Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Farming

2008-12-22T15:55:03Z

Baughn: /* Caveats (warnings) */

[[Image:Df-crops-diagram.png|thumb|200px|General farming flowchart.]]
'''Farming''' is the most universal source of [[food]] in Dwarf Fortress. On maps with plentiful [[shrub]]s, [[animal]]s or bodies of [[water]], [[plant gathering]], [[hunting]] or [[fishing]] can also produce a lot of food; however, these practices often do not scale to the level needed to feed a full-sized fortress. Farming is a highly efficient, reliable, renewable and scalable source of food -- and, after [[cooking]], of compact but valuable trade goods. [[Plants]] are also the only source of [[alcohol]] and [[dye]] other than [[trading]]. Some can be turned into [[clothing]].

== Finding farmland ==

You cannot plant seeds on a bare rock floor, only on [[mud]] or [[soil]]. The easiest way to farm, by far, is to find some soft, arable soil, which is available in great quantity outside the fortress on most maps (the notable exceptions being mountainous maps). If arable soil is unavailable, you will need to set up an [[irrigation]] scheme to deposit mud on the bare rock, which can then have farm plots placed upon it.

== Aboveground or underground? ==

You can plant either underground or aboveground, depending on the type of [[plant]]s you want to grow. The starting [[seed]]s your dwarves may bring with them can only be planted underground. If you want to farm aboveground, you will need to gather seeds from outdoor [[shrub]]s, which can then be planted. Caravans will also sometimes bring additional bags of seeds.

The farm plot should be either entirely above ground or entirely subterranean. A mixed-class farm plot will allow you to choose any crop for planting, but the chosen crop will be planted only on tiles capable of growing it. Worse, planters will not skip over the infertile tiles, leaving the rest of the plot fallow whether it can support the crop or not.

== Defining the farm plot ==

Once you have a suitable location for farming you can have your farmer(s) prepare a [[farm plot]]. That's the actual bit of soil to be tilled.

Enter the {{k|b}}uild menu and place farm {{k|p}}lots. Use {{k|u}} and {{k|k}} to increase the size of the plot, and {{k|m}} and {{k|h}} to decrease it. When the plot is sized and positioned correctly, pressing {{k|Enter}} will place it. Your grower(s) will now rush in and prepare the field, clearing out rubble and other impediments when necessary.

How much farm space do you need? Surprisingly little. A 5x5 plot manned by dabbling farmers will provide enough food to feed and water 30 dwarves. The use of [[Exploits#Cooking_alcohol|boozecooking]] will stretch this to 75 dwarves. If you have decently skilled farmers, the same 5x5 plot (with boozecooking) will feed over 200 dwarves! However, you may wish to increase food production way beyond anything your dwarves could ever consume to create large amounts of valuable trade goods.

== Planting ==

Once a farmer builds the plots, it's time to plant. Go into the plot's {{k|q}} menu and select the type of seed to plant. Your farmers will then take care of the rest. Note that your farmers will not work the plot the whole year without being told to do so: you must designate a crop for ''each'' season. You can designate each season ahead of time by using {{k|a}}, {{k|b}}, {{k|c}}, {{k|d}} from the plot selection screen. You do not have to plant the same thing each season and can change planting orders at anytime, even mid-season. Some plants are only available during certain seasons.

On a farm that is built but not planted, each tile will look like a solid (not blinking) double tilde (~). Once a square has been planted, it will look like a double line. Once the square has been harvested, it will return to the previous state (double tilde).

In the first year, you may want to focus your production on berries aboveground, or fast growing [[plump helmets]] underground, because they can be brewed and eaten raw or cooked. [[Quarry bush]]es, [[cave wheat]] and [[sweet pod]]s require processing before they can be eaten and take longer to grow. [[Pig tail]]s and [[dimple cup]]s can produce cloth and dye respectively, so grow these later. Dimple cups are the only underground crop that can neither be brewed nor otherwise processed into food (except for its seed, which can be cooked). Consider processing and cooking (and adjusted farming) as soon as possible since it adds quality levels to your food and in the case of quarry bushes and sweet pods quintuples the amount of food. Also, if you want to cater for the preferences of your dwarves, you will likely grow all types of crops sooner or later.

You cannot buy outdoor seeds upon embarking. If you choose to plant outdoor crops, designate a dwarf with [[plant gathering]] to gather plants outside until you get some suitable plants, then brew them to get the seeds. You may also [[trading|trade]] for outdoor seeds directly from a non-dwarven [[caravan]], which can be a very effective way of getting a lot very quickly. The biome the farm plot is in might have an effect on the plants permitted in the plot.{{verify}}

Should you wish to plant nothing for a season, you can select {{k|z}} "fallow" from the farm plot menu; this is useful when your larder is overful. If you possess [[potash]], you can fertilize the field to increase yield (see below).

== Increasing yield ==

Any crop may bear more or less fruit, or (as is sometimes the case with unskilled growers) it may even bear no fruit at all, thus wasting the seed. A higher yield will have many benefits along the whole assembly line of further food processing: workers will always work on one "stack" at a time – if (for example) a brewer has "sweet pod [5]" to work with, he will produce "dwarven rum [25]" and somehow squeeze it all into a single barrel.

The yield from a single seed depends on the farmers' [[skill]] and, if above ground, on whether the plot was fertilized.

* '''skill''': no particular skill is checked when harvesting. Only the [[grower]] skill of the farmer who '''planted''' the seed is taken into account. Dabbling planters will frequently produce stacks of only one, and sometimes even zero plants. Legendary growers will often produce "plant name [5]" and rarely even "plant name [6]" stacks from a single seed on a non fertilized field.

*'''fertilization''': Fertilization increases yield up to about 1.5 times{{Verify}}. The amount of [[potash]] needed to fully fertilize a field depends on its size and whether it is indoor or outdoor. Outdoor farms require much more fertilizer. Using {{k|q}} to view the farm plot, look for the field that looks like "''n''/''N'' ft." ''n'' is the amount of fertilizer applied so far, while ''N'' is the maximum amount that may be applied. To fertilize the field choose the {{k|f}}'''ertilize''' command. The {{k|s}}'''eas Fert''' option tells your dwarves to automatically fertilize a field after each season change. You can only fertilize some farming set ups: muddy farm plots, [[irrigation]]-enhanced farms, plots bordered by damp walls on multiple sides. The exact parameters are unknown.{{verify}}

In a discussion concerning the chances to get stacks of 6 plants, [[Toady]] has mentioned:
Yeah, even a novice farmer will get 6 of them once out of every 12000000 attempts.
I think the most you can get is 11 with full fertilization and good farming skill rolls (and some luck).

== Harvesting ==

A few weeks after planting a seed, a crop will sprout on that spot. Crops must be harvested within another few weeks or they will wither. By default, all dwarves will harvest, including [[children]] and even [[nobles]]. This may or may not be desirable: on the one hand, it makes sure that no crops will wither; on the other, it may lead to far away dwarves interrupting their work and running a long way in order to harvest a single plant and less skill gains for your planters.

Harvesting plants earns dwarves [[experience]] in the "growing" [[skill]], so do not be surprised if all your dwarves soon become "dabbling" (or better) growers. Because of that, peasants with no other occupation become farmers almost automatically. Do not be afraid that they might trample your fields: the skill is of no importance during harvest, and no matter how much skill they earn they will still only plant crops if you allow them to in their individual "labor" menu.

If you chose to turn off "All dwarves harvest" in your {{k|o}}rders menu, only dwarves with the "Farming (Fields)" labor enabled will harvest. However, they will often choose to plant new seeds instead of reaping the existing crop, so you risk that some amount may wither. After harvesting a plant (plucking it out of the ground), dwarves will carry it to the nearest [[stockpile]] unless you have "Dwarves ignore food" set in your {{k|o}}rders menu, in which case they will leave the plant blinking on the field. If not moved to a stockpile within a few weeks, it will wither.

== Caveats (warnings) ==

"''They eat your caves!''"

=== Food hauling ===

If you manage to get large-scale farming up and running, you will need to employ many food haulers in order for the food produced on your farms to be edible, even if it has already been harvested. This is because in the current version of the game, items tagged for pending tasks (including Move to Stockpile and Store in Barrel) are unavailable for any other use -- such as eating. An entire fortress of dwarves can starve while they wait for somebody to ''move the food''.

One way to deal with this problem (at least during the heavy farming/harvesting seasons) is to disable hauling of both stone and wood in the top-level {{k|o}}rders menu. This way, most of those jobs will clear out of the job queue, and you will be left mostly with "Store in Barrel" type jobs. You can also increase the number of dedicated food haulers.

=== Storage ===

It can be difficult to manage barrels to store food and drink, and bags to store seeds and processed foods. Combat this by [[Cooking|cooking]] food to consolidate it into larger stacks that won't rot outside of a barrel (it just needs to be indoors on a food stockpile). In the {{k|p}} menu, you can also reserve some empty barrels that will not be used for food storage; instead, they will only be used for brewing and syrup processing tasks. Leaves, sugar, and flour are not edible; to use them up and free their bags, you must cook. You can also cook excess seeds (albeit only up to 4 at a time), to reclaim the bags they occupy. Make sure not to cook your last crop seed!

== See also ==

* [[Crops]]
* [[Irrigation]]
* [[Skills#Growing|Farmers]]

[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Jobs]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Guides]]

40d:Maximizing framerate

2008-11-22T10:27:47Z

Baughn:

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely CPU-intensive application that currently requires a fast, modern machine ([[System_requirements|recommendations]]). The objective of this page is to help you reduce game lag, a crippling problem for many players.

Please mark all advice with the most recent game version it is known to work for. This game is under rapid development, Toady One clearly intends to reduce lag where possible, and so methods that worked in, say, v0.27.169.33g may not a few months later.

== Advice for v0.28.181.40d ==
There exists [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=27262.0 an acceleration program] that increases speed by anything from 0 to 40%, depending on your luck. It's probably worth a try.

=== OpenGL ===
* If framerate is extremely slow with an otherwise CPU-friendly fortress and a decent machine, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game may be at fault. Updating your drivers usually works; you may also have to adjust some settings in your graphic card's control software, such as turning vertical synchronization off.

However, the acceleration program above works by altering the way DF interacts with OpenGL. It may be worth a try too.

== Advice for v0.27.176.38c ==

=== World size ===
Reducing the generated world size will make a large improvement in speed on computers with low physical memory. The world itself is generated faster, smaller, and it will take less time to save and load.
* When starting the game pick the "Design New World With Parameters" option.
* Select medium or smaller by using the arrow keys.
* Generate the new world.
* Start a new game in the smaller world.
Smaller is not always better. If you make your world too small then there will be nothing interesting on it. So try medium first before going smaller. Pocket dimensions are generated extremely quickly but are mostly just for testing mods. Newer versions have world generation settings which can be used to create "perfect world" as small as pocket one but with most interesting things in. This however isn't easy and requires much time.

== Advice for v0.27.169.33b-g ==

=== Game options ===
In the folder "\data\init" is a file named "init.txt". Edits to this file can greatly increase game speed. Keep backups for safety and to save yourself having to re-enter values every time you upgrade.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!Parameter
!Effect
!Speed Improvement
|-
|[SOUND:OFF]|| Slightly increases speed. ||Cost is lack of sounds.
|-
| [FPS:YES], [FPS_CAP:100]: ||Handy indicator of how fast your game is running.||
|-
| [G_FPS_CAP:15]:|| Controls refresh rate. ||Lower values often boost speed dramatically ... at the cost of less frequent visual updates, which can pose a problem during battles.
|-
| [VSYNC:OFF]: || Attempting to synchronize refreshes ||can kill game speed for some players (depending on your OS, graphics card, and OpenGL settings).
|-
| [PARTIAL_PRINT:YES:2]:||This makes the game only refresh sections of the screen that need to be refreshed. From init.txt: "The number refers to how many frames it will redo a printed tile before skipping it, so you might try increasing it a bit." || Can hugely increase performance but doesn't work on all systems. Using a higher value than 2 may be necessary for it to work (many players report it working when it's set one higher than their [G_FPS_CAP]).
|-
| [PRIORITY:HIGH]:||This option automatically makes the game run in high priority. ||This will probably prevent your computer from effectively running anything at the same time as the game and, for some players, causes major lag in the DF interface as well. Still worth a try, though.
|-
|[PRIORITY:REALTIME] ||devotes even more resources to Dwarf Fortress, but has been known to cause stuttering gameplay. ||Increasing priority will make the game difficult to kill using task manager if it locks up. This happens because things like screen output and HD access are not entirely part of DF. However, a dual-core machine can use realtime priority without fear of consequences, at least as long as DF remains single-threaded.
|-
| [TEMPERATURE:NO]: || Turns off temperature greatly increases speed. ||It also kills off some rather nice lava warming effects, stops rivers from freezing and (importantly!) thawing, makes glacial maps less interesting, and prevents sudden deaths from exposure. You're well-advised to stick with "warm" or "hot" fortress sites if you turn temperature off and your source of water is a stream.
|-
| [WEATHER:NO]: || Turns off weather ||increases speed noticeably.
|-
| [CAVEINS:NO]: ||Turns off cave-ins ||increases speed only fractionally.
|-
| [POPULATION_CAP:40]: || Keep your population under control to prevent the game bogging down. ||Pathfinding for numerous dwarves can bring even a fast machine to its knees.
|}

=== Fortress site ===
* Moving fluids are the major source of lag in most maps at game start. Magma and (to a lesser extent) running water are CPU hogs in the current version. If you haven't got the hardware to run DF with a magma site, suck it up and go without. Gigantic major rivers lower the framerate significantly. Aquifers (until tapped) and stagnant pools seem not to cause major speed issues.
* Avoid elevation extremes. The fewer the z-levels, the faster the game runs.
* Minimize map size. Smaller maps get you substantially more speed.
* Avoid caves, towns, ruins, or anything populated. Everything in them invokes the pathfinding code frequently.

=== Fortress layout and gameplay ===
* Narrow paths and bottlenecks cause the pathfinding algorithm to repeatedly recompute a faster route for each dwarf (and pet) as the paths empty and clear. Use large hallways and multiple stairways to connect any two spots where lots of dwarves will want to be.
* Keep wandering pets and wild animals to a minimum and cage livestock. The AI for all of these has become more efficient of late and each one costs much less CPU time than a dwarf, but sheer numbers matter.
* Avoid designating very large areas for chopping, gathering, detailing, or mining, especially if many dwarves do these things.
* Some observers suspect that having massive numbers of objects in stockpiles also impacts FPS; others believe any effect is minor{{verify}}.
* Blocking off areas of the fortress entirely - especially (only?) with removable obstacles like drawbridges or forbidden doors - causes serious problems with pathfinding.

=== Cheating ===
* Fully revealed areas are faster than hidden ones. Running reveal.exe will make the game faster.

=== Non-factors ===
The following things ''don't'' have a significant effect on game speed, at least as tested.

* Fullscreen or windowed (if OpenGL settings are compatible with the game)
* Use of [[List of user graphics sets|custom graphics sets]], choice of graphics tileset
* Size of tiles
* Number of z-levels mined out (fortress pathfinding complexity matters; mere distance up and down doesn't)

== Advice for v0.27.169.33a ==
* Upgrade.

== Advice for earlier versions ==
* If framerate is always slow at startup, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game is likely to be at fault. Turning off vertical synchronization and updating your drivers usually works.
* Put animals in cages. Never keep them behind locked doors and reduce wandering pets to a reasonable number.
* Do not specify huge areas for mining or (especially) detailing.
* Open up \data\init\init.txt. Turn off TEMPERATURE and WEATHER and reduce POPULATION_CAP.

== Hardware- and OS-specific Advice ==

=== Dual Processors ===
* Go into task manager and set the affinity of Dwarf Fortress to one processor, and then set all the programs that use significant resources to the other. If Dwarf Fortress ever utilizes more than one processor, this will of course become irrelevant; currently, however, very few programs do and the best use of a dual processor is to give DF its own processor.
* Vista's START command can be used to set affinity at run-time with the AFFINITY switch.

=== Laptop computers ===
* Frame rate is higher when running off mains power. This is because laptops reduce CPU performance to extend the battery life.
* You can disable that feature in MS Windows, at the expense of the battery running out much more quickly.
* Some laptops may overheat if you run Dwarf Fortress for too long, keep your laptop cool if you find that after a while FPS suddenly drops. (This is due to CPU throttling intended to prevent possible damage from heat building up.)

===Dual monitors===
* Display DF entirely on one screen (no overlap to the second screen whatsoever).

==See also==
*[[System requirements]]

[[Category:Guides]]
{{Game_Interface FAQ}}

40d:Maximizing framerate

2008-11-14T20:59:56Z

Baughn: /* Advice for v0.28.181.40d */

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely CPU-intensive application that currently requires a fast, modern machine ([[System_requirements|recommendations]]). The objective of this page is to help you reduce game lag, a crippling problem for many players.

Please mark all advice with the most recent game version it is known to work for. This game is under rapid development, Toady One clearly intends to reduce lag where possible, and so methods that worked in, say, v0.27.169.33g may not a few months later.

== Advice for v0.28.181.40d ==
There exists [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=27262.0 an acceleration program] that increases speed by anything from 0 to 40%, depending on your luck. It's probably worth a try.

== Advice for v0.27.176.38c ==

=== World size ===
Reducing the generated world size will make a large improvement in speed on computers with low physical memory. The world itself is generated faster, smaller, and it will take less time to save and load.
* When starting the game pick the "Design New World With Parameters" option.
* Select medium or smaller by using the arrow keys.
* Generate the new world.
* Start a new game in the smaller world.
Smaller is not always better. If you make your world too small then there will be nothing interesting on it. So try medium first before going smaller. Pocket dimensions are generated extremely quickly but are mostly just for testing mods. Newer versions have world generation settings which can be used to create "perfect world" as small as pocket one but with most interesting things in. This however isn't easy and requires much time.

== Advice for v0.27.169.33b-g ==

=== OpenGL ===
* If framerate is extremely slow with an otherwise CPU-friendly fortress and a decent machine, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game may be at fault. Updating your drivers usually works; you may also have to adjust some settings in your graphic card's control software, such as turning vertical synchronization off.

=== Game options ===
In the folder "\data\init" is a file named "init.txt". Edits to this file can greatly increase game speed. Keep backups for safety and to save yourself having to re-enter values every time you upgrade.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!Parameter
!Effect
!Speed Improvement
|-
|[SOUND:OFF]|| Slightly increases speed. ||Cost is lack of sounds.
|-
| [FPS:YES], [FPS_CAP:100]: ||Handy indicator of how fast your game is running.
|-
| [G_FPS_CAP:15]:|| Controls refresh rate. ||Lower values often boost speed dramatically ... at the cost of less frequent visual updates, which can pose a problem during battles.
|-
| [VSYNC:OFF]: || Attempting to synchronize refreshes ||can kill game speed for some players (depending on your OS, graphics card, and OpenGL settings).
|-
| [PARTIAL_PRINT:YES:2]:||This makes the game only refresh sections of the screen that need to be refreshed. From init.txt: "The number refers to how many frames it will redo a printed tile before skipping it, so you might try increasing it a bit." || Can hugely increase performance but doesn't work on all systems.
|-
| [PRIORITY:HIGH]:||This option automatically makes the game run in high priority. ||This will probably prevent your computer from effectively running anything at the same time as the game and, for some players, causes major lag in the DF interface as well. Still worth a try, though.
|-
|[PRIORITY:REALTIME] ||devotes even more resources to Dwarf Fortress, but has been known to cause stuttering gameplay. ||Increasing priority will make the game difficult to kill using task manager if it locks up. This happens because things like screen output and HD access are not entirely part of DF. However, a dual-core machine can use realtime priority without fear of consequences, at least as long as DF remains single-threaded.
|-
| [TEMPERATURE:NO]: || Turns off temperature greatly increases speed. ||It also kills off some rather nice lava warming effects, stops rivers from freezing and (importantly!) thawing, makes glacial maps less interesting, and prevents sudden deaths from exposure. You're well-advised to stick with "warm" or "hot" fortress sites if you turn temperature off and your source of water is a stream.
|-
| [WEATHER:NO]: || Turns off weather ||increases speed noticeably.
|-
| [CAVEINS:NO]: ||Turns off cave-ins ||increases speed only fractionally.
|-
| [POPULATION_CAP:40]: || Keep your population under control to prevent the game bogging down. ||Pathfinding for numerous dwarves can bring even a fast machine to its knees.
|}

=== Fortress site ===
* Moving fluids are the major source of lag in most maps at game start. Magma and (to a lesser extent) running water are CPU hogs in the current version. If you haven't got the hardware to run DF with a magma site, suck it up and go without. Gigantic major rivers lower the framerate significantly. Aquifers (until tapped) and stagnant pools seem not to cause major speed issues.
* Avoid elevation extremes. The fewer the z-levels, the faster the game runs.
* Minimize map size. Smaller maps get you substantially more speed.
* Avoid caves, towns, ruins, or anything populated. Everything in them invokes the pathfinding code frequently.

=== Fortress layout and gameplay ===
* Narrow paths and bottlenecks cause the pathfinding algorithm to repeatedly recompute a faster route for each dwarf (and pet) as the paths empty and clear. Use large hallways and multiple stairways to connect any two spots where lots of dwarves will want to be.
* Keep wandering pets and wild animals to a minimum and cage livestock. The AI for all of these has become more efficient of late and each one costs much less CPU time than a dwarf, but sheer numbers matter.
* Avoid designating very large areas for chopping, gathering, detailing, or mining, especially if many dwarves do these things.
* Some observers suspect that having massive numbers of objects in stockpiles also impacts FPS; others believe any effect is minor{{verify}}.
* Blocking off areas of the fortress entirely - especially (only?) with removable obstacles like drawbridges or forbidden doors - causes serious problems with pathfinding.

=== Cheating ===
* Fully revealed areas are faster than hidden ones. Running reveal.exe will make the game faster.

=== Non-factors ===
The following things ''don't'' have a significant effect on game speed, at least as tested.

* Fullscreen or windowed (if OpenGL settings are compatible with the game)
* Use of graphics, choice of graphics tileset
* Size of tiles
* Number of z-levels mined out (fortress pathfinding complexity matters; mere distance up and down doesn't)

== Advice for v0.27.169.33a ==
* Upgrade.

== Advice for earlier versions ==
* If framerate is always slow at startup, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game is likely to be at fault. Turning off vertical synchronization and updating your drivers usually works.
* Put animals in cages. Never keep them behind locked doors and reduce wandering pets to a reasonable number.
* Do not specify huge areas for mining or (especially) detailing.
* Open up \data\init\init.txt. Turn off TEMPERATURE and WEATHER and reduce POPULATION_CAP.

== Hardware- and OS-specific Advice ==

=== Dual Processors ===
* Go into task manager and set the affinity of Dwarf Fortress to one processor, and then set all the programs that use significant resources to the other. If Dwarf Fortress ever utilizes more than one processor, this will of course become irrelevant; currently, however, very few programs do and the best use of a dual processor is to give DF its own processor.
* Vista's START command can be used to set affinity at run-time with the AFFINITY switch.

=== Laptop computers ===
* Frame rate is higher when running off mains power. This is because laptops reduce CPU performance to extend the battery life.
* You can disable that feature in MS Windows, at the expense of the battery running out much more quickly.
* Some laptops may overheat if you run Dwarf Fortress for too long, keep your laptop cool if you find that after a while FPS suddenly drops. (This is due to CPU throttling intended to prevent possible damage from heat building up.)

===Dual monitors===
* Display DF entirely on one screen (no overlap to the second screen whatsoever).

==See also==
*[[System requirements]]

[[Category:Guides]]
{{Game_Interface FAQ}}

40d:Technical tricks

2008-11-14T20:58:54Z

Baughn: Partial printing needds to be *on*, dangit!

__TOC__
== Overview ==
In order to configure Dwarf Fortress to your liking you need to edit a text-file containing the settings, namely '''init.txt''', or the ''init file''.

== Locating your configuration file ==
Your configuration file is called ''init.txt'' and is stored in the ''[installation folder]\data\init'' folder ([installation folder] is the folder where you installed Dwarf Fortress).

== Editing the configuration file ==
You can edit the file with any text editor of your choice, Notepad works very well.

== Settings ==
There are a number of settings in Dwarf Fortress that you can alter to your liking:

=== Sound ===
*[SOUND:ON]
Change this to ''OFF'' in order to turn off the sound and music.

=== Volume ===
*[VOLUME:255]
Sets the default volume, currently appears to do nothing.

=== Intro ===
*[INTRO:ON]
Change this to ''OFF'' in order to skip the intro movies.

===Windowed/Fullscreen===
[WINDOWED:PROMPT]
Can be YES, NO or PROMPT. YES sets the game to Windowed mode.

=== Embark options ===
*[INITIAL_SAVE:NO]
Set this to YES if you want the game to automatically create a save on embark

*[PAUSE_ON_LOAD:NO]
Set this to YES if you want the game to start paused whenever you load a fortress.

*[EMBARK_WARNING_ALWAYS:NO]
Setting this to YES will make the game always ask if you are sure you want to embark in a spot.

*[SHOW_EMBARK_RIVER:FINDER] : underground rivers
*[SHOW_EMBARK_POOL:FINDER] : underground pools
*[SHOW_EMBARK_M_PIPE:FINDER] : magma pipes
*[SHOW_EMBARK_M_POOL:FINDER] : magma pools
*[SHOW_EMBARK_CHASM:FINDER] : chasms
*[SHOW_EMBARK_PIT:FINDER] : bottomless pits
*[SHOW_EMBARK_OTHER:FINDER] : Hidden Fun Stuff
*[SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:FINDER] : tunnels constructed by dwarves, like a road but underground
These can be set to FINDER to only appear in the site finder, to ALWAYS to be shown on the local screen as well, or to NO if you don't want to be able to find something even in the site finder.

=== The game window ===
*[TOPMOST:NO]
Set this to yes to keep the DF window on top of your other windows.

*[WINDOWEDX:640]
*[WINDOWEDY:300]
*[FONT:curses_640x300.bmp]
This is the size and font for windowed mode. You can alter this however you want but please note that changing these values does not change the number of tiles displayed at once. To modify the number of tiles displayed at once you need to modify the GRID values in the previous section.

In order to keep aspect ratio, multiply the value of WINDOWEDY with 2.133333333 to get the correct WINDOWEDX. You can also multiply WINDOWEDX with 0.46875 to get the correct WINDOWEDY value.

You should change the font to ''curses_800x600.bmp'' if you increase the windowed size considerably. Despite the name, the font works both with 800x600 and 800x300 aspect ratios.

Running in a 1280x600 window, using the 'curses_640x300.bmp' font, will give an evenly stretched font, and an almost square aspect ratio. For an even more square aspect ratio, try 1600x600 (or 800x300) with the 'curses_800x600.bmp' font.

*[FULLSCREENX:800]
*[FULLSCREENY:600]
*[FULLFONT:curses_800x600.bmp]

The same as above, only for fullscreen mode. Be sure you only use modes supported by your monitor!

There are also several custom [[tilesets]] available on the wiki.

=== The look of the game ===
*[BLACK_SPACE:NO]
Set this to ''YES'' and the tiles will not be stretched, but will instead be centralized and then surrounded by black space.

*[VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]
Set this to ''NO'' in order to only have periods (.) as ground tiles. If set to ''YES'' the game will randomly use ,.`' to represent ground.

*[GRID:80:25]
*[FULLGRID:80:25]
This is the dimensions in tiles of the display grid. Minimum x is 80. Minimum y is 25. Maximums are 200. The default windowed font has tiles that are 8x12 pixels, for instance, so for a 80x25 grid, you use a 640x300 window, and for a 125x50 grid, you'd use a 1000x600 window. FULLGRID is used in full screen mode, whether graphics is on or not.

*[GRAPHICS:NO]
*[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:1280]
*[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:400]
*[GRAPHICS_FONT:curses_square_16x16.bmp]
*[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENX:1280]
*[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENY:800]
*[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:curses_square_16x16.bmp]
*[GRAPHICS_BLACK_SPACE:YES]
Graphics info, most of it as above. Set GRAPHICS to YES to turn it all on. This will use the "raw/graphics" folder for tile information. Currently this is limited to whatever creature graphics you have downloaded. The game comes with a few pictures to demonstrate.

*[NICKNAME_DWARF:CENTRALIZE]
*[NICKNAME_ADVENTURE:CENTRALIZE]
*[NICKNAME_LEGENDS:CENTRALIZE]
Use these settings to configure how nicknames are displayed in each mode of the game. REPLACE_FIRST replaces the first name of the dwarf with its nickname, CENTRALIZE puts the nickname between the first and last name of the dwarf and REPLACE_ALL replaces the original name completely with the nickname.

*[SKY:178:3:0:0]
This controls the display of areas that are far below outside. The format is SKY:<character>:<foreground color>:<background color>:<brightness>. The <character> can be either an ASCII tile number or a character in quotes, like '#'.

*[CHASM:250:0:0:1]
As above, for inside/subterranean areas.

*[ENGRAVINGS_START_OBSCURED:NO]
If you'd like your engravings to start off looking the same (you can toggle them on individual later), set this to YES.

*[SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS:NO]
Set this to YES to display fluids as numbers indicating depth.

*[FPS:NO]
Change this to YES if you want to see an FPS counter. Currently does not function on macs.

=== Colors ===

All the color values at the end of the ''init.txt'' file is used to control how the game represents that particular color. If you for instance alter [BLACK_R], [BLACK_G] and [BLACK_B] to 255 the color black will be represented by white in the game.

You can replace your colors with any scheme you would like. There are a variety of pre-made schemes available on the [[color schemes]] page.

=== Input ===
* [KEY_HOLD_MS:150]
This controls the number of milliseconds that must pass before a held key sends a repeat press to the game. Increase this if the game seems to repeat your instructions even if you only (intended to) press the key once.

Recent versions of the game have been tweaked to ignore repeat presses in most situations (outside of menus and scrolling), so this isn't so important now.

If you do need to adjust this, do so in small increments. A change of 25-50 should be more than enough. Any more and you slow down your scrolling considerably.

*[MORE:YES]
*[DISPLAY_LENGTH:23]
This controls "more" in adventure mode. If MORE is set to ''NO'', all announcements will be skipped. DISPLAY_LENGTH controls how many lines are printed before it gives you the "more" prompt.

*[MOUSE:YES]
Change this to NO if you don't want to have the mouse involved at all.

=== Game Changers and Performance Enhancers ===
For more detail on how to boost game speed through editing init.txt, see [[Maximizing framerate]].

*[PARTIAL_PRINT:YES:2]
This is an option that sets the game to only refresh parts of the screens that need it. This can greatly increase your fps, but only seems to function on certain systems. Seems to work better on macs than on other systems.

*[TEMPERATURE:YES]
*[WEATHER:YES]
*[ECONOMY:YES]
*[INVADERS:YES]
*[CAVEINS:YES]
*[ARTIFACTS:YES]

Do exactly what they say, turn on or off temp, weather, economy, invaders, caveins, and artifacts. It has been suggested to turn off Temperature and Weather for increased performance, as both do have every-frame calculations (temperatures are flows!)

*[PATH_COST:1:2:5:25]
Change these numbers to set the default weights for traffic designations. If you make the last numbers too large, pathfinding might lag.
The format is (PATH_COST:<high>:<normal>:<low>:<restricted>).

These can be changed in-game, this is just the default setting for new forts.

*[FPS_CAP:100]
Sets the maximum frame refresh rate for the game.

*[G_FPS_CAP:50]
Determines the rate at which changes in game state are updated to screen. This does not directly effect the underlying engine's actions (governed by FPS). However, lowering this value (say, to 10) may result in improved performance, but will lead to a choppier visual appearance. Systems with older video cards are likely to be most affected by this change.

=== Resolution to Grid Ratios ===
Taken from [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=22302.msg241991#msg241991]

'''800x600'''
8x8: 100 x 75,
12x12: 66 x 50,
16x16: 50 x 37

'''1024x768'''
8x8: 128 x 96,
12x12: 85 x 64,
16x16: 64 x 48

'''1152x864'''
8x8: 144 x 108,
12x12: 96 x 72,
16x16: 72 x 54

'''1280x960'''
8x8: 160 x 120,
12x12: 106 x 80,
16x16: 80 x 60

'''1600x1200'''
8x8: 200 x 150,
12x12: 133 x 100,
16x16: 100 x 75

'''1280x1024 (5:4)'''
8x8: 160 x 128,
12x12: 106 x 85,
16x16: 80 x 64

'''1680x1050 (16:10)'''
8x8: ''210'' x 131,
12x12: 140 x 87,
16x16: 105 x 65

'''1920x1200 (16:10)'''
8x8: ''240'' x 150,
12x12: 160 x 100,
16x16: 120 x 75

== Editing Creatures ==
Check [[Creature_standard.txt]] for further information.
[[Category:Guides]]

40d:Maximizing framerate

2008-11-09T10:54:47Z

Baughn: Added link to df accelerator

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely CPU-intensive application that currently requires a fast, modern machine ([[System_requirements|recommendations]]). The objective of this page is to help you reduce game lag, a crippling problem for many players.

Please mark all advice with the most recent game version it is known to work for. This game is under rapid development, Toady One clearly intends to reduce lag where possible, and so methods that worked in, say, v0.27.169.33g may not a few months later.

== Advice for v0.28.181.40d ==
There exists [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=27000.0 an acceleration program] that for some people have increased speed by 20-50%, but it's still temperamental and hard to set up right. Still, if you do it right, it should work.

== Advice for v0.27.176.38c ==

=== World size ===
Reducing the generated world size will make a large improvement in speed on computers with low physical memory. The world itself is generated faster, smaller, and it will take less time to save and load.
* When starting the game pick the "Design New World With Parameters" option.
* Select medium or smaller by using the arrow keys.
* Generate the new world.
* Start a new game in the smaller world.
Smaller is not always better. If you make your world too small then there will be nothing interesting on it. So try medium first before going smaller. Pocket dimensions are generated extremely quickly but are mostly just for testing mods. Newer versions have world generation settings which can be used to create "perfect world" as small as pocket one but with most interesting things in. This however isn't easy and requires much time.

== Advice for v0.27.169.33b-g ==

=== OpenGL ===
* If framerate is extremely slow with an otherwise CPU-friendly fortress and a decent machine, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game may be at fault. Updating your drivers usually works; you may also have to adjust some settings in your graphic card's control software, such as turning vertical synchronization off.

=== Game options ===
In the folder "\data\init" is a file named "init.txt". Edits to this file can greatly increase game speed. Keep backups for safety and to save yourself having to re-enter values every time you upgrade.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!Parameter
!Effect
!Speed Improvement
|-
|[SOUND:OFF]|| Slightly increases speed. ||Cost is lack of sounds.
|-
| [FPS:YES], [FPS_CAP:100]: ||Handy indicator of how fast your game is running.
|-
| [G_FPS_CAP:15]:|| Controls refresh rate. ||Lower values often boost speed dramatically ... at the cost of less frequent visual updates, which can pose a problem during battles.
|-
| [VSYNC:OFF]: || Attempting to synchronize refreshes ||can kill game speed for some players (depending on your OS, graphics card, and OpenGL settings).
|-
| [PARTIAL_PRINT:YES:2]:||This makes the game only refresh sections of the screen that need to be refreshed. From init.txt: "The number refers to how many frames it will redo a printed tile before skipping it, so you might try increasing it a bit." || Can hugely increase performance but doesn't work on all systems.
|-
| [PRIORITY:HIGH]:||This option automatically makes the game run in high priority. ||This will probably prevent your computer from effectively running anything at the same time as the game and, for some players, causes major lag in the DF interface as well. Still worth a try, though.
|-
|[PRIORITY:REALTIME] ||devotes even more resources to Dwarf Fortress, but has been known to cause stuttering gameplay. ||Increasing priority will make the game difficult to kill using task manager if it locks up. This happens because things like screen output and HD access are not entirely part of DF. However, a dual-core machine can use realtime priority without fear of consequences, at least as long as DF remains single-threaded.
|-
| [TEMPERATURE:NO]: || Turns off temperature greatly increases speed. ||It also kills off some rather nice lava warming effects, stops rivers from freezing and (importantly!) thawing, makes glacial maps less interesting, and prevents sudden deaths from exposure. You're well-advised to stick with "warm" or "hot" fortress sites if you turn temperature off and your source of water is a stream.
|-
| [WEATHER:NO]: || Turns off weather ||increases speed noticeably.
|-
| [CAVEINS:NO]: ||Turns off cave-ins ||increases speed only fractionally.
|-
| [POPULATION_CAP:40]: || Keep your population under control to prevent the game bogging down. ||Pathfinding for numerous dwarves can bring even a fast machine to its knees.
|}

=== Fortress site ===
* Moving fluids are the major source of lag in most maps at game start. Magma and (to a lesser extent) running water are CPU hogs in the current version. If you haven't got the hardware to run DF with a magma site, suck it up and go without. Gigantic major rivers lower the framerate significantly. Aquifers (until tapped) and stagnant pools seem not to cause major speed issues.
* Avoid elevation extremes. The fewer the z-levels, the faster the game runs.
* Minimize map size. Smaller maps get you substantially more speed.
* Avoid caves, towns, ruins, or anything populated. Everything in them invokes the pathfinding code frequently.

=== Fortress layout and gameplay ===
* Narrow paths and bottlenecks cause the pathfinding algorithm to repeatedly recompute a faster route for each dwarf (and pet) as the paths empty and clear. Use large hallways and multiple stairways to connect any two spots where lots of dwarves will want to be.
* Keep wandering pets and wild animals to a minimum and cage livestock. The AI for all of these has become more efficient of late and each one costs much less CPU time than a dwarf, but sheer numbers matter.
* Avoid designating very large areas for chopping, gathering, detailing, or mining, especially if many dwarves do these things.
* Some observers suspect that having massive numbers of objects in stockpiles also impacts FPS; others believe any effect is minor{{verify}}.
* Blocking off areas of the fortress entirely - especially (only?) with removable obstacles like drawbridges or forbidden doors - causes serious problems with pathfinding.

=== Cheating ===
* Fully revealed areas are faster than hidden ones. Running reveal.exe will make the game faster.

=== Non-factors ===
The following things ''don't'' have a significant effect on game speed, at least as tested.

* Fullscreen or windowed (if OpenGL settings are compatible with the game)
* Use of graphics, choice of graphics tileset
* Size of tiles
* Number of z-levels mined out (fortress pathfinding complexity matters; mere distance up and down doesn't)

== Advice for v0.27.169.33a ==
* Upgrade.

== Advice for earlier versions ==
* If framerate is always slow at startup, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game is likely to be at fault. Turning off vertical synchronization and updating your drivers usually works.
* Put animals in cages. Never keep them behind locked doors and reduce wandering pets to a reasonable number.
* Do not specify huge areas for mining or (especially) detailing.
* Open up \data\init\init.txt. Turn off TEMPERATURE and WEATHER and reduce POPULATION_CAP.

== Hardware- and OS-specific Advice ==

=== Dual Processors ===
* Go into task manager and set the affinity of Dwarf Fortress to one processor, and then set all the programs that use significant resources to the other. If Dwarf Fortress ever utilizes more than one processor, this will of course become irrelevant; currently, however, very few programs do and the best use of a dual processor is to give DF its own processor.
* Vista's START command can be used to set affinity at run-time with the AFFINITY switch.

=== Laptop computers ===
* Frame rate is higher when running off mains power. This is because laptops reduce CPU performance to extend the battery life.
* You can disable that feature in MS Windows, at the expense of the battery running out much more quickly.
* Some laptops may overheat if you run Dwarf Fortress for too long, keep your laptop cool if you find that after a while FPS suddenly drops. (This is due to CPU throttling intended to prevent possible damage from heat building up.)

===Dual monitors===
* Display DF entirely on one screen (no overlap to the second screen whatsoever).

==See also==
*[[System requirements]]

[[Category:Guides]]
{{Game_Interface FAQ}}

40d:Sparring

2008-11-09T10:50:17Z

Baughn:

'''Sparring''' is a form of non-lethal combat engaged in by [[soldier]]s to train their combat skills in [[fortress mode]]. Sparring takes place at [[barracks]]; off-duty soldiers will engage in mock combat with other off-duty soldiers, causing incidental injuries as they go but also gaining experience.

It is said that there must be a minimum amount of floor space in barracks before soldiers will spar there.{{verify}}

To assign a soldier to sparring, you must take his or her squad off duty. This is accomplished by opening the {{key|m}}ilitary screen, selecting the soldier from the list, choosing to {{key|v}}iew the selected squad, then toggling the du{{key|t}}y status until it displays "Squad is standing down". You must have at least two melee soldiers off duty before sparring will begin, although they need not be of the same soldier class. If the conditions are met, the soldiers will automatically choose to spar at their own discretion.

Rotating soldiers between an always-off-duty training squad and a series of on-duty patrol squads can be an effective way of training soldiers without having to assign off-duty status to each soldier directly.

Note: The champions are under no obligation to not crush your windpipe with a single blow. This is not a karate class, this is a bunch of dwarves punching each other until they learn not to be punched. You do not get a fancy rainbow of belts, and you are not guaranteed to survive. But you will learn to roundhouse kick, insofar as a dwarf can roundhouse kick.

== Equipment ==

When soldiers spar, they practice (and thereby gain experience) with whatever [[weapon]] and [[armor]] they have been assigned, including [[shield]]s. Thus, in order to train [[axedwarf|axedwarves]], it is necessary to assign the recruits axes, and so forth with all other [[weapon]]s. The weapon you wish for them to spar with can be chosen through the {{K|M}}ilitary screen, and then the {{K|w}}eapons selection.

== Sparring Injuries ==

It is possible to severely wound a partner during a sparring session. When practising with [[wrestler]]s, the worst [[injury]] that is likely to happen is a broken bone, although even this can be fatal if unfortunate circumstances prevail, such as crushing the other soldier's throat whilst the most damaging injury performance wise is a blow to the spine, which prevents sparring from the injured party for the rest of his/her life, although it won't prevent the dwarf from fighting or training with a [[crossbow]].

In the event that a soldier is injured while sparring, the soldier will rest until he or she recuperates, just as with any other injury. In the event of a broken limb, it will take a full season before the soldier will be available for action once again. Mangled limbs and other injuries may take much longer, if they heal at all. There are plans to allow these more serious wounds to "heal over"; such wounds will be permanent, but the pain will go away, the wound will scar over, and the dwarves will be able to get back to their normal duties in a limited fashion (see [[Future of the Fortress]]).

If a soldier accidentally kills another, the accidental murderer will receive an unhappy [[thought]]. However, killing another during a sparring session is not a crime and will not be punished by [[justice]]{{verify}}.

Sparring injuries can be very brutal to a fort's soldier population, leaving many dwarves with moderate injuries if precautions are not taken (see below). If your troops get injured frequently by sparring, it's a good idea to keep a solid proportion of your soldiers on duty so that you don't have too many injuries in case of a siege or ambush. If your troops are getting injured, however, you should take precautions.

Certain injuries, notably those to the neck and brain, will never ever heal, even if they are only minor scratches. A dwarf with these injuries will never spar either. If a military dwarf gets a minor neck injury before he or she has gained much combat skill, you may want to [[Department of Dwarven Veteran's Affairs|release him or her from duty]] so that dwarf can at least serve your economy as a hauler (or Royal Guard), and a new dwarf can claim his or her weapon and armor to practice with.

=== Avoiding Injury===
The following tactics can help your dwarves avoid sparring injuries:
*Equipping soldiers with good armor is always useful to protect injury, whether sparring or fighting real threats. [[Iron]] chain is good, [[steel]] plate better, [[quality|high-quality]] steel plate best of all. High-quality steel shields are also recommended. See [[Armor#Using armor|Using Armor]] for more details.
*Equipping soldiers deliberately with weak [[silver]] weapons is an excellent way to reduce the risk of injury. Silver weapons do only 50% of the damage of [[iron]] weapons. [[Wood|Wooden]] weapons also do only 50% of the damage of iron ones, but can only be gained through trade with the [[elves]]. Beware, as it can be time consuming to force your soldiers to switch back to good [[iron]] or [[steel]] weapons in the event of a siege or ambush; if your soldiers enter battle with their sparring weapons they will be much less effective.
*It is strongly recommended to send soldiers through a basic training regime by allowing them to spar without weapons until they achieve several levels in Wrestler skill, then begin their training for weapons directly. This can help reduce the amount of injuries suffered, as [[Wrestler]] skill is used to determine the probability of dodging attacks in addition to its offensive purposes.
*Likewise, the more training your soldiers get in [[Armor user]] and [[Shield user]], the more likely they will be to avoid injury. Thus it is safest to give your soldiers plenty of Wrestling practice, while equipped with armor and shields, before cross-training them for weapon usage.
*You might also want to buff up a dwarf's [[stats]] before sparring -- for example by setting them to pump a [[screw pump]] that isn't attached to anything. This can increase a dwarf's Toughness (and thereby resistance to damage), although it may also increase Strength, which is believed to increase damage inflicted.
*It is also worth noting that Guards spar just like off-duty soldiers, and when appropriately equipped, this will have all the effects listed above. Taking advantage of this by recruiting directly from the Fortress Guard and Royal Guard will help ensure that even the newest recruits will have at least ''some'' training should they be sent into battle.

[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Fortress mode]]

== Target Practice ==
Soldiers armed with [[crossbow|crossbows]] will not spar; the equivalent to sparring for a crossbow-armed dwarf is shooting at an [[archery target|archery range]]. As with sparring, the crossbow-dwarf's squad must be set to stand down. Unlike sparring, dwarves do not need partners to practice archery. The dwarf must be equipped with a crossbow and a supply of [[wood|wooden]] or [[bone]] [[bolts]]: [[metal]] bolts will not be wasted on target practice. The shooting range must also be designated properly from the archery target (see that article for more information). Marksdwarves do not gain [[Armor user]], [[Shield user]] or [[Wrestling]] skill shooting on a range, so it may be useful to get them involved in a few unarmed, armored sparring matches in the barracks so they can handle return fire (or a close-quarters ambush).

Marksdwarves will use the [[hammerdwarf]] skill to spar if there are no available wood or bone bolts. So it's a good idea to make sure your crossbow dwarves are wearing armour.

== Live Combat Training ==
Soldiers gain experience in martial skills from fighting in real combat as well. For obvious reasons, it is best to boost your soldiers' experience by sparring before they enter a real battle. An untrained soldier can easily suffer a career-ending injury from a [[goblin]] invader, whereas a Legendary weapon and armour user can cut a swathe through an invading column without taking a scratch.

[[Miner]]s use their [[pick]] when fighting unarmed, and get bonuses from their Mining skill. They gain experience in the Mining skill rather than Wrestling. Because of this an expert miner can quickly level-up when sparring unarmed.

{{Military FAQ}}

40d:Liaison

2008-02-24T14:40:21Z

Baughn: Dwarf's eye view

'''Liaisons''' are emissaries from different civilizations that will sometimes accompany traders to your fortress. They can have different names ([[Humans]] will send a '''guild representative''', dwarves will send an '''outpost liaison'''), but their functions are the same. They will ask your [[expedition leader]] or [[mayor]] ''only'' for which goods you would like sent with their next caravan (for a higher price), and inform you of the goods they would like you to sell to them the next time, which they too will pay extra to purchase.

If your leader is dead, then you must assign a new one using the {{k|n}} screen before the liaison arrives or he/she will leave without a [[meeting]].

Make sure to turn off all labor for the dwarf who needs to meet with the liaison, even the 'harvest all order', because your leader tends to walk away from the meeting and liaisons will eventually get [[insanity|depressed]] or go [[berserk]] if they do not get their meeting. This also causes a message saying "A trader went away unhappy" although it's unknown if this has any current in-game effect.

The meeting can take place before, after and even "during", that is, between, trading sessions.

The meeting usually consists of 8 screens with breaks, the breaks giving your leader a welcome opportunity to walk away from the meeting. Don't think you are done until the liaison confirms it and says farewell!

Oddly enough, liaisons don't need to eat, drink or sleep. There is a statement from one of our mayors on this:

Ironblood: "This damn human thingy keeps following me around, suckling on me when I pause for too long. I think it's a foreign custom, but I dare not emulate. He's all disgusting and clean. Though his clothes are almost completely rotted off..."

[[Category:Trade]]

User talk:Smoking Gnu

2008-02-02T23:25:49Z

Baughn:

...How do you jump in adventure mode?--[[User:Smoking Gnu|Smoking Gnu]] 19:58, 1 November 2007 (EDT)
:No jumping, but you can [Alt] move to move carefully (jump, in effect) off a cliff or climb from a river onto dry land (only if you have swimming skill, I believe). [[User:Mephisto|Mephisto]] 14:27, 1 February 2008 (EST)

::Ummm... I kind of figured that out a month ago. But thanks anyways (better late than never).--[[User:Smoking Gnu|Smoking Gnu]] 17:00, 2 February 2008 (EST)

:::Yes, this isn't really the best place to ask questions. Try the IRC channel. [[User:Baughn|Baughn]]

40d:Maximizing framerate

2008-01-15T17:17:18Z

Baughn: Explanation and clarification

Dwarf Fortress is an extremely CPU-intensive application that currently requires a fast, modern machine ([[System_requirements|recommendations]]). The objective of this page is to help you reduce game lag, a crippling problem for many players.

Please mark all advice with the most recent game version it is known to work for. This game is under rapid development, Toady One clearly intends to reduce lag where possible, and so methods that worked in, say, v0.27.169.33g may not a few months later.

== Advice for v0.27.169.33b-g ==

=== OpenGL ===
* If framerate is extremely slow with an otherwise CPU-friendly fortress and a decent machine, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game may be at fault. Updating your drivers usually works; you may also have to adjust some settings in your graphic card's control software, such as turning vertical synchronization off.

=== Game options ===
In the folder "\data\init" is a file named "init.txt". Edits to this file can greatly increase game speed. Keep backups for safety and to save yourself having to re-enter values every time you upgrade.

* [SOUND:OFF]: Slightly increases speed. Cost is lack of sounds.
* [FPS:YES], [FPS_CAP:100]: Handy indicator of how fast your game is running.
* [G_FPS_CAP:15]: Controls refresh rate. Lower values often boost speed dramatically ... at the cost of less frequent visual updates, which can pose a problem during battles.
* [VSYNC:OFF]: Attempting to synchronize refreshes can kill game speed for some players (depending on your OS, graphics card, and OpenGL settings).
* [PRIORITY:HIGH]: This option automatically makes the game run in high priority. This will probably prevent your computer from effectively running anything at the same time as the game and, for some players, causes major lag in the DF interface as well. Still worth a try, though. [PRIORITY:REALTIME] devotes even more resources to Dwarf Fortress, but has been known to cause stuttering gameplay. Increasing priority will make the game difficult to kill using task manager if it locks up.
** This happens because things like screen output and HD access are not entirely part of DF. Further, a dual-core machine can use realtime priority without fear of consequences, at least so long as DF is single-threaded.
* [TEMPERATURE:NO]: Turning off temperature greatly increases speed. It also kills off some rather nice lava warming effects, stops rivers from freezing and (importantly!) thawing, makes glacial maps less interesting, and prevents sudden deaths from exposure. You're well-advised to stick with "warm" or "hot" fortress sites if you turn temperature off and your source of water is a stream.
* [WEATHER:NO]: Turning off weather increases speed noticeably.
* [CAVEINS:NO]: Turning off cave-ins increases speed only fractionally.
* [POPULATION_CAP:40]: Keep your population under control to prevent the game bogging down. Pathfinding for numerous dwarves can bring even a fast machine to its knees.

=== Fortress site ===
* Moving fluids are the major source of lag in most maps at game start. Magma and (to a lesser extent) running water are CPU hogs in the current version. If you haven't got the hardware to run DF with a magma site, suck it up and go without. Gigantic major rivers lower the framerate significantly. Aquifers (until tapped) and stagnant pools seem not to cause major speed issues.
* Avoid elevation extremes. The fewer the z-levels, the faster the game runs.
* Minimize map size. Smaller maps get you substantially more speed.
* Avoid caves, towns, ruins, or anything populated. Everything in them invokes the pathfinding code frequently.

=== Fortress layout and gameplay ===
* Narrow paths and bottlenecks cause the pathfinding algorithm to repeatedly recompute a faster route for each dwarf (and pet) as the paths empty and clear. Use large hallways and multiple stairways to connect any two spots where lots of dwarves will want to be.
* Keep wandering pets and wild animals to a minimum and cage livestock. The AI for all of these has become more efficient of late and each one costs much less CPU time than a dwarf, but sheer numbers matter.
* Avoid designating very large areas for chopping, gathering, detailing, or mining, especially if many dwarves do these things.
* Some observers suspect that having massive numbers of objects in stockpiles also impacts FPS; others believe any effect is minor{{verify}}.

=== Cheating ===
* Fully revealed areas are faster than hidden ones. Running reveal.exe will make the game faster.

=== Non-factors ===
The following things ''don't'' have a significant effect on game speed, at least as tested.

* Fullscreen or windowed (if OpenGL settings are compatible with the game)
* Use of graphics, choice of graphics tileset
* Size of tiles
* Number of z-levels mined out (fortress pathfinding complexity matters; mere distance up and down doesn't)

== Advice for v0.27.169.33a ==
* Upgrade.

== Advice for earlier versions ==
* If framerate is always slow at startup, your graphic card's interaction with the OpenGL code used by the game is likely to be at fault. Turning off vertical synchronization and updating your drivers usually works.
* Put animals in cages. Never keep them behind locked doors and reduce wandering pets to a reasonable number.
* Do not specify huge areas for mining or (especially) detailing.
* Open up \data\init\init.txt. Turn off TEMPERATURE and WEATHER and reduce POPULATION_CAP.

== Hardware- and OS-specific Advice ==

=== Dual Processors ===
* Go into task manager and set the affinity of Dwarf Fortress to one processor, and then set all the programs that use significant resources to the other. If Dwarf Fortress ever utilizes more than one processor, this will of course become irrelevant; currently, however, very few programs do and the best use of a dual processor is to give DF its own processor.
* Vista's START command can be used to set affinity at run-time with the AFFINITY switch.

=== Laptop computers ===
* Frame rate is higher when running off mains power. This is because laptops reduce CPU performance to extend the battery life.
* You can disable that feature in MS Windows, at the expense of the battery running out much more quickly.

===Dual monitors===
* Display DF entirely on one screen (no overlap to the second screen whatsoever).

[[Category:Guides]]

{{Game_Interface FAQ}}