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Author Topic: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser  (Read 59222 times)

hazzey

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DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« on: July 06, 2014, 12:07:47 pm »

DFeverywhere.com. Play Dwarf Fortress in your browser.
DF Everywhere is a web service that allows you to control your own Dwarf Fortress game from anywhere that you have a browser. Give it a try: http://www.dfeverywhere.com/

DF Everywhere is different from other similar projects in that it allows the use of graphic tilesets and not just text.





The decoupled nature of the connection allows for some options not available in regular Dwarf Fortress games:
  • Control your game from a another computer – Run your game on your fastest computer while controlling it from your most convenient computer. This can be on your own network or while at a coffee shop.
  • Control your game from a different platform - DF Everywhere works with both Windows and Linux games. The website can be accessed from any platform.
  • Control your game from a tablet or phone - Attach a bluetooth keyboard to your phone or tablet and play without sitting at a computer.
  • Display your game publicly – Allow anyone to view your game as you play it. Use this to show your friends the game or give a tutorial.
  • Share the controls to your game – Either help a friend with their game or allow your friends to play your game while you are away. Everyone sees the same game screen and everyone can send commands at the same time.
  • Multiplayer or Community Game - Sharing controls allow for multiple people to issue commands at the same time or hand off control for community games.

Check out the Demo

Simplified Configuration Steps - Windows
1. Create an account. You can log in using either your Facebook, Google, or Twitter credentials.
2. Download the latest DF_everywhere version (make sure to get the correct version for 32-bit or 64-bit): DF Everywhere v0.1.9-test.
3. Setup your configuration file.
4. Start Dwarf Fortress.
5. Start df_everywhere.exe (See Notes below.)
6. Open the viewer and start controlling Dwarf Fortress from your browser.

Simplified Configuration Steps - Linux
Note: The linux version of DFeverywhere is not self-contained like the windows version. You will need to install some prerequisites before running the program.
1. Create an account. You can log in using either your Facebook, Google, or Twitter credentials.
2. Download the latest DF_everywhere version: DF Everywhere v0.1.7.
3. Setup your configuration file.
5. Install the prerequisites packages. The `apt-get` commands are shown below. Other linux distributions should be similar.
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev python-wnck python-xlib
sudo pip install -U autobahn[twisted] numpy pyuserinput
4. Start Dwarf Fortress.
5. Start DFeverywhere by typing
Code: [Select]
python2 ./df_everywhere.py (See Notes below.)
6. Open the viewer and start controlling Dwarf Fortress from your browser.

Enjoy!

Notes and Known Issues
  • The lag is higher than I would like. This will be a focus in upcoming updates.
  • No "F#" keys. i.e. F1, F2, etc.
  • DF Everywhere requires your Dwarf Fortress window to be the top window and have focus, i.e. You can’t type in other windows while it is being remotely controlled. Multiple remote remote people can control a single instance at the same time though.
  • ***This also means that you can't test the web interface on the same computer as the program is running.***
  • Dwarf Fortress must use tiles for text, i.e. no True-type fonts.  Press F10 to fix this.

Technical Details:
Backend: Python program controls gathering screen information, sending it to the clients, and receiving commands.
Client: Javascript/HTML5. Chrome seems to be fastest, but Firefox and IE work too.

Edits:
2015/08/31 - Software released - v0.1.9-test - Bug fixes???
2015/03/30 - Software released - v0.1.8 - Fix issues with tile size
2015/02/07 - Software released - v0.1.7. First Linux support.
2014/11/16 - Software released - v0.1.6.
2014/10/30 - Software released - v0.1.4.
2014/10/27 - Added screenshot and modified text.
2014/10/02 - Website now allows sharing controls with other people and public viewing games.
2014/09/04 - Software released - v0.1.3.
2014/08/19 - Software released.
2014/07/06 - Initial public offering.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2015, 08:56:28 pm by hazzey »
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expwnent

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2014, 12:21:51 pm »

It seems to work. Awesome!
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Quietust

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2014, 12:54:30 pm »

This looks quite similar to Web Fortress, though it seems quite a bit slower - not sure if it's a protocol issue or if it's just on a slow upstream.
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hazzey

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2014, 01:49:11 pm »

This looks quite similar to Web Fortress, though it seems quite a bit slower - not sure if it's a protocol issue or if it's just on a slow upstream.

At the moment, the backend only sends the image 5 times a second. So far nothing points to this being a hard limit. I have hopes that once the poling rate increases, a lot of the lag will go away.
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palu

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2014, 02:39:08 pm »

Some of the tiles are showing up as blank white.
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hazzey

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2014, 07:41:32 pm »

Some of the tiles are showing up as blank white.

White tiles are images that haven't been cached by your browser yet.  They should disappear after a little while.  If they don't disappear, then that is an issue.
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Caz

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2014, 11:01:08 am »

Neato. I dug out a couple of rooms and looked around. With a couple of tweaks you could get amazing multiplayer DF/succession mode going here.
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backlands

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2014, 07:49:42 pm »

Someone definitely killed a bunch of humans in the trading post. But this is pretty amazing!
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Nopenope

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2014, 07:51:41 pm »

Any hopes of releasing binaries, including Linux ones? I'd like to set up one if I could, unfortunately dfterm3 depends on dfhack and webfort only works for windows.
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DVNO

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2014, 08:20:35 pm »

Hey this is pretty fun.
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mifki

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2014, 08:32:16 pm »

Any hopes of releasing binaries, including Linux ones? I'd like to set up one if I could, unfortunately dfterm3 depends on dfhack and webfort only works for windows.

webfort works on everything, nobody just made linux binaries yet.
What's the problem with dfhack though?

expwnent

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2014, 08:33:38 pm »

DFHack is down for two weeks every two years. :P
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hazzey

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #12 on: July 14, 2014, 09:28:00 pm »

My future plans are to make sure that it works on windows, linux, and (maybe) mac.  The local program is in python, so it should be pretty portable. At the moment, it is windows only, but linux support will be necessary if I want to provide hosting for community games.

At the moment, my focus is on developing a public server so that each person can have their own game without having to worry about setting up a server individually.

I'm glad that the response has been positive so far.
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Rayston

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #13 on: August 16, 2014, 04:58:02 pm »

any updates on this? does it work with the latest version of df?
« Last Edit: August 16, 2014, 07:18:58 pm by Rayston »
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hazzey

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Re: DFeverywhere - Control DF Through a Browser
« Reply #14 on: August 19, 2014, 09:11:06 pm »

any updates on this? does it work with the latest version of df?

I haven't tried out the newest version of DF.  As long as the display method didn't change, everything should still work fine.
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