Welcome to the Archive
Welcome to the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive (DFMA). Dwarf Fortress is a popular single player sim game, (still in ALPHA mind) made by bay12games.
This here website is a repository and online viewer for player created maps exported from the game. The site revolves around an optimized file format (.FDF-MAP), which can produce files over 2000 times smaller then the ouputted bitmaps (for a 28 layer map) and 20 times smaller then equivalent PNG files. This makes them small enough to upload and transfer across the web without chewing up bandwidth. God forbid someone trying to upload the 150MB output file from a midsize fort, we can deliver exactly the same map for ~100kb!.
How to use this site
This site is for uploading and sharing (viewing) maps from Dwarf Fortress with your friends, family etc.. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
First I suggest you download SL's DF Map Compressor. Then do what the diagram says:
Also look out for Points of Interest; created by users of the archive, each map can have a navigatable list places that describe the fortress or world.
Updates
2008-06-15
- Added Browse maps by description search option, and made that part of the Any* search as well
- Continuing work on Isometric map viewer. Working on independent version separate to current map viewer.
- So far have stripped back to loader / decoder, white screen... long way to go
- Will be recruiting graphics artist or some such in due time (isometric tile template)
2008-05-07
- Added feature: Setting default Point of Interest for a map
- When adding a new PoI, or editing an existing one, there is now a checkbox labelled "Make default for this map"
- When viewing a map, if there is a default PoI, the map will be focused on that location, instead of centering in the center of the map
- Thanks to Mister Six for prompting me to add this feature
- For example, on Crystal Umbra the Entry Corridor is selected from the start.
2008-05-01
- Fixed bug with map recentering wrongly when recentering view using buttons
- FYI: Views can be changed using the lowercase keys: (t)op, (s)ide, and (f)ront
- Hosting: mkv25.net has been migrated to a new plan! This means more bandwidth, and more filespace, both of which were near their limits. Thanks to www.icdsoft.com for another's year's stable hosting.
- Continuing to review map viewer code to produce an isometric map viewer, though this is still some way off. Am looking for isometric-tile artist.
- Something like this isometric render of dwarf fortress, (edit: by Chris Hildenbrandt http://spriteattack.cator.de/) would be very cool
2008-01-20
- Fixed bug displaying non-square maps, pointed out by Lacero, (thanks)
- For example, Mountain Banners - Bridge Tower (side), is now visible correctly
- Recorded new bug: Map viewer recenters on incorrect map coordinates when switching view between top/front top/side when viewer first loads
2008-01-19
- Added new BBCode tags [wiki=Page]link text[/wiki]
- For example: [wiki=User:Markavian]my user page[/wiki]
Result: my user page
Credits
Thanks to SL for his great DF map encoder/compressor, without which I would not have had the inspiration to build this site. Also thanks to him for modifying his program over and over to get it to work with my Flash viewer.
The Flash map viewer was created by Markavian, aka John Beech. An avid fan of DF and computer programming. Markavian has been working with web technologies such as PHP, MySQL and Flash for over 6 years, in an effort to make the web a more useful place.
Links
- SL's website: (shadowlord13.googlepages.com) - Why? DF Map Compressor, Readme
- Markavian's website: (mkv25.net) - Why? Graphics, experimental stuff, exploration
- The DF Wiki: (dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com) - Why? Best DF resource on the net, a huge help
- Bay12Games: (bay12games.com) - Why? Return to the source! Forums, updates, dev news
- DF Map Archive discussion: (bay12games.com) - Items for discussion can be found here