# 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 | DirectPlay 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.