Ludovic Marie
0e65e85878
Ludovic's decision (2026-10-23): no more Alpha and Stable. release.yml publishes every game release as the release and GitHub's latest instead of a pre-release that promote.yml made stable once a day. The checks that gated a promotion run in the release itself: `decide` holds the train while an issue labelled release-blocker is open (forced runs too), and the publish job runs `release_train.py gate` right before publishing: the Mac mini's smoke-test.json must be there and show a world was drawn, and no blocker may be open. Otherwise nothing is published. Notes cover everything since the last release that is not a pre-release, so the first single-channel release lists all of it since v0.2.0. promote.yml, tools/release_channels.py and its tests are deleted. The cadence is unchanged (5 minutes of settling, 20 at most, release-now at once). Docs and site: one channel in release-flow, versioning, security, the FAQ, install, the home page and the Releases page (Game / Launcher filter); no player-facing Alpha wording left. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
44 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# Multiplayer
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You can play with friends from your own world, on your local network, or on a server. This page also says plainly what does not work yet: servers that check Minecraft accounts.
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## Play with friends from your own world
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This needs no server and no account.
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1. In your world, open the pause menu and choose the **Friends** button (the icon with two people), then **Start Sharing**. Horizon opens the world to your network and shows an **invite code** with **Copy Code**.
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2. Send the code to your friends.
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3. On their side, your friends choose the **Friends** button on the title screen (or **Join a friend** on the launcher's **Play** page), paste the code and choose **Join**. Pasting the code in **Direct Connection** works too.
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There is no Horizon server in the middle. The code holds the host's addresses and a secret key, and the game between you is encrypted with it. A code works for as long as you keep sharing: closing the world or quitting ends it.
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**Can your friends reach you?** The Play with Friends screen says what the game found:
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- On the same network, or over a VPN such as Tailscale or ZeroTier, it just works.
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- Over the internet, it asks your router to open the port by itself (UPnP). If the router does not allow it, forward TCP port 25580 to your computer.
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- Some internet providers share one address between many homes (CGNAT), and no port can be opened. Use a VPN such as [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com) instead; the code already contains your VPN address.
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Guests join with the name their game uses. There is no account check, so only share the code with people you trust.
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Guests can also use the host's workstations: the crafter, loom, stonecutter, grindstone, anvil, smithing table, enchanting table, beacon, lectern and cartography table.
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## Open to LAN
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As in vanilla, **Open to LAN** in the pause menu lets people on the same network join your world. They see it in their server list. A vanilla 26.3 client can join a Horizon LAN world, and Horizon can join a vanilla one. LAN worlds are in offline mode.
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## Joining a server
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The Multiplayer page works like vanilla's: **Add server** saves one, **Direct connect** takes an address, and your servers are listed with their message of the day and ping. Horizon joins vanilla 26.3 servers and Horizon's own.
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**Online mode.** Most public servers run in online mode: they check that each player really owns Minecraft by asking Mojang. To pass that check, the game needs a Microsoft account sign-in, and Horizon cannot do that yet. It needs an app registration and an approval from Mojang that the project does not have. So today:
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- **Horizon can join servers in offline mode only** (`online-mode=false`): your own, a friend's, or a server on your network or a VPN.
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- **It cannot join servers that check accounts.** That is most public servers, and Realms.
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- Skins served over https show the default skin unless they were already cached.
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Anyone can join an offline server under any name, so run one only on your network or a VPN, or share it with people you trust. [Host a server](/docs/hosting) explains the details.
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## Vanilla players on a Horizon server
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A vanilla 26.3 client can join a Horizon server, and in online mode it signs in with its own account as on a vanilla server. Secure chat works for those players.
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