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[Habsfan1997]

I am new to Dwarf Fortress and I like this game so much  I searched some informations about it, and found that the game has been released in 2006.I also saw on this forum that this game requires a powerful computer.But does the computers in 2006 were able to run this game normaly ?

Thank you  !

[FearfulJesuit]

You kids and your newfangled computers. Why, back in my day, we had to animate the framerate by turning a crank! And you had to upload your saves by mule train, uphill both ways!

[Putnam]

The game has gotten exponentially complex just as the computers have.

Actually, the game runs better now than it used to, I think. 500 FPS on embark is not uncommon at all; 1000-2000 FPS on embark is standard for modern computers.

[TomatoWalrus]

The game has gotten exponentially complex just as the computers have.

Actually, the game runs better now than it used to, I think. 500 FPS on embark is not uncommon at all; 1000-2000 FPS on embark is standard for modern computers.

^Without an FPS cap.
But yeah, I think things have, if not improved processing wise, at least evened out. If you're on an older or weaker computer, you may have some problems if you don't use population limits or use DFHack to take care of some of the unnecessary stuff.

[Habsfan1997]

So the game is less lagging than before ?

[Telgin]

The most recent released version seems to run about 30% faster than the previous major release did, on this computer.  I'm not sure how that compares to even older versions, since I started with .31.25 (the previous major release).

[Microcline]

I don't have exact knowledge, because I came in around the release of 40d, but the 2006 version was probably less resource intensive, as it was 2D and thus could have easier pathfinding and much less costly liquid/temperature modeling.  If you want to know what was like back them, read the LP of Boatmurdered.

2007 brought the big 3D update, where DF started to resemble it's current form.  This probably tanked FPS for most players.  Most of the updates since then haven't contained anything too resource intensive (although I believe worldgen has gotten a lot slower as it's gotten more detailed).  DF2010, and to a lesser extend DF2012, were major updates, although I don't think they contained much regarding the resource intensive features.  The thing is that DF tends to be slowed by a few costly (but essential) features like fluid handling and pathfinding that, barring a miraculous breakthrough in computer science, can't become any less resource intensive while maintaining DF's flexibility.

In addition, there hasn't been any breakthroughs on targeting it from the hardware angle.  A lot of progress has been made with RAM (20 bucks could probably buy more RAM than you'll ever need for DF) and SSDs (this makes loading/unloading sites a lot faster if you have one, which has gotten slower in new releases), but processors have tended to focus on multi-core architecture, which doesn't do much for DF, which is single-threaded.  It has gotten a lot better though, as it used to be that only high-end gaming systems could play it, but now any decent computer made in the last two years can run it reasonably well.


If you want to know more about it, you should check out
History of Dwarf Fortress
Maximizing Framerate
System Requirements

[MrWiggles]

I think OP is mistaking that DF release in 2006 was released as complete.

[Starver]

(Speaking from my perspective here, starting to do so before some of the other perspectives that have now ninjed me.)

I can't say I was anywhere near the first release time...  23a, I think was the particular vintage of my introduction (although at the time I wasn't minded to note exactly how late I was to the party).  At some point between then and now there was one particularly efficacious improvement which meant that on the same computer as before I suddenly found the dwarves fair on zipping around the screen (and they haven't stopped since...  well except for my frequent pausing during micromanaging functions[1]), whereas before they'd been toddling along at a much more watchable rate.

When first I ran worldgens (which I did a number of times, even before I got to play for real... I laugh to think of this now, but I was revelling in the worldgen graphics several times without even considering diving in deeper), I'd set them running overnight.  Hardware has of course moved on a little (I'm not using a top-end machine, even now), but my tendency to go for maximum-sized custom worldgen parameters (tall, as well, if that matters) seems not to hinder the modern worldgen anything like as much.

(There's been added complexity to the worldgen... the whole thing with fields, etc...  And yet there was also a re-abstraction of populations (saving for the more notable figures), which sped up what had started to lag again with all the additional features being added to the population movements.)


@MrWiggles: Heck.. It's not even released in 2013 as complete.


[1] And re-pausing when I accidentally hit the new-fangled (f)ollow button on a dwarf, when I mean to press the "g"-key...  It's a somewhat useful new addition, to keep track (of friend and foe alike), but it does somewhat beg a split-screen approach so that a tracking side-window might be possible even while the rest of the management functions are accomplished...  Sorry, didn't mean to lapse into "wish listing", here//

[TomatoWalrus]

Heck, I don't think even with the release planned for this year that it'll be half done. I'd be quite surprised if it was even 45% of the way to version 1.0 by the time DF2013 comes around.

[Putnam]

Heck, I don't think even with the release planned for this year that it'll be half done. I'd be quite surprised if it was even 45% of the way to version 1.0 by the time DF2013 comes around.

It's 34% right now (thus 0.34.11). The next version should be, oh, I'd say 38-40%.