CONTENT
1. ABOUT
HyperLobby (or just HL) is an online gaming lobby primarily designed to support online flight simulation and other online games. The client is written in Visual Basic 6.0. HL is a chat that is enhanced by game launch and other features. For communication, HL needs connection into the Internet by TCP port 1698, and for latency calculation betwen clients uses an ICMP echo reply protocol. I started the HL project in summer 2000 as an experiment to create an alternative place to fly Jane's WW2 Fighters. Due to its popularity, HL was enhanced to support more games ...
2. FEATURES
HL is still under development . From version to version HL gets more features, so the feature list displays only key features:
- User identity is protected by callsign and password (passwords cant be retrieved)
- HL has a very good banning system to avoid abusers and impostors
- Ignore feature to avoid communication from abusers
- The data communication channel is encrypted to avoid exploit of security-sensitive data, such as username-IP pairs
- HL does not include any scripting components driven by the HL server; client features are hardwired and can't be changed from the outside
- Executables have self-check to avoid hacking, cracking, and infection by viruses
- Pager: an instant messaging system designed to send and receive short text messages (with spooler for offline users)
- Support for some voice communication applications such as RW and BC
- Simple friendlist that can show online friends from the actual game room
- Some game rooms support joining games in progress, and show enhanced settings of the game hosts
- User interface is fully skinable
- Small download size (about 1Mb)
3. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- Windows 2000 or later (XP, Vista, W7)
- About 3 MB free space on your hard-drive
- Properly installed games from the original CD and updated with the latest patches
4. INSTALATION
- Enter the download section of the http://hyperfighter.sk website and download the latest version of the HL client.
- Unzip the downloaded file (you may need Winzip, Winrar, 7Zip ...) and run the included installer.
- Read the license agreement and follow the installer's instructions
- The installer places some icons on your desktop, namely an application icon and direct links to this manual and the FAQ section.
- If you have any kind of problem with installing and running HL please use our support forum
5. FIRST RUN
- Run HL from the start menu or from the desktop icon.
- Read and accept the License and Rules. If you do not accept them, press cancel and uninstall the HL client.
- Select the game you wish to play from the list of supported games.
6. FIRST CONNECT
Upon your first connection you must create a user account. Create you own account:
- Type your own callsign into the "CALLSIGN:" textbox **,***
- Type your password into the "PASSWORD:" textbox **,***
- Check the checkbox "REMEMBER" if you want to use the "automatic password remember" function.
- Press the "CONNECT" button.
- You may get game the location dialog (installation for some games cannot be detected automatically), which will be explained in the next part of the guide.
- Have look at the chat window.
- The server will ask you to confirm your password from the "PASSWORD:" textbox (enter it at the chat line).
- The server will then ask you to type your email (enter it at the chat, and make sure it is correct).
- ... enjoy your new account !!!
There is a checkbox beside the "CALLSIGN:" textbox. If you check it, HL will connect automatically every time you run the HL application. The remember password checkbox is beside the "PASSWORD:" textbox.
* When you get the chat message "Wrong password or invalid username", you are trying register using an already registered user account, which is not allowed.
** Do not use other user accounts gived to you by your friends or anyone else, otherwise you will get really bad problems.
*** Passwords and callsigns are not case sensitive
7. LOCATING THE GAME INSTALATION FOLDER
When you try to connect to a game room, HL may pop up the game-location dialog. This happens when HL is not properly set up or cant automatically detect the game location. This dialog can be forced by right-click on the on the CONNECT button. There are two ways to enter the correct game-installation folder:
- Type the game path into the text box with the name of the game executable, for example "C:my gamegame.exe", then press the Save button.
- Left-click the Search button and wait until HL finds your game folder. Then double-click on the correct item and select save.
If you think that both of these methods have failed, right-click your game icon, select properties, and copy and paste the game path into the textbox and left-click the Save button. (If nothing works, try reading this manual from the beginning.)
8. CONNECT WITH AN EXISTING USER ACCOUNT
- Type your own callsign into the "CALLSIGN:" box.
- Type your password into the "PASSWORD:" textbox (if you are not using the remember feature).
- Click on the "CONNECT" button.
- Wait for the server welcome message.
(Be sure you have read the previous parts of the manual.)
9. CHANGING PASSWORDS
- Connect to HL.
- Enter into the HL chat this command : //password oldpasword newpassword
Oldpassword must match your curent password and newpassword will be your new password you want to use. When the command succeed, you will be notified about it via the HL chat and disconnected from the lobby. Then you can enter you new password in to the login box and connect again.
10. PARTS OF THE HYPERLOBBY USER INTERFACE
The HL user interface contains the following parts:
- The Menu: a popup menu for switching between parts of the HL control interface
- The Chat: the area designed for communication between the HL users
- The Friendlist: the area beside the chat used to display and manage a list of your HL friends
- The Game Launch Slots: the area of the interface designed to display currently prepared games and games already in progress
- The Room Switch: some game rooms have a subroom switch to enter enhanced Game Launch Slots used to divide the main area from the areas used for Cooperative/Team play and subrooms used for online competitions (IOW, VEF, ADC, DID etc. for IL-2)
11. MENU
The HL user interface is limited in size to a desktop resolution of 800x600 with small fonts. For this there is an overlapped area which should be switched by the Menu. The Menu contains the following parts:
- CONNECT/SELECT GAME: this is the main HL dialog for selecting and entering a game. This means just what was mentioned above. The games should be directly switched by selecting a game from the game list. There are two modes to switch a game. When you left-click the game list entry, the game room is immediately changed without checking the game path, and the corresponding dialog opens if the game is not found. Right-clicking the game list entry opens the game location dialog if the path is unknown.
- PLAYER LIST: a list of players in the ready room and in game. After clicking the player name entry, the popup menu allows you to choose such actions as send a pager, ignore , etc.
- PAGER: the instant messaging facility of HL. It stores incoming messages into history, displays new pager messages by a flashing button beside the Menu, and so on (it is intuitive to handle).
- SKIN MANAGER: skin change interface. (More details will be published soon in the HL forums.)
- EDIT SETTINGS: simple settings editor to change some HL internals. It just editing hyperlobby.ini file. Allmost all options inside this config file are well commented.
- CREDITS: names of peoples that have directly contributed to the existence of HL (it's really an honor for me to add some of these names).
12. POPUP MENU
When you click on a user callsign from the PLAYERS, INGAME, FRIENDLIST or the GLS, HL shows the Popup Menu. It improves the handling of such actions as:
- Adding/removing the selected user from your friendlist
- Sending a pager to a selected user
- Sending a voice invitation to selected user
- Ignoring input from a selected user (chat, pager, or use of the GLS when you are host)
- Kicking a user from the GLS (when you are host)
- Joining a game in progress (if allowed)
13. CHAT
HL supports a free chatting facility for communication between HL users. It has a scanner for English obscenity and some anti-spam protection. The chat area consists of two parts:
- The chat input textbox, which is used to enter the messages and commands
- The server chat output window, which is used to display the communication system events and a few other events.
The chat also handles some commands and keyboard shortcuts, which should be listed by the /h chat command. Use of the /b command is recommended before the /h command :)
Double-clicking the player name in the chat area opens the pager with the recipient's name included, double-clicking a posted http:// URL opens the page in the default web browser. The same works for email addresses.
14. FRIENDLIST
The Friendlist is a tool for saving a list of your friends and checking their status in the HL game room. It has the same features as the player list, but is separate and always shows. The current position in HL of users in your friendslist are posted in the chat area by event messages that can be turned off (more /h command). A character flag is displayed in front of the user name that displays the current status of the user:
- No flag: the user is in the ready room and not using any game slot.
- - flag: the user is using one of the game slots.
- * flag: the user is in the game.
- H flag: the user is hosting a game that can be joined in progress.
- A flag: the user is away.
15. GAME LAUNCH SLOTS (GLS)
This section is the most important regarding usage of HL. HL has predefined some GLS. A GLS has four general parts:
- The host slot. This is the first line of the GLS and is used only for players that want to host a game.
- The client slots. These are all slots under the host slot. It is only for players who act as clients for the host.
- The latency indicators. These show latency graphically for all the users preparing the game session. Here is table corresponding to the graphical meanings:
| 5 yellow lights |
your own slot (nothing to calculate) |
| 5 green lights |
< 25 ms (very good) |
| 4 green lights |
< 50 ms (very good) |
| 3 green lights |
< 75 ms (good) |
| 2 green lights |
< 100 ms (good) |
| 1 green lights |
> 100 ms (average) |
| 5 red lights |
> 300 ms (poor conection or disabled icmp) |
-
The game launch button. Is used by the host to start a game and for clients to retrieve game settings (only for game rooms that support it).
16. ROOM SWITCH
Some game rooms divide the main GLS area into parts. The room switch shows the count of players per room and is designed to switch between the game subrooms.
17. REVISION HISTORY
HyperLobby revision history can be viewed on this link and/or the news section of this website.
