@xan105/lobby_connect NPM

About

FFI bindings to lobby_connect from Goldberg SteamEmu but recompiled as a dll.

Discover people playing on the network using the Goldberg SteamEmu with the launch parameter to connect to their game.

This can be used in Node.js/Electron. 💡 Usage without Node/JavaScript is also explained down below.

Feel free to make a cool looking GUI for this 😃

Example

import { lobbyPlayerState } from "@xan105/lobby_connect";

setInterval(function(){ 
  lobbyPlayerState()
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(console.error);
}, 3000);

/*output example
[] //Nobody on the network
[ { name: 'Xan', appID: 466560, connect: '' } ] //In game
[ { name: 'Xan', appID: 466560, connect: '+connect_lobby 109212296511539930' } ] //lobby available
*/

Install

npm install @xan105/lobby_connect

API

⚠️ This module is only available as an ECMAScript module (ESM) starting with version 2.0.0. Previous version(s) are CommonJS (CJS) with an ESM wrapper.

Named export

`lobbyPlayerState(): Promise<obj[]>`

Discover people playing on the network.

Return an array of Player object as:

{
  name: string, //player's name
  appID: number, //game's appid
  connect: string //the launch parameter to connect to the player's game
}

Build

The dll src is located at lib\src\goldberg_emulator\lobby_connect_dll.cpp

If you want to build the dll yourself please see the build instructions for the goldberg emulator (https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator#windows). When your env is set. Run the following npm script in the root dir of this package :

npm run-script build_x86 //for x86
npm run-script build_x64 //for x64

//or

npm run-script build //for both x86 & x64

NB: npm run-script update will git pull ./lib/src/goldberg_emulator

Usage without Node / JavaScript

You can bind directly to the dynamic link library (dll) found in lib/dist with any lang that allows for FFI (Foreign Function Interface) with standard C declaration (c-shared).

Have a look at the bindings in lib/lobby.js to get a feel for it. Even if you don't know any JavaScript. It's rather simple.

There are 3 functions exported :

lobby_ready(int delay): int
lobby_player_count(): int
lobby_player_info(int playerIndex): <Player>
<Player> being the following Struct:

struct {
  const char *name;
  int appID;
  const char *connect;
  uint64 lobby;
};

Use lobby_ready() with a delay to wait for a few seconds for connections (delay * 10) (Originally Mr. Goldberg uses 200ms). It returns 1 (true) if SteamAPI is initialized; 0 (false) otherwise.
Use lobby_player_count() to get how many people they are on the network.
Loop until max number of people from the above (step2) using lobby_player_info() to get each player information (Player Struct).

If you have a connect string then that's your connect argument to pass to the game; Otherwise transform the uint64 lobby to a string and append "+connect_lobby" to it.

Dont' forget credits and license and you are done :wink: