Application sessions are marshaled and launched from a staging area. One player creates a staging area and waits for other players to join it. A player can set the properties of the application session to be created through the IDirectPlay4::SetGroupConnectionSettings method. Other players who are considering joining the group can find out what the application session properties are by calling the IDirectPlay4::GetGroupConnectionSettings method. After enough players have joined the staging area, any player can call the IDirectPlay4::StartSession method to initiate the synchronized launch sequence.

Every player in the staging area now receives a DPMSG_STARTSESSION system message with a DPLCONNECTION structure. If the player is using an external lobby client, the lobby client can now launch the application by passing the connection information to the IDirectPlayLobby3::RunApplication method. If the player is using an internal lobby, the application can establish a connection to the appropriate session by calling IDirectPlayLobby3::ConnectEx. For more information, see Supporting External Lobby Launching.

Application sessions are marshaled and launched from a staging area. (See Lobby Sessions.) One player creates a staging area and waits for other players to join it.

A player can set the properties of the application session to be created by using the DirectPlay4.SetGroupConnectionSettings method. After enough players have joined the staging area, any player can call the DirectPlay4.StartSession method to initiate the synchronized launch sequence.

Every player in the staging area now receives a DPSYS_STARTSESSION system message with information about the connection. If the player is using an external lobby client, the lobby client can then launch the application by using the DirectPlayLobby3.RunApplication method. If the player is using an internal lobby, the application can establish a connection to the appropriate session by calling DirectPlayLobby3.Connect, after retrieving the connection settings by calling DirectPlayMessage.ReadSysMsgConnection and setting them with DirectPlayLobby3.SetConnectionSettings. For more information, see Supporting External Lobby Launching.