I often get PM's questioning different steps in my tutorial (in fact I can't count them any longer). Lately somebody was questioning me:
What is the DOS - Part of windows?
Cause I don't want that somebody feels embrassed here, I will not name the person. Knowing about the DOS - console is one of the basics if somebody is working with windows. Questions like this are showing me, that now a younger generation is sitting behind the screen and I am probably one of the old guys here
My first computer was an IBM 3x86 with 33
MHz and 4
MB RAM running Windows 3.10. Today a system can have a Quad - Core Processor with 8
GHz and up to 16
GB of RAM.
First of all, there exists no DOS - System under winxp or vista. While earlier versions of windows like 95 and 98 needed DOS for boot up, winxp only has an emulator console for it which is used to execute and give commands to small programs like the 3ds2kex - converter. It would simply make to much work to program a whole user interface for it. One also says "Windowing" makes no sense here.
One start this DOS console under START->Execute As...->And then type 'cmd'
While in the early times of computers the DOS - Console was the heart of the user interface nearly nobody uses the DOS - console today. System processes like copy or rename a file can be made much more comfortably with the windows explorer nowadays. Especially critical system processes like partioning and boot up options were handeled under DOS. But that's not always the case. Especially when you are working with Linux or Unix you will do much more with the console, although these systems are using a graphical user interface too.
When you start up the console you should be located in your user directory, for example:
C:\Documents and Settings\user>
This command line where you can input commands, which are executed by the computer after pressing the "Return" - Key is also called
"prompt". There are existing a lot of different commands for the DOS console. Here are the most important you will need when you want to work with the 3ds2kex - converter:
cd
cd..
dir
Yes, that's all. Only 3, good right?
If you have extracted the KnifeEdge 3ds2kex - converter toolkit on your Desktop, the 3ds2kex converter executable should be located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex\3ds2kex.exe
So let's change to this directory by typing:
C:\Documents and Settings\user>
cd Desktop
You are now located in your Desktop directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop>
With the command 'cd [directory name]' you change to the directory with the name [directory name], in our case Desktop. With 'cd..' you are going back in the directory tree.
To get an overview in which directory you can change and which files you can execute in the directory you are located at the moment, type 'dir'. You get an output like this:
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop>
dir
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> .
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> ..
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> 3ds2kex
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop>
Oh, there's our 3ds2kex directory I've extracted. Let's change to it via:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop>cd 3ds2kex
And look which files are located in there:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex>dir
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> .
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> ..
03.05.2007 12:29 376.832 3ds2kex.exe
23.02.2006 18:01 10.084 license.txt
18.05.2007 11:06 4.753 readme.txt
30.07.2007 11:51 <DIR> Samples
3 File(s) 391.669 Bytes
3 Directory(s), 327.503.872 Bytes free
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex>
If you now copy your .3ds - file generated by Deep Exploration to this directory, you can start the convertation process via:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex>
3ds2kex.exe [name of your 3ds - file].3ds, for example:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex>3ds2kex.exe Baby Boomerang.3ds
But DOS can more. You can give a command options to modify how it is executed. By typing:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\3ds2kex>
3ds2kex
usage: 3ds2kex [-l] [-v<N> | -s] [-c] [-?] file.3ds
-l show license agreement and exit
-s suppress license agreement
-v verbose output, N is level 0-3
-c create suplimental data file and exit [see documentation]
-? display help
You get an overview of the options of the .kex - exporter. From there one should be able to work with my tutorial.
If you want to know more about DOS - commands you can find
here a nice index.
Greets,
Max