Creating your server and sharing it - In-depth guide

[asu]

The latest patch (0.6.0) introduced multiplayer onto the stable branch, which means players using Windows, Linux and OSX can create servers and play together.

Please note multiplayer is quite recent and it is a complex feature to implement, the game being early access you can except bugs, as for any other game. If you encounter a bug, feel free to report it in the associated threads.

A word of warning!

If you want to share a server on the forums, you must not share your local IP address, but your global IP address! You need to follow the internet guide in order to share your server, not the LAN one.
Also, please note sharing your IP address exposes you at a risk, and if you're hosting the server, you can't really prevent that.
When you share your IP address, this may expose vulnerabilities. You may, for example, get DDoS'd by people that wants to annoy you. It is safer to have private servers with only people you trust having your IP address. If you have a static IP address, you should avoid sharing your IP publicly at all. If you have a dynamic IP address, you would need to give again your IP everytime (=edit your post or send the IP back to your friends).

Common steps

No matter what, those steps are necessary in order to understand how to host your server.

1) Opening the ports on your system firewall
Depending on your operating system, you may need to unblock the game server port. The default server port for Planet Centauri is 7777. Opening the TCP port shouldn't be required, so you only need to open the port for the UDP protocol.

• Windows' firewall should ask you if the 7777 port should be opened. Accept, or other clients won't be able to connect to your server.
  
• Apple's OSX has two firewall layers. Since I am not familiar with this OS, you better refer to your own research, but you *should* be able to open the port somewhere in the system settings. The port you need to open is the 7777 port on UDP.
  
• Most Linux distributions comes with an empty firewall, which means you shouldn't need to open a port. Ubuntu and most of its derivatives uses UFW, so you may configure it with GUFW as a GUI solution.

2) Getting your local and global IP addresses
There are many services that can be used to get your local (used for LANs only) and global (used for internet multiplayer) IPs.

Your local IP address was attributed by your router. You may not access one of your friend's server using your local IP if he isn't on the same network as yours! This one depends on your computer, not on your online IP. It usually isn't static, so every time you reconnect to your box, check again what is your local IP address.
Here is a service that allows you to find it easily : http://www.mon-ip.com/adresse-ip-locale.php
Your local IP address is the big & red address, in the form of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

Your global IP address, which is the one you usually refer at when talking about an "IP", is an unique identifier attributed to your router. The problem is that your computer and someone else, say, your brother's computer also have the same global IP address, because remember, it depends on your router. This is why in the internet server guide further below, you will need to forward the port to your computer.
Here is a (french) service that allows you to find it easily : http://www.mon-ip.com/en/my-ip/
Your global IP address is the first big & red address, in the same form as the local IP address, xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

If mon-ip.com fails to find one of those addresses, it could be because of a proxy if you happen to use one.

You may also access your router page in order to find your local IP and your global IP.

3) Once you're done with the specific guides below, run your server!
Starting a server on Planet Centauri is pretty straightforward. On the main menu, select Multiplayer, Host, keep the default port (7777), and then select your character and your server.
Players can now connect to your server using your local IP address (if you followed the LAN tutorial) or your global IP address (if you followed the internet tutorial).

Creating a server on the local network (LAN) :

You do not need port forwarding router-side in order to play on the same network connection (this excludes internet, of course), but you do need to open the port on your firewall if your OS doesn't do it for you (see above).
You already completed all the steps you needed to go through! You can now host your server (see above).

Creating a server on the internet :

This is a little more complex than the LAN tutorial, because you need to forward the 7777 port to your computer in your router settings.

Port forwarding
Depending on your net box, you may need to connect onto an IP to access the configuration page which may be accessed from a web browser by putting 192.168.1.0, 192.168.1.1 into your address bar (the same one as used for researching on Chrome, the one at the left of the serch bar on firefox and internet explorer or edge) or another IP you may find on the internet that matches your box.
Once done, you should land on a login page. The default username/password combination is often admin/admin, but again, verify how it goes in your specific case, and ask the owner of your router if it isn't yours, because he may have changed the password.

Then, I can't really explain how it goes, but search tutorials for your specific router/net box on how to forward a port. You need to forward the 7777 port to your local IP address for the UDP protocol (TCP shouldn't require to be forwarded).

Once done, you completed all the steps you needed to go through! You can now host your server (see above).

Dedicated servers?

No, there are not dedicated servers yet. The person who hosts the server is also playing in the game. You may hijack this behaviour and install software Mesa rendering libraries on a dedicated Linux box, but except poor performance because the game has to be rendered without the GPU. Good luck if you're trying that, though.

However, dedicated servers are to be excepted, but needs some extra code game-side.

When dedicated servers are released, I may do a tutorial or a script to install them on a Linux box.

[Planet Centauri]

Thank you!

[ehyder]

Very nicely done, I am glad the moderators pinned the post.

In OSX, for other games, I did not do anything on the OS side except through the router. That process, sadly, was not nontrivial but was, eventually, successful.

[InsanityGc]

will you make is so we can join our freinds through steam?

[Dr, Caliginous]

How do i make this work with hammachie?

[Xakorik]

Well, can't wait for dedicated as my current PC can't really host and play at same time though I am planning on getting a new PC soonish

[onilink_]

Originally posted by Insanity:

will you make is so we can join our freinds through steam?

Yes but later. It take time to do.

Originally posted by ☣shadowmaste☣:

How do i make this work with hammachie?

With hamachi you don't have to forward your port and use your global ip. You can use your local ip like in a simple lan if I'm not mistaken (I don't use hamachi).

[garfsbastian]

i keep geting this error with my 2 friends inside server :

std::runtime_error
Instancecontainer : uid is already assigned.

Any clue or help?
thanks

[Respwner]

Originally posted by onilink_:

Originally posted by Insanity:

will you make is so we can join our freinds through steam?

Yes but later. It take time to do.

Originally posted by ☣shadowmaste☣:

How do i make this work with hammachie?

With hamachi you don't have to forward your port and use your global ip. You can use your local ip like in a simple lan if I'm not mistaken (I don't use hamachi).

New users to Hamachi will most likely only get the onlline part working, as in, you can create online games and get friends to join without opening ports. Tricking Hamachi into making lan-games work requires a bit more "behind the scenes" work. It includes setting up ip-aliases inside your hamachi network and changing some obscure settings Ive only ever found in a single youtube comment section.

[EvaNoxVTube]

Out of curiosity what is the status on implimenting join through friends on steam or making a dedicated server? (Only asking since this is a year old and is the most up-to-date information I could find)

[asu]

I don't believe there's progress yet, there's not a major demand for the latter and joining through steam probably would take some effort to implement.

[Thraz]

that don't work for me and my friends

[EvaNoxVTube]

Originally posted by Petit Ciseau:

that don't work for me and my friends

thats why i asked about it, me and my friends can't port-forward our ips for individual reasons and I have seen no effort from the dev (in the year since this topic was "in demand") to implement any of the "easier" methods for playing multiplayer. Of course this means they have to do more work, but any game that has multiplayer requires more work done than a singleplayer one. This game is great and fun but not worth trying to play with others when the dev won't meet the players halfway.

[Akudama]

people dont want to share IPs tho.... must be a better way to do this

[🌟booma🌟 🚴🎧]

could not connect ... we will wait untill you can set up a dedicated server or join with steam

[Gamez 'N' Muzic]

why arent you using nat punchthrough this is horse crap, we bought this game to play together