Todd,
Hm. What are DirectPlay's lobby services like? I considered the thought of trying to implement some sort of peer-finding system, w/ instant messaging of some sort, however I don't really want the master server to have to put up with too much load.. so I'm thinking of keeping it down to a game-finding service. Users can still rely on other things like MSN to communicate about games they want to both join (or just do it over Voice like I do) :)
Storm8191: This is an idea, but it would require assuming that the master server would be running on a machine which was *not* hosting web services (or at least hosting webpages..) This may be an unacceptable demand.. Plus I sort of wanted to keep everything 'native' so that the service would only be used through the client application (well and Host's posting their servers..). This way the game finding/joining can be done in the same app, without having to launch a seperate app (like MPlayer or gamespy) to find the game, which then in turns launches the game. I think it's more elegant to have everything in the same interface (which would of course then be up to you to design/customize)
Rob,
While this is *technically* possible, it may not be enjoyable if the master server has any load at all, and the game depended on latency at all.. I know for example even if I'm just uploading at 5k/sec on my cable connection, and try to run my fav FPS online, I get a somewhat shoddy gameplay experience as my pings suffer as a result. I guess it depends on what you're doing to be feasible.. Once again, should definately be technically possible. Depends on the game for how well it'd work :)
Hm. What are DirectPlay's lobby services like? I considered the thought of trying to implement some sort of peer-finding system, w/ instant messaging of some sort, however I don't really want the master server to have to put up with too much load.. so I'm thinking of keeping it down to a game-finding service. Users can still rely on other things like MSN to communicate about games they want to both join (or just do it over Voice like I do) :)
Storm8191: This is an idea, but it would require assuming that the master server would be running on a machine which was *not* hosting web services (or at least hosting webpages..) This may be an unacceptable demand.. Plus I sort of wanted to keep everything 'native' so that the service would only be used through the client application (well and Host's posting their servers..). This way the game finding/joining can be done in the same app, without having to launch a seperate app (like MPlayer or gamespy) to find the game, which then in turns launches the game. I think it's more elegant to have everything in the same interface (which would of course then be up to you to design/customize)
Rob,
While this is *technically* possible, it may not be enjoyable if the master server has any load at all, and the game depended on latency at all.. I know for example even if I'm just uploading at 5k/sec on my cable connection, and try to run my fav FPS online, I get a somewhat shoddy gameplay experience as my pings suffer as a result. I guess it depends on what you're doing to be feasible.. Once again, should definately be technically possible. Depends on the game for how well it'd work :)