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[Deon]

Recently there's a lot of questions about graphic sets and tilesets. Let's start a separate thread for such answers to avoid similar questions and confusion.

Here's my short guide I salvaged from my own answers in different threads with such questions:

☢☢☢ Graphics explained ☢☢☢

[1] Tileset (the letters/symbols which you see which are used in text and to idicate doors, tables, hatches etc.), which is basically a "font" you can replace. There're 256 tiles and most of them are hardcoded to be used in other cases (thus there're problems to differ "X" and up/down staircase etc. Here's the list in the wiki:
Tileset explained (which tiles mean what etc.)
Tileset Repository

[2] Creature graphics, which are separate graphical files which are "linked" to every creature in a specific file (/raw/graphics/graphics_***.txt, where *** is the name of the file which was given by the creator).
Creature graphics set repository

[1] So, if you want to replace the tileset (first), then put the .bmp file (for 40d) or .png file (for 40d16/17) in your /data/art folder, then open your init.txt file.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This file contains various settings info, the lines you search are:
[FONT:Bisasam_16x16.bmp] - if you play in a window without creature graphics
[FULLFONT:Bisasam_16x16.bmp] - if you play in a fullscreen mode without creature graphics
[GRAPHICS_FONT:Bisasam_16x16.bmp] - if you play in a window with graphics
[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:Bisasam_16x16.bmp] - if you play in a fullscreen mode with graphics

Here you should replace "Bisasam_16x16.bmp" with the name of your tileset file (although Bisasam's is really great and good-looking and very readable).

The line [GRAPHICS:YES] (or [GRAPHICS:NO]) defines do you use creature graphics or not.

[2] As I told, creature graphics are located in /raw/graphics, so if you get someone's creature graphics pack, it's usually accompanied with a .txt file to place there or with text to make your own txt file (it's the easiest thing to do ).
  If you're interested to know how does the setting of creature graphics work, here's my explanation:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's an example from my mod:

Code: [Select]

graphics_example

[OBJECT:GRAPHICS]

[TILE_PAGE:FALLOUT]
[FILE:example/fallout.bmp]
[TILE_DIM:16:16]
[PAGE_DIM:20:20]

[CREATURE_GRAPHICS:DEATHCLAW]
[DEFAULT:FALLOUT:12:1:AS_IS:DEFAULT]
[CHILD:FALLOUT:13:1:AS_IS:DEFAULT]
1) Look, the first string is "graphics_example", it's the name of the file. You can have multiple files which define graphics, but the first line should be the same as the file name (without ".txt")

2) [OBJECT:GRAPHICS] means that this is a graphics file.

3) TILE_PAGE:FALLOUT determines where the file is and how does it look and what's its name ("FALLOUT") to refer to in this file.
  FILE: *** is a relative path to your file. Mine is in Dwarf Fortress/raw/graphics/example/ and is called "fallout.bmp".
  TILE_DIM defines dimensions of your tiles. My tiles are 16x16 pixels, thus it's 16x16.
  PAGE_DIM defines dimensions of your whole file. My "bmp" file is 20x20 tiles (thus 320x320 pixels because each tile is 16x16).

4) Then creatures follow. Each creature is started with [CREATURE:NAME], where NAME is the name of the creature. Then you list a number of states/professions of the creature (i.e. default,child,zombie/carpenter,woodcrafter etc.). Usually for creatures you need a default and a child tile (if they breed), and zombie/skeleton if they can become undead. Let's look at it closer:

[DEFAULT:FALLOUT:12:1:AS_IS:DEFAULT]

DEFAULT means that it's a default tile which is used in any case except defined later for professions etc. You can use CHILD under it to define a child tile
FALLOUT is the name of the file (defined in TILE_PAGE above).
12:1 are coordinates (so it's 13th horisontally and 2nd vertically, starting from upper left corner which is 0:0)
AS_IS is a coloring parameter, if it's AS_IS it has the exact colors of the tile, if it's ADD_COLOR, it adds a specific tint of a profession/state (blue for crafters, green for hunters etc. like in ascii), it's useful if you have a single grayscaled tile for a creature and want to have different hues for professions.
DEFAULT (last one) means a "state" or something. It may be GUARD/ROYALGUARD for military to define guards' colors; also it may be SKELETON or ZOMBIE to define those tiles.

[xoen]

Deon, tell me, why authors did not leave empty spaces(row or so) in tileset gfx, for populating with custom content?
It could be SO useful(it could be used by custom, new OBJECT, plant, whatever)..
I realized it's quite a problem after creating plant...
Is such thing planned to be used in future?
---
Another useful link fot tileset creators, imho:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Character_set

[Truean]

For ease of use from a end user standpoint your init file will look something like this when opened. Displayed below is the relevant section for implementing graphics with the lines Deon mentioned:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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.  As of September 2008, the Dwarf Fortress Wiki has graphical tilesets available at http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/List_of_user_graphics_sets.

[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]

Clearly, change [GRAPHICS:NO] to YES and replace as Deon suggested.

My question is, how do you know the name of the file you are supposed to reference in the FONT and FULLFONT, section? What if you have multiple files as in the case of Chariot's Graphics?

[Deon]

OK, I think I didn't make it clear enough.

This is the TILESET which you use in the INIT.TXT:


You can use only ONE of those, and it determines the "font" of your output.

I think by multiple files you mean creature graphics, and those go to /raw/graphics/ and are determined there, if you want to know how then look at [2] in OP.

Deon, tell me, why authors did not leave empty spaces(row or so) in tileset gfx, for populating with custom content?

Because the original author is Toady One, and he hardcoded the size of a tileset to be 16 tiles x 16 tiles (256 tiles total) and which tiles mean what.

[xoen]

ahh, so FF limit is hardcoded?
Damn..not very evolutionary..short perspective, sigh.

[Deon]

It's just a placeholder for real graphics. When the graphics arc hits (if ever), it'll be expanded.

Note that there're still ◙ ♪ ↕ ↔ ₧ ª ¬ ½ ¼ ╢ ╟ ⌡ tiles which mean nothing, and the 256th tile (lower right corner) isn't being used for anything too (at least I wasn't able to find a use for it).

[xoen]

Note that there're still ◙ ♪ ↕ ↔ ₧ ª ¬ ½ ¼ ╢ ╟ ⌡ tiles which mean nothing, and the 256th tile (lower right corner) isn't being used for anything too (at least I wasn't able to find a use for it).

yup, i noticed this moment ago, excellent

[Veggie Lamb]

I've had a hard time getting a graphic set to work even though the creator had a file to go with it, and I suspect it's related to the fact that I haven't seen instructions for how to tell the game to look at the new graphic txt file. Is the example text file the only file the game recognizes for displaying graphics?

And yes, I've turned on the graphics in the init.txt, and am successfully using a tileset.


*UPDATE* The files were .png files, which apparently doesn't work with the newest version of DF. Convert them to .bmp files.

[FatedTemp]

The files were .png files, which apparently doesn't work with the newest version of DF. Convert them to .bmp files.

The latest (though that should soon change) official DF release by Toady doesn't support .png but the d# versions do. Go to http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=44829.0 download d17 (it has some issues and bugs to be aware of though and is itself soon to be out dated). Once the new release is out the d# branch will be merged into so the official version should support .png.