What's New in DirectPlay

This section introduces new features for Microsoft® DirectPlay® 9.0.

New Features in DirectPlay

• The DirectPlay application programming interfaces (APIs) are available for the Microsoft Windows® Powered Pocket PC 2002. See DirectPlay for Pocket PC 2002 for more information.
• The DPN_MSGID_SEND_COMPLETE message structure has two new members that allow you to calculate the round-trip travel time of messages.
• DirectPlay has a new service provider for network simulation. You can use the IDP8SimControl methods to test applications under a variety of network conditions.
• DirectPlay has a new interface, IDirectPlay8ThreadPool, that allows you to manage threads in your application.
• Applications can cancel all messages sent by a particular player using the DPNCANCEL_PLAYER_SENDS flag when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::CancelAsyncOperation, IDirectPlay8Server::CancelAsyncOperation, and IDirectPlay8Client::CancelAsyncOperation.
• Players can receive their local player identifier (ID) in the DPN_MSGID_CONNECT_COMPLETE message.
• Hosts can prevent DirectPlay from processing enumeration queries by setting the DPNSESSION_NOENUMS flag in the DPN_APPLICATION_DESC structure when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::Host and IDirectPlay8Server::Host.
• Messages sent to a group with no players in it will now return DPNSUCCESS_NOPLAYERSINGROUP instead of DPNERR_GENERIC.
• Packet signing is available for all DirectPlay traffic.
• Applications can close immediately by setting the DPNCLOSE_IMMEDIATE flag when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::Close, IDirectPlay8Client::Close, and IDirectPlay8Server::Close.
• DirectPlay 9.0 has improved defense against connection spoofing.
• Use the DPNINITIALIZE_HINT_LANSESSION flag when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::Initialize, IDirectPlay8Client::Initialize, and IDirectPlay8Server::Initialize.
• Packet coalescence is available by setting the DPNSEND_COALESCE flag when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::SendTo, IDirectPlay8Client::Send, and IDirectPlay8Server::SendTo.
• Applications can tune the DirectPlay protocol using the DPN_CAPS_EX structure used when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::GetCaps, IDirectPlay8Client::GetCaps, and IDirectPlay8Server::GetCaps or IDirectPlay8Peer::SetCaps, IDirectPlay8Client::SetCaps, and IDirectPlay8Server::SetCaps.
• A group owner's context value has been added to the DPNMSG_CREATE_GROUP structure.
• If the DPNSESSION_NODPNSVR flag is not set in the DPN_APPLICATION_DESC structure when calling IDirectPlay8Peer::Host or IDirectPlay8Server::Host and dpnsvr.exe does not start, the call to Host will fail and return DPNERR_DPNSVRNOTAVAILABLE.
• Less reliable connections should now perform better with improved DirectPlay protocol behavior.
• Network Address Translation (NAT) support has improved. This includes the new IDirectPlay8NATResolver interface, which allows you to create a NAT resolver application.
• DirectPlay now supports Internet Protocol (IP) v6.