The best tool there is to unprotect macromedia director files in an easy way.
What's new in this version?
There's a lot of new functionality added to the program. This will basically make file processing even easier. If you don't want to use them the default settings are the same as they allways were.
There are three new preferences:
- Automatically quit dirOpener after processing files.
Check the box on the preferences tab to automatically quit dirOpener after it is don processing
files. Good to use with the new commandline file processing option.
- Remember last input directory.
Normally the file select dialog will allways start in the dirOpener directory. Check this box on
the preferences tab to make the file select dialog start with the last directory you opened files
from. This also means the files you've processed via the commandline file processing option
and via the drag and drop processing option.
- Select your output directory.
As a default the files you have selected are saved into your dirOpener directory. Use the
radiobuttons to change this.
dirOpener directory: choose this option to save the output files in the directory the dirOpener
program is in Example:
dirOpener is in: C:\dirOpener\
Your input files are in: D:\filesToOpen\
Your output files will be in: C:\dirOpener\
Input directory: choose this option to save the output files in the same directory as the input
file. Example:
dirOpener is in: C:\dirOpener\
Your input files are in: D:\filesToOpen\
Your output files will be in: D:\filesToOpen\
Custom directory: choose this option to save your output files to any directory you want. For
it to work porperly you must select this option and enter a valid pathname in the box. You can
also use the browse button to select a directory of you choice. Example:
dirOpener is in: C:\dirOpener\
Your input files are in: D:\filesToOpen\
Your output files will be in: E:\yourCustomDir\
There are two new keyboard shortcuts:
- CTRL+O will switch to the mail tab and open the file select dialog
- CTRL+W will open the dirOpener website
Commandline file processing option.
dirOpener will now accept files via the commandline prompt. You could use this to batch process files. Open a dos prompt from you start menu and type:
This is actually not the best use of this option. You can also use it to drop one or more files on the program's icon to have them processed. Use this together with the AutoQuit option to make file processing fast and easy.
Drag and drop file processing option.
While dirOpener is running just make a selection of files in your windows exporer and drop them on the program window to have them processed.
And I updated the about screen :-)
What will dirOpener do?
Every so often you might make a mistake and accidentally protect a file of which you don't have a backup copy. In this case dirOpener can help you. dirOpener will give you back all your original assets and score structure. If your project was mostly linear this tool will be a great help getting back your file.
Maybe you want to update a file from an earlier version of director to director 7.02. In that case open your unprotected movie or cast file in director. It will be transformed to a version 7.02 file without problems. Be aware though that some lingo has changed over the times, especially director 4 lingo.
Or sometimes you see a project and wonder 'how on earth did they do that?' dirOpener can help you get an insight into how somebody else has set up their files. You can learn an awfull lot from looking at other peoples' work. I'm not saying you should open up other peoples' files and steal their assets (what use are they anyway?). I'm saying: Look and Learn.
In short this program will take any (version 4 and up) director movie file(dir,dxr), shockwave file(dcr) or cast file(cst,cxt), and retreive from them, all cast members exept scripts and behaviours.
What won't dirOpener do?
As said before, it won't retrieve any scripts/behaviours. As far as I know it's impossible to retrieve any scripts from a movie.
The director engine that interprets the commands does not understand any of the lingo scripts you type in. Basically the lingo you type in is your interface to the computer. After you close the script window (or press the recompile button) the script is transformed into someting the dirapi.dll can interpret. Dirapi.dll is the dll that both director and your projector use to make things happen. The script is just left in the unprotected movie so you can make adjustments later. When you protect a movie all the scripts are deleted. Leaving the cast member references empty.
Also it will not open projector(exe) files. I looked into getting any usable information from the '.exe' files and have been unsuccessfull so far.
UPDATE: Swifty tools actually made a tool (Xena Pro) to extract dxr files from exe, dll's and other files. You'll find it at: http://buraks.com/swifty/. He also has a lot of other tools to modify and work with flash files. Go check out his site it's worth it. Using his tool will give you dxr files that dirOpener can then open back up for you.
What does dirOpener need?
The output is a director file, so I guess you need a copy of director The output is of no use if you do not have the program. The movie you are trying to open might use one or more xtras. If these are not present the movie will start complaining about them, so you must place them in an xtras folder together with the dirOpener program file. A good thing to do is to copy the entire director xtras folder and place it with the 'diropener exe' file. If the director file you are trying to open uses any other xtras look wether there's any xtras folder where you got them from and then copy those. If you don't see any xtras run the projector that goes with the files. WHILE it's open look in your windows temp directory (usually 'c:\windows\temp') for any xtras folder.
Director 4
Director 4 doesn't use any xtras dummy!
Director 5
In director 5 all xtras need to be in an external xtras folder. They cannot be packed into the projector.
Director 6
Director 6 creates an Xtras folder in the folder you run the projector from, unless it's read-only media then the xtras folder will be created in your temp folder. This is actually known to cause problems. When you projector crashes the system, the xtras folder is left behind. If you then restart your machine and run the projector again it will claim not to have found ome or more of the xtras it needs, this is because when the projector tried to unpack them to your temp dir
it allready found an xtras folder present and sort of got confused.
Director 7
Director 7 creates a new subdir in your temp folder. Starting with 'Tempfolder.aaa', next 'Tempfolder.aab' if 'Tempfolder.aaa' already exists, and so on. Usually this will be something like: C:\windows\temp\tempfolder.aaa in there you'll find all the xtras used by the movie. Make those read-only while the projector is still running, and you're done. Closing the projector will automatically delete any temporary files it created exept for the xtras that you made read-only. Copy them to an xtras folder with your dirOpener.exe file. Emptying your temporary files folder beforehand will make the search a lot easier. That was about time anyway wasn't it?
Director 8
See director 7.
How does dirOpener work?
The program works really simple. Anyone can do it. The core of the program can be written in 2 lines of lingo. The program has just been jazzed up to make the file selection easier and it logs some progress.
It works like this: you select a movie, which is opened as a movie in a window. This movie is then saved to a different file using the saveMovie command. The saved movie is then an unprotected director movie. Directors saveMovie command doesn't check
wether the movie you are trying to save is protected or not.
For casts the fileName of an existing attatched cast file are changed to the selected file which is then saved to a different file using the save castLib command. The program also converts lower version(that is director 4.00 and up) files to director 7 or 8 in one go.
Hidden features
Not really related to the program but nice to know anyway:
Cursors:
The about movie in a window(help > about) uses a hand cursor. This is no bitmap, It is a cursor internal in director 7.00 and up. This and a lot of other cursors can be found in director 7.00 and up, works on pc and mac. here's the list:
-1 = normal cursor
1 = I-beam cursor, text entry/editing
2 = crosshair cursor
3 = thick cross cursor
4 = hourglass
200 = no cursor at all
254 = small crosshair with question mark
256 = pen tool as in paint window
257 = square, as eraser in painto window
258 = crosshair as set centerpoint in paint window
259 = paintbucket as in paint window
260 = hand with five fingers out, as in paint window
261 = crosshair as brush in paint window
271 = crosshair with point in middle
272 = lasso
280 = hand wih one finger out (point)
281 = eyedropper
284 = drag vertically
285 = drag hoizontally
286 = double crosshair
290 = hand grabbing
291 = hand grabbing with stop sign in it
292 = hand grabbing with plus sign in it
293 = black arrow with white border
294 = rotate cursor
295 = skew cursor
297 = move up/down
298 = move diagonally bottom left top right
299 = move diagonally bottom right top left
300 = strange down arrow
301 = airbrush
302 = magnifying glass with a plus sign in it
303 = magnifying glass with a minus sign in it
304 = magnifying glass with no sign in it
That's exactly 28 cursors more than the people at macromedia tell you about. And you can use them in director projects for windows. you've paid for them, you might as well use them.
Miaw in any shape you want.
There is a very special type of border that you can use in director 7.02. I haven't tested it in director 8 yet. It won't work in director 7.00, get the update. Basically you create a one bit bitmap cast member, who's shape will be the new shape for the miaw. The command to get it all working would look like this:
Set the windowType of window "about" to member "shape"
Where member "shape" would be the bitmap member you have created.
The results will ONLY show in a projector, not in authoring mode.
The getPixel command
Still hidden in director 7.00 and 7.02 but available in director 8.
A way to call up the color number of a specific pixel of a bitmap cast member.
newColor = getPixel (member "palette", 100, 100)
It's best to work with 8 bit cast members if you want to get any sensible information back from this command. In director 7 the command looks at the bitmap with the null point in the bottom right, in director 7.02 this has been changed to top left.
About dirOpener
dirOpener
Copyright© 2000,2001,2001 J-roen
For the latest version check: http://www.j-roen.net/dirOpener
Any tips/enhancements, comments and/or bug reports, mail to: dirOpener@j-roen.net
