The dll I am creating is mimicing windows UI elements. I can not create and show actual windows controls, at least not since DirectX 7.

What I am doing is working on creating the same look and feel of Windows elements and drawing them with DirectX. I grab the current Windows Color Scheme and then draw the controls the same way windows does. So Visually they should be very close to what the user is used to seeing. The controls also offer a lot of customization so you can modify the look and feel.

I should have something for people to try out in a couple of weeks.

As far as the TCP/IP. Communication is pretty simple until you get Firewalls and the other security measures in place. A TCP connection for one machine to another is pretty easy to set up. The hard part about doing this for games is keeping the data moving efficiently so that all of the clients are kept in synch taking into account lag and bandwidth issues. It really depends on how much "control" information you want to send.

It is something I can think about once I have the UI system polished.