Initializing a Lobby Client

Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (Visual Basic)

Initializing a Lobby Client

Lobby clients are either launched by a lobby server or directly by a user. Once a lobby client is launched, it must be initialized before it can launch an application. Initialization involves the following tasks.

Create a DirectPlay8LobbyClient object.
Create a DirectPlay8LobbyEvent object. The DirectPlay8LobbyEvent object is essentially a message handler that receives messages directly from the lobby client object, and indirectly from the application. It is not provided by Microsoft® DirectPlay® and must be implemented by your application.
You must register this object with DirectPlay by calling DirectPlay8LobbyClient.RegisterMessageHandler.
Use the DirectPlay8LobbyClient.GetLocalProgram method to enumerate the lobbyable applications on the user's system.

The first two steps create the lobby client object, and set up a communication link between that object and your lobby client. The final step determines what lobbyable applications are available on the user's system. You need this information in order to launch the selected application.

You should store the application GUIDs of the registered applications because you need them to launch the application.

Depending on the design of your lobby client, you may also want to do one or more of the following tasks.

Perform any initialization that is not related to Microsoft® DirectPlay® , such as establishing a link with the lobby server.

Create a DirectPlay8Peer or DirectPlay8Client object.

Use the peer or client object's enumeration methods to enumerate available service providers, adapters, and so on.