Microsoft DirectX 8.0 (Visual Basic) |
The Microsoft® DirectPlay® API provides developers with the tools to develop multiplayer applications such as games or chat clients. For simplicity, this documentation will refer to all such applications as "games". A multiplayer application has two basic characteristics:
DirectPlay provides a layer that largely isolates your application from the underlying network. For most purposes, your application can simply use the DirectPlay API, and enable DirectPlay to handle the details of network communication. DirectPlay provides many features that simplify the process of implementing many aspects of a multiplayer application, including:
This documentation provides a high-level overview of the capabilities of DirectPlay. Subsequent sections will take you into the details of how to use DirectPlay in your multiplayer game.