Play Dwarf Fortress (Classic or Steam edition) in a web browser with audio. DF runs as a Docker container on a remote x86-64 Linux host at full native speed, streamed to your browser over noVNC with audio via HTTP.

Classic	Steam (Premium)

Architecture

Your machine                         Remote x86-64 Linux host (ssh <remote>)
┌──────────────────┐                 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Browser          │                 │ Docker container                                  │
│  noVNC <canvas> ─┼── SSH tunnel ──▶│  nginx :6080                                      │
│  <audio> src=    │   (loopback)    │   ├─ /          → custom index.html (VNC + audio) │
│  /audio          │                 │   ├─ /websockify → websockify → Xvnc :5900         │
│  localhost:6080  │                 │   ├─ /audio      → Icecast ◀─ ffmpeg (internal)    │
│                  │                 │   └─ /saves /backups /logs → browse/download       │
└──────────────────┘                 │  PulseAudio (virtual sink) ◀─ dwarfort             │
                                     │  saves → host dir (bind mount, on disk)            │
                                     │  backups → host dir (periodic save tarballs)       │
                                     └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Nothing is exposed publicly: the container binds to 127.0.0.1, and you reach it through an SSH tunnel.

Prerequisites

• A remote x86-64 Linux host you can SSH into (e.g. a VPS or cloud instance)
• Docker installed on that host
• SSH client on your local machine
• A modern web browser

Quickstart (Classic Edition)

# 1. Deploy — syncs the build context and uses Docker Compose on the remote to
#    build + start the container (saves persist on disk under ~/remote-df/saves)
./scripts/deploy.sh <ssh-host>

# 2. Open an SSH tunnel and launch it in your browser
./scripts/connect.sh <ssh-host>
#    → http://localhost:6080/vnc.html?autoconnect=1&resize=scale
#    → Audio stream: http://localhost:8080

Docker Compose

./scripts/deploy.sh drives Compose on the remote for you. To run it by hand instead, do this on the remote host (loopback-only ports, auto-restart, and saves bind-mounted to a host directory on disk):

# Classic — build the image and run
docker compose up -d --build

# Steam — build on the host (SteamCMD needs native x86_64)
echo myuser > secrets/steam_user
echo mypass > secrets/steam_pass
echo ''     > secrets/steam_guard   # or the 2FA code if Steam Guard is on
docker compose up -d --build df-steam

Then tunnel in from your machine with ./scripts/connect.sh <host>. Override DF_VERSION, GEOM, WEB_PORT, VNC_PORT, or DF_SAVES_DIR (where saves live on disk, default ./saves) via the environment or a .env file.

Example: full classic deploy with Compose

# --- on the remote x86-64 host ---
git clone https://github.com/sessa93/remote-df.git && cd remote-df

# Optional: pin settings instead of passing them inline each time
cat > .env <<'EOF'
DF_VERSION=53_14
GEOM=1600x900
WEB_PORT=6080
DF_SAVES_DIR=./saves            # host dir for saves (created on first run)
EOF

docker compose up -d --build    # build the image and start the container
docker compose logs -f df       # watch DF / Xvnc / audio boot (Ctrl-C to detach)

# --- back on your local machine ---
./scripts/connect.sh my-vps     # SSH tunnel + open the browser
#   → http://localhost:6080/

Day-to-day:

docker compose ps               # is it up?
docker compose restart df       # bounce it
docker compose up -d --build    # rebuild (e.g. new DF_VERSION) and restart
docker compose down             # stop & remove (saves persist in the host saves dir)

Steam Edition

If you own Dwarf Fortress on Steam, you can use the premium version instead:

# Build on the remote host (SteamCMD needs native x86_64)
DF_EDITION=steam STEAM_USER=myuser STEAM_PASS=mypass ./scripts/deploy.sh <ssh-host>

# With Steam Guard 2FA:
DF_EDITION=steam STEAM_USER=myuser STEAM_PASS=mypass STEAM_GUARD=ABC123 ./scripts/deploy.sh <ssh-host>

Steam credentials are passed as Docker BuildKit secrets and never stored in the image.

DFHack

The classic edition includes DFHack (mod framework). DFHack is loaded via LD_PRELOAD to bypass the setarch call that requires SYS_ADMIN capability unavailable in Docker containers. The steam edition does not include DFHack.

CI / GitHub Actions

Images are published to ghcr.io/sessa93/remote-df with tags:

• df-{VERSION}-classic, classic, latest (classic)
• df-{VERSION}-steam, steam (steam)

Project Layout

How It Works

dwarfort is a graphical SDL2 program, so the container gives it a headless display: Xvnc (virtual X server + VNC, 1280×800) → DF renders into it using PRINT_MODE:2D software rendering (no GPU needed) → websockify/noVNC serves the VNC stream to the browser as a <canvas>. Keyboard and mouse flow back the same way.

Audio Streaming

A PulseAudio virtual null sink captures DF's audio output (via SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse). ffmpeg reads from the PulseAudio monitor source, encodes to Ogg/Opus at 96 kbps, and pushes it to an internal Icecast server as a source. nginx proxies the Icecast mount at /audio on the same port as noVNC, and the custom index.html landing page embeds an <audio src="/audio"> element — so video and audio share one browser tab with no extra ports. Icecast fans the stream out to many listeners and survives tab reloads/reconnects (ffmpeg's earlier one-client HTTP server would drop and 502 on reconnect). Latency is ~100-200 ms.

Save Backups & Browse/Download

A background loop tarballs the save dir to /backups every BACKUP_INTERVAL seconds (default 30 min), keeping the newest BACKUP_KEEP (default 48). /backups is bind-mounted to a host directory (DF_BACKUPS_DIR, default ~/remote-df/backups), so backups live on disk too. nginx serves three browse/download endpoints (linked from the landing page):

• /backups/ — download a save tarball
• /saves/ — browse the live save directory
• /logs/ — view container logs (df.log, xvnc.log, audio.log, icecast.log, …)

Idle Auto-Pause

When no VNC client is connected for IDLE_GRACE seconds (default 30), dwarfort is paused with SIGSTOP to save CPU, and resumed with SIGCONT the moment a browser reconnects. Set DF_AUTOPAUSE=0 to keep the simulation running while you're disconnected (e.g. to let a fortress run overnight).

Health & Limits

The container declares a Docker healthcheck (HTTP probe on :6080) so docker compose ps and restart policies can tell when it's wedged, and resource limits (DF_CPUS, DF_MEMORY, plus a pid cap) so a runaway dwarfort can't take down the host.

Custom SDL2 Build

DF's bundled SDL2 reads mouse input via XInput2 raw events, which VNC-injected input does not produce — the cursor would never register. The Dockerfile builds SDL2 with SDL_X11_XINPUT=OFF so DF uses core X input instead, which VNC input generates correctly.

Persistent Saves

Saves are bind-mounted from a host directory on the remote (DF_SAVES_DIR, default ~/remote-df/saves) to DF v50's save location inside the container — /root/.local/share/Bay 12 Games/Dwarf Fortress/save (the XDG user-data dir, not the game folder's data/save). So worlds and fortresses live on disk, survive redeploys, and can be backed up or copied with ordinary file tools (no docker volume plumbing).

Configuration

Security

The setup assumes a single user reaching it over an SSH tunnel, so the VNC server runs with no password and there's no TLS — which is fine over loopback + SSH. Do not publish the port directly. If you ever want others to reach it:

1. Add a VNC password (x11vnc -rfbauth)
2. Terminate TLS in front (e.g. Caddy or nginx)
3. Open the firewall deliberately

License

This project's scripts, Dockerfile, and configuration are released under the MIT License.

Dwarf Fortress itself is copyright Tarn Adams / Bay 12 Games. The game binary and assets are not included in this repository — they are downloaded at build time. See Bay 12's site for terms.