Steamworks instanced server help

I'm attempting to migrate a P2P game to dedicated servers. We are using uLink for the actual server connection. Previously we had the host create the lobby and players simply joined the steam lobby through the steam lobby list and played P2P.

The issue now is that we have have a system that creates new server instances on the fly that is supposed to set itself up with steam and then connect players to the game. A GameServer can LogOnAnonymous but it can't create lobbies, correct?

What is the correct workflow from a client hitting the "Create Lobby" button to all clients being connected to a server/port 3rd party uLink server? Including but not limited to: lobby browsing, a way to send connecting clients the uLink server ip/port, and whether the host should just create a lobby or if the server creates a lobby/server/something.

The steam documentation is not incredibly helpful in creating dynamic server instances and googling is worthless. Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

 

The issue is that there is nowhere that they explicitly say it in the documentation, and no answers on similar Steamworks forum questions.


How does a dedicated server access steam lobby data? There are 3 possibilities:

• It’s not possible, so you have to use sockets to update the dedicated server with lobby data.
• The server creates the lobby. This doesn’t seem possible because the CreateLobby function uses your logged in and authenticated steamID
• The server somehow logs into the lobby that the host created. Have not been able to find out how to do this.

Thanks!