Laura's Happy Adventures

Laura's Happy Adventures

Developers
	Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers
	Playmobil Interactive
Engines
	Ubisoft OpenSpace
Release dates
Windows	1998
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Adventure
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Fantasy, Victorian
Series	Playmobil

Playmobil
Laura's Happy Adventures	1998
Alex Builds His Farm	1999
Hype: The Time Quest	1999
Rescue from Rock Castle	2004
The Big Treasure Hunt	2005
Playmobil Alarm	2007
Playmobil Constructions	2007
Playmobil Knights	2009
Playmobil Pirates	2009
Playmobil: The Movie VR Adventures	Cancelled

Laura's Happy Adventures is a singleplayer third-person adventure game in the Playmobil series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Simple disc check.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\UbiSoft\ubi.ini

To run the game without admin privileges, make sure to place ubi.ini in %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\Windows\UbiSoft\.

To run the game with admin privileges (e.g. in Win XP compatibility mode), make sure that ubi.ini is in %WINDIR%\UbiSoft\.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\GameData\SaveGame\

Video

Ubisoft Configuration Tool (Original)

Ubisoft Configuration Tool (Pentium 3 Release)

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Always on in Direct3D. In Glide, use nGlide and set in nglide_config.exe, or use dgVoodoo 2.
60 FPS		Frame rate is capped at 63 FPS in Glide. Animations are locked at 30 FPS, however only in the Pentium 3 version, their framerate can be increased by turning on Use Animation Interpolation in <path-to-game>\UBIConfig.exe.
120+ FPS		Runs too fast.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

The widescreen fix is different for the "old" version of the game vs. the new "Pentium III" version. If owning both versions, it's recommended to use the "Pentium III" version, as the widescreen fix is much easier to do and the result seems to be more stable. Also make sure to install the Direct3D version of the game since it' not guaranteed this works with the Glide version.

Large resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080) might crash the game. It is therefore recommended to set a lower resolution (e.g. 1280x720 in the "Pentium III" version or 640x360 in the "old" version) and use a display wrapper to scale the resolution. See Direct3D wrapper.

Uncommon resolutions (e.g. 800x450 or 640x360) are automatically changed back to a 4:3 aspect ratio. To fix this, see Direct3D wrapper.

Lower vertical FOV in wider aspect ratios. Increase FOV to compensate, see Field of view (FOV).

Change resolution in the "Pentium III" version
Open ubi.ini (see Configuration file(s) location). Under the section [LAURA P3], add the line ScreenSize if it does not exist. Insert the preferred resolution (for example, ScreenSize=1280x720, ScreenSize=800x450 or ScreenSize=640x360).

Change resolution in the "old" version

Open <path-to-game>\Laura.exe with a hex editor such as HxD. Press Ctrl+F and set Datatype to Hex-values. Search for the byte sequence 68 E0 01 00 00 68 80 02 00 00. It will occur several times, we are only interested in the first occurrence. E0 01 00 00 (=480) represents the y-resolution and 80 02 00 00 (=640) represents the x-resolution. To convert the desired resolution to hex, first convert the decimal number to a hex number (e.g. using programmer mode of the Windows calculator). Example: 480dec -> 1E0hex. Next, pad the hexadecimal number with zeros to the left until it has 8 digits (or 4 bytes). Example: 1e0hex -> 00 00 01 E0. Finally, reverse the order of the bytes to obtain the byte representation ("little-endian") of the resolution. Example: 00 00 01 E0 -> E0 01 00 00. Note that large resolutions (e.g. 1280x720) may crash the game. Here are the byte sequences for some 16:9 resolutions that can be used: 640x360: 68 68 01 00 00 68 80 02 00 00 800x450: 68 C2 01 00 00 68 20 03 00 00

Direct3D wrapper

Setup dgVoodoo 2 or DDrawCompat

dgVoodoo 2 From dgVoodoo2's folder, copy dgVoodoo.conf, dgVoodooCpl.exe, \MS\x86\D3DImm.dll and \MS\x86\DDraw.dll to <path-to-game>\. Run dgVoodooCpl.exe, right-click anywhere in the window and select "Show all sections of the configuration". In the "DirectX" tab under "Resolution", set the display resolution (e.g. 1920x1080). (Optional) Still in the "DirectX" tab, uncheck the "dgVoodoo Watermark". If an uncommon resolution is set (e.g. 640x360) in ubi.ini (or by hex-editing Laura.exe): In the DirectXExt tab under Enumerated resolutions, enter this resolution into Extras. DDrawCompat Copy DDraw.dll as well as DDrawCompat.ini to <path-to-game>\. Open DDrawCompat.ini in a text editor, and uncomment (remove #) the lines to change. Set ResolutionScale = display(1). For better Alt+Tab support, set AltTabFix = noactivateapp(1). If an uncommon resolution is set (e.g. 640x360) in ubi.ini (or by hex-editing Laura.exe): Add this resolution to SupportedResolutions, e.g. SupportedResolutions = native, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 640x360.

Field of view (FOV)

Change Field of View in the "Pentium III" version of the game

Download Change_FOV_Laura_PentiumIII.7z from here. Unzip the archive. Make sure to have Python 3 installed as well as python-lzo (pip install python-lzo). Open the command prompt, navigate to the folder where Change_FOV_Laura_PentiumIII.py is located, and run (replace <PathToGame> with the path to the game folder): python Change_FOV_Laura_PentiumIII.py "<PathToGame>\Gamedata\World\Levels\Fix.sna" Follow the instructions on screen. The script will ask for the resolution/aspect ratio and adjust the horizontal FOV such that the vertical FOV is the same as in the unpatched game.

Change Field of View in the "old" version of the game

Download Change_FOV_Laura_old.7z from here. Unzip the archive. Make sure to have Python 3 installed. Next, open a command prompt, navigate to the folder where Change_FOV_Laura_old.py is located, and run (replace <PathToGame> with the path to the game folder): python Change_FOV_Laura_old.py "<PathToGame>\Gamedata\World\Levels\Fix.sna" Follow the instructions on screen. The script will ask for the resolution/aspect ratio and adjust the horizontal FOV such that the vertical FOV is the same as in the unpatched game.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		The game doesn't support mouse.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Limited to remapping buttons.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Sound settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Voices and Music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Laura et le secret du diamant
German				Laura und das Geheimnis des Diamanten
Italian				Laura e il Segreto del Diamante
Brazilian Portuguese				Laura e o Segredo do Diamante.
Portuguese				Retail only.
Spanish				Laura y el secreto del diamante
Simplified Chinese

Issues fixed

Install the game in Direct3D mode

By default, the game does not allow selecting Direct3D mode to install on modern operating systems claiming that a different Windows NT system is missing.

Use Windows 98/ME compatibility mode
Enable the following compatibility settings for Setup.exe: Windows 98/ME. Run Setup.exe and in the installation method select "DirectX Full Installation". In the software testing option, uncheck the Microsoft DirectX option, otherwise the installation will fail when trying to install DirectX. Click Install and proceed with the installation normally.

Installing on Windows XP

Manual installation

Create a folder named Laura somewhere on the drive (from now on, we'll be referring to it as <path-to-game>). From the CD's root directory, copy DSETUP.DLL, DSETUP16.DLL and DSETUP32.DLL to <path-to-game>. Copy DLL, GameData and InstData to <path-to-game>. Go to Exe on the CD. Copy Gli.ini to <path-to-game>. Copy Laura.exe from D3D to <path-to-game>. Copy all files from UbiConfig to <path-to-game>. Go back to the CD's root folder, and go to LangData\<current language>\World\. Copy levels to <path-to-game>\GameData\World\. When asked about overwriting folders, answer yes. Copy the contents of either Sound folder to LangData\<current language>\World\Sound\. Return to <path-to-game> and run the game using Laura.exe.

Stuck in Ubisoft Logo Loading (Direct3D mode)

Use dgVoodoo 2

Ramdom Crashes (Direct3D/Glide mode)

Don't run the game from the run shortcut directly from the executable it's installed from[citation needed]

Game runs too fast (Direct3D mode)

Set refresh rate on 60 Hz

Game crashes on Alt+Tab

Use dgVoodoo 2

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
Glide	3.10

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 200 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	87 MB
Video card (GPU)	4 MB of VRAM