- v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
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40d:System requirements
Requires Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, or newer
~100MB Disk Space: The game itself takes only about 20MB, but savegames and screenshots (if you take them) use considerable amounts of harddisk space. Some users spend over a gigabyte of space with dwarf fortress.
256MB RAM: The game uses 150+ MB memory while running (more if you select a local grid larger than 6x6). The more creatures, objects, and explored space on your map, the more memory you will need. Most of this can be kept in virtual memory (disk swap), but be sure to have at least 500MB total (physical + virtual) memory available. World generation requires 400MB at its peak.
Dwarf Fortress loves as much raw CPU power as you can provide it with. Recommended:
Core2: 1.4GHz or higher
Pentium 4: 3.0GHz or higher
Athlon: 3000+ or higher
The larger your map and the more units on it, the harder your computer will need to work (see "optimization", below). Dwarf Fortress will take all the CPU power it is given, and will run at 50-100FPS on a modern system (5-20FPS on a P2 500MHz).
You'll also want a decent video card to keep up with the CPU, but even a video card that's several years old will satisfy DF under most circumstances.
Dual-core machines
If you're running a lot of things at once while playing Dwarf Fortress, open Task Manager and set DF to Core1 and everything else to Core0. You will now have an entire core dedicated to running DF, which should give slightly better performance. Multi-threading support isn't currently implemented.
Other Operating Systems
Linux
Although DF is a Windows game, it works perfectly in Linux using Wine, as long as you have video drivers with working OpenGL acceleration – for all NVIDIA and newer ATI cards, this means using the vendor's closed source driver. Without 2D acceleration the game runs slow as Dwarven syrup. Most distributions provide Wine, so consult your distribution-specific documentation for help.
See this thread for tips about Ubuntu and other distributions.
On 24 December, 2008 Toady released the first native Linux version of Dwarf Fortress. It is compiled for 32-bit environments, however, and may not run under 64-bit environments without additional libraries, depending on the Linux distribution.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu
Under an Ubuntu/Kubuntu installation one first of all needs the ia32-libs package installed. This is a standard Ubuntu package that contains 32-bit versions of many common libraries. Unfortunately, while it includes 32-bit versions of some SDL libaries, it lacks SDL_mixer, which Dwarf Fortress needs.
The 32-bit package can be downloaded directly from Ubuntu's package repository. Once the download is complete, open a console window and navigate to the directory containing the file. Extract the contents by typing:
dpkg-deb -x libsdl-image1.2_1.2.6-3_i386.deb ./libsdl-image
Copy the files from libsdl-image/usr/lib into the df_linux/libs directory and the game should now work.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu - Using getlibs
The other way to get the require SDL_image library is to use getlibs, which will get the correct 32bit library when run on 64bit Ubuntu and create all the required links.
At a command prompt:
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs getlibs sudo getlibs -l libSDL_image-1.2.so.0
The game can now be run from the df_linux folder (or wherever you extracted it to) using the df bash script.
OS X
A port of Dwarf Fortress to Mac OS X has been completed, and runs on both Intel and PPC based macs. According to the Website it requires system 10.3 or later, 100mb of hard drive space, and a minimum of 512mb of ram.
Optimizing Dwarf Fortress
You can greatly increase game speed on all systems; details at Maximizing framerate.
Example results: What you can expect with various machines
Pentium 4 at 2.2 GHz and 1 GByte RAM, running version 0.27.169.33g:
3x3 site, relatively hilly (ten z-levels of elevation change), without magma but with unfrozen brook, no caves, lakes, or monsters; virtually all possible speed-boosting edits in init.txt applied. Game starts to lag seriously at just under 80 dwarves.Speed is down to 30-45 FPS (varies) and occasional interface jerkiness is becoming noticeable.
Asus Eee PC 4G - 512 Ram - Windows XP(custom optimized) - DF v0.27.176.38c:
Smallest map possible with the smallest site, flatland only 1z above ground, 15z underground, volcano, some lakes, no underground water, 3 monsters, 9 creatures and 7 dwarfs. Speed boosting edits in init.txt. 10FPS on fullscreen mode and 20 on window mode. Some keys aren´t easy to press on that small keyboard, mainly when you have to press fn+shift+key. Conclusion: Play it on a desktop or a better EEE PC. :-(
Core Duo 4400 (2x2ghz) - 2 gb RAM - Windows Vista - .38c
3x3 site, pretty cliffy. Volcano, part of river and pretty big artificial pool. 120 dwarves, less than 10 roaming animals and ~50 fps. Decreases to 30 when merchants arrive or when many hauling jobs are started.
Athlon XP 2200(1.8) - 1 GB 6 year old RAM (DDR100/DDR133) - windows XP -no optimizations to XP or DF -.38c
Large site (6x6), medium world,with brook, no speed boost edits, Kapersky running with protection disabled. Slightly upwards slanted hill. Most of human town, no reveal.exe, running Dwarf Foreman, and with a relatively old (and thus slow) install of XP thats had several viruses- 35-40FPS with 17 humans, 38-48 FPS with 7. Drops to 30-35 with alot of hauling or when viewing 1 z level up (1 bellow human town, 1 above my start site). I imagine with a fresh install and a regular sized site it would likely hold 50+FPS. I don't really know where the speed is coming from compared to what other people are reporting- the processor only scores 1040 CB on a cinebench CPU benchmark.