Settings

Settings for Dwarf Fortress can be accessed with a button on the main menu, which can be accessed in game with the gear button next to the map or the ESC key. They are divided into five groups; Video, Audio, Game, Keybindings, and Difficulty. They are stored in several different files, including init.txt, d_init.txt, and interface.txt, with current values in the prefs\ folder and default values in the data\init\ folder, both in the game folder. The default files in data\init\ include explanations of each setting, including possible values.

Video

These settings change how the game looks and are all stored in prefs\init.txt and defaults in data\init\init_default.txt.

• Windowed or Fullscreen - the highlighted button is the active one and they correspond with [WINDOWED:YES] or [WINDOWED:NO] in the files. [WINDOWED:PROMPT] can be set in the files to make the game ask when starting up, in which case neither button will be highlighted.

• Resolution - the screen mode the game uses when in fullscreen mode, 'Detect' corresponds with [FULLSCREENX:0] and [FULLSCREENY:0] in the files.

• Scale interface - whether to scale the font used to draw interface elements such as the menus and minimap, [INTERFACE_SCALING_TO_DESIRED_GRID:YES] in the files.

• Desired width and height - how much to scale the interface, in how many character cells wide and tall the interface should be. [INTERFACE_SCALING_DESIRED_GRID_WIDTH:170] and [INTERFACE_SCALING_DESIRED_GRID_HEIGHT:64] in the files. No effect if [INTERFACE_SCALING_TO_DESIRED_GRID:NO] is used.

• Window size - when not fullscreen, [WINDOWEDX:1200] and [WINDOWEDY:800] in the files.

• Window resizable - when not fullscreen, [RESIZABLE:YES] in the files.

• Maximum interface width - what percentage of the display the overlay interface elements can occupy, useful for extra wide displays to make notifications more visible. [MAXIMUM_INTERFACE_PERCENTAGE:100] in the files. The game will still use the entire window/screen and the minimap and elevation bar will stay at the edge.

• Maximum FPS - how many frames to cap the graphical display rate at. [G_FPS_CAP:50] in the files.

• Classic ASCII - [USE_CLASSIC_ASCII:NO] in the files.

As the interface gets narrower, some elements will be removed from the status bar when there's not enough room for all of them.

There are a few other file settings that can affect the display, see technical tricks.

Audio

These settings change how the game plays sounds and are all stored in prefs\init.txt with defaults in data\init\init_default.txt.

• Master volume - [MASTER_VOLUME:255] in the files. All volumes can be from 0 to 255 in the game files.

• Music volume - [MUSIC_VOLUME:255] in the files.

• Ambience volume - [AMBIENCE_VOLUME:230] in the files.

• Sound effects volume - [SFX_VOLUME:204] in the files.

• Seconds between songs - [AVERAGE_TIME_BETWEEN_SONGS:240] in the files. The default of 240 gives a range of 180 to 300 seconds, which is 3 to 5 minutes. Can be anywhere from 10 to 600.

The classic version of the game available on the website only includes the original songs, so most of these will have no effect without mods.

All sound can be disabled completely with [SOUND:NO] in the files. If so, the rest of these settings will be replaced by text explaining that sound is disabled and how to enable it.

Game

These settings change how the game plays and most are stored in d_init.txt, but a few are in init.txt.

Keybindings

These settings change the controls and are all stored in interface.txt.

Difficulty

This tab is only available when in a fortress game, and are initially set when starting a fortress game. These settings are stored as part of the save and are not editable outside the game.