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Any way to get Dwarf Fortress to run in Android/Linux? (self.dwarffortress)

submitted ago* by Cameljock

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Is this game supported to run in Linux? If so, (since Android is Linux-based) can it run in some form or fashion on a moderately fast-ish phone (1.6 ghz CPU & 300 mb RAM & slide-out physical qwerty keyboard & rooted operating system).

Since I have plenty of free time for a while, and always get obsessed to complete a task when I have an idea planted in my head, if I figure something out, I will definitely post updates here.

Edit: I found this, which seems like a small step in the right direction.

Edit 2: Also found this. If I had a G1, I would be a little closer, alas I only have an Epic 4G.

Edit 3: DFTerm is probably the best way to remotely play Dwarf Fortress on devices that are incapable of playing this game.

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[–]Billybones116 13 points14 points ago

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People often underestimate the processing power required to run DF.

[–]uzimonkey 4 points5 points ago

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No. Your phone might say 1.6GHz, but that's going to be a 1.6GHz ARM machine. It isn't anywhere near as fast as a desktop CPU, and it's just not going to do it. My 3.2GHz dual core desktop machine does DF, but it gets slow further in the game. Your phone just isn't going to do it.

Plus there's screen resolution. Even with really tiny tilesets, you won't be able to see much, and you'll be doing quite a lot of squinting.

Even if your phone does run Linux, you're back to ARM again. I don't think there are any ARM compiles for DF, and only the developer(s) can make those. Without an ARM build, the Linux port is useless to you.

And 300MB of RAM? Not. Even. Close.

It isn't going to happen, so you can stop obsessing over it.

[–]Cameljock[S] 0 points1 point ago

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Your reply has essentially slapped some sense into me. This is (currently) an impossible endeavor for a single individual to accomplish without the developers (Tarn and Zack) support.

[–]uzimonkey 6 points7 points ago

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Even with their support, without gutting the game it's just not possible.

I forgot to mention, there's dfterm though. The game won't actually be running on your phone, and I have no idea how well it works, but it's apparently possible to run over SSH.

[–]edlinfan 1 point2 points ago

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There is also an official Linux port on bay12's website which you may find interesting.

AFAIK, DF's 'toughest' dependencies are SDL and OpenGL. You're probably not going to successfully modify DF to run without them, because DF is closed-source, so a reasonable first step would be getting a full OpenGL-capable linux install on your phone and trying DF. Good luck, and remember to post pics.

[–]lostvorlon 2 points3 points ago

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DF's thougest dependency is a 32bit x86 processor, i don't see those in phones at the moment.

[–]vintermann 1 point2 points ago

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Linux, yes. Android, you're a masochist!

[–]ArbysMachtFries 1 point2 points ago

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It's barely playable on a laptop QWERTY layout. I dunno how an Android version could pull it off.

[–]aaOzymandias 0 points1 point ago

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Even my 2 GHz i7 quad core can sometimes use a long time to run DF.

[–]Guysmiley777 0 points1 point ago

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Keep in mind that a clock cycle is not 1 to 1 comparable from CPU to CPU. An Intel i7 processor does a LOT more per cycle than an ARM based phone CPU.

[–]aaOzymandias 0 points1 point ago

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you are right. I just unfortunalty tend to live in "the old way" still when CPU speed was all powerful ;)

[–]wilk 0 points1 point ago

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If you have a Linux or OS/X desktop set up, you could set the output mode to TEXT (ncurses) in init.txt and ssh in through the terminal.

[–]Akiba89 0 points1 point ago

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Once upon a time, Tarn Adams thought about going about this endeavor. Then God came to him and said "you just can't do that son..."

[–]Taladar 0 points1 point ago

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What you could try is run DF on a server and access it via e.g. ssh. That probably wouldn't work with the tilesets though, just the ASCII only version.

[–]Cameljock[S] 0 points1 point ago

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This is good enough for me.

[–]wonderfuldog 0 points1 point ago

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Paging Gordon Moore, paging Gordon Moore ...

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