The Libretro Team
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OpenLara — new core update! Local multiplayer mode and more!
🕑 Added 2018-05-11 12:51:56 +0000 UTC Disclaimer: We did not make the OpenLara project. It is an open-source project ran by XProger. We simply ported it to the Libretro API and got it to work well as a libretro core. We might have added some features like a framerate mode selection and spent some time on getting the frame pacing to work correctly, but that is about it.
We have updated the OpenLara libretro core, itself an integration port of this very promising and very fast-moving game engine recreation of the original Tomb Raider series! Check out this project here — http://xproger.info/projects/OpenLara/ and be sure to visit their Github too.
NOTE: To use OpenLara, you currently need your video driver set to ‘gl’. It won’t work with any of the D3D drivers right now, or Vulkan for that matter.
This game engine recreation seeks to allow you to play the original Tomb Raider engine games, from 1 all the way up to 5. Right now, levels can be loaded from any of the first three Tomb Raider games. Tomb Raider 1 is rapidly nearing completion (save for the odd AI routine of some enemies still missing), and Tomb Raider 2/3 levels are just beginning to load, but still have some behavioral issues that prevents them from being fully playable. You will see some instances of that still in this video.
You can see numerous enhancements over the original Tomb Raider games on Saturn/PlayStation/PC. For one, the framerate is no longer fixed to 30fps, and you can now run it at a smooth 60fps framerate. For the libretro port I decided to expose even more framerate options, allowing you to play at 90fps, 120fps or even 144fps. You can also set the internal resolution of the game. What you see here in this video is the game running at a 4K resolution with the internal resolution 7680x4320 (essentially 8K resolution).
But that is not all! There are also lovely new water effects, self-shadowing on all the player models (although this still has some visual anomalies at places), improved lighting effects, including colored lighting (you can see the save crystals emanating a blue light for instance, something which definitely was not in any of the prior Tomb Raider versions), the ability to target two enemies at the same time individually, etc. The graphical enhancements can all be toggled on/off inside the game’s inventory settings screen (toggleable by pressing the Select button).
But there is even more than that! There is also a brand new local multiplayer mode. You toggle the game into splitscreen mode by pressing Start at any one time. From there, you can see a second Lara character, which is only distinguished from the main character by a slightly jerky animation update routine. Player 2 can now take control of this Lara and you can engage in ‘jolly co-operation’. At all times, Player 1 can beckon Player 2 back to his position by pressing the Start button, which resets player 2’s position back to Player 1’s so that Player 2 can always be brought back in case he/she is running too far astray.
There is also a first person view that you can toggle into by pressing the Look button (L button) and then pressing the Action button (B button). This gives you a Mirror’s Edge-esque first person view.
Do we take any credit for this core? Nope, besides the mere integration changes and getting everything to work in Libretro, not really. We just find this project really cool and we hope we can give it some more time in the spotlight since it definitely deserves it. The time for when a fully complete Tomb Raider game engine recreation is completely in the bag cannot come soon enough.
Note - Some current incomplete things about the current libretro port — you still have to load each level individually, and prior to this update sound files could be located correctly. Some things got changed here so we still need to sort this out. This is also the reason why you don’t hear any sound in this video when loading Tomb Raider 2/3 levels, since the main.sfx file could not be found (and other required levels).
Note — this game engine can take either PSX data files or PC data files. Even Sega Saturn data support has been added to the game engine!
This is a reproduction of the Medium article.
