Building Lobby-Aware Applications
A lobby-aware application is one that, at a minimum, supports being launched from a lobby. A matchmaking lobby is a site on the Internet where end users can find other people to play games with. Once a group of people has decided to start an application session, the lobby software can launch the application on each person's computer and have them all connect to a session. The main benefit for end users is the ease with which they can establish a session with other players. Not only does it allow a user to easily find opponents, but there is also no need for the user to:
·Select a service provider. The lobby will specify which service provider to use.
·Decide whether to host or join a session. The lobby will specify whether to create or join a session.
·Enter a network address or configure the network. The lobby will supply this information if it is needed.
·Enter the name of the player. The lobby will pass in the same name that the user connected to the lobby with.
Other benefits of the lobby are:
·It can keep track of sessions in progress and enable users to join them.
·It can receive status messages from the session and display the progress to other users on a scoreboard.
·It can obtain final scores and maintain player rankings for tournament play.
For a DirectPlay application to be lobby-aware, at a minimum it must support being launched from a lobby. You can add other features to make it integrate better with the lobby. For additional information see the following topics within this section.
·Registering Lobby-Aware Applications