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Author Topic: DWARF VISION ingame realtime portrait generator [0.2.2 FABULATION UPDATE]-HALTED  (Read 40399 times)

Rust_Knight

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WHAT IT IS
 


DWARF VISION
was created with the idea in mind to see the main protagonists (and antagonists) of Dwarf Fortress through procedurally generated portraits.
Ideally, these portraits would closely correlate to their in-game textual physical description.

It reads data from a running Dwarf Fortress game and creates portraits (at runtime) of the creatures currently in focus, showing them in-game. Generated portraits are persistent upon resuming a saved game.
   
This would bring a bit more familiarity with Dwarf Fortress creatures and easily identify them through their appearance.
As the number of creatures you encounter grows, Dwarf Vision will aid you in keeping a better mental track of whom you've met and interacted with and what (mental or physical) state they currently find themselves in.

At its peak, Dwarf Vision would let you also see objects like procedural artifacts and art created within the Dwarf Fortress world, as well as certain relevant parts of the environment, the current looked at creature finds itself in.


[Some quality loss when converted to GIF]







USAGE EXAMPLES



Currently it can be used to show one portrait at a time, depending on who is in focus, like so:   

   


Or, it can be used to display multiple portraits based on look mode cursor position and caption area size







STEP BY STEP INSTALL

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Further usage:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)




UPCOMING



This is a preview of what is to come and what it could look like.
The actual generated portraits can look exactly like this, slightly different or completely different depending on the results of a more serious lore/anatomical analysis.
The actual release will match an appropriate size scale between races.


Some early trials of a female dwarf.




Female Elf prototype




Goblin prototype









THE FUTURE



This project is a love letter to Dwarf Fortress, but it can become more than this. It is just enough to play with and also start a discussion.
The sooner this discussion starts, the better it will shape the project in the direction of Dwarf fortress' lore.
   
Ideally Dwarf Vision would display much of the relevant Fauna and Flora of Dwarf Fortress.
You can expect more exotic display of creatures, such as lizard-folk or dragons, once the main races have been established.

   
Thou some are more tricky than others to implement, we are weighting the possibility of:
- expressions (i.e. mental states)
- equipment
- different age representation
- wounds
- full body paper dolls


Some experimentation with damaged Dwarf Gear + wounds



More research needs to be carried out on 2d graphics manipulation algorithms, and possibly machine learning solutions, to gain leverage over the large workload that stands before us.
   

About the editor and portrait interpreter


Since the program behind Dwarf Vision is written in Qt/c++, a Linux and Mac build should not be far away, thou testings and tweaks need to be carried out.
The portrait editor was mostly made around our needs to help us make technical/artistic decisions, but it can also be used to modify already created dwarfs or generate new ones.
It doesn't have the prettiest of interfaces and some minor bugs are still around, particularly related to the Collection feature.
Regard it as a very rough prototype.

Editor interface breakdown image

A priority is also to rework the way Dwarf Vision talks with Dwarf Fortress for its data export. It will either be via raw TCP or by using Dfhack's protobuff.






HELPING DWARF VISION GROW



PATREON
   
Supporting us and the project via our Patreon is vital for a long term commitment to this project.
Among other rewards, the first tier will be able to participate in polls as to what feature/race to prioritize next.
This said, the Dwarf Fortress community will still take part in polls regarding general feature debates and feedback.

Due to recent global events we do not have major obligations that keeps us busy in our day-to-day lives.
Either being a blessing or a curse, we are free to allocate a considerable portion of our daily time to this project.
While we could pursue other activities, we wanted to do something we enjoy for a change and see what can come out of it.

It's through each other's concrete effort that a creative energy can stem.
The more we feel this project is wanted, the more creative power we get to further work on it.
If we manage to get a small momentum going, we can vastly expand Dwarf Vision.




SPREADING THE WORD

Do not underestimate this part. Spreading the word is equally important as financial support.
You can save portraits as PNGs for situations where you feel a certain face tells a story you wish to share.
Please consider sharing/showcasing it where ever you feel this project is fit for showing.
Without people knowing such a project exists, we would have a hard time moving forward.

If you feel like it (and want to boast about it), you can always let us know where you made Dwarf Vision known.
All efforts are greatly appreciated!


TALKING TO US

Giving width, height and depth (metaphorically speaking :) ) to Dwarf Fortress creatures is a process that involves a lot of assumptions.
We had fun creating it, but since this is a project that addresses a community, it needs its fair share of input.
That is why flame wars civilized debates are needed to distill vital feedback.
Write your thoughts and recommendations either here or via any other means of communication (we check every personal message as well!).
Reading them will certainly be a joy and a nice tonic for our morale.

(There is also a Discord channel, see below at About Us/Contact)
   

A special note to forum lurker/ninja/ghost readers

Most of the time I'm one myself and I think that a lot of the readers out there are the same. Consider actively joining the discussion.
Few might be swayed by this appeal, but even in few numbers, we think you might have some interesting thoughts to share.
At this stage of development feedback will be invaluable, so give a thought about reaching out to us.


Thank you for reading. We've got a lot lot to talk, so now it's your turn :) !




DOWNLOAD

Dwarf Vision (win_x64) hosted at Dwarf Fortress File Depot
source code hosted on Github





ABOUT US


We are two good friends, an artist (Aqua) and a programmer (RustKnight), creatures of medium size prone to great ambition!
We love Dwarf Fortress, procedural content and roguelikes in general.
A lot of fun (and FUN!) has been had doing this project. Once we got moving we just couldn't stop.
We really enjoyed the development process so far and we're hoping that this could grow into something truly beautiful.

Contact: Send us a personal message here on Bay 12 - it's hooked to our emails and we'll be sure to read it.

Or you can join our Discord channel.




CREDITS SO FAR


To Tarn Adams and Zach Adams for embarking on such a wondrous quest, that also calls others to live and tell their own adventures.
Dfhack which lays the foundations for many incredible works, that also accelerated the development of this one considerably.
   
Master advisors: Rose, _Q (presumably Quietust), Lethosor, WNight, s3rius and Dragos who kindly offered their time, patience and guidance to accelerate the project's progress when most in need. We thank you!





HALL OF SUPPORTERS

Without your support and interest we wouldn't have gotten this far.
It's what keeps us going with such an ambitious project.
Onwards Together!



Resok
Danae
BlackChaos
Marius
Frankenstein Joe
Ausar
Peerless
Jasp Spice
Seen-a Mashcake
Charlie
Alex
Sam



Some Patrons used their real names, therefore some were simplified or changed to maintain privacy. Reach out if you want something changed or removed.




PROJECT STATUS


The project is now halted.
I believe it is only fair to post a small update of what has become of this project.
The way me and Aqua work is usually dedicate full time on projects to gather momentum and drive through it. We sort of tried giving it a part-time try, but it simply doesn't hold.
Thus, needing to find a sustainable source of income that we can maintain ourselves with, we no longer have the time to work on it.
That's one side of the story - the other one is that our current workplace contract prevents us from working on personal projects while employed. But I'd say this was 30% of the reason why we decided to suspend it.
At the time we took this decision, we also informed our Patrons to stop donating. If you happen to stroll over this project, we wouldn't encourage you to donate, given its current status.


So, does that mean it's canceled?
I wouldn't exclude that in the future we would come back to it. We loved developing it and we had some interesting ideas we wanted to see come alive.
In the event that we would gain some financial independence, we would be delighted to come back and continue our work.



We thank you for your love, attention and support!












« Last Edit: October 16, 2021, 04:47:24 pm by Rust_Knight »
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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

Rust_Knight

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Re: New graphical mod release
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2020, 06:43:26 am »

   [ 0.2.2 Fabulation Update ] - DOWNLOAD LINK NOW ACTUALLY POINTS TO THE LATEST UPDATE, sorry for that!

NOTE: overwriting symbols.xml is no longer needed, hence it's now been removed from the Dwarf Vision.rar distribution archive.

   For those who already have Dwarf Vision installed:
        - overwrite the Dwarf_Vision.exe (DWARF_FORTRESS_FOLDER\Dwarf_Vision_x64_win_release) and dwarfinfo.plug.dll (DWARF_FORTRESS_FOLDER\hack\plugins)
        - delete the "message.txt" file from within the main Dwarf Fortress folder (DWARF_FORTRESS_FOLDER\temp)
        - if running an older version, update your Dfhack version to 0.47.04-r4-Windows-64bit (message me if you want compatibility with older Dfhack versions)



   
   Features

   - added Fabulation feature (press question mark button for more info)

   - added long/medium/short double braided curly and straight

   - added long/medium/short braided straight

   - added a placeholder for female dwarfs (write me up on how you feel about it :)

   

   
   


   
   Quality of Life

   - portraits now get saved with their names + IDs
   
   

   Bug Fixes

   - fixed game freezes when playing with certain mods on large fortresses (needs more testing)

   - fixed a crash occurring when toggling filters on/off and generating portraits

   - fixed an asset filtering bug (displayed text only) in relation with Braided / Double Braided

   - known issue: when click ALL on filter list, the list incorrectly displays used filters

   - known issue: color displayer does not correctly refresh selected color upon loading a portraits
        (workaround: generate another portrait, then go back to initial portrait)




   Note: "No Fabulation" mode will still fabulate when hair is mentioned to be long/short/etc but no hairstyle (braided, neatly combed, etc) is mentioned.

   Your feedback is invaluable and most welcomed!
« Last Edit: January 12, 2021, 01:32:04 pm by Rust_Knight »
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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

Rust_Knight

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime Portrait Generator
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2020, 07:59:56 am »

EDIT: For those of you having trouble installing DV, here's a video link with the instructions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnkZU1Gr9U

In case you run into further problems, write in the thread or a direct message.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2020, 02:01:21 pm by Rust_Knight »
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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

Teneb

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2020, 09:01:37 am »

This is very cool.

You may want to move this to the graphical mod or the utilities board though.
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Enemy post

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2020, 08:59:28 pm »

This is extremely impressive.
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justaguy3

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2020, 10:43:29 pm »

This is incredible! Exactly the kind of thing to get you truly engaged in a fort, bravo!
Extremely excited to see this progress. What you have so far is way better than I'd have imagined, I'd expect procedurally generated art to be, well, bad, but this looks quite nice!
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Rust_Knight

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2020, 06:35:48 pm »

This is very cool.

You may want to move this to the graphical mod or the utilities board though.
Any idea if the actual link to this post will also change if topic is moved?



This is extremely impressive.
Thank you, Enemy Post! We tried our best :)



This is incredible! Exactly the kind of thing to get you truly engaged in a fort, bravo!
Extremely excited to see this progress. What you have so far is way better than I'd have imagined, I'd expect procedurally generated art to be, well, bad, but this looks quite nice!

Hype is greatly appreciated from you all! Thanks a lot!

Did you guys already try it out? Encountered any problems?

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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

Iä! RIAKTOR!

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2020, 07:07:25 pm »

Can you make it like DT? I mean, as program that loads as different window and don't need installation as script.
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Lidku

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2020, 07:29:11 pm »

Holy crap! This is awesome!
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Rust_Knight

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2020, 04:44:38 am »

Can you make it like DT? I mean, as program that loads as different window and don't need installation as script.

1. "... as program that loads as different window..."

Currently Dwarf Vision is indeed a separate program (with a separate window), running alongside Dwarf Fortress.
Maybe I've misunderstood what you mean?


2. "... and don't need installation as script. "

The script/Dfhack is there because it needs to read memory from Dwarf Fortress so it knows when and who to draw.
I am considering creating my own memory reading logic inside Dwarf Vision, that way using Dfhack will not be needed, but this would take a considerable investment of time.
For the moment I think it would be best to focus on porting it to other OS, such as Linux and Mac.


Holy crap! This is awesome!
Thanks! we're thrilled that you like it! :)
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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

Sarrak

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2020, 01:48:34 pm »

This is daaamn great! Looks amazing, I’ll be sure to try it when I dig back in :D
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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2020, 04:47:51 am »

@Rust_Knight
Your avatar works as a great advertisement :D Hooked me up immediately.

This looks very nice!
Cant wait to try it out :)
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Rust_Knight

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2020, 05:36:20 am »

@Rust_Knight
Your avatar works as a great advertisement :D Hooked me up immediately.

This looks very nice!
Cant wait to try it out :)

Sacrifices must be made! :))
Thou I guess it looks weird for the main post where you have two GIFs blinking. Feels like a motel.

Thank you for the reply - we're glad to hear you like it!
I think an update is inbound in a couple of days. We'll see how it goes.


EDIT:
- from what post did you find out about Dwarf Vision?
- let me know if you have any issues with it!


« Last Edit: December 07, 2020, 05:44:23 am by Rust_Knight »
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DWARF VISION - REALTIME IN-GAME DF PORTRAIT GENERATOR

Every little bit of your help on our Patreon GREATLY fuels our energy to further develop DWARF VISION !

mgsicko

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #13 on: December 07, 2020, 03:54:52 pm »

I'm very glad i frequently visit this part of the forum, this looks great!!

I'll be installing it and coming back with feedback if i feel like i have anything useful, but i must say even now, you got a girl impressed, i love the idea here, as someone who's always been bothered at how hard a time i had recollecting who my dwarves were, im sure this will make a big difference to my experience
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Rose

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Re: DWARF VISION in-game realtime portrait generator
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2020, 11:10:16 am »

Oh shit, this is great. It's like something I've been wanting to do for a while, but haven't had the artistic ability.
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