198 lines
7.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
198 lines
7.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
====================
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Windows Newbie Guide
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====================
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If you're running Windows and aren't as familiar with the Windows command
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prompt as the rest of the documentation assumes you are, this page is for you!
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The Overviewer is a *command line* tool, which means you will need to use the command line to run it.
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**First step:** Open the command line.
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Open your Start menu and type in the box 'cmd' and press enter. If you're
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running XP you'll go to the "run" option instead and then type 'cmd' and
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press enter.
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.. image:: opening_cmd.png
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This should bring up the *command prompt*, a black window with a prompt
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where you can type *commands*. The prompt part will probably look something
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like ``C:\Users\andrew>`` followed by a cursor where you type your commands.
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.. image:: cmd.png
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Leave this window open and move on to step 2.
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Now that you know how to open a command line, and haven't been scared off yet,
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the next step is to download the latest Overviewer.
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**Step 2:** Download Overviewer
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Go to the `Downloads Page <https://overviewer.org/downloads>`_ and
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download the *latest* version for your architecture, either 32 bit
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or 64 bit.
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*This is important. If you don't know which to choose, 32 or 64,* then you
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can find out by clicking on the start menu, *right clicking* on the
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"Computer" icon or "My Computer" icon (depending on your version of
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Windows), and then selecting "Properties." Somewhere among the information
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about your computer it should tell you if you're running a *32 bit operating
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system* or *64 bit operating system*.
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.. image:: computer_properties.png
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.. image:: system.png
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Once you know if your computer is 32 or 64 bit, go and download the latest
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version. We make small changes all the time, and a new version is uploaded
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to that page for every change we make. It's usually best to just get the
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latest.
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Okay, you've got a command prompt open. You've got The Overviewer downloaded.
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We're half way there!
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**Step 3:** Extract the Overviewer zip you downloaded.
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This is easy. I assume you know how to unzip things. Unzip the contents to
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somewhere you can find easily. You'll need to find it in the command
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prompt. It may help to leave the window with the unzipped contents open so
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you can remind yourself where it is.
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*Keep all those files together!* They're all needed to run The Overviewer.
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.. image:: extracting.png
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**Step 4:** Change directory in command prompt to the location of overviewer.exe
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You remember the location of the files you just extracted? Windows doesn't
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always make it easy. Here's how in windows 7: just click on the little icon
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to the left of the directory name.
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.. image:: location1.png
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.. image:: location2.png
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Got the location? Good. We're going to *change directory* to that directory
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with the command prompt. Bring the command prompt window back up. The
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command we're going to use is called ``cd``, it stands for ... *change
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directory*!
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I'm going to illustrate this with an example. Let's say you extracted
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Overviewer to the directory
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``c:\users\andrew\overviewer``. Here is exactly
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what you'll type into the command prompt and then press enter::
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cd c:\users\andrew\overviewer
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.. image:: changed_dir.png
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Okay, did it work? Your command *prompt* should now have the *current
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working directory* in it. If your prompt changed to the directory that you
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just cd'd to, then your current directory changed successfully! You're ready
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for the next step!
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Okay before we actually run Overviewer for real, let's do a checkpoint. You
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should have *cd*'d to the directory where overviewer.exe is. To test, type this
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in and you should see the help text print out::
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overviewer.exe --help
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note the two hyphens before "help". You should see something like this:
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.. image:: usage.png
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The help text displays the *usage* of overviewer.exe, or the parameters it takes
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to run it. It's kind of long, I had to make my window larger to show it all.
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::
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Usage:
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overviewer.exe [--rendermodes=...] [options] <World> <Output Dir>
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Command line tool usage convention says that items in [square brackets] are
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*optional*, while items in <angled brackets> are *required*.
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**Step 5** Render a map!
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Okay, so to render a map, you have to run ``overviewer.exe`` with two
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*parameters*: the *world path* and a *destination directory*.
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Let's say you have a world named "Singleplayer world" and you want to put
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the tiles into a directory on your desktop. Singleplayer worlds are stored
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on your hard drive at a location called ``%appdata%\.minecraft\saves``. Try
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typing this into the command prompt::
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overviewer.exe "%appdata%\.minecraft\saves\Singleplayer World" c:\users\andrew\desktop\mymap
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.. note::
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You must use quotation marks around a path that has spaces in it.
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.. note::
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``%appdata%`` is a special windows "variable" that refers to the
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location on your drive where applications can store their data. Typing
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``%appdata%`` instead of the full path is a convenient shortcut.
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If everything went according to plan, The Overviewer should now be churning
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away furiously on your world, rendering thousands of image files that
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compose a map of your world.
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When it's done, open up the file ``index.html`` in a web browser and you
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should see your map!
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I hope this has been enough to get some of you Windows noobs started on The
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Overviewer. Sorry there's no easy-to-use graphical interface right now. We want
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to make one, we really do, but we haven't had the time and the talent to do so
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yet.
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The preferred way to run The Overviewer is with a *configuration file*. Without
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one, you can only do the most basic of renders. Once you're ready, head to the
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:doc:`../config` page to see what else The Overviewer can do. And as always,
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feel free to drop by in `IRC <https://overviewer.org/irc/>`_ if you have any
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questions! We're glad to help!
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Common Pitfalls
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---------------
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- Wrong working directory::
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"overviewer.exe" is not recognised as an internal or external
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command, operable program, or batch file.
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This is a common mistake to make, especially for people unfamiliar
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with the command line. This happens if your current working directory
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does not contain overviewer.exe. This is likely because you've forgot
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to change the working directory to the directory you have unzipped
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overviewer into. Re-read Step 4 for instructions on how to do that.
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- Overviewer is on a different drive than C:\
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You may have Overviewer located on a different partition than C:,
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and for some odd reason the windows command line does not accept
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"cd D:\" as a way to switch partitions. To do this, you have to just
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type the drive letter followed by a colon::
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D:
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This should switch your current working directory to D:\
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Using GitHub Gist
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-----------------
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Sometimes, when helping people with issues with Overviewer, we'll often
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ask to see the config file you're using, or, if there was an Overviewer
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error, a full copy of an error message. Unfortunately, `IRC <https://overviewer.org/irc/>`_
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is not a good way to send large amounts of text. So we often ask users
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to create a `Gist <https://gist.github.com/>`_ containing the text we want
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to see. Sites like these are also called Pastebins, and you are welcome
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to use your favorite pastebin site, if you'd like.
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* First, go to http://gist.github.com/
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* Second, paste your text into the primary text entry area:
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.. image:: gist1.png
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* Third, click the 'Create Secret Gist' button. A secret gist means that
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only someone with the exact URL can view your gist.
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.. image:: gist2.png
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* Finally, send us the URL. This will let us easily view your properly formatted Gist.
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.. image:: gist3.png
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