Unity Lobby

Here we outline some of the component scripts and prefabs available in the Toolkit for Steamworks SDK (Unity) version.

Lobby Data Inspector

Formerly called Lobby Manager

Quick Match Lobby Control

Create a session lobby and manage a quick match style UI with zero code required.

Quick match-based lobbies are the simplest and cleanest user experience for your player in common game design. They present very little to no real UI elements concerned with the "lobby" rather the user or system defines the search arguments and searches for or creates a new session to match players with. This approach requires the least amount of input from players, typically reducing match wait times by using more flexible search parameters when needed.

DOTA 2 Example

Screen captures of the DOTA 2 "Play DOTA" option are a true example of Steam Lobby used for Quick Match matchmaking. The player hits one button, optionally selects preferences like ranked vs unranked and the system does the rest based on the player's stats, whether or not they are in a party, geo location, rankings, etc.

Halo Infinite Example

Screen captures of Halo Infinite's "Quick Play" option are a prime example of a Quick Match Lobby setup. The player hits one button and the system will find an appropriate match based on the player's stats, whether or not they are in a party, geo-location, rankings, etc.

Features

Authentication

Automatically checks the VAC and auth status of connecting users, asking users to leave if they fail the checks you have configured.

Simple Quick Match

Search for a match and join, if none is found, create a match and wait. Quick match is one of the best options for a quality user experience in most session-based multiplayer games. The Quick Match Lobby Control's main function is this: your user, with a single push of a button, will be placed in a match with any party they may have as quickly as possible, with as little input required as possible.

Event Driven

Optional Unity Events are available in the editor and in code to help you drive additional UI and game logic based on Quick Match status changes.

Working Status

A simple `Status` enum is available for use cases where event-driven is not desired or possible. You can test the `WorkingStatus` of the control to see when it's idle, searching, waiting or starting.

Easy Access

Easily access critical information about your Quick Match session for simple and efficient integration with any networking HLAPI you would like. Quickly access the lobby, owner, the local user's member and much more.

Prefab

A production-ready prefab is available and configured with the features displayed above.

Events

Evt Process Started

public UnityEvent evtProcessStarted;

This event is invoked when the system starts the process of quick matching and can be used to trigger other game logic that should happen when the process starts.

Evt Process Stopped

public UnityEvent evtProcessStopped;

This event is invoked when the system stops the process of quick matching, such as from a cancel and can be used to trigger other game logic that should happen when the process stops.

Evt Lobby Full

public LobbyDataEvent evtLobbyFull;

This event is invoked when the lobby becomes full, e.g. all available slots are populated with users. This is usually used to start whatever your networking API requires to start a network session.

Evt Game Created

public GameServerSetEvent evtGameCreated;

This event is invoked when the owner calls Lobby.SetGameServer() or uses the SetGameServer methods on the Quick Match Lobby Controller. This indicates to all members that the network session is ready for them to connect to it.

Evt Enter Success

public LobbyDataEvent evtEnterSuccess;

This event is invoked when the user joins or creates a lobby, e.g. lets you know the local user is now in a session lobby.

Evt Enter Failed

public LobbyResponceEvent evtEnterFailed;

This event is invoked when the user attempts to join an existing lobby, but for some reason, it fails. The event parameter will indicate what went wrong.

Evt Created Failed

public EResultEvent evtCreatedFailed;

This event is invoked when the user attempts to create a new lobby but for some reason it failed. The event parameter will indicate what went wrong.

Evt State Changed

public UnityEvent evtStateChanged;

This event is frequently invoked and will trigger when any data change happens such as user's coming and going, authentication failing, etc. This can be used to drive general game logic that simply needs to know when to check the system for a change.

Fields and Attributes

Idle Group

public GameObject indelGroup;

This game object is enabled when the system is **NOT** processing. This is useful to place a "Play Button" or similar elements in that you want to be "turned off" when the system starts processing. You can similarly use the `Evt Process Started` event to control your UI

Processing Group

public GameObject processingGroup;

This game object is enabled when the system **IS** processing. This is useful for placing a "status message" object that should be displayed when the system is working.

Update Rich Presence Group Data

public bool updateRichPresenceGroupData;

Indicates whether or not the system could update the player's `steam_player_group` and `steam_player_group_size` rich presence data.

Kick When

public EAuthSessionResponce[] kickWhen;

A collection of authentication response codes that, if seen on authentication, the user should be asked to leave.

SearchArguments

public SearchArguments searchArguments;

Used with any form of search performed through the Lobby Manager, including the Search and QuickMatch methods. This is used to define the "search arguments" e.g. the rules to be tested when searching for lobbies.

The SearchArguments Data type is an internal class:

[Serializable]
public class SearchArguments
{
    /// <summary>
    /// If less than or equal to 0, then we won't use the open slot filter
    /// </summary>
    public int slots = -1;
    public ELobbyDistanceFilter distance = ELobbyDistanceFilter.k_ELobbyDistanceFilterDefault;
    public List<NearFilter> nearValues = new List<NearFilter>();
    public List<NumericFilter> numericFilters = new List<NumericFilter>();
    public List<StringFilter> stringFilters = new List<StringFilter>();
}

The fields of the class are as follows

If less than or equal to 0, this will be ignored; otherwise, this will indicate the number of available slots that the resulting lobbies must have. For example, if you wanted to find a lobby for you and 3 friends, then you would provide a value of 4 in this field to return only lobbies that had 4 open slots.
distance: An enumerator that indicates the maximum allowed distance between the searching user and the members of the resulting lobbies. For more details on the values, see Valve's documentation on ELobbyDistanceFilter, in summary
- Close only in the same Valve region as this user
- Default: In the same or nearby Valve region as this user
- Far up to half a world away
- World Wide No filtering at all
nearValues Key value pairs that the system should search for "nearby" values for. See Valve's documentation on this feature for more details. In summary, this doesn't "filter out" lobbies but rather affects the sorting; the closer a lobby's metadata is to matching this value the higher it will be sorted in the resulting list. This is useful for say "Player Rank" whose min and max player rank are as near the player's actual rank as possible. To do this, you could set near values of minRank = myRank and maxRank = myRank This would not exclude any lobbies in and of itself, but would sort lobbies such that top results were nearest "my rank" This assumes minRank is the rank of the lowest-ranked player in that lobby and maxRank is the rank of the highest-ranked player in that lobby
numericFilters instructs the search to perform a numeric filtering operation on these fields and can filter by the following methods
- Equal to or Less than
- Less than
- Equal
- Greater than
- Equal to or Greater than
- Not Equal
stringFilter Instructs the search to perform a string filtering operation on these fields which can be filtered by the same methods as numeric filters. Valve doesn't explain what the result of each is, so test to confirm the desired results.

CreateArguments

public CreateArguments createArguments;

Used by the Lobby Manager any time a lobby is created with it, this would apply to Create as well as QuickMatch when no lobby is found and Create on fail is set to true.

The CreateArguments Data type is an internal class:

[Serializable]
public class CreateArguments
{
    public string name;
    public int slots;
    public ELobbyType type;
    public List<MetadataTempalate> metadata = new List<MetadataTempalate>();
}

The fields of the class are as follows

name This will be set as metadata on the lobby when created, e.g. MyLobby["name"] = value;
slots This is the maximum number of slots this lobby will have ... this includes the owner of the lobby.
type The type of lobby, you can learn more about the available types above.
metadata Metadata fields are to be set on the lobby once created. This is a simple string key and string value pairing. Metadata is what is used when "filtering" or "searching" for lobbies.

Lobby

public Lobby Lobby { get; set; }

The lobby the manager is currently managing. This will automatically be updated when you use the lobby manager to create, join or leave a lobby. If you create, join or leave a lobby from outside the manager, then you should update this field accordingly.

Owner

public LobbyMember Owner => get;

Gets the Lobby Member data for the current lobby owner.

Me

public LobbyMember Me => get;

Gets the local user's Lobby Member data for the current lobby.

HasLobby

public bool HasLobby => get;

True if the manager is managing a lobby, false otherwise.

Searching

public bool Searching => get;

True if the system is searching for a match at the moment.

IsPlayerOwner

public bool IsPlayerOwner => get;

True if the local user is the owner of the managed lobby, false otherwise.

AllPlayersReady

public bool AllPlayersReady => get;

True if all members of the lobby have marked themselves as ready, otherwise false.

IsPlayerReady

public bool IsPlayerReady { get; set; }

Returns true if the player has marked themselves as ready on this lobby. This can be set to mark the player as ready or not in this lobby.

Full

public bool Full => get;

Returns true if the lobby is currently full, false otherwise.

Slots

public int Slot => get;

How many people can join this lobby, if any lobby at all

Member Count

public int MemberCount => get;

How many people are currently in this lobby, if any lobby at all

Game Server

public LobbyGameServer GameServer => get;

The current game server is set by the owner of the lobby, if any

Working Status

public Status WorkingStatus => get;

The current status of the system

Idle Not processing
Searching If currently searching for a match
Waiting For Start A match was found, but the lobby was not full, and the session had not started
Starting Match found and the lobby is now full ... the owner should be starting up the network session

Timer

public float Timer => get;

The amount of time since the process started.

Methods

Cancel

public void Cancel();

Stops the process of searching and, if in a lobby, exits the lobby

Run Quick Match

public void RunQuickMatch();

Starts the process of searching for and or creating a session lobby as required.

Set Game Server

public void SetGameServer();
public void SetGameServer(string address, ushort port, CSteamID gameServerId);
public void SetGameServer(string address, ushort port);
public void SetGameServer(CSteamID gameServerId;

This can only be called by the owner of the lobby and should be called when the network session is ready for the members to connect to it.

If no parameter is passed in

SetGameServer();

The system will assume that the owner of the lobby is the server, e.g. a P2P session where the lobby owner is the "Host"

All other overloads require you to indicate what the connection information is for the session.

Party Lobby Control

Create a party lobby and its UI fully featured, including in-game friend invite, chat, and more, with zero code required.

The Party Lobby Control is a UI behaviour component that manages a lobby representing a player's party and the UI elements associated with that. This sort of "Party UI" is common in most team and coop games such as MOBAs, Team Shooters, party games and more. One of the most typical examples of a party lobby can seen in DOTA2.

The purpose of a "party lobby" also known as a "group lobby" is to gather Friends who wish to play together, most typically in a coop game, though you do see Group/Party systems in competitive games as well, particularly party games.

Party or group-type lobbies differ from session-type lobbies in that they only group a set of friends. They do not attempt to matchmake or define the state of a "session".

In this case let "session" refer to a session of gameplay, e.g. a match, mission, race, level, etc.

Session lobbies in contrast, are not typically concerned with friends so much as they are with meaningful matchmaking, e.g. placing players of similar skill, nearby regions and similar game session preferences together to facilitate a timely and entertaining "session". The members in a "Party" would typically join the same "Session" lobby when looking to play a game.

For example, in DOTA 2 up to 5 players can form a group/party, this is a full "team" in DOTA. When the party leader presses the "Play DOTA" button the game performs a quick match looking for a "Session" that can accommodate the party of players. When the session starts the party of players will be placed on the same team.

Features

Create

Automatically handles the creation and exit of a group lobby. You can always fetch the current group lobby from the Lobby structure.

if(Lobby.GroupLobby(out Lobby groupLobby)
{
    //We are in a group lobby
    if(groupLobby.MemberCount > 1)
    {
        //We are not alone at the party
    }
}

Display

Display the user's avatar and the number of slots available to the party/group. When a slot is "filled" that user's avatar will be displayed.

Friend Invite

The provided prefab implements the Friend Invite Drop Down letting the user invite online friends with the click of a button or to type in a friend's "code" to initiate an invite.

Chat

When a user is in a party with other player's a simple text-based chat interface is displayed. The chat system is used by other tools to notify party members when they should join a specific session lobby. Heathen's session lobby controls will handle this automatically, or you can do this yourself by prefixing the chat message with `[SessionId]` followed by the ulong id of the session lobby to join

Rich Presence

Optionally sets the `steam_player_group` and `steam_player_group_size` fields in Steam's rich presence, updating the Friend List group display.

Prefab

A production-ready prefab is available and configured with the features displayed above.

Events

Session Lobby Invite

public LobbyDataEvent evtSessionLobbyInvite;

This event is invoked when the user is invited to join a session lobby by the owner of the group lobby. For example, if you are in a party with user A and user A uses Heathen's Quick Match to create or join a session, you will be invited to join that session, and this event will be raised.

Group Lobby Invite

public GameLobbyJoinRequestedEvent evtGroupLobbyInvite;

This event is invoked when the user is invited and accepts a lobby invite to a group lobby.

Fields and Attributes

User Owner Pip

public GameObject userOwnerPip;

A reference to the GameObject that should be toggled on or off to indicate whether the local user is the owner of the party/group lobby or not.

Ready Button

public Button readyButton;

Optional, if null, this feature will be ignored

A reference to the button the user will click to indicate they are ready to play. This is used to update metadata on the lobby and display a "ready" flag on the UI.

Not Ready Button

public Button notReadyButton;

Optional, if null, this feature will be ignored

A reference to the button the user will click to indicate they are not ready to play. This is used to update metadata on the lobby and clear the display of the "ready" flag on the UI.

Leave Button

public Button leaveButton;

A reference to the button the user will click when they want to leave the group/party.

Auto Join On Invite

public bool autoJoinOnInvite;

If toggled to true, then when a GameLobbyJoinRequest event is detected, if the target lobby is of type group, the tool will leave any existing group lobby and join this new lobby.

This is not generally recommended, as you should be validating the game state and lobby state before blindly joining, but it can be useful for quick testing.

Invite Panel

public RectTransfrom invitePanel;

A reference to the root GameObject representing the "invite panel". This will be toggled on if an empty slot is clicked, and toggled off if the control is "clicked off of"

public FriendInviteDropDown inviteDropdown;

A reference to the invite dropdown to be used by the control.

Slots

public LobbyMemberSlot[] slots;

An array indicating the number of slots this party will support and the configuration of those slots. See the Lobby Member Slot article for more information.

Update Rich Presence Group Data

public bool updateRichPResenceGroupData;

If true, then the `steam_player_group` and `steam_player_group_size` rich presence fields will be set based on the current state of this lobby. This is used to group friends in the friends list in the Steam client.

Max Messages

public int maxMessages;

The number of message entries to keep in the chat history. The system will delete the oldest chat message from the chat log when this number is exceeded.

Chat Panel

public GameObject chatPanel;

The root of the chat UI will be enabled when the lobby has 2 or more members, including the local user.

Input Field

public TMP_InputField inputField;

A reference to the TextMesh Pro input field to be used as the chat's input field.

Scroll View

public ScrollRect scrollView;

A reference to the scroll rect wrapping the chat message root. This is used to force the scroll to the bottom so the newest message received is always visible.

Message Root

public Transform messageRoot;

A reference to the transform which will be made the parent of each incoming chat message.

My Chat Template

public GameObject myChatTemplate;

A reference to the GameObject or Prefab that should be instantiated for each message received from the local user.

Their Chat Template

public GameObject theirChatTemplate;

A reference to the GameObject or Prefab that should be instantiated for each message received from users other than the local user.

Lobby

public Lobby Lobby { get; set; }

The lobby (if any) that is being managed by this control

Has Lobby

public bool HasLobby => get;

True if this control is currently managing a lobby

Is Player Owner

public bool IsPlayerOwner => get;

True if the local player is the owner of this lobby

All Players Ready

public bool AllPlayersReady => get;

True if all players in this lobby have indicated they are ready to play

Is Player Ready

public bool IsPlayerReady { get; set; }

Indicates rather or not the local player has been set as ready. This can be read or written to, writing to this field will update the LobbyMetadata of the local user for this lobby.

PreviousLobby NextLobby Data

Last updated 15 days ago

Lobby Data Inspector

Quick Match Lobby Control

DOTA 2 Example

Halo Infinite Example

Features

Authentication

Simple Quick Match

Event Driven

Working Status

Easy Access

Prefab

Events

Evt Process Started

Evt Process Stopped

Evt Lobby Full

Evt Game Created

Evt Enter Success

Evt Enter Failed

Evt Created Failed

Evt State Changed

Fields and Attributes

Idle Group

Processing Group

Update Rich Presence Group Data

Kick When

SearchArguments

CreateArguments

Lobby

Owner

Me

HasLobby

Searching

IsPlayerOwner

AllPlayersReady

IsPlayerReady

Full

Slots

Member Count

Game Server

Working Status

Timer

Methods

Cancel

Run Quick Match

Set Game Server

Party Lobby Control

Features

Create

Display

Friend Invite

Chat

Rich Presence

Prefab

Events

Session Lobby Invite

Group Lobby Invite

Fields and Attributes

User Owner Pip

Ready Button

Not Ready Button

Leave Button

Auto Join On Invite

Invite Panel

Invite Dropdown

Slots

Update Rich Presence Group Data

Max Messages

Chat Panel

Input Field

Scroll View

Message Root

My Chat Template

Their Chat Template

Lobby

Has Lobby

Is Player Owner

All Players Ready

Is Player Ready