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[iceblade8887]

Dwarf Fortress is a killer game. The concept is incredible and once you learn the ropes, its an easy and addicting game. However, it is a single player game, and I do like playing multiplayer games when I have any time available on the computer.

So, I was wondering about the possibility of DF on an android phone. It would be a perfect app if you have spare time but you are not at home. If you happen to be on lunch break, you could just pull out your phone and start building a crazy fortress wherever you may be.

Of course I dont know how hard it would be. I guess that it could be either really hard to write the code all over again, or it might be really easy. I also dont know if special software has to be purchased to develop android apps.

But I mostly posted this to get some input on the idea, whether or not the community would be willing to buy or download the app.
I sure as hell would spend $5-10 for a mobile version of DF

[Valid_Dark]

Not possible without re-writing a majority of the code which today isn't up to, and will never make it open source so it won't be ported.  there is a (very small) chance of it being ported

[GreatWyrmGold]

Think about the FPS. Ugh.

[Coolnesstod]

This game will probably never get ported. Just think of how complex it is right now, Not to mention on an android. 

[Valid_Dark]

If it was ported it would be after version 1.whatever (maybe 5-6 years in the future) and would most likely be outsourced because even then toady would be too busy to bother.  But by then android devices should be developed to the point where they could handle Dwarf fortress at a good enough fps. 
I'm optimistic and see this as a possibility, although not likely.
Never say never

[peskyninja]

The game is not ready and its far way from being ready so it makes no sense to halt the devlopment to start making a NEW game.
Multiplayer is impossible ecause of several factors that were discussed to death and DF would blow a cellphone.

[Footkerchief]

A native Android app isn't going to happen.  However, there's a utility called Dfterm that allows you to play DF via a connection to a remote server.  There are currently some people discussing how to get that working on Android.

[Valid_Dark]

I like how you guys post as if my post doesn't exist or that you didn't even read it

[Loud Whispers]

Would need to fix out how the keyboard controls would work too.

[Valid_Dark]

Bluetooth keyboard ftw

[Telgin]

The software to develop for Android is free, but it's hardly the chokepoint, as many others have noted already.

Dwarf Fortress is written in C++, I'm all but sure.  Native Android apps are written in Java.  While they have some similarities, translating from one to the other is a major undertaking.

However, it's my understanding that once Toady deems the game "complete" he will release the code, so it could potentially be ported then.  Trouble is, that's never going to happen.     And porting what would certainly be a multi-million line source tree would be a nightmare to say the least.

As for Android devices being fast enough to run it... I doubt it.  The reason being that Android devices will always be slower than a desktop.  Both technologies improve simultaneously.  As does DF's processor requirements.  By the time the game could be ported, it will be all that much more demanding.

I doubt any Android device will ever be able to support more than a minimal embark.  iOS devices wouldn't be much better, mind you.  It's just that DF can easily bring a very powerful desktop to a grinding halt.

[Valid_Dark]

Android apps can be written in c++, do some research before you post next time. 
It would still require some code modifications though, hence the mention of porting
Most porting projects are nightmares, and yet there are several companies that port games all the time., windows to mac, 360 to ps3 etc.
For android right now there is a rampant problem of people porting open source programs to android then selling it on the marketplace.
 I truely feel in 5 or 6 years android tablets will be as fast as an average desktop today.
Df processor requirements have never/will never increase at the same rate of technological advancements. 

[Telgin]

Android apps can be written in c++, do some research before you post next time. 

So it can, it would seem.  Well, actually the programs are still written in Java but can call C or C++ code from an external library.  I suppose in principle you could rebuild DF as an external library and then call into it from the Java itself.  I wonder how performance is when doing this... I also wonder how good the compiler is.  It would suck a lot if their compiler didn't support parts of the STL or language features used (such as templates).

I truely feel in 5 or 6 years android tablets will be as fast as an average desktop today.
Df processor requirements have never/will never increase at the same rate of technological advancements.

Perhaps those tablets will be as fast as desktops today, but desktops then will be that much faster themselves.  I have absolutely no evidence of what sorts of processor requirements DF will have in 5 years, but if Toady's devlog is to be believed, the next version of DF is probably going to be at least as slow as the current version, and likely slower because of the new features.  Who knows what the game might require out of a computer in 5 years?

Processor design has shifted away from trying to squeeze more performance out of a single thread in favor of adding new cores.  DF doesn't support multithreading in a useful manner yet, and probably won't 5 years from now either if Toady's comments are to be believed.

I don't find it difficult at all to believe that DF will continue to at least keep pace with improvements in single core processor architecture advancements.  It might not, but it easily could.

[Valid_Dark]

I guess you're right, its hard to imagine an android with an over 3ghz anycore processor, and with stuff coming out like the new octo-core processor (8 core @ 3.6 each for under $300) looks like advancing the power of the single core is a thing of the past. 

[Ghills]

I know that somebody managed to get Remote Desktop software working to play DF on Android.

That or dfterm are probably the only ways to get it to work right now.