Configure match pools

Last updated on October 24, 2024

Overview

Match pools represent a collection of match and backfill tickets submitted to AccelByte Gaming Services (AGS) Matchmaking, representing players that are seeking the same gameplay experience. Tickets in the pool will be evaluated against each other using logic defined in the associated match ruleset and match function in order to find viable matches.

A match pool is a form of queue. There are five primary components that define how the service should add tickets to the pool and further evaluate those tickets for viable matches:

• Session Template: defines the characteristics a session created using the template will exhibit. This includes joinability, what game server deployment to use, and which regions it should attempt to deploy to.
• Match Ruleset: defines the rules that will be used during matchmaking to evaluate tickets within the pool to identify viable matches.
• Match Function: defines custom functionality implemented outside the service that can impact the evaluation process during matchmaking.
• Match Ticket Timeout: defines the amount of time a ticket can remain in evaluation before it is marked as expired and removed from the pool.
• Backfill Ticket Timeout: similar to the match ticket timeout, but is defined for backfill tickets.
• Best latency calculation method: defines how players are matched based on their latency, which is the ping between their location and the AccelByte data center.

Keep in mind that the defined timeouts will impact the player experience during matchmaking, so be sure to carefully consider the duration you want players to wait in the pool before you time their tickets out.

This article will show you how to configure match pools in the AGS Admin Portal, including how to assign the associated session template, match ruleset, and match function.

Goals

This article aims to provide you with an understanding of how match pools work and how to configure them.

Prerequisites

To complete all the steps in this article, you will need:

• A familiarity with AGS Lobby, Session, and Matchmaking.
• Access to the AGS Admin Portal.
• A session template created and configured for each desired game mode.
• A match ruleset created and configured.

Configure match pools in the Admin Portal

1. In the AGS Admin Portal, navigate to your desired namespace. Then, go to Multiplayer > Matchmaking > Matchmaking Configuration.

2. On the Match Pools tab, click + New Match Pool.

3. On the New Match Pool form that appears, on the Match Pool page, fill in the following fields:

   • Basic Information
     • Match Pool Name: enter a name for your match pool.
     • Match Ruleset: select a Match Ruleset from the dropdown menu.
     • Session Template: select a Session Template from the dropdown menu.
     • Ticket Expiration: enter how long until your tickets expire (in seconds).
   • Backfill
     • Auto-accept Backfill Proposal: enable to allow AGS Matchmaking to handle backfill requests, or disable to handle backfills on the game end.
     • Backfill Proposal Ticket Expiration: enter how long until your backfill proposals expire (in seconds).
     • Backfill Ticket Expiration: enter how long until your backfill tickets expire (in seconds).
   • Matchmaking Preferences
     • Choose Cross-Play for cross-platform, Platform Group to customize specific platforms, or Platform Exclusive to limit matchmaking to a single platform.

4. Click Next, and configure the options on the Customization page that appears:

   • Function
     • Customization: enable this to allow match function customization, or disable it to allow AGS Matchmaking to handle it using default settings.
   • Override Specific Function
     • Check the box next to each of the options and select your customized match function from the dropdown that appears, or leave them unchecked to use AGS defaults.

5. Click Next.

6. Review your configuration on the Summary page, and click Create if you are satisfied.

info

When the matchmaking backfills a player to a session with the server type NONE or P2P, the backfill proposal will always be auto-accepted to that session regardless of the Auto-accept Backfill Proposal config in the matchpool settings.

Best latency calculation method

One of the parameters for a good matchmaking quality is to match players with the lowest possible latency to both each other and the data center hosting the dedicated game server. However, achieving this can be challenging when player populations are low and scattered across multiple regions. To address this, AGS offers two latency calculation methods for matchmaking:

• Average (Default): Matches players based on the average latency across all participants.
• P95: Matches players based on the 95th percentile latency, aiming to minimize the worst-case latency experienced by the majority of players.

Sample scenario: a game with five players from the United States (US), four from Europe (EU), and one from the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. In this scenario, we assume a maximum acceptable latency of 250 ms, with the region selector considering us-east as the host region due to the presence of an ap-southeast player. This example demonstrates how optimizing region selection can allow for a higher maximum latency (up to 300 ms) while still maintaining a good latency experience for the AP player.

Here's a table showing the latency between each region for the different players:

	us-west	us-east	eu-west	eu-central	ap-southeast
ap-southeast player	230 ms	250 ms	170 ms	150 ms	50 ms
us-east player	50 ms	20 ms	120 ms	130 ms	260 ms
us-east player	50 ms	20 ms	110 ms	130 ms	260 ms
us-east player	50 ms	20 ms	110 ms	130 ms	260 ms
us-west player	22 ms	42 ms	180 ms	200 ms	155 ms
us-east player	50 ms	20 ms	110 ms	130 ms	260 ms
eu-central player	200 ms	150 ms	40 ms	20 ms	150 ms
eu-central player	200 ms	150 ms	40 ms	20 ms	150 ms
eu-west player	180 ms	130 ms	30 ms	50 ms	170 ms
eu-west player	180 ms	130 ms	30 ms	50 ms	170 ms

Latency Calculation Methods:

• Average Latency:

  	us-west	us-east	eu-west	eu-central	ap-southeast
  Average Latency	121 ms	93 ms	94 ms	101 ms	189 ms

• P95 Latency:

  	us-west	us-east	eu-west	eu-central	ap-southeast
  P95 Latency	217 ms	205 ms	176 ms	178 ms	260 ms

In this scenario, the Average latency method would select us-east as the best region for matchmaking, while the P95 method would choose eu-west, which is likely better for accommodating the ap-southeast player. The choice of method depends on game developer preferences and player distribution, aiming to balance overall latency with the needs of all players.

Next step

Once you have configured a match pool for your game, you can begin to use it during matchmaking. Refer to Integrating matchmaking into the game client.