This is a development graphics set for classic Dwarf Fortress version 0.50. It can not be used by players. Its only purpose is to serve as a template for future graphics set development. The tiles it creates are semi-transparent 2x2 grids, 32 pixels on each side. It makes a gray and magenta checkerboard for each sprite. When you play the game, each sprite is that 2x2 checkerboard. While it's not really playable, you can get a good idea of what you need to do while you are developing a new graphics set
If you are a graphics set artist, you can use this project as a starting point for a new graphics set. I will do my best to reverse engineer and document the file format and describe what you have to do for each type of tile.
The data is now in a mod format (there are actually 8 mods). I've left some instructions on installing below. Because classic has some base tiles built into the game, the game is surprisingly playable simply with these placeholders. I think this is now good to go for a first build. As such, I'm releasing version 0.01.
Medium to Long term, I will probably try to investigate how feasible it would be to write a script that converts a legacy graphics set, into one that works tolerably well in 0.50.X. I also have an idea to try to make my own ASCII based graphics set.
The original txt files were placed in the public domain (see readme.txt in the invisible folder). To the extent possible, I also put my work in this project in the public domain. I explicitly give permission to use any file in this project for any purpose.
Alternatively, at your choice, you may use my modifications to this repository under a CC0-1.0 licence (Creative Commons v1.0 Universal License).
There are 8 mods:
These are located in the mods directory. Each of these add the graphics
entries for the corresponding vanilla version. Dwarf Fortress doesn't allow
a deep directory structure in mods, so I've opted to keep these all as separate
mods. It will allow the player to select which of these they want to use,
which will allow them to mix and match with vanilla if they want.
To install, simply copy each of the folders into the mods directory at the top
level of your dwarf fortress installation. If the mods directory doesn't exist,
you can simply create it. Note that once you use create a world using a mod in the
game, it will copy the mod in the data/installed_mods directory. If you update
the mod in the mods directory, you must also update it in the data/installed_mods
directory.
Details on modding are on the Bay12 website. There is also a modding mega thread on the Bay12 forums.
When using the mods, make sure to press the "Mods" button on the world creation page so that the mods you want to use are actually used.
In terms of creating sprites, each sprite is a 32x32 block. When you load up the a png into a graphics editor you will see a grid of gray and magenta blocks. Each of these blocks is 16x16 and so a full sprite will take up a 4 block square. It's simply a matter of determining what you have to draw, and drawing it in that square.
At some point in the future, I'll try to describe out to figure out what you need to draw.
The idea is to make PNGs containing the ASCII characters that would be displayed in the ASCII version. I'm not a fan of 0.50's ASCII display. It's too small for me to see when the menus are visible. Also, I think there are things that can be done to create an ASCII display that is nicer looking and more interesting.
Potentially, I think the creation of the vast majority of the graphics set could be scripted. Damnit, Jim! I'm a programmer, not an artist!
Once we have a script to make an ASCII graphics set, it should be relatively easy to generate a graphics set using the glyphs in a tileset. I'm not sure how useful that would be, but it would be kind of cool.
This may actually be easier than doing an ASCII set. I need to take a look at how the legacy graphics sets are set up. I suspect this will be unbelievably popular so I should probably prioritise it.
Note to self: Phoebus Github Link This is a 16x16 pixel set, so it needs to be scaled. Then all of the graphics need to be copied to a different tile sheet. Figuring out the mapping might be slightly challenging, but maybe not that bad...
I've created an issue to see if I can get the licensing a bit more clear.