Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheShotgunSurgeon]

Salutations! I just want to ask a quick question, what language is Dwarf fortress coded in? I know C++ so would making mods in DF be to far fetched with that language to make mods?

[TheShotgunSurgeon]

I put this in the wrong thread didn't I...

[IT 000]

I put this in the wrong thread didn't I...

Correct

Also there is no need to crack open the data files itself. Just edit the text files in the raw folder. Search the modding forums for tutorials and suggestions and such. It's a lot simpler then using C++ but there is still a learning curve.

[Tharwen]

I put this in the wrong thread didn't I...

Correct

Also there is no need to crack open the data files itself. Just edit the text files in the raw folder. Search the modding forums for tutorials and suggestions and such. It's a lot simpler then using C++ but there is still a learning curve.

Yah, but you can't modify the core game, like in Minecraft. Only the objects in it.

[Cruxador]

DF is coded in C++ but mods are made based on a sort of a language custom-made for the game. I don't think Toady's named it

[peskyninja]

We  shall give a name to it here and now!

[Starver]

Fred

[Starver]

Sorry, rather forgot to add that it might well be backronymed to "Fortress and Regional Eco[logy|nomy] Descriptor"

[YetAnotherStupidDorf]

It already have name. Raws. I know, not very original, but there you have. And BTW it is NOT language in sense of computer language like C++. It is just data for Dwarf Fortress engine. Ok, enough nitpicking.

[G-Flex]

I have no idea if the OP is still around, but:

• Dwarf Fortress is programmed in C++, yes.
• Knowing the language it's programmed in does not give you the capacity to modify the game; that's not really how programming works. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but basically true.
• Any modding to the game is done by modifying the object raw files, which are just text files following their own format, which have nothing to do with what the game itself is programmed in.

[Starver]

And BTW it is NOT language in sense of computer language like C++. It is just data for Dwarf Fortress engine.

I would class as a Markup lanaguage.  A Raws (or "Fred") to/from XML converter, anyone?

(No, I can see no use...  Save for perhaps that now you can regularly use some XML-savvy data editor in your modding work.)

[G-Flex]

Yeah, it's really not a scripting/programming language, which is why it's running up against limitations with some of the new content. I'd call it an object definition language, or something like that. Calling it a "markup language" seems wrong, because those are mostly about how to process or interpret text to be displayed, whereas the raw files are simply data for defining objects; the text itself isn't really the content.

[Starver]

Yeah, it's really not a scripting/programming language, which is why it's running up against limitations with some of the new content. I'd call it an object definition language, or something like that. Calling it a "markup language" seems wrong, because those are mostly about how to process or interpret text to be displayed, whereas the raw files are simply data for defining objects; the text itself isn't really the content.

Point well made.  XML isn't technically 'markup', though (X)HTML using XML principles is.

The hypothetical Raws2XML might convert "[TAG:this:that:theother]" into "<TAG><fooquality>this</fooquality><barquality>that</barquality><bazquality>theother</bazquality></TAG>" so there's content within the more objective structural information, of course.  (Other methods are possible, like being params, but they don't support my idea of equivalence. )

I was going to equate it with .css as well, originally.  Even so, there's a number of flaws in that, for those of us that care to look deep enough into it.   

[Telgin]

Knowing the base language it was coded in doesn't directly let you modify it, no, but it does open up a few options if the programmer is determined enough.  It helps with decompiling the binary into source code (which is likely to be a hopeless cause regardless, but still).  It would also simplify the matter of macking hacks and trainers since it gives you some information on how functions are called, stack information and things like that.

Still way beyond anything that most people (myself included) would be willing to try to mod, but it could in theory be done.

Now, what would be cool is if Toady would include a scripting engine and some API hooks for modding, but heaven knows that would take some time to do and he's busy enough as it is.

[Kogut]

which is likely to be a hopeless cause regardless, but still

It is doable but time consuming (OpenTTD started as decompiled TTD etc).

EDIT: And it may be illegal.