Unity Lobby Tools
Here we outline some of the component scripts and prefabs available in the Toolkit for Steamworks SDK (Unity) version.
Lobby Data
The LobbyData object is a custom CSteamId that carries tools and functions unique to the Steam Lobby system. This object is common between both Unity and Godot game engine integrations.
You can convert a Lobby to a ulong or CSteamID, or convert a ulong or CSteamID to a Lobby implicitly e.g.
All data is read on demand and is always up to date with the Lobby object. The only information it stores in local memory is the ID of the lobby its operating on.
Fields and Attributes
Account ID
Returns the native AccountID_t struct for this lobby; this is read-only.
All Players Not Ready
True if any player in the lobby is not marked as ready.
All Players Ready
True if all players in the lobby are marked as ready.
Friend ID
Primitive value of the Account ID.
Full
Returns true if this lobby is full.
Game Server
Lobby Game Server structure provides detailed information about the connection info, if any, on the lobby, including the ID of the Host or Server and the IP:Port if set.
Game Version
Gets or sets the game version string on this lobby. This can only be set by the owner of the lobby, but can be read by any member of the lobby or searched for by using key=z_heathenGameVersion
Has Server
True if the lobby has a Game Server value set.
Hex ID
Gets the Hex ID of the lobby; this is a much more human-friendly value to ask a user to type if you are doing that.
Is Group
True if this lobby is a group, this can be set by the owner only and will change the lobby type to Invisible if set to true.
Is Owner
True if the local user is the owner of this lobby.
Is Ready
Returns the local user's ready state and can be set by the local user to update their ready state.
Is Session
True if this lobby is flagged as a session lobby; this can only be set by the owner of the lobby.
Is Type Set
True if the lobby type has been recorded in the metadata, else false.
Is Valid
True if this LobbyData points to a valid lobby CSteamID, this only indicates the value is structurally valid, it doesn't indicate whether or not this lobby exists or is in use.
Max Members
The maximum number of members this lobby can take, this can be set by the owner of the lobby.
Me
The member data for this user.
Member Count
The number of members in this lobby.
Members
The collection of all members of this lobby, including the owner of the lobby.
Name
Get or set the lobby name.
Owner
The owner of this lobby, the current owner can set this to another member's value to change who the owner is.
Steam ID
Gets the native CSteamID of this lobby.
this[string metadataKey]
It can be used to read metadata from the lobby, and can be used by the owner to set metadata on the lobby.
this[UserData user]
Get the LobbyMemberData of a user, assuming they are a member of the lobby.
Type
Read the type of lobby this is, the owner can set this to change the type.
Funcitons
Authenticate
Sends a chat message to the lobby with authentication data that can be used by the owner of the lobby to validate this user and optionally serialized inventory. Two overloads are available; you can either create your own LobbyAuthenticationData object and pass that in, or you can provide a callback to be invoked on completion, and the system will create a default LobbyAuthenticaitonData for you and send that, invoking the callback once that process has been completed.
Callback example
Clear Kick List
Clears the kick list
Create
Creates a new lobby, multiple overloads act as a shortcut for more or less details, the "native" or general use would be (type, slots, callback)
. In all cases the callback has the same form.
Delete Lobby Data
Removes a key from the lobby metadata.
Get
Get a LobbyData based on the provided input.
Get Kick List
Gets the list of users that are recorded in the lobby kick list.
Get Member
Get the LobbyMember object for a given user. Returns true if the user is a member of the lobby, false if they are not.
Get Member Metadata
Reads the metadata of a given user from the lobby. If no member is indicated it will assume the local user.
Get Metadata
Gets a dictionary containing all the lobby's metadata.
Group Lobby
Returns the first lobby the user is a member of where lobby.IsGroup was set to true
Invite User to Lobby
Invite the indicated user to the lobby
Is a Member
Checks if a user is a member of this lobby.
Join
Joins the indicated lobby; in all cases, the callback has the same form.
Kick List Contains
Check if the indicated user is contained in the list of members who should leave the lobby
Kick Member
Marks the user to be removed.
Leave
Leaves the current lobby if any.
Quick Match
Using the Search Arguments, it will search for a matching lobby. If one is found, it will join it; if not, and if the createOnFail parameter is true, it will create a lobby according to the Create Arguments.
Remove from Kick List
Removes the indicated member from the kick list
Request
Request a list of lobbies that match the input filters.
Request Data
Refreshes all of the metadata for a lobby that you're not in right now. You will never do this for lobbies you're a member of, that data will always be up to date. You can use this to refresh lobbies that you have obtained from RequestLobbyList or that are available via friends.
Send Chat Message
Send a Steam Lobby Chat message to the lobby. You can send a string, a byte[] of binary data or you can provide a JSON Serializable object and we will serialize that and send it as an object.
Session Lobby
Returns the first lobby where lobby.IsSession was set to true.
Set Game Server
Sets the game server associated with the lobby. You can indicate a Steam ID and or an IP:Port. If you do not provide any parameters, it will assume the owner of the Lobby is the server, e.g. is the Host.
Set Joinable
Mark the lobby as joinable or not.
Set Member Metadata
Set the metadata for the player on the lobby.
Set Type
Updates the lobby type, can only be called by the owner of the lobby.
Lobby Manager
A tool for creating and managing a specific lobby. This component is meant to be attached to a game object in your matchmaking scene / ui. Your game may have multiple Lobby Managers where each manages a single specific lobby.
Events
You can add events via the Add New Event Type button, like Unity's Event Trigger component. The names listed are slightly different from the names as they appear in code to help clarify the use of each when IntelliSense is not available as it is in code.
Authentication Session Results
Only occurs on the owner of the lobby when an authentication request is received and BeginSession responds with the results of the authentication attempt.
Lobby Chat Message Received
Occurs on all lobby members when a chat message is received from the lobby.
Lobby Creation Failed
Occurs when a Create request fails.
Lobby Creation Success
Occurs when a Create request is successful.
Lobby Invite Received
Occurs when a lobby invite was received.
Lobby Join Failure
Occurs when a request to join a lobby fails.
Lobby Join Success
Occurs when a request to join a lobby is successful.
Metadata Updated
Occurs when data on the lobby or a member is updated.
Other User Left
Occurs when a user leaves a lobby that you are in.
Other User Joined
Occurs when a user joins the lobby that you are in.
Quick Match Failed
Occurs when quick match fails to find a lobby to match to.
Search Result Ready
Occurs when a search completes and results are ready.
Session Connection Updated
Occurs when connection information has been updated in the lobby
You Are Asked to Leave
Occurs when you have been "kicked" from the lobby, and you should then leave the lobby.
Fields and Attributes
Search Arguments
The SearchArguments
data type is an internal class:
The fields of the class are as follows
slots If less than or equal to 0, this will be ignored; otherwise, this will indicate the number of available slots 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.
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
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 and 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.
Create Arguments
The CreateArguments
data type is an internal class:
The fields of the class are as follows
usageHint This simply indicates what the intended use is for the lobbies created by this instance of the lobby manager. If set to a value other than "None" it will cause the Lobby Manager, on the creation of a new lobby, to set that lobby as either Group or Session, depending on the value you set here.
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.
metadata Metadata fields 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
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.
Has Lobby
True if the manager is managing a lobby, false otherwise.
Is Player Owner
True if the local user is the owner of the managed lobby, false otherwise.
All Players Ready
True if all members of the lobby have marked themselves as ready, otherwise false.
Is Player Ready
Returns true if the player has marked them self as ready on this lobby. This can be set to mark the player as ready or not on this lobby.
Full
Returns true if the lobby is currently full, false otherwise.
Is Type Set
Returns true if the lobby type has been recorded on the lobby metadata, false otherwise.
Type
Returns the type of lobby this lobby is set to, this is a feature of Heahten's Lobby tools. Valve does not actually expose this, so this will only work for lobbies created by Heathen's tools, such as the lobby manager or the API.Matchmaking class. This can only be set by the owner of the lobby.
Max Members
Indicates the maximum number of members that can be in the lobby. This can be set by the owner of the lobby to change the max slots.
Has Server
Returns true if the lobby has had its game server set, false otherwise.
Game Server
Returns data about the game server set in the lobby, if any.
Funcitons
Authenticate
Sends a chat message to the lobby with authentication data that can be used by the owner of the lobby to validate this user and optionally serialized inventory. Two overloads are available; you can either create your own LobbyAuthenticationData object and pass that in, or you can provide a callback to be invoked on completion, and the system will create a default LobbyAuthenticaitonData for you and send that, invoking the callback once that process has been completed.
Callback example
Create
Get Lobby Data
Get metadata from the lobby itself.
Get Lobby Member
Create a Lobby Member Data object for the indicated user.
This does not check if this member is a member of the lobby; it simply creates a struct that, assuming this member is a member of the lobby, can be used to access this member's metadata.
Get Member Data
Gets the metadata of a given user; the user must be a member of this lobby.
Invite
Invites the indicated user to the lobby.
Is Member Ready
Checks if the indicated member is flagged as "ready"
Join
Joins the indicated lobby, which will leave the current lobby, if any.
Kick Member
Add the member's ID to the Kick Member list, You must then handle the Asked to Leave event and leave the lobby if you want this to work. It is less a "kick" and more of an ask to leave nicely.
Leave
Leave the lobby.
Quick Match
Search
Send Chat Message
Send a Steam Lobby Chat message to the lobby. You can send a string, a byte[] of binary data or you can provide a JSON Serializable object, and we will serialize that and send it as an object.
Set Joinable
Set the lobby as joinable or not, this can only be called by the lobby owner.
Set Lobby Data
Set metadata on the lobby, only the lobby owner can do this.
Set Member Data
Set metadata on the local user, you can only set data on yourself self not other members.
Change the type of lobby for the lobby being managed. This can only be done by the lobby owner.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Indicates whether or not the system could update the player's `steam_player_group` and `steam_player_group_size` rich presence data.
Kick When
A collection of authentication response codes that, if seen on authentication, the user should be asked to leave.
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:
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.
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
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
The CreateArguments
Data type is an internal class:
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.
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
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
Gets the Lobby Member data for the current lobby owner.
Me
Gets the local user's Lobby Member data for the current lobby.
HasLobby
True if the manager is managing a lobby, false otherwise.
Searching
True if the system is searching for a match at the moment.
IsPlayerOwner
True if the local user is the owner of the managed lobby, false otherwise.
AllPlayersReady
True if all members of the lobby have marked themselves as ready, otherwise false.
IsPlayerReady
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
Returns true if the lobby is currently full, false otherwise.
Slots
How many people can join this lobby, if any lobby at all
Member Count
How many people are currently in this lobby, if any lobby at all
Game Server
The current game server is set by the owner of the lobby, if any
Working Status
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
The amount of time since the process started.
Methods
Cancel
Stops the process of searching and, if in a lobby, exits the lobby
Run Quick Match
Starts the process of searching for and or creating a session lobby as required.
Set Game Server
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
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.
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
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
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
This event is invoked when the user is invited and accepts a lobby invite to a group lobby.
Fields and Attributes
User Owner Pip
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
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
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
A reference to the button the user will click when they want to leave the group/party.
Auto Join On Invite
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
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"
Invite Dropdown
Slots
Update Rich Presence Group Data
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
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
The root of the chat UI will be enabled when the lobby has 2 or more members, including the local user.
Input Field
A reference to the TextMesh Pro input field to be used as the chat's input field.
Scroll View
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
A reference to the transform which will be made the parent of each incoming chat message.
My Chat Template
A reference to the GameObject or Prefab that should be instantiated for each message received from the local user.
Their Chat Template
A reference to the GameObject or Prefab that should be instantiated for each message received from users other than the local user.
Lobby
The lobby (if any) that is being managed by this control
Has Lobby
True if this control is currently managing a lobby
Is Player Owner
True if the local player is the owner of this lobby
All Players Ready
True if all players in this lobby have indicated they are ready to play
Is Player Ready
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.
Last updated