Handle pre-matchmaking groups

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I am developping multiplayer game where players should be able to group with friends and then look for a session against other players. I know that using Photon Rooms to simulate a group with friends is not a solution as we won't be able to perform matchmaking when being on Game Server.

Our application is developped on Oculus Quest. I am currently using Oculus Rooms system, but still, the SDK is a mess and does not properly fullfill our expectations.

Is there any way to create pre-matchmaking rooms using Photon, or what third-party SDK could I use to implement this feature ?

Thanks

JohnTube

Hi @Clemanza,

Did you consider Photon Chat?

If you combine Photon Chat & Photon Realtime you get a powerful set of features that work nicely in Photon world. Chat's StatusUpdate. You can broadcast a custom message to all your friends (users who have added you as a friend). Also you can subscribe to multiple channels at once, e.g. a channel for exchanging "matchmaking meta control message" or even send private messages (invitations, challenges). This is useful to send the Realtime room name while joined to the room.

I know that using Photon Rooms to simulate a group with friends is not a solution as we won't be able to perform matchmaking when being on Game Server.

What exactly is the limiting factor here?

Initially you need to join your friend into "a party room" or "team room" or "pre match room" and wait until the group leader (e.g. UserId of the first Master Client of the "pre match room" before it's full) joins another room, the "final / real room" by making use of FindFriends / polling.

Using FindFriends: you can check if a user is connected or not and joined to a room or not and which room if any.

or what third-party SDK could I use to implement this feature ?

PlayFab? facebook?

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the answer !

I don't know much about Photon Chat. I get the point that I would be able to send private messages to friends, in order to invite them or to tell them the room to join.

Tell me if I am wrong, but the "party room" could not be a pun room because it shouldn't be created by a PhotonNetwork.CreateRoom call. That being said, how could we easily get control over which user joined the group, and which one left, as there would not be any callback like OnPlayerEnteredRoom / OnPlayerLeftRoom.

Concerning PlayFab and Facebook, I am not quite sure if there is a group system that gives us these information about joining and leaving players. (In fact we are using Playfab, but just for data storing purposes)