U.S.G.N. - Info
The Unreal Software Gaming Network, U.S.G.N. for short, provides various functions for games from Unreal Software.
Server Lists
Server lists are the main feature of the Unreal Software Gaming Network. New game servers register themselves at the U.S.G.N. masterserver when they are created. The masterserver saves the IP and port of the game server and adds this data to a server list. Players can request this list and can get an overview over all currently active game servers that way. When a server is shut down, it informs the masterserver so that it is removed from the list. It can happen however that servers crash or are not shut down properly. Such servers would normally stay in the list forever because they do not de-register at the masterserver. The U.S.G.N. is using a heartbeat approach to solve this issue: Every server has to regularly send a message to the U.S.G.N. in order to signal that it is still online. If a server does not send hearbeat messages for several minutes it will get removed from the list automatically.
User System
Users can log in in-game with their UnrealSoftware.de accounts. This login also works over the U.S.G.N. masterserver. The associated account ID can then be used to uniquely identify players. This is important for e.g. statistics, admin rights or bans.
Friends System
The website allows users to add other users as friends. In-game there is a friends list which allows to see the online status of all your friends. You can also use it to enter the servers on which your friends are currently playing.