Technical tricks

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v50.12 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Dwarf Fortress has various settings that can affect the game experience. You can configure these in Settings accessed from the main menu or ESC menu. However, some settings can only be changed by directly editing the game configuration files, which include:

• announcements.txt - contains configuration for the various game announcements.
• arena.txt - contains layouts of object testing arena maps.
• colors.txt - contains the color scheme used to display various text.
• d_init.txt - contains settings that affect game features such as autosaving, interface, simulation, and population controls.
• embark_profiles.txt - contains embark presets saved from prepare carefully or copied from the embark profile repository.
• init.txt - contains settings pertaining video, audio, and input.
• interface.txt - contains keybinds.
• world_gen.txt - contains advanced world generation presets.
• macros - the folder where macro files are saved.

Locating configuration files

These configuration files might be found in two places in the install folder:

• data\init\ - files here contain the default values installed with the game and also may contain some explanations of the settings.
• prefs\ - files here contain the current values saved by the game.

You can edit the configuration files with any plain text editing software, such as Notepad, Vim, or Emacs.

Most data in these files is in token form. Each token is defined by the text between an opening square bracket, [, and the next closing square bracket, ]. The token identifier and any values are separated by a colons, :.

If anything goes wrong, you can completely reset the game's saved settings by deleting the prefs\ folder while the game is not running, assuming the defaults have not been changed. This does not work with the files in data\init\, so you should make backups of them before modifying them.

Settings - init.txt

For settings that can be changed in game see: Settings.

Video

• [WINDOWED:PROMPT] - Changes the window mode that Dwarf Fortress runs in. If this is "PROMPT" the game will ask you if you want to run in windowed or fullscreen mode. If this is "NO" the game will be fullscreen with no prompt, and if this is "YES" the game will be in windowed mode with no prompt.

• [WINDOWEDX:98][WINDOWEDY:98]^[Verify] - will make window big enough to display whole 2x2 embark site with 8x8 tileset or one embark tile with 16x16 tileset.

• [FONT:curses_640x300.png] - The font file that Dwarf Fortress uses. This value can be any .bmp or .png image in the data/art folder.

• [TOPMOST:NO]^[Verify] - If this is set to "YES", the window is kept above all other windows.

• [FULLFONT:curses_800x600.png] - The font file that Dwarf Fortress uses. This value can be any .bmp or .png image in the data/art folder.

• [BLACK_SPACE:YES]^[Verify] - If this is "NO", tiles will be stretched to fit to the screen if there is a resolution mismatch. If this is "YES", the extra space around the grid is filled with black space and the tiles are left unstretched.

• [BASIC_FONT:curses_640x300.png] - This font is used during the initial load sequence and menus.

• [SINGLE_BUFFER:NO]^[Verify] - If this is "NO" Dwarf Fortress will use double buffering, which may reduce flickering of the screen at the expense of a possible (small) drop in frame rate. If this is "YES", double buffering is turned off.

• [ARB_SYNC:NO]^[Verify] - On video cards that support the OpenGL ARB_sync extension, turning this on can greatly improve performance in GPU overload conditions. However, this can cause Dwarf Fortress to crash on some video cards.

• [VSYNC:NO]^[Verify] - If this is set to "YES", when Dwarf Fortress redraws the screen it will wait for the monitor to finish its vertical retrace. This can negatively impact your FPS if G_FPS is set high, as the game is forced to suspend calculating game frames to wait for the monitor to finish. The main reason to change this to "YES" is if tearing of the game image occurs regularly for you.

• [TEXTURE_PARAM:LINEAR]^[Verify] - Can be either "LINEAR" or "NEAREST". If it is "NEAREST", the texture values use the nearest pixel value without averaging. If it is "LINEAR", the texture values use the average of the adjacent pixels. In terms of what the two options do to the graphics, the "LINEAR" option will appear to blur adjacent pixels and can result in a fuzzy appearance. The "NEAREST" option will produce a sharp, pixelated look but may result in images looking clipped at some different screen resolutions.

• [MOUSE:YES]^[Verify] - Determines if the game accepts mouse input.

• [MOUSE_PICTURE:NO]^[Verify] - If the game should display a picture in place of the system mouse icon. The picture lags if Dwarf Fortress is lagging.^[Verify]

Audio

• [SOUND:YES] - Change the argument from "YES" to "NO" to completely remove sound and music from the game. If this is "NO", it will not be possible to change the volume from the in game options menu.

Game

• [ZOOM_SPEED:10]^[Verify] - How fast the game zooms. A value of 10 corresponds to increasing grid size by 10 units each time you zoom.

Priority

• [PRIORITY:NORMAL]^[Verify] - Change this to affect the process priority of Dwarf Fortress. Higher priorities mean that Dwarf Fortress will run faster and other programs will run slower. Possible values are "REALTIME", "HIGH", "ABOVE_NORMAL", "NORMAL", "BELOW_NORMAL" and "IDLE".

Settings - d_init.txt

For settings that can be changed in game see: Settings.

Game

• [IDLERS:TOP]^[Verify] - Where to display the number of idling dwarves. The value can be either "TOP", "BOTTOM", or "OFF".

• [INVADERS:YES]^[Verify] - Turns on or off fortress mode sieges. Turning this off for your first couple of games may make the game easier to start with.

• [ZERO_RENT:NO]^[Verify] - If this is "YES", when the dwarven economy kicks in all rooms will cost nothing, allowing even the poorest of haulers to have a room fit for a king. This has no effect, since the economy does not function in the current version.

• [WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_ADV:YES] - Still in the files but currently has no effect, of course. Turns on or off the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants between creatures and ground tiles in Adventurer mode.

• [VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]^[Verify] - If this is "YES" the ground will be varied randomly using the tiles ,.`'. If this is "NO", only the period will be used for ground tiles.

Adventure mode

Not currently in the files but may return.

• [MORE:YES]
• [DISPLAY_LENGTH:23]
• [ADVENTURER_TRAPS:NO] - If you set this to "YES" your adventurer will trigger the traps of your old fortresses.
• [ADVENTURER_ALWAYS_CENTER:YES]
• [ADVENTURER_Z_VIEWS:UNHIDDEN:9]

Resolution to grid ratios

Taken from [1]

Geometry		Character Size
Resolution	Aspect	8x8	12x12	16x16
800x600	4:3	100 x 75	66 x 50	50 x 37
1024x768	4:3	128 x 96	85 x 64	64 x 48
1152x864	4:3	144 x 108	96 x 72	72 x 54
1280x960	4:3	160 x 120	106 x 80	80 x 60
1600x1200	4:3	200 x 150	133 x 100	100 x 75
1280x1024	5:4	160 x 128	106 x 85	80 x 64
1440x900	16:10	180 x 75	135 x 56.25	90 x 37.5
1680x1050	16:10	210 x 131	140 x 87	105 x 65
1920x1080	16:9	240 x 135	160 x 90	120 x 67
1920x1200	16:10	240 x 150	160 x 100	120 x 75