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[Flaming Toadstool]

So, I have a pretty crappy computer. It likes to run DF at about 30fps tops. Is there any way I can get it to run at a higher fps, or am I stuck at 30fps?

[andyman564]

lower pop cap to 50 or so, embark on flatter areas, turn off weather/ temperature, set GPS to 20 (or lower). that's about all the tricks i know of to increase FPS.

[NecroRebel]

What have you done to help your FPS?

Try playing with your graphical settings in data/init/init.txt. Also, try switching off weather and/or temperature in d_init.txt. Setting the priority of Dwarf Fortress to High or Realtime might help, too.

Setting a low population cap can help, as can minimizing the number of animals you have wandering around your map. Also, research efficient pathfinding and try to make your fort's layout as efficient as possible. Destroy or don't produce many spare items; giving all worthless stones a low boiling point, like 10000 (the freezing point of water) will cause them to destroy themselves as soon as they're mined out.



Overall, though, with a low starting FPS, it probably is just your computer. Getting a better computer might be a last resort, but it could certainly improve your FPS.

[gildarumarth]

To radically improve FPS try one cavern layer instead of three and smaller embark area. Different graphical changes don't give any noticeable effect in my experience, as well as turning off weather and temperature.
Using DFclean from DFhack can also sometimes give you +5-10 FPS. 

[Broseph Stalin]

Don't play ocean maps, they're glorious but they devour FPS.

[Flaming Toadstool]

Well, setting processor priority to high was interesting. I was using site finder to find myself a nice site, and then I got a blue screen. So, after I rebooted my computer, I set processor priority to above normal, and it works now.

I'll try out all these suggestions and see if they help. I'll eventually get a new computer, but I have to make do with what I have right now.

[gildarumarth]

Process priority seems kinda weird, for me at least - the higher I set it the worse performance I get. With realtime setting the game just freezes.

[Flaming Toadstool]

Hmm... might be worth trying on the lowest priority then. I just got another blue screen on above normal. My computer is wonky like that I guess.

[Flaming Toadstool]

Wow, those suggestions really helped. I am running at 100 fps now. Thanks a bunch guys

[ffaerie]

By my observations neither process at REALTIME nor binding dwarf fortress to a single core or processor (via affinity of process) bring any fps.
2x2 to 5 embarks are infatigable fps if you don't dig too deep.
Less z-layers pretty much guarantees 150+ fps (I play capped at 120 fps) no matter how big your fort is to a certain point. Destroying stone, clothes and stuff (goblinite for example) in DAS or magma doesn't seem to help improve FPS, sadly.
2x2 embark with 400 dwarves counting babies and children gives a steady 120 fps no matter what I do with stone levels. It all goes to 75ish if I have any water. I heave also read somewhere that disabling weather and especially temperature doubles your fps, but what kind of fortress would it be without proper magma.


If you have seen your share of stuff "digging too deep" dftubefill guarantees around 1/5 to 5/5 fps when you hit that stuff. I really advise you to go ahead and use it for your fort. For the sake of efficiency on my old Macbook I never use any hallways, everything has to be reachable both by z above and below and by walking. It seems to help smooth things a bit when I designate some mass dumping of stones at least. I have a lot of stairs this way and many people here don't like stairs so I'll just leave it here as a partial solution. I use ramps to get my caravans down to z-3 where the trade depot is.

There appears to be a massdump utility in dfhack package that allows for instant destroying of stuff you dump, this might also help you out.

Going by numbers my biggest fort is at 300 dwarves with children in a Tundra biome with no goblins and I never have fps less than 120 even with my magma forges running. It dips a little if I switch all dwarves to hauling and back to doing their jobs, though. It's a 3x3 embark, I can provide you with a save if you like, the dwaves there are named after guys in my former guild in World of Warcraft (some of them are currently top1 by achievement points in World of Warcraft, like my baron (or duke something) Korealstraz), we used to play together in the Enrage guild on Borean Tundra-EU.