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Lobby Creation: Examples of Implementation

Creating an Online Lobby

User Experience

The user opens the Create lobby menu, enters the game name, sets the privacy setting, and clicks the Create button. A waiting screen is displayed while the lobby is being created in the background. When the lobby is ready, the lobby menu is displayed.

Solution

When OnlineCreateScreen is opened, the OnlineCreateController (available at Assets/Scripts/UI/MainMenu/OnlineCreateController.cs) will call the Matchmaking.LobbyCreationListenersInit() method that will in turn initialize the listeners required for creating a lobby. When Create lobby button is clicked, the CreateLobby() method is called. The CreateLobby() method will prepare the lobby data and then call the Matchmaking.CreateLobby() method in the Matchmaking script (available at Assets/Scripts/GalaxyManager/Features/Matchmaking.cs).

Variables

Inside the script, you will find the following variables:

Variable Description
privacy Reference to the toggle GameObject that stores lobby information; a lobby can be private (privacy set to true) or public (privacy set to false)
gameName Reference to the input field GameObject that stores the lobby name typed in by the user
message Reference to the text GameObject used to display a warning if the user left the game name input field empty

Methods and Usage

OnlineCreateController.CreateLobby

    public void CreateLobby()
    {
        LobbyTopologyType lobbyTopologyTypeFCM = Galaxy.Api.LobbyTopologyType.LOBBY_TOPOLOGY_TYPE_STAR;
        uint maxMembers = 2;
        LobbyType lobbyPrivacy;
        if (gameName.text == "")
        {
            Debug.Log("Failure to create lobby: Game name can't be empty");
            message.text = "Game name can't be empty";
            message.gameObject.SetActive(true);
            return;
        }
        lobbyPrivacy = privacy.isOn?
            Galaxy.Api.LobbyType.LOBBY_TYPE_PRIVATE:
            Galaxy.Api.LobbyType.LOBBY_TYPE_PUBLIC;
            GalaxyManager.Instance.Matchmaking.CreateLobby(gameName.text, lobbyPrivacy, maxMembers, true, lobbyTopologyTypeFCM);
            message.gameObject.SetActive(false);
            GameObject.Find("MainMenu").GetComponent<MainMenuController>().SwitchMenu(MainMenuController.MenuEnum.OnlineCreating);
        }
    }

  1. First, we create three additional variables:

    Variable Description
    lobbyTopologyTypeFCM Stores the information about the lobby topology that we want to use. In our case it is Galaxy.Api.LobbyTopologyType.LOBBY_TOPOLOGY_TYPE_FCM — a lobby type in which information is shared among players (P2P connection)
    maxMembers Stores information about how many players can join a lobby; in our case it is 2
    lobbyPrivacy Stores information about whether the lobby is private or not

  2. We check if the game name input field is empty. If it is, and the user clicks Create lobby button, we display a message asking the user to enter the game name.

  3. Check if the privacy toggle is selected (set to true). If that’s the case, lobbyPrivacy is set to Galaxy.Api.LobbyType.LOBBY_TYPE_PRIVATE; otherwise we set it to Galaxy.Api.LobbyType.LOBBY_TYPE_PUBLIC.

  4. We call the Matchmaking.CreateLobby() method with the prepared lobby name (gameName.text), the lobby privacy setting (lobbyPrivacy), the maximum number of lobby members (maxMembers), information on whether the users should be able to join the lobby (by providing the value of true for the joinable parameter), and lastly – the information that the lobby should use the peer to peer topology (lobbyTopologyTypeFCM). This method is essentially a wrapper for the GOG GALAXY SDK CreateLobby method.

  5. message is disabled (in case it was displayed).

  6. The displayed menu is switched to OnlineCreatingScreen, which consists of a spinning arrow and a message to inform the user that the lobby is being created.

LobbyCreatedListener.OnLobbyCreated Callback

This listener is contained in the Matchmaking script:

        public override void OnLobbyCreated(GalaxyID lobbyID, LobbyCreateResult _result)
        {
            if (_result != LobbyCreateResult.LOBBY_CREATE_RESULT_SUCCESS)
            {
                Debug.Log("LobbyCreatedListenerCreation failed");
                GameObject.Find("MainMenu").GetComponent<MainMenuController>().SwitchMenu(MainMenuController.MenuEnum.OnlineCreate);
                GameObject.Find("PopUps").GetComponent<PopUps>().PopUpWithClosePopUpsButton("Could not create lobby\nReason: " +
                    _result.ToString(), "back");
                return;
            }
            Debug.Log("LobbyCreatedListenerCreation succeded");
            matchmaking.SetLobbyData(lobbyID, "name", matchmaking.lobbyName);
            matchmaking.SetLobbyData(lobbyID, "state", "notReady");
            matchmaking.CurrentLobbyID = lobbyID;
            matchmaking.LobbyOwnerID = matchmaking.GetLobbyOwner(lobbyID);
            matchmaking.SetLobbyMemberData("state", "notReady");
            GameObject.Find("MainMenu").GetComponent<MainMenuController>().SwitchMenu(MainMenuController.MenuEnum.OnlineWait);
            friends.SetRichPresence("status", "In online lobby");
            friends.SetRichPresence("connect", "--JoinLobby=" + lobbyID);
            matchmaking.LobbyManagmentMainMenuListenersInit();
            matchmaking.LobbyChatListenersInit();
            matchmaking.LobbyCreationListenersDispose();
        }

First, we check if the result of entering a lobby was anything else but successful.

If that is the case, it means we did not succeed at entering the lobby, therefore we want to inform the user about that:

  1. We go back to the lobby creating menu.
  2. Display a pop up informing that we could not create the lobby and why.
  3. Use the return keyword to prevent the rest of the code within the OnLobbyCreated callback from executing.

Otherwise, it means we did succeed at entering the lobby, and we have to make sure everything is ready:

  1. Set the current lobby data under the name key to the lobby name so that the proper name is displayed for users browsing lobbies.
  2. Set the current lobby data under the ready key to notReady. This is later used to verify whether the game can be started.
  3. Set the CurrentLobbyID within the GalaxyManager.Instance.Matchmaking instance to the lobby ID of the currently joined lobby. The CurrentLobbyID variable is later used to streamline the usage of methods in the Matchmaking class.
  4. Set the LobbyOwnerID within the GalaxyManager.Instance.Matchmaking instance to the Galaxy ID of the owner of the currently joined lobby. The LobbyOwnerID is later used to check if the current user is the lobby owner.
  5. Set the current users’ lobby member data under the state key to notReady. This data is later used to verify whether the lobby members are ready to start a game or not.
  6. Switch to the OnlineWait screen, which serves as a pre-game lobby where players can chat and set their state to ready, once they are ready to start the game. Additionally, the owner of the lobby can start the game, once both players are ready.
  7. Set the rich presence status key of the users to In online lobby (this will be visible to GOG friends of the users in the GOG GALAXY friends list and chat) and the connect key to "--JoinLobby=" + lobbyID (this allows GOG friends of the users to join the lobby they are in via the GOG GALAXY friends list or chat)..
  8. Finally, we make sure that the required LobbyManagmentMainMenu and LobbyChat listeners are initialized, and the no longer needed LobbyCreatingListeners are disposed of.
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