Chankast Wrapper 2.0

Usage:
======

Take the wrapper and the manifest file and drop them in your chankast folder.  
Keep both versions of the chankast exe in the same folder, they co-exist just fine.  Do NOT rename the chankast exes!
Double click on the wrapper to set your settings and you are done!  

Setting Up an Image:
==========================
As you know, chankast cannot support real dc discs but instead relies on mounting ripped images virtually on your harddrive.  
The chankast website explains how to do this.  I reccomend that you use alcohol 120% and it's virtual drives though,
as you can mount more than 4 discs.  

To use this wrapper, all of your discs must be constantly mounted, each on a different virtual drive.  Don't worry, this 
won't effect your computer's performance one bit as they aren't real drives.  To add a game, simply click the "add" button
in the settings window.  You will first be prompted to locate the iso.  Select the iso, NOT the virtual drive it's mounted
to and press ok.  Next you will be prompted to press a key.  The key you press should be the drive letter of the virtual 
drive this iso is mounted to. Finally, you will be promted to select the render to use for this game.  Each render is 
actually a seperate chankast exe, so make sure you have all three in your chankast folder!  You are done, now you can launch
this game via the command line by navigating to your chankast folder and typing:

chankast-launch.exe d:\path\to\your\iso\isoname.extension

or:

chankast-launch.exe isoname.extension

or:

chankast-launch.exe isoname


As chankast ignores the actual path to the iso, (and the iso for that matter) that data is irrelevant, but it can be passed
harmlessly.


What if I'm using Real Cds?:
=================================
First off, you should know by now that original dreamcast discs don't work, but backups do.  With that out of the way.....
As I've stated above, all the iso image is for is to give you a command line tag to activate the game.  So the iso image
doesn't have to be real, just something you'll use to call. (And also your front-end will use to "detect" the roms)
Personally, I see two ways to do this so that it'll work well in a front-end.  

Method 1:

Take all of the games you have on cd and make a text file for them named after the game and place it in your roms folder.  
(For example "Marvel vs Capcom 2.txt")  Use that as the iso image for said game, and when prompted to press the key for
the virtual  drive, press the key for the letter of your actual cdrom instead.  Now use a dat generator tool (there are 
a few on my site.) to make a dat using txt files as the rom extension.  Now all of your dreamcast games will show up in your
front-end.  What you'll have to remember to do is switch out to the appropriate disc prior to launch. 


Method 2:

Since you are going to be doing a lot of work basically setting all games to the same drive you might want to try a more 
generic approach. Instead of making a txt file for each game, why not just make one?  Make a text file called 
"Play a Dreamcast Disc.txt" and put it in your roms folder.  Make a dat file again, using text files as the rom extension.
Now only that message will show up in your front-end instead of all of your games, however it makes more sense as it'll 
remind you that what is going to be launched is the actual disc you have in your cdrom drive.  






Notes:
======

The "virtual cd" method and the "real cd" method can be mixed and matched together if you have a mixed collection.

"Fullscreen" is faked by setting the window position and removing the borders via api calls.  You'll notice a small gap
at the bottom of the screen.  This is due to api limits which keep me from making the window bigger than the screensize.
As I move the window up 20 pixels to hide the menu bar, there will always be a 20 pixel gap at the bottom of the screen.  
Imho this is preferable than the distracting grey menu bar.  It looks best if the taskbar is set to auto-hide.

No, I can't hide chankast while the game is loading.  I have to use simulated keypresses, and thus I must be able to
see the window.  

No you can't exit with your gamepad.  Because chankast uses exclusive direct input to poll it's inputs, the emulator would
slow to a crawl if I tried to poll the joystick.  Sorry.  :-(  However, joytokey might do a decent job as it uses other 
methods.


When launching a game in test mode you have to click on the screen before chankast will respond to keypresses.  
This is normal.  When launching a game via a front-end or command line, you won't run into this issue.  

High Priority doesn't really work with the wrapper, but I put it in for completness.  Use at your own risk.  


Tempcast.cfg is a "blank" chankast.cfg I use to clear all the saved settings.  If chankast were to be updated 
(and I don't update the wrapper) you may need to make your own tempkast.cfg by deleting the chankast.cfg, launching chankast
and then exit and rename. 




  