file.

B . Under /roms/daphne/ you create a folder for the version you want to appear in the retropie UI. You may have to name these folders <name>.daphne (as that's what my working ones are called). So I currently have lair.daphne for the typical untouched arcade version and another folder called dle21.daphne for the enhanced version with untouched art (it uses the same art as the lair.daphne instance).

B1. Under each of those folders you need various files. However, CRITICAL files in this folder must be named like the parent folder, so in the case of my files under lair.daphne, several of them must be named lair.*

I have a lair.commands file that is completely optional. It holds command line parameters for the Daphne emulator to use in Retropie instead of manually typing them from the command line. Read up on Daphne commands files for more info.
There's a .dat file that exists for every .m2v and/or .ogg file also here. These don't seem to need to be named like the folder.
There's the . m2v files and .ogg files mentioned above.
There's the .txt file which is another CRITICAL file and must be named the same as the folder, so in this case mine for lair.daphne is called lair.txt. This file is also critical. It's what I believe Daphne calls a framefile and I believe it tells Daphne which .m2v file plays and when. The contents of this are beyond the scope here and generally comes with each version so you don't have to build it. Basically, the first line is a folder structure pointer that most of the time will just be a simple period meaning, all .m2v files are found in this folder, but this could be a folder structure to point elsewhere. Starting on line 3 (line 2 is blank) there's a line with an ascending number and then a .m2v filename related to the number before it. I'm not sure what those numbers are, but it's clear that their makeup is essential for how each game plays out.

C. Under /roms/daphne/ you also need another /roms/ folder for each of the roms of the Daphne games/versions you want to play. These are zips that contain the roms and must be named to match the filenames just above this new folder. So, my /roms/daphne/roms folder currently has two zip files named dle21.zip and lair.zip. If Retropie tries to run the DLE version of Dragon's Lair it will require roms here in a zip called dle21.zip and the raw rom files inside the zip are specific to each version.

Does that cover it?

Agrajag

@jamrom2 So close....

I used the above approach to create a lair43hd instance (4:3 HD from sirdrak) and it looks fine, but I suspect the commands file or rom is wrong. I just renamed the rom zip from the core lair setup and the commands appear important to this.

I'd be very curious to know what you did to get the HD files in place and working? Ultimately I'd like to have an original version (for posterity) and HD versions.

I also wonder what he did to get the widescreen versions. I'm assuming he used zoomed in frames to get there and, if so, that doesn't interest me.

roslof

@jamrom2 said in Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?:

If there is a location written there... Daphne will be blonde and do blonde things... lol.
The downside of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is that if you want to run the other versions, you need to have copies of each movie set separately. You can't point several at the same location.

The location is useful. It doesn't have to be a period. Changing it correctly will allow you to use a single set of movies.

My directories, as an example:

lair.daphne has all the stuff in it, including movies and framefile named lair.txt, which is using a period for its directory

dle21.daphne ONLY has a framefile in it named dle21.txt. Nothing else. The top line is not a period. It simply uses the correct path to lair.daphne, which already has all of the required video and sound files.

Top line for dle21.txt: ../lair.daphne/

So, don't be a blonde (as you say) and duplicate video files unnecessarily. :P
Enjoy the tip.

jamrom2

@roslof said in Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?:

@jamrom2 said in Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?:

If there is a location written there... Daphne will be blonde and do blonde things... lol.
The downside of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is that if you want to run the other versions, you need to have copies of each movie set separately. You can't point several at the same location.

The location is useful. It doesn't have to be a period. Changing it correctly will allow you to use a single set of movies.

My directories, as an example:

lair.daphne has all the stuff in it, including movies and framefile named lair.txt, which is using a period for its directory

dle12.daphne ONLY has a framefile in it named dle12.txt. Nothing else. The top line is not a period. It simply uses the correct path to lair.daphne, which already has all of the required video and sound files.

Top line for dle12.txt: ../lair.daphne/

So, don't be a blonde (as you say) and duplicate video files unnecessarily. :P
Enjoy the tip.

LOL! Got me there. I always wondered if there was a way to allow more than one rom file accessing the same set of video files.

I will try this as well.

@Agrajag As far as everything else related to daphne and config files... all I did was load it from the Retropie menu and let it do it's own build. After that, it was just a matter of fiddling with the framefile, rom and folder names. They have to be exact and match each other. Otherwise it will never work. That's the only key to Daphne. It's finicky.

Yes. dainput.ini is where it needs to be, and you edit it as stated. You have to run jtest /dev/input/js0 and find out what your input assignments are. Then put them into the dainput.ini file where needed.

Follow this thread for more info.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16588/daphne-control-help/4

The layout of the video files is whatever it was recorded in. I used the HD 780 size. I think they worked the best. Any high res on my Pi3b+ caused too many slowdowns. It's fine the way it looks. Very crisp. I get what you're saying about keeping the old video files... but once you use the new ones... you'll never go back. It kills your eyes. LOL. They did a very nice job converting them to HD.

I did not experience any playback issues other than the usual Daphne performance. Daphne is excellent, but I find the death scenes to be a little shorter than I remember them being in the actual arcade. That's my only beef about the emulator... but you know what, who cares. It's great to have such a fun classic and other right at our fingertips.

JR

jamrom2

@agrajag I pulled down the new set you did... for whatever reason, the last .rar file was corrupted and I blew the limit for today. These files are huge... and wow do the screenshots look incredible.

I just wonder if I can play it on a Pi3b+ . The 1080 format really beats up the GPU. But I'll try.

sirdrak did an amazing job on these and I can see them being the baseline for anyone running the DL & SA series of games.

JR

Here's the link if anyone else wants it.. but you have to create an account with Emuline in order to see the links.

http://www.emuline.org/topic/1930-arcade-pc-dragons-lair-1-2-space-ace-remastered-using-deep-learning-1080p-169-43-formats/?_fromLogin=1

AdamBeGood

@jamrom2 I am still not sure about whether I want to move to HD files. Isn't the poor quality more retro and fitting anyway? 🤔

But it's good to have the option to consider, so thanks for the link!

jamrom2

@adambegood No it's not.

The quality on the original laser discs was outstanding, especially for back then. What we got from the first gen CD's and DVD's were "best possible" rips of whatever laserdiscs or whatever they did to make them available for the general public. The original Digital Leisure DVD's don't compare at all to these cleaned-up versions. This is what DL should look like.

There is no harm in using these HD files. I say preserve these old classics in their best form. You can always downgrade them with software if you want.

I've used both. I've had DL running on Daphne in on of my MAME cabinets for well over 18 years. The cabinet is actually 20 years old now (well... it's really an original 1982 Stern Frenzy cabinet converted to a BerZerk MAME cabinet I restored 20 years ago) and I recently upgraded it to a new, smaller and faster PC with a 20" Dell LCD from an old 19" CRT.

The difference is stunning. DL and all the Daphne games I have look incredible, as they should.

Agrajag

@roslof So are you using the HD art version?

My dle21.daphne is set up like yours where the location just points to the m2v file of lair.daphne.

My dle.daphne has the following:

dl21.ogg (which I don't think is being used since the frame file directs to lair.daphne and thus it would use the ogg(s) that are there.

dle21.commands which contains just this:
-bank 0 11001000 -bank 1 00100111 -useoverlaysb 2
That tells the game how to set options for two banks of dip switches and to turn on score overlay 2 (which I'm just testing out).

dle21.dat which I think is required.

dle21.txt which is the framefile and has this in it:

../lair.daphne/

151	lair.m2v

Very simple and it works.

The challenge is how to make it all work with the myriad of HD files.

Agrajag

@jamrom2

Let me know if you get this working. I'd love to know your setup if you do. I've spent the entire day on it so far and somehow haven't gotten the combination lock picked yet to have it work.

I mainly started by taking the lair.daphne, copying it (on the SD card) and then just replacing the M2V stuff and Ogg stuff, then the framefile and that just didn't want to run. I have to think my 4b can run 4:3 HD. I have his stuff running in PC-based Daphne with no problem, so I've seen it. Incredible. Now I have to have it.

roslof

@agrajag said in Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?:

Very simple and it works.
The challenge is how to make it all work with the myriad of HD files.

Let's use Dragon's Lair as an example again. Use your favorite video set. Doesn't matter which set, provided it has matching ogg(s) and matching framefile named lair.txt. Exactly one full, complete set. It should all live in lair.daphne. This framefile should have just a period on its first line and only m2v/ogg data after that. The various DL ROMs should be in their separate place. You don't need anything else, except the optional .commands file for your settings. DAT files will generate automatically when Daphne runs with the correct framefile.

Once lair is tested and working, COPY the lair.txt framefile all by itself into the other Dragon's Lair directories, like dle21.daphne. You don't need any dle21 video files or ogg files or dat files. Optionally, you could use .command files. Then, you only need to rename your copied framefile as the same name as the romname (so in the dle21.daphne directory, rename lair.txt to dle21.txt). Then, just edit the framefile topline to point to the folder with the original videos, which should be '''../lair.daphne'''

That should get you squared.

roslof

Oh, perhaps I misunderstood. Do you mean that you have a bunch of new videos, but you don't have a corresponding framefile that references them? The author should provide this. If not, you could TRY using one that already exists, and with a text editor search/replace or manually change so the references in the framefile match your videos. No guarantees this will work. Being off a few frames could cause issues, especially with the slates.

Sounds like your HD videos were derived from the 720P videos, so last resort, maybe check there?

Agrajag

@roslof I was just tripping over this issue now. I had created a folder on daphne called lair43hd and had everything named that assuming it wasn't important to DAPHNE, but then I noticed the runcommand error:

Parameters: 
Executing: SDL1_VIDEODRIVER=dispmanx SDL_DISPMANX_WIDTH=1920 SDL_DISPMANX_HEIGHT=1080 /opt/retropie/emulators/daphne/daphne.sh "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/lair43hd.daphne"
ls: cannot access '/proc/kcore': No such file or directory
--DAPHNE version 1.0.13
--Command line is: /opt/retropie/emulators/daphne/daphne.bin lair43hd vldp -nohwaccel -framefile /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/lair43hd.daphne/lair43hd.txt -homedir /opt/retropie/emulators/daphne -fullscreen dle21 -useoverlaysb 2 
--CPU : UnknownCPU 0 MHz || Mem : 0 megs
--OS : Linux 5.4 || Video : Unknown video
--OpenGL: Compiled In
--RGB2YUV Function: C
--Line Blending Function: C
--Audio Mixing Function: C
Setting alternate home dir:
/opt/retropie/emulators/daphne
ERROR: Unknown game type specified : lair43hd
Bad command line or initialization problem (see daphne_log.txt for details). 
To run DAPHNE, you must specify which game to run and which laserdisc player you are using. 
For example, try 'daphne lair noldp' to run Dragon's Lair in testing mode.

ERROR: Unknown game type specified: lair43hd

AHA. But WHY is it calling for that game TYPE? I even try to reset it in the commands file to call a valid game type (dle21, dle11, lair, etc.) but it sticks to this which suggests that it'd be really hard to have BOTH the HD version AND the non-HD version on the same system, no?

Agrajag

@roslof No. That's not it. I have the correct framefile for the videos in question.

roslof

@agrajag said in Daphne Dragon's Lair Enhancement Tutorial?:

I had created a folder on daphne called lair43hd

The script that is launching Daphne assumes that the directory name matches the ROM name, so since you're using the script, folder names must match a strict criteria.

One option is that you could opt to create a different emulator line in ../configs/daphne/emulators.cfg that doesn't use the script and calls the daphne executable directly and force command-lines, and then only use it for a single game... But a bit of a pain. But it is possible.

Another option, if you just want the novelty of having two video sets is to maybe use the classic videos for lair, and use the newer enhanced videos for dle21. Here, if course, you would need dle21.daphne to contain a full m2v/ogg set and change the top of the dle21.txt framefile to a period.

The script itself could also be modified, but that'll take some knowledge.

Agrajag

@roslog

Okay, that got it working, mainly.

My issue was the command file. I was trying to call a specific rom version within it and RP Daphne doesn't seem to like that. PC-based Daphne uses this to determine which rom version to apply. The valid commands list is here:

http://www.daphne-emu.com/mediawiki/index.php/CmdLine

Now mine just says:

-fastboot -useoverlaysb 2

This skips the long diagnostic load and puts up a score overlay (just testing this).

The video was stunning, BUT I think I might need something else in commands due to performance. I kept getting errors between scenes that said, "Video parsing" and it would list a percentage of it getting through the parsing. Perhaps this video is just too much for the Pi4b as well?

Agrajag

@roslof I suspect the script is making things a bit harder:

#!/bin/bash
dir="$1"
name="${dir##*/}"
name="${name%.*}"

if [[ -f "$dir/$name.commands" ]]; then
    params=$(<"$dir/$name.commands")
fi

"/opt/retropie/emulators/daphne/daphne.bin" "$name" vldp -nohwaccel -framefile "$dir/$name.txt" -homedir "/opt/retropie/emulators/daphne" -fullscreen $params

My scripting days are long behind me, but it's clear this script is hard-coding a number of things like the $name right before the vldp (which says use a virtual laser disc player) which is forcing "lair" to be the name of the version being run. If this were removed and you then just put the correct version in the commands file then you could run lair, dle11, dle22, etc. This is also a shame as the lair roms have a bug that doesn't support the opening bridge scene.

However, all that said, given the video parsing issues I'm seeing, I have doubts now that this version is even possible on Retropie on a pi4. It was nearly unplayable. Lost two lives when "Video parsing" popped up in the middle of a scene.

Agrajag

Got a bit better.

I now have this as my lair.command file:

-fastboot -min_seek_delay 1000 -seek_frames_per_ms 20 -blank_searches -noissues

That did not eliminate the video parsing issues, but it did reduce them dramatically. Perhaps tweaking that some more might do it. I wonder if there's any changes we can make to the pi itself to help with this. It sounds like a video loading performance issue. Perhaps there's an option to increase video caching? I have no idea.