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[unknown zombie]

I realize.. I just threw that in there to date the equipment.. I bought it in 2005. Can you even buy single-core machines anymore?

[wierd]

amusingly, if the x86 emulation wrapper was able to leverage multiple physical cores to simulate a single core system (using out of order execution and other tricks), then running on an arm platform may have unique perks. 

(basically, the emulator knows both arm and x86 very very well, and leverages multiple instructions on multiple cores to better simulate the complex instructions of an x86 cpu, and uses the multiple core arch underneath to better handle branch prediction and other trouble spots in the emulated core.)

I dont know of any that do that, but i could definately see it working.

i just wonder about the battery life.  x86 code is not tailored to low power draw platforms. emulation is historically power hungry anyway. curious how long this pandora's power pack lasts when doing this.

[BigD145]

It would be great if other folks could try and and share pictures of their portable, Dwarf Fortress!

My best camera is on my tablet, which I use for DF.... I'll see what I can do.

[lordpyridine]

My best camera is on my tablet, which I use for DF.... I'll see what I can do.

Mirrors are your friend.

[evictedSaint]

a portable version of DF

HNNNNNNNG oh my god, this is so cool.

It makes me intensely sad that there will never (probably) be a version of DF I can play on a Nintendo DS.

[traylorpark]

amusingly, if the x86 emulation wrapper was able to leverage multiple physical cores to simulate a single core system (using out of order execution and other tricks), then running on an arm platform may have unique perks. 

(basically, the emulator knows both arm and x86 very very well, and leverages multiple instructions on multiple cores to better simulate the complex instructions of an x86 cpu, and uses the multiple core arch underneath to better handle branch prediction and other trouble spots in the emulated core.)

I dont know of any that do that, but i could definately see it working.

i just wonder about the battery life.  x86 code is not tailored to low power draw platforms. emulation is historically power hungry anyway. curious how long this pandora's power pack lasts when doing this.

I just checked it. From a 90% full battery, running DF (unpaused, processor overclocked by 200Mhz to 1200)
5 hours 45 mins.

I don't know if it would be much worse than the laptop I'm used to playing on now, which is a 2.1 GHz AMD (single core) with 1 GB of DDR 400 RAM..

I play 4×4 embarks on that laptop and get about 10 fps on average with 120-ish dwarves. So I'm used to waiting around for things to get done..

For contrast, my Galaxy S4 is 1.8 GHz (ARM, ofc) with 2 GB (dunno what speed) RAM.

Yeah, I'm at 20ish FPS currently with 5 dwarves (two died by wolves) on a 1x1 embark, we'll see how this holds up

I think a phone would really be pushing it. The Open Pandora (which I totally am going to get one of some day) is pretty beefy for a handheld device and it struggles still.

Actually, the Pandora is relatively old. For example, my Nexus 5 can handle Dreamcast emulation at almost full speed, the Pandora really struggles. What I'm excited to see is how well the Pandora's successor handles DF. The "Pyra" http://www.pyra-handheld.com/specs.html has up to date hardware, 2x ARM Cortex-A15 @ 1.7Ghz (compared to Pandora's current A8 @ 1Ghz). Pyra's development appears to be going much smoother than the Pandora's did. Second time around brings a lot more experience.

This makes me wonder if it's possible to get it running on an Android device.. Would be pretty sweet to play DF on my phone with Bluetooth mouse/keyboard..

Check out what people are doing with Exagear (the x86 emulator) installing it is hacky, but might work. Current phones are quite a bit more powerful then the Panda.

My best camera is on my tablet, which I use for DF.... I'll see what I can do.

Do it!

[Graknorke]

Argh, the lack of human innate ability to judge long periods of time strikes again. The Pandora's from 2010, even if in my head it feels more recent.

Checked it against the specs of the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy's better in a lot of respects.

[BigD145]

Here's one other way to play DF over vpn.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pinch zoom and screen scrolling is a bit wonky. DF decided to zoom out when I wanted to pinch zoom my screen and then center it. On Android that's two fingers pinched together diagonally and then three fingers together moving about the screen. DF took it as two fingers up and down, which is mouse wheel. I'd rather have a hardware wireless keyboard. Onscreen would be okay for adventure mode.

[Antsan]

I did try running it through the terminal itself in "text rendering" mode. The frame rate was much higher, but visual elements were missing. I don't have enough experience with that yet to know how to solve it.

Try fbterm. DF uses unicode characters which the text console cannot display. fbterm fixes that by writing to the frame buffer instead. I think I remember DF ran faster for me on fbterm, too, but not all key combinations work. I think Ctrl and Alt are alltogether ignored in text rendering mode.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalěs]

This is incredibly dwarfy.

[Showbiz]

Holy Cow! Thats...Just wow!

[traylorpark]

Here's one other way to play DF over vpn.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pinch zoom and screen scrolling is a bit wonky. DF decided to zoom out when I wanted to pinch zoom my screen and then center it. On Android that's two fingers pinched together diagonally and then three fingers together moving about the screen. DF took it as two fingers up and down, which is mouse wheel. I'd rather have a hardware wireless keyboard. Onscreen would be okay for adventure mode.

That's great! Can you actually take that on the road with you?

Try fbterm. DF uses unicode characters which the text console cannot display. fbterm fixes that by writing to the frame buffer instead. I think I remember DF ran faster for me on fbterm, too, but not all key combinations work. I think Ctrl and Alt are alltogether ignored in text rendering mode.

I see. yeah, i'm looking for a terminal "emulator?" that can show unicode on the Pandora. There might be a couple.

[BigD145]

Here's one other way to play DF over vpn.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pinch zoom and screen scrolling is a bit wonky. DF decided to zoom out when I wanted to pinch zoom my screen and then center it. On Android that's two fingers pinched together diagonally and then three fingers together moving about the screen. DF took it as two fingers up and down, which is mouse wheel. I'd rather have a hardware wireless keyboard. Onscreen would be okay for adventure mode.

That's great! Can you actually take that on the road with you?

I just need decent wifi and I'm set. My Android tablet can handle bluetooth, wired, or wireless keyboards. My home computer is a corei5 which can run 5x5 embarks without much trouble. The only time I lose the ability to play is if the power goes out at my apartment.

[ArmokGoB]

You can turn it into a portable firestarter if you try to run a 16x16 fortress! 

[Proudnerd]

The OP looks absolutely wonderful. I want to get one so much. Nothing pretentious about it. Now upload that pic to instagram to fit in.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2CA0UE6yRQ


Ashens loves it.