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[ChokingVictim]

I've done a little poking around without much success, but what I aim for is a list of all mods or tweaks available to play at a decent frame rate on lower end computers.  For reference, I'm running on a 2.16gb dual core with a gig of ram and integrated graphics and get about 12fps windowed.  Preferably, I'd like to keep all game elements in tact, namely weather and temperature, etc.  Hopefully we can create a reference for other not so fortunate fort guardians stuck with bad computers...

2010 and 40d tips are both welcome for me 

[Fourdots]

Embark on a small map. 2x2 works well for me. If you can find a way to get a 1x1, that's probably even better.

Don't let yourself have a bunch of dwarfs; populations caps are your friends, and a high population will kill your FPS no matter what else you do.

Keep animals caged unless you have a reason to let them wander around; kill excess livestock.

And, of of course, there's the

I'm currently playing with a population cap of between 20 and 40 (it varies by fortress), on a 1.6Ghz netbook. With 12 dwarfs in my new fortress, I'm getting ~50FPS, so I'm pretty happy right now. With 40 dwarfs, it drops to around 20.

Interestingly, going from 0.31.03 to 0.31.04 decreased the framerate by ... oh, 5FPS or so? On Linux, though, so that might not apply to you.

Also, is it just me or is it a bit disturbing when people refer to a 2.16Ghz dual core computer as low-end?

[Grakelin]

Somebody made a mod that let's you play 1x1. It's in this subforum somewhere.

[ThiefofTime]

its called the nano mod, and yeah, lets you do 1x1 which leads to insanely high framerates.

[Shaostoul]

lowering the amount of zlevels if you're running 04 would be a good start. make caverns a little smaller, maybe exclude the HFS for the sake of FPS.

[FuzzyDoom]

You call that bad? Psssh. I'm running a 900Mhz Single Core with 256Mb RAM. Please, for the love of god, help me.

[ChokingVictim]

You call that bad? Psssh. I'm running a 900Mhz Single Core with 256Mb RAM. Please, for the love of god, help me.

Run dwarf fortress? I don't even know how you can run a web browser on a beast like that

[bluephoenix]

You call that bad? Psssh. I'm running a 900Mhz Single Core with 256Mb RAM. Please, for the love of god, help me.

Wow... Just wow
And you are running windows xp on it?

[Dr. Melon]

 

I suggest closing any and all unnessecary processes that may be running.

[Grimlocke]

Leaving out a layer of cavern should work too.

In terms of mods, I dont think mods add or substract anything significant from your framerate.

Perhaps the mod that lets you burn vermin corpses will at least same some clutter.

[FuzzyDoom]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that this "beast" of a computer is running XP.

And, oddly enough, after Embark! I get a FPS of 25-30. I'll take it.

[Il Palazzo]

You call that bad? Psssh. I'm running a 900Mhz Single Core with 256Mb RAM. Please, for the love of god, help me.

Man, my almost exactly identical P3(1GHz actually) dies everytime I try to generate a world, or load a pregenerated one.
How in the world did you manage to launch DF on your system is something I'd like to know very much.

[FuzzyDoom]

PARTIAL PRINT:ON:2 is your friend. The only reason I can't run .04 is because it's not there,

[Seraph]

I've done a little poking around without much success, but what I aim for is a list of all mods or tweaks available to play at a decent frame rate on lower end computers.  For reference, I'm running on a 2.16gb dual core with a gig of ram and integrated graphics and get about 12fps windowed.  Preferably, I'd like to keep all game elements in tact, namely weather and temperature, etc.  Hopefully we can create a reference for other not so fortunate fort guardians stuck with bad computers...

2010 and 40d tips are both welcome for me 

A 2.16GHz dual core should be plenty to run DF 40d at a good speed, and 0.31.04 at a reasonable speed. My previous laptops (a 1.6GHz single core anda  1.83GHz dual core) were slower then that and DF ran fine with up to 80 dwarfs (60 fps, 15 gfps). Does your computer have speedstep? For whatever reason I've found that on my current laptop that Dwarf Fortress didn't utilize enough resource and caused speedstep to slow the system down to very slow speeds (600-800MHz). This made even starting forts almost unplayable.

[0x517A5D]

My main hint would be don't let too many objects build up.  Each object slows the game down a little bit more.

Only mine out areas you need to.  Destroy all non-economic stone with an atom-smasher (i.e. a bridge and a garbage zone).  Don't make many constructions.

Consider removing clothing from the raws files.  There are some forum threads on how to do this.

To gain fortress wealth, stick to making a few goods with high base values (40d) (2010), and make them out of high-value materials (40d) (2010).

Iron-ore statues and mechanisms are good, as are meals made from quarry bushes.  In 2010, steel serrated disks are ideal, based on the wiki page on item value.  Steel battle axes and steel mechanisms are also very good.

Also in 2010, buy valley herbs from the elves and process them (to vial) into golden salve for a huge gain in wealth.  If you don't have sand on the map, you will need to order glass vials (under the flask menu) from the dwarven liaison.

In 2010, animal cheese is easy to make and seems to be worth a lot.  In 40d, purring maggot cheese is not really worth attempting, except as a stunt.

Weather doesn't add much to the game; nor does temperature, yet they slow down every frame.  Consider turning both off except when needed.

@FuzzyDoom: in .04, the init setting has changed to [PRINT_MODE:PARTIAL:2]