More features

Dedicated server browser

Listing dedicated servers, and querying their players and settings.

This is for dedicated servers: a machine running your game with no player on it. It is a different thing from lobbies, which is where player hosted games live.

If your game is player hosted, you want sessions instead. Nothing on this page applies.

Listing servers

Call Refresh Server List on the SteamForge Server Browser subsystem with a list type:

Type	What it queries
Internet	Valve's master server list. Everything, and the slowest.
LAN	A broadcast on the local network. Fast, and works with no Steam connection.
Friends	Servers friends are on right now
Favorites	The player's starred servers, shared with Steam's own browser
History	Servers the player connected to recently
Spectator	Servers running in spectator mode

Results arrive one at a time on On Server Found, not as a finished array. On Server List Complete fires when the refresh ends.

INFO: Adding rows as they arrive is the point. An internet refresh can take a long time, and a browser that shows nothing until it finishes looks broken for the entire wait.

Get Servers returns everything found so far, Is Refreshing Servers says whether one is running, and Cancel Server List Refresh stops it.

Filters

Refresh Server List takes a map of filter keys, applied by Valve's master server before results are sent:

Key	Matches
`map`	Servers on one map
`gamedir`	One game directory
`secure`	Anti cheat secured servers
`notfull`	Servers with room
`noplayers`	Empty servers
`gametagsand`	Servers carrying all of these tags

Filtering at the master server rather than locally is the difference between a browser that lists your game's servers and one that downloads every server on Steam first.

What a result carries

Each Steam Server Info arrives populated:

Field	Meaning
Name, Map Name, Game Description	What to show in a row
Address, Query Port	Where it is, and what to pass to the query nodes
Ping Ms	Latency, or -1 if it never answered
Players, Max Players, Bot Players	Occupancy
Password Protected, Secure	Whether a password is needed, and whether anti cheat is on
Friends Playing	How many of the player's friends are on it
Game Tags	Whatever the server published, for your own filtering
Responded	False for a server on the list that did not answer the query

WARNING: Check Responded. A server on the master list that never answered still produces a result, with a ping of -1 and empty fields. Showing those as normal rows gives players servers that cannot be joined.

Asking one server for more

Three queries, each taking an address and query port from a result:

Node	Answers on	Gives you
Request Server Players	On Server Players Received	Who is on it, with score and time connected
Request Server Rules	On Server Rules Received	The server's published key and value settings
Request Server Friends	On Server Friends Received	Which of the player's friends are on it

Ping Server re-pings a single server and answers on On Server Pinged, which is what a Refresh button on one row should call rather than refreshing the whole list.

Cancel Server Query stops an outstanding query.

INFO: Query these on demand, when a player selects a row. Firing three queries per server as results arrive means hundreds of outstanding queries during an internet refresh, and Steam will drop them.

Where to go next

Networking, for talking to a server once connected.