Just curious as a developer how Gametracker gets the information about the servers, such as the map and the player count.

I originally assumed it was using Steam unified messages, but I am unsure. I am building a desktop client for a server group and I would like to be able to include the maps and the player count. If anyone can lead me in the right direction that would be nice.

Thanks.

I am not personally familiar with the techniques, but we were seeing tracking sites similar to Gametracker long before there was a steam.
In fact a fellow server admin created quite an effective server tracker that allowed an amount of rcon control over servers at the time.

Most games incorporate a query capability. That is you send a string of text describing what you want to know, and the server responds with a string of text with that information.

It is very much a game by game compatibility / development.
Most game makers supply this information somewhere on their websites or documentation.
Otherwise some googling is required.

One example

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Server_queries

burn wrote:
One example

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Server_queries
That's exactly what I am looking for, thanks!

I just need to figure out how to send the query and receive data, but this guide is exactly what I needed.