Technical tricks

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v50.14 · 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

These settings are found in d_init.txt.

Save Behavior

• [AUTOSAVE:NONE]

When Dwarf Fortress should automatically save your game. If this is "NONE", Dwarf Fortress never saves your game for you. Possible values are "NONE", "SEASONAL", "SEMIANNUAL" and "YEARLY".

• [AUTOBACKUP:NO]

If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will back up your save file each time it autosaves your game.

• [AUTOSAVE_PAUSE:NO]

If Dwarf Fortress should pause the game each time it autosaves for you.

• [INITIAL_SAVE:NO]

If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will save the game immediately after you embark.

More Game Options

[IDLERS:TOP]

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

[PAUSE_ON_LOAD:YES]

If "YES", Dwarf Fortress starts Fortress mode paused.

[TEMPERATURE:YES]

Turns temperature calculations on or off. If temperature calculations are off, only a few direct temperature changes will take place. For example, magma will set tiles and creatures to high temperatures, but those tiles will never cool and those creatures will not catch fire. Effects that rely on temperature calculations, such as water freezing, melting, or evaporating, or creatures and items taking temperature-related damage, will not occur.

[WEATHER:YES]

Turns weather on or off. If weather is off it will never rain or snow.

[ECONOMY:YES]

Turns on or off the fortress mode dwarven economy. This has no effect, since the economy does not function in v0.40.

[INVADERS:YES]

Turns on or off fortress mode sieges. Turning this off for your first couple of games may make the game easier to start with.

[CAVEINS:YES]

If this is "YES" it is possible for cave-ins to occur.

[ARTIFACTS:YES]

Turns on or off strange moods and the resulting artifacts.

[ZERO_RENT:NO]

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.

[TESTING_ARENA:YES]

Turns on or off the testing arena.

[WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_DWF:NO]

Turns on or off the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants between creatures and ground tiles in Fortress mode. As contaminants are buggy and can have a major negative impact on FPS in Fortress mode, it is recommended to leave this set at "NO" for now.

[WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_ADV:YES]

Turns on or off the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants between creatures and ground tiles in Adventurer mode.

[PATH_COST:1:2:5:25]

The pathfinding costs associated with different traffic values.

[STORE_DIST_ITEM_DECREASE:20]

[STORE_DIST_SEED_COMBINE:1000]

[STORE_DIST_BUCKET_COMBINE:1000]

[STORE_DIST_BARREL_COMBINE:1000]

[STORE_DIST_BIN_COMBINE:1000]

[SHOW_IMP_QUALITY:YES]

If "YES" Dwarf Fortress will display the quality of an item's improvements in the name. If you get annoyed by seeing items like *<*sword*>* you can

get rid of the outside ** by setting this to NO.

[SHOW_ALL_HISTORY_IN_DWARF_MODE:YES]

If "YES", inspecting engravings and artifacts in Fortress Mode will have an extended history displayed.

[LOG_MAP_REJECTS:NO]

If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will log the reason why maps were rejected during world gen in the log.txt file.

[GRAZE_COEFFICIENT:100]

???

Adventure Mode

• [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]

Nicknames

• [NICKNAME_DWARF:REPLACE_FIRST]
• [NICKNAME_ADVENTURE:REPLACE_FIRST]
• [NICKNAME_LEGENDS:REPLACE_FIRST]

Embark Options

• [EMBARK_WARNING_ALWAYS:NO]

If this value is YES, then it will always pop up a warning screen when you embark (Like you get when you have Salt Water or an Aquifer on-site)

• [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:FINDER]
• [EMBARK_RECTANGLE:4:4]

The size of the default embark site.

Wounds

• [WOUND_COLOR_NONE:7:0:1]

The color of body parts when there are no recorded active wounds on the part. Default = white

• [WOUND_COLOR_MINOR:6:0:0]

The color of body parts when there is any damage that doesn't have functional/structural consequences (might be heavy bleeding though). Default = brown

• [WOUND_COLOR_INHIBITED:6:0:1]

The color of body parts when there is any muscular, structural or functional damage without total loss. Default = yellow

• [WOUND_COLOR_FUNCTION_LOSS:3:0:1]

The color of body parts when an important function of the part is completely lost, but the part is structurally sound (or at least partially intact). Default = bright cyan

• [WOUND_COLOR_BROKEN:4:0:1]

The color of body parts when the part has lost all structural integrity or muscular ability. Default = bright red

• [WOUND_COLOR_MISSING:0:0:1]

The color of body parts when the part is completely gone. Default = dark gray

Tiles

• [SKY:178:3:0:0]

The tile and color of areas that are far below the currently displayed z level. The format is SKY:<character>:<foreground color>:<background color>:<brightness>. <character> can be either an ASCII number or a character in single quotes, like '#'.

• [CHASM:250:0:0:1]

The tile and color of areas that are far below the currently displayed z level while indoors. The format is the same as for SKY above.

• [PILLAR_TILE:'O']

The tile displayed for pillars. Pillars are created at the ends of strings of wall tiles. Some tilesets may have been designed to use tile 9, 10, or 255 for this, even some that are primarily ASCII, and may or may not include a custom d_init.txt file to do so.

• Multiple [TRACK_*] and [TREE_*] lines

The tiles displayed for most of the various possible track or tree parts. Not all the track tiles can be customized, such as the rollers or the track stop. By default, the track tiles are followed by an I to have them displayed with inverted colors so that they don't look the same as walls. Some tilesets may have been designed to use tile 9, 10, or 255 for tree trunk pillars, instead of the default 'O'. Note that the TREE_TRUNK_* and TREE_CAP_WALL_* corner tokens use a different naming convention than the other tokens; For example, by default TREE_TRUNK_NW uses tile 201 which is ╔, while TREE_BRANCH_NW uses 217 which is ┘, and TRACK_NW uses 188 (with inverted colors) which is ╝.

• [VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]

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.

• [ENGRAVINGS_START_OBSCURED:NO]

If this is "YES", all engravings are displayed initially looking the same, like highlighted smooth walls/floors. Otherwise, they'll be displayed as a tile of one of the things they depict. Either way, a given engraving's behavior can be changed through designation.

• [SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS:NO]

If "YES" Dwarf Fortress displays water as numbers from 1-7 indicating depth.

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