Howard - Multiple instances of RD?

[enemyace]

Howard,

Would it be possible to run multiple instances of RD? I was thinking I'd set them up like this:

Main instance - Extras list only (Arcade, Movies, Music)

    Arcade instance - Basic RD usage (Arcade emulators, PC games)

    Movies instance - Extras list only (Favorite DivX movies with a snap of the DVD cover)

    Music instance - Extras list only (Favorite mp3 playlists with a snap of the album cover or other image)

A few questions about this setup:

The main menu would have just the extras list which would point to the other three instances of RD. If I launched the arcade instance, and then I launched an emu, would I drop back into the arcade instance of RD when I quit the emu or would the focus get messed up? Or is there a way that I could quit the first instance automatically when I launch the second? I could then have a list item called Quit that would launch the original instance of RD and quit the arcade one.

About the movie instance, is there some sort of batch file I could launch for each movie that would open the cd drive door and then autostart the divx file fullscreen when I loaded the cd? Maybe the player could take care of the autoplay and fullscreen stuff.

And I'm assuming for music I could launch a playlist as an extra item?

Of course each instance of RD would have its own folder and its own skins. I wouldn't be launching the same app multiple times, but from different folders.

I know that much of this stuff isn't related to RD exactly, but I figured that you or someone else might have some ideas on the subject.

Thanks,
EA

[Howard_Casto]

All of this stuff seems do-able, I see no reason why it won't work pending you keep all your seperate rd eggs in a row.
(Of course I can't say for certain as I've never tried it.)

I'm not sure if you can open the cd door via a bat file, but I think you might be able to make a shorcut to do it similar to the shortcut you can make to shutdown a 9X machine.  I suggest looking over at techtv.com and doing a search for what you want, they have wierd nerdy ideas like that posted often.  

As for the focus thing... the current version of rd never really sets focus as it does a "wait until appliaction is finished then unlock yourself" thingy.  What this means is there's no way to quit the original rd you launched from, but I won't really matter as all fo the resources it was using will be freed up while it's not in focus.  

The only problem I could see would be switching between the different versions.  To increase rd's flexiablity I allow multiple instances of the same app to be launched. If you make a shorcut in rd 2 to go back to rd 1, what your actually gonna do is open up a second instance of rd 1.  So your gonna need a front-end for your Front ends  May I suggest party-on.... it's geared for small lists and supports user-defined colors/fonts and a preview shot for each entry.  

As usual I'll give you some omnious advice.

Wait..... when the Dragon awakens once more all will forever be changed.