erikpukinskis / dfvis

Visualization Server for Dwarf Fortress

DFVis is the preliminary name for a web app that will let you visualize the worlds you create in Bay 12's superlative game, Dwarf Fortress.

Progress So Far

• Encapsulate Dwarf Fortress in a Docker container
• Send DFHack commands into the container from a web app
• Extract map data and display it in the browser
• Fly around the map in 3D
• Add the sounds of nature and of the fortress

Architecture Overview

DFVis depends on two processes, which are designed to run in isolation:

A DFHack daemon which runs inside a docker container. This process starts Dwarf Fortress with DFHack enabled, and then runs a Lua script that opens a TCP socket, accepts external commands, and runs them in DFHack.

A web server built in Node.js which provides the UI and issues commands to the daemon.

Installation

1. The first step to getting that running is to build the Docker image:

docker image build --progress=plain -t dfvis ./docker

If you don't already have Docker, install Docker Desktop.

2. Then boot the container:

docker run --volume $(pwd)/server:/server --volume $(pwd)/lua-lib:/df/df_linux/hack/lua/lib --publish 3333:3333 --env PORT=3333 --name dfvis --interactive --tty --privileged dfvis

You can stop the container with ctrl+c and then docker rm dfvis to remove the container.

3. You need to start the web server before firing up the DFHack daemon, because the daemon reaches out to the server (not vice versa):

node server

4. And lastly you can begin a Dwarf Fortress session and run the daemon:

docker exec -it --privileged --env DFHACK_HEADLESS=1 dfvis /df/df_linux/dfhack +lua -f /server/daemon.lua

At this point there should be a web site accessible at https://localhost:8080. Which can send any DFHack command as long as it has one (and exactly) argument:

Other useful commands

Get a shell:

docker exec -it dfvis bash

Start Dwarf Fortress:

docker exec -it dfvis /df/df_linux/df