dfhack/README

Introduction
------------
DFHack is a Dwarf Fortress memory access library and a set of basic tools using this library.
The library is a work in progress, so things might change as more tools are written for it.

It is an attempt to unite the various ways tools access DF memory and allow for easier development
of new tools.

Getting DFHack
----------------
You can get the code at DFHack's sourceforge site:
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/dfhack/

* subversion access: 
  svn co https://dfhack.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/dfhack/trunk dfhack 

Compatibility
-------------
DFHack works on Windows XP, Vista, 7 or any modern Linux distribution.

Windows 2000 is currently *not supported* due to missing OS functionality. If you know how
to easily suspend processes, you can fix it :)

OSX is also not supported due to lack of developers with a Mac.

Currently supported Dwarf Fortress versions:
* Windows
  40d
  40d9 - 40d16

* Linux
  40d9 - 40d16

Using the library
-----------------
The library is compilable under Linux with GCC and under Windows with MinGW32 compiler.
It is using the cmake build system. See COMPILE for details.

DFHack is using the zlib/libpng license. This makes it easy to link to it, use it in-source
or add your own extensions. Contributing back to the dfhack repository is welcome and the right
thing to do :)

At the time of writing there's no API reference or documentation. The code does have a lot
of comments though.

Main part of the API is in SimpleAPI.h and should be easy to grasp.
You might also have to include a few other files:
    * DFTypes.h    
      defines many of the used data structures
    * DFTileTypes.h
      functions for translating map tile type values to useful properties (wall, flooer, etc.)
    * DFMemAccess.h, together with at least ProcessManager.h
      manual access to memory reading and writing functions.

Tools
-----
All the DFHack tools are terminal programs. This might seem strange to Windows users,
but they are meant mostly as examples for developers. Still, they can be useful and
are cross-platform just like the library itself.

* expbench   - just exports the map 1000 times over. Meant to test how fast the
               DFHack<->DF interface is. This can take 3-30+ seconds, depending on
               your system and the size of the map.

* reveal     - plain old reveal tool. Demonstrates writing map data back to DF.

* prospector - scans the map for minerals. by default it only scans only visible veins.
               You can make it show hidden things with '-a' and base rock and soil layers
               with '-b'. These can be combined ('-ab')

* cleanmap   - cleans mud, vomit, snow and all kinds of bloody mess from the map. It will
               clean your irrigated farms too, so consider yourself warned.

Memory offset definitions
-------------------------
The file with memory offset definitions used by dfhack can be found in the output folder. 
It uses XML as the base format.

It allows entry versioning and basing newer entries on older ones. These newer versions
only have to specify the values that are different or a single 'rebase' value that is then
used as an offset for all the addresses or object identifiers.

This makes it possible to track the small d## releases pretty quickly.

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