DF Map Archive

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 1/2000th the size of the ouputted bitmaps (for a 28 layer map) and 1/20th the size of 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

2010-08-24

2009-05-24

• Added the site to a local SVN so that I can track changes and revisions
• Added Planned Changes section to the development / news page

2009-05-16

• The favourites page now correctly groups maps across their histories, giving a truer picture of the most favourite maps.
• I've added created a Random Movie picker, similar to the Random Point of Interest box, and moved the box on the front page to top right corner.
• Received word that Safari on the Mac also has problems uploading fdf-map files, as does Google Chrome - I know what the problem is but am unwilling at present to reduce the security on uploads. I am somewhat dissapointed with Safari and Google Chrome for breaking my site.
• Added [+] symbol to Upload Map and Upload Movie on site links.

2009-02-05

• Happy new year everyone!
• The 10,000th point of interest was posted not so long ago.
• Added a javascript function to automatically select "PoI Sharing" if you enter in an End Year, thanks to Shurikane for this suggestion.
• Reminder: For "open ended" Point of Interest sharing, you just need to check the PoI Sharing box.
• Fixed bug with 's breaking map and movie uploads, appologies to Vetarnian for discovering this one.
• Roll on 2009...
• ... and I hope no one minds, I've tweaked the stylesheet to give the site more contrast.

2008-11-18

• Added: "Here is a list of all of our favourite things... "

2008-11-16

• Added activity stats for maps, movies and comments over the past week and last 12 months on the recent activity page.

2008-10-26

• Added a user profile page, for example: SergiusMaximus
• Name links around the site, on comments, maps, and recent activity will now take you to a user profile page showing stats and recent posts by that user.
• This is a good way to find out more about different users on the archive, whether they are registered, what their favourites are, and what their recent activity has been.

2008-08-09

• Uploaded new version of CMV Flash Player (again, thanks to gonbon)
• Flash player now resizes itself to support larger movies (width and height) recorded with the new release of Dwarf Fortress
• Removed endless list of movies alongside ungrouped movie clips.
• If you enter in the name of the fort or the world a clip was recorded when you upload then movies with the same name will be grouped

2008-07-19

• Added report problem page/form for registered users to send messages to myself and the moderators
• Links to the page can be found on the left "Report problem / contact" or from below map entries "(Report problem)"
• Feel free to use this form to report spam or to send any feedback and suggestions you have

2008-07-10

• Fixed bug on movie comments page where page 2 and beyond directed to the map comments page (thanks to Zaratustra)

Read previous entries

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) - DF Map Compressor, Readme
• The DF Wiki: (dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com) - Best DF documentation on the net, a huge help
• Bay12Games: (bay12games.com) - Official forums, updates, dev news, and other fun games!
• Strike the Earth: (striktheearth.com) - Original DF Comic artwork
• DF File Depot: (dffd.wimbli.com) - Mods, utilities, tilesets, graphicsets, save files
• Markavian's website: (mkv25.net) - Graphics, experimental stuff, exploration
• Caek: (mkv25.net/caek/) - The cake is not a lie
  
  
• DF Map Archive discussion: (bay12games.com) - Discussion about the map archive can be found here