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 prefs\d_init.txt with defaults in data\init\d_init_default.txt, but some are in prefs\init.txt with defaults in data\init\init_default.txt.

• Autosave frequency - when to autosave, [AUTOSAVE:SEMIANNUAL] in d_init.txt, NONE, SEASONAL, SEMIANNUALLY, or YEARLY.

• Autosave at embark - [INITIAL_SAVE:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Pause after autosave - [AUTOSAVE_PAUSE:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Pause after loading - [PAUSE_ON_LOAD:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Always confirm embark - asks for confirmation of the embark location even if there are no warnings such as for aquifers, dangerous surroundings, etc, [EMBARK_WARNING_ALWAYS:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Confirm preparations - [POST_PREPARE_EMBARK_CONFIRMATION:IF_POINTS_REMAIN] in d_init.txt, ALWAYS, IF_POINTS_REMAIN, or NO.

• Show tunnels when embarking - for dwarven tunnels, shown as a black dashed line or grey double line with classic ASCII, [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:FINDER] in d_init.txt, FINDER, ALWAYS, or NO.^[Verify] More restrictive world generation settings will override these.

• Enable temperature - 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. May affect FPS in unusual circumstances, [TEMPERATURE:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Enable weather - toggles rain and snow, rarely affects FPS, [WEATHER:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.^[Verify]

• Enable caveins - toggles cave-ins, [CAVEINS:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Enable artifact moods - toggles strange moods and the resulting artifacts, [ARTIFACTS:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.^[Verify]

• Enable testing arena - [TESTING_ARENA:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Walking spreads spatter - toggle the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants by creatures on ground tiles. As spatter can infinitely spread, it is recommended to leave this as "NO" for now. [WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_DWF:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Enable keyboard cursor - allows for using the keyboard controls for some designations, [KEYBOARD_CURSOR:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Log world rejects - logs the reason worlds were rejected in map_rejection_log.txt, useful in advanced world generation and modding, [LOG_MAP_REJECTS:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Default embark width and height - also determines what is considered a normal embark size and will only warn when the actual embark is larger than this, [EMBARK_RECTANGLE:4:4] in d_init.txt, 2 to 16. See Maximum embark dimension below.

• Path costs - extreme changes to these may cause more lag, [PATH_COST:1:2:5:25] in d_init.txt, 1 to 1000.

• Storage path cost decreases - controls how aggressively dwarves place objects in a container with like items (rather than an empty container). The default options are very aggressive. [STORE_DIST_ITEM_DECREASE:20], [STORE_DIST_SEED_COMBINE:1000], [STORE_DIST_BUCKET_COMBINE:1000], [STORE_DIST_BARREL_COMBINE:1000], and [STORE_DIST_BIN_COMBINE:1000] in d_init.txt, 2 to 1000.

• Population caps - can be changed at will to limit migration, strict also prevents births, [POPULATION_CAP:200] and [STRICT_POPULATION_CAP:220] in d_init.txt, 0 to 5000. Certain game features are trigger by population number, see difficulty section below. Some of those may also cause the actual population to slightly go over these.

• Children limits - how many and what percentage of total there can be at a time, [BABY_CHILD_CAP:100:1000] in d_init.txt, 0 to 1000. Only prevents further pregnancies, so migrant children, multiple births and existing pregnancies from old saves can still push you over the cap. Setting either number to zero will disallow new pregnancies in the fortress.

• Visitor cap - This does not include merchants, diplomats, animals or invaders, but only those dropping by for a temporary visit to a tavern, library or temple, or those seeking permanent employment. Once you accept a petition from a visitor to stay at your fort, they no longer count against the cap, even if they never become a full citizen. [VISITOR_CAP:100] in d_init.txt, 0 to 5000.

• Dead units cull - During a season changeover, the game checks if there's a certain number of units in play. If it is above this amount, it removes all the unimportant dead units who died at least two years ago. [CULL_DEAD_UNITS_AT:1000] in d_init.txt, 100 to 5000.

• Seed caps - per type and total, when over the total cap, seeds will be periodically removed, starting with the oldest and most worthless. [SPECIFIC_SEED_CAP:200] 0 to 10000 and [FORTRESS_SEED_CAP:3000] 0 to 30000 in d_init.txt.

• Engraving display - [ENGRAVINGS_START_OBSCURED:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Improvement quality display - [SHOW_IMP_QUALITY:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Numeric liquid levels - can be toggled in game either with a button next to the minimap or a keybind, [SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Ramp arrows - can be toggled in game either with a button next to the minimap or a keybind, [SHOW_RAMP_ARROWS:NO] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Elevation layers display - [NUMBER_OF_LOWER_ELEVATIONS_SHOWN:8] in d_init.txt, 0 to 8.

• Engraving historical events - [SHOW_ALL_HISTORY_IN_DWARF_MODE:YES] in d_init.txt, YES or NO.

• Nickname display - [NICKNAME_DWARF:REPLACE_FIRST], [NICKNAME_ADVENTURE:REPLACE_FIRST], [NICKNAME_LEGENDS:REPLACE_FIRST] in d_init.txt, REPLACE_FIRST, CENTRALIZE (between first and last), or REPLACE_ALL.

• Grazing coefficient - how much grazers get from grazing, larger numbers mean less food is needed. [GRAZE_COEFFICIENT:100] in d_init.txt, 1 to 1000000.

• Show FPS - first number is simulation rate, the number in parentheses is graphical FPS, [FPS:NO] in init.txt, YES or NO.

• Game FPS cap - limits how quickly the game runs the simulation, [FPS_CAP:100] in init.txt, 5 to 1000.

• Key hold time - [KEY_HOLD_MS:250] in init.txt, 100 to 20000.

• Key repeat time - [KEY_REPEAT_MS:150] in init.txt, 100 to 20000.

• Key repeat acceleration - [KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_START:10] 1 to 1000 and [KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_LIMIT:8] 2 to 100 in init.txt.

• Interface shutdown time - how long after a view recenter to ignore input, [RECENTER_INTERFACE_SHUTDOWN_MS:0] in init.txt, 0 to 2000.

• Macro timing - [MACRO_MS:15] in init.txt, 1 to 2000.

• Compressed saves - saves drive space but some worry it may increase save corruption, [COMPRESSED_SAVES:YES] in init.txt, YES or NO.

• Maximum embark dimension - maximum width or height for an embark, larger sizes need much more memory, [MAXIMUM_EMBARK_DIM:6] in d_init.txt, 6 to 16.

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.