DirectPlay™

Articles of Interest
About DirectPlay™ The Microsoft® DirectPlay™ application programming interface (API) for Windows« 95 is a software interface that simplifies application access to communication services.
Latest DirectPlay Updates The Microsoft® DirectX™ web site contains all the latest information about DirectPlay including updates, FAQs, development and testing tips and more samples

CD Links
DirectPlay Readme File What's New with DirectPlay? Highlights include: Client/Server support, Lobby Client API, Security, and Service Provider dialog overrides.
Setting up the Sample Lobby Server Included on the SDK is a sample lobby server and a lobby client that use the DirectPlay APIs and the lobby provider architecture. Use these tools to test that your lobby-aware applications can be launched from a lobby.
Setting up a Secure Server DirectPlay now supports security and authentication but in order to try it out you will need to set up DirectPlay 5 on NT 4.0. The DirectPlay readme contains instructions on how to do this.

DirectPlay Samples
Duel Play DuelDirectPlay Gaming Sample - Duel
DPChat A very simple chat program using the minimum of DirectPlay APIs.
Lobby Server This application is a sample lobby server that may be used with the Bellhop lobby client application. Experience how lobby-launching can improve the ease with which DirectPlay applications can be launched and connected - especially on the Internet. Use the lobby server and Bellhop to launch sessions of Duel or any lobby-aware application that you are working on.

See the Bellhop README for direction on how to set this up.

DPLaunch This is a program that will launch lobby aware DirectPlay applications the same way a real lobby would. It also contains sample code on how determine what information a service provider will need so it can be collected by the application and supplied to DirectPlay in order to suppress the service provider dialogs.

DPLaunch may be used if a network is not available to set up the test lobby server and use Bellhop.

DPSlots DPSlots is a simple slot machine application that demonstrates the security and client/server capabilities of DirectPlay. The same executable can be either a server or a client. The client simply renders the slot machine animations while the server determines the outcome of each spin and keeps track of how much money each user has. When hosting a secure session, clients will need to supply a login and password to access their account balances and all messages will be encrypted.
Override This program demonstrates how to override the default Service Provider dialogs and implement your own custom dialog to collect connection information.
DXView DXView can be used to examine all the service providers and lobby-aware applications installed on your computer. By selecting a service provider you can see all it's properties and even all the application sessions that are currently running on the network. It uses the asynchronous EnumSessions API to maintain a self-refreshing list of active sessions.
DirectX Control Panel The DirectPlay tab in the DirectX Control Panel will give you information about the registered applications and registered service providers. If the control panel is launched before starting a DirectPlay application, it will also display statistics about the active sessions.

DirectPlay Extras
The Palace The Palace provides a complete DirectPlay lobby solution including a lobby server and client that may be used for launching lobby aware DirectPlay applications. Included is a trial version of the Palace that can be used for evaluation and testing. Available on the CD in the \extras\dplay\palace directory.
Network Entertainment IGames IGames provides a complete DirectPlay lobby solution including a lobby server and client that may be used for launching lobby aware DirectPlay applications. Included is a trial version of IGames that be used for evaluation and testing. Available on the CD in the \extras\dplay\igames directory.
MPath DirectPlay SDK Complete set of tools to develop and test applications with the MPath online gaming service using the DirectPlay API. Available on the CD in the \extras\dplay\mpath directory.
Imagination Network Information about deploying your application on the Imagination network. Available on the CD in the \extras\dplay\inn directory.
DPA Client Security Package The DPA client security package is required to connect to a secure session. It can be found on the CD in the \extras\dplay directory.