Installing Dwarf Fortress

instructions.md

Making Dwarf Fortress playable

1. Download and extract Dwarf Fortress

2. Remove the 'raw/graphics' folder

   • Might need to rename 'libs/libstdc++.so' to 'libs/libstdc++.so_bak' if you're on Linux

3. Download a graphics set for displaying creatures

   • I recommend you git clone the 'CLA Graphic Set'

4. Symlink (recommended) or extract (if zipped) the 'graphics' or 'raw/graphics' folder from the graphics pack to your 'raw/' folder

   • (so that 'raw/graphics' now exists again)

5. Download a bitmap font for displaying text

   • I recommend you git clone 'CLA Graphic Set' and use 'Myne.png' ('CLA/data/art/Myne.png')

6. Symlink (recommended) or extract (if zipped) the desired bitmap font to your 'data/art' folder

   • For example 'CLA/data/art/Myne.png' to 'data/art/Myne.png' if you downloaded the 'CLA Graphic Set'

7. Open your 'data/init/init.txt' file

8. Change these lines:

   • [GRAPHICS:NO] to [GRAPHICS:YES] to enable creature graphics

   • [GRAPHICS_FONT:curses_square_16x16.png] to [GRAPHICS_FONT:<bitmap font from step 5>] to enable the bitmap font in window mode

   • [GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:curses_square_16x16.png] to [GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:<bitmap font from step 5>] to enable the bitmap font in fullscreen mode

     • Optinally you can also change these lines:
     • [SOUND:YES] to [SOUND:NO] and play your own background music instead
     • [INTRO:YES] to [INTRO:NO] to skip the wonderful intro movie
     • [FPS_CAP:100] to [FPS_CAP:50] if you feel like the game is running too fast (seems to affect loading times negatively)
     • [G_FPS_CAP:50] to [G_FPS_CAP:<monitor hz OR FPS_CAP if it's lower than hz>]
     • [ARB_SYNC:NO] to [ARB_SYNC:YES] if you have a relativly new GPU (vsync and improves FPS?)
     • [TEXTURE_PARAM:LINEAR] to [TEXTURE_PARAM:NEAREST] if font and graphics don't have the same size (the 'CLA Graphic Set' includes a 17x17 bitmap font and creatures)
     • [MOUSE:YES] to [MOUSE:NO] as you won't be using the mouse, and it's just annoying when you accidentally click on something

9. If you think the colours are a bit too harsh, you can customize them by editing the 'data/init/colors.txt' file

   • My colours - Hezkore DF Assets
   • Color generator - DFColorGen

10. There are more optional settings in the 'data/init/d_init.txt' file

    • Worth looking at are:
    • [AUTOSAVE:NONE] SEASONAL / YEARLY
    • [VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES] NO if you think the ground is too messy
    • [SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS:NO] YES to display depth with numbers (instead of colour)