Why Use DirectPlay?

Instead of forcing the developer to deal with the differences that each connectivity solution represents, DirectPlay provides well-defined, generalized communication capabilities. DirectPlay shields developers from the underlying complexities of diverse connectivity implementations, freeing them to concentrate on producing great applications.

The DirectPlay application programming interface (API) is a network abstraction and distributed object system. The API defines the functionality of the abstract DirectPlay network, and all the functionality is available to your application regardless of whether the actual underlying network supports it. In cases where the underlying network does not support functionality, DirectPlay emulates it. Examples include group messaging and guaranteed messaging.

DirectPlay also supports lobbies, places where users of various applications can meet, exchange messages, organize game sessions, and launch applications. For end users, the main benefit of lobbies is the ease of establishing a session with other players. Not only does the lobby provide a place for the player to find opponents, but when the application starts there is no need for the user to do the following:

• Select a service provider. The lobby specifies which service provider to use.
• Enter a network address or configure the network. The lobby supplies this information if it is needed.
• Enter the name of the player. The lobby passes in the same name that the player entered to connected to the lobby.

Other benefits of the lobby are:

• Keeping track of sessions in progress and enabling users to join them.
• Receiving status messages from the session and displaying the progress to other users on a scoreboard.
• Obtaining final scores and maintaining player rankings for tournament play.