DECgraphics
DECgraphics is an option that displays walls as continuous lines rather than as broken dashes, which is the best that plain ASCII can do. It also displays certain dungeon features with distinct symbols. DECgraphics is a smaller character set than IBMgraphics, so it is missing some symbols, particularly on the Rogue level.
DECgraphics requires a display device that displays DEC Special Graphics. DEC Special Graphics works by sending the terminal an escape code which tells it to toggle to an alternate character set with line drawing characters. The curses SYMSET also uses DEC Special Graphics to approximate IBMgraphics.
To use DECgraphics, the option must be set to TRUE, either in-game or in the configuration file.
The complete symbol list
Because the DEC Special Graphics character set is limited and lacks the double line drawing characters, the Rogue level is rendered using only normal ASCII characters.
The symbols affected by DECgraphics in the normal dungeon are listed here. DEC Special Graphics is a 7bit system. The code points listed here use the NetHack internal representation, which sets the 8th bit high.
| Code point | Usage | Appearance | ASCII |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0xf8 | vertical wall | │ | | |
| 0xf1 | horizontal wall | ─ | - |
| 0xec | top left corner | ┌ | - |
| 0xeb | top right corner | ┐ | - |
| 0xed | bottom left corner | └ | - |
| 0xea | bottoom right corner | ┘ | - |
| 0xee | cross wall | ┼ | - |
| 0xf6 | T up wall | ┴ | - |
| 0xf7 | T down wall | ┬ | - |
| 0xf5 | T left wall | ┤ | | |
| 0xf4 | T right wall | ├ | | |
| 0xfe | normal door | · | . |
| 0xe1 | vertical open door | ▒ | - |
| 0xe1 | horizontal open door | ▒ | | |
| 0xfc | bars | ≠ or π | # |
| 0xe7 | tree | ± | # |
| 0xfe | room | · | . |
| 0xf9 | up ladder | ≤ | < |
| 0xfa | down ladder | ≥ | > |
| 0xfb | altar | π or _ | _ |
| 0xe0 | pool | ◆ | } |
| 0xfe | ice | · | . |
| 0xe0 | lava | ◆ | } |
| 0xfe | vertical open drawbridge | · | . |
| 0xfe | horizontal open drawbridge | · | . |
| 0xe0 | under water | ◆ | } |
| 0xf8 | vertical beam | │ | | |
| 0xf1 | horizontal beam | ─ | - |
| 0xef | swallow top center | ⎺ | - |
| 0xf8 | swallow middle left | │ | | |
| 0xf8 | swallow middle right | │ | | |
| 0xf3 | swallow bottom center | ⎽ | - |
| 0xef | explosion top center | ⎺ | - |
| 0xf8 | explosion middle left | │ | | |
| 0xf8 | explosion middle right | │ | | |
| 0xf3 | explosion bottom center | ⎽ | - |
In the above table, "bars" and "altar" are listed with two appearances. The first applies to 3.6.3 or newer.
The second applies to 3.6.2 and prior.
These symbols can be reinstated by putting the following line into the configuration file:
SYMBOLS=S_altar:_,S_bars:\m{
