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[compsognathus]

I like ascii code for the fortress (the steam graphic ... no! but ok! lol)

Is it not possible to take an old graphic engine for adventure mode? Similar to daggerfall for example.
Creatures and characters are 2d sprites.  I love old graphics!

if someone coordinates the project we could help him design the sprites, or
an open source (old) graphic engine.
I know " C " but I have little experience.

[Shonai_Dweller]

The updates for Steam will include a bunch more support for graphics. So you'll probably be able to work out whatever kind of graphics you like then.

That is, if it's not actually already possible (there's a lot of graphics packs out there already, have you checked them yet?).

--edit
Oh, your screenshots appeared. Hmm. Harder. Especially with all the variety of creatures in the game. Armok Vision is going for full 3D, have you tried that?

[compsognathus]

yes I saw them but I prefer the ascii code.

I wrote the post for lovers of old graphics.

[PlumpHelmetMan]

I think 3D graphics even of mid-90s quality would be hard to implement for a game as complex as DF. IIRC trouble with handling graphics was a big part of the reason the original Slaves to Armok was scrapped.

[darkhog]

How about a raycasting engine, similar to wolf3d then? I mean, each Z level could be different "floor" and enemies/objects/npcs would be flat textures (many of them static so no animation needed). Of course, I have no idea how to write one, but with stuff like StoneSense existing which basically adds isometric view, it could be possible.

Also, Armok Vision is a little bit TOO high-end. It has issues running even on pretty good computers and combined with the LEGENDARY resource hogging of DF (most of which caused by using O(n) algorithms where O(1) alternatives exist, I'm sure) that's just a recipe for disaster.

[Nordlicht]

(most of which caused by using O(n) algorithms where O(1) alternatives exist, I'm sure) that's just a recipe for disaster.

Could you explain this, and how can you be so sure without knowing the code?

[Reelya]

Small tip, you should see the bottom-left option to move the thread into the Modding board.

The Suggestions board is suggestions for Toady for stuff for the official version, Modding is for fan projects, so the people interested in that will be more likely to see it there and you can read through threads of existing projects.

[voliol]

Small tip, you should see the bottom-left option to move the thread into the Modding board.

The Suggestions board is suggestions for Toady for stuff for the official version, Modding is for fan projects, so the people interested in that will be more likely to see it there and you can read through threads of existing projects.

I think this is meant as a Toady suggestion. That said, Dwarf Fortress will probably never get an official 3D graphics release, even as the game is being graphically enhanced with the Steam/itch.io release. You will have to rely on external utilities for that.

IIRC one of the reasons they dropped Armok I was due to complications with dealing with 3D graphics, and so they steered off of that with the ASCII of Dwarf Fortress. The full 2D graphics of the Steam/itch.io release is a step away from that simplified graphics direction, but it is still a small one that required quite a economical scare to get going, and teaming up with an external publisher to deal with the graphics production. Putting your hopes (and suggestions) onto the modding community I would say is a much safer option. Especially since Armok Vision is already a thing.

[darkhog]

(most of which caused by using O(n) algorithms where O(1) alternatives exist, I'm sure) that's just a recipe for disaster.

Could you explain this, and how can you be so sure without knowing the code?

While it is true that I don't have access to the proper sources, I've decompiled DF with Ghidra and some stuff are either quite bad or "would be okay in a regular game but is a performance bottleneck for such resource-heavy game as DF", even when accounting for Ghidra's quite bad decompiler.

[Sarmatian123]

DF is using single thread CPU, not GPU. If Toady used multi-thread CPU with GPU, then DF would run a lot of faster. This leaves ocean of spared computer power to run some basic 3d (alike the Armok Vision mod) in some future, which I may still live to see. Still, Toady has to learn how to cooperate with external contractors, like he is doing right now with this new steam tileset. So, most probably 3d DF will be paid version too.