Source
r/dwarffortress•
Merit

What frame rate do you play at?

I recently discovered that 'Alt -' and 'Alt =' decreases and increases the frames-per-second limit in Dwarf Fortress. The default is around 100fps, I believe. By turning up the FPS you can speed the game up, essentially allowing dwarves to take more steps (/perform more actions) within a given amount of real-world time.

Whilst my games often start getting laggy once I have dozens of dwarves, tons of ducklings and a variety of liquids sloshing around on my map, during the early-game my computer can run DF quite quickly.

I have found speeding up the game up to be especially useful early on, when there is so much digging and construction to be done. Though I do have to be careful that my mason isn't set to repeatedly make cabinets for too long or else I end up with rather a surplus...

Does anyone else use this little trick to power through the early stages of their fortress too?

Posted Jun 28, 2011, 2:49 PM UTC

814
hurrayforzac•

man i had no idea you could do this! consider it tried out later today.

3
[deleted]•

I didn't know about this, but 100fps is already super fast imo. But I really wish we could designate without pausing.

3
MeritOP•

100fps is pretty fast, but I can reach five times that sometimes (if there isn't too much stuff going on), which really helps with mining out my initial fortress plans.

100fps != 100 actions per second, though, just in case you were picturing my dwarves moving at a warp speed!

5
NeFace•

You can also considerably change the speed at which dwarves move at. This is a good way to stop your fort from painfully chugging along once the fps gets too low. Though it's kind of cheating.

1
MeritOP•

Pray tell, how? Is that an init.text alteration, like kudakeru described below for altering fps caps?

2
NeFace•

Magmawiki intructions.

edit: creature_standard.txt is found in raw/objects

2
Pagan-za•

Speed:0 for warp speed, Speed:1 to make it faster than anything else in the game.

The only real downside to this is that it affects combat as well. They get super fast so tend to plow through enemies.

1
kudakeru•

I set the fps and g_fps caps to 0 in init.txt. It makes for a much faster startup process, although I have to be a lot more careful about making sure I keep my dwarves busy.

3
otoolem•

If you set your game at Calculation FPS Cap to 0 and your Graphical FPS to 15...

...you should have a pretty good frame rate regardless of what you are doing - large maps - small maps - lots of liquids - it will all stay stable and very playable

3
keenerd•

10-20 FPS, even though my computer can do better. Makes the game feel a bit more "real time" and suspenseful.

Also makes micromanagement a lot easier. Before spring is over the aquifer is pierced, danger closet running and training one soldier, farms seeded, all caverns breached/sealed and have hit the magma sea.

By summer the metal industry has started. The original dry moat has been replaced with a stone wall.

By fall most of the fort has been dug out. The one solder has maxed out all defensive skills.

Only then, with an elite soldier clad in armor created from the ores of the earth they have claimed, are they permitted to make a still.

2
Gyvon•

My FPS hovers between 50-100, with occasional drops to sub 20 during lag spikes.

That is, if I don't embark on a cotton candy spire. Then I'm lucky to get 10 FPS.

1
gekkou•

I have read quite a few comments now mentioning the fps drop with candy spires, but haven't noticed it myself (around 100 dwarves, captured goblins, pets, and playing on a laptop, it all gets pretty slow anyway). What is the cause of the frame rate drop?

1
fragglerox•

My home fortress is running max 40 right now. I don't know what to do about it or how it got that way. I made an atom smasher finally and killed off my garbage dump, but that doesn't seem to help. I only have one Z-level mined (i.e. where I've dug out everything), the rest are just rooms. I did get down to the Spoiler. I think it might be due to the hunters I had on, there seems to be junk strewn all over the overworld.

1
MeritOP•

I only have one Z-level mined (i.e. where I've dug out everything)

What was on that level?

1