Maniaplanet Forum

So recently I bought this game so that me and my friend could play together, which we have been and it's amazing, however we've noticed that we cannot see anyone's custom skins (except for server admin's skins) and that other players cannot see ours, we cannot see each others too. However the other players can see each others cars just fine. Is there any way I can fix this? His custom model was downloaded from the ManiaPark while I made my own. Both have .loc files.


Also when we first started playing (stadium) for the first time he could see my custom skin fine. But the next time we played (Canyon) is when we stopped seeing each other's skins. Even going back to stadium doesn't fix this.

There are often such issues... please read the corresponding FAQ and also the Wiki regarding network ports and firewall (see link in my signature)

Alrighty, I'll check that out once I get back from work, I know I've tried most things (Minus the port forwarding and stuff because that kinda thing has always confused me) and they didn't work.

I'll post here again if me and my friend still have any problems.

Okay, I followed the link in our sig and came to this:
http://wiki.maniaplanet.com/en/Frequent ... aniaPlanet
Unfortunately I have no idea what any of this means or how to do anything. Could someone put this into simpler terms so that I can fix this?

Well it's about time you learn something about network and this "port forwarding and stuff".

Like many other games with online support, ManiaPlanet uses different methods of network communication:
- online storage of account related information (connection to the master servers)
- retrieve information about news, events, updates, buddies, gaming servers
- buddy chat
- connection to servers for multiplayer gaming
- skin and mod exchange

And the current network technology is done with data frames in a standardized format, called TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
To start a communication, i.e. to exchange any kind of data, TCP/IP works with client-server requests and responses. And for that, the so called ports are required. The server opens a port, to which the clients can connect.
It is even possible that servers tell the client a second port to switch to, so the primary port is free for other clients very quickly.
The default ports used by ManiaPlanet for this are 2350 and 3450.
There is an additional port, but it is used only by servers for server management.

Since the game client itself can create a game server, and it also acts like a server for the exchange of skins, avatars and honks, your setup must also be able to receive such network requests.

And this is where the port-forwarding and the firewall come into picture.
Normally you should have a router integrated or additional to your network modem (DSL, cable, optical fibre).
The firewall in the router blocks most intrusion accesses, except the standard ports that are absolutely necessary,
and the ports you have to open, e.g. those for ManiaPlanet.
Now you have to understand that your router acts like one address towards the internet, regardless of how many PC or other network devices you have connected to your home network.
This is why you have to tell the router which port needs to be transferred to which PC exactly, here again the ports which are relevant for ManiaPlanet.

If you don't open and don't redirect (forward) those ports, your friends game client will not be able to reach your PC,
and this is most likely why you can't exchange any data.
That you can do online gaming together is due to the fact that the normal client-server communication allows it already (your client connects to the server, and it translates to the clients of your friends).
You could now ask: why is the skin exchange not done also with the servers?
It is done partially, but only the information which skin (its name) and location is exchanged.
But the actual data transfer has to be done directly between the game clients (this is also called P2P- Peer to Peer), to avoid spoiling the network connection to the server, because this would cause many lags and stuttering for everyone then.

It is sometimes better to upload the files you want to exchange (skins/horns/avatars) to a cloud storage (e.g. DropBox).
All you need to do then is to place so called locator files along with your files on your system.
A locator is actually a simple text file that contains only a link to the place where you have uploaded your skin (e.g. use Dropbox, then enter http://www.dropbox.com/somerandomsstuff ... MySkin.zip), with the name of the skin/horn/avatar (e.g. MySkin.zip) and the additional extension .loc (-> MySkin.zip.loc) .
Actually very simple.

The other ports mentionend in the Wiki are 80 and 443, those are standard HTML server communication ports, and they are also only relevant for servers.

I appreciate going into deep detail about port forwarding for me, but how exactly does one do that? Like I have no idea where to even start, networking is not my strong point when it comes to computers.

Also as for the locator files, that was one of the first things I tried. I uploaded the files to dropbox and made a .loc file with the same name as the files and everything, but that didn't work.

Of course a locator alone does not work, because if you have not setup your network properly,
the game cannot even retrieve that locator file, since this is also exchanged using P2P communication.

Please take the handbook or manual of your router/modem and search for port forwarding.
Also please do not forget the firewall of your PC: it can be the Windows internal firewall, but also your anti-virus security suite.

Besides this, the internet is full of information regarding network stuff, after all it is using exactly that technology since decades

So basically you're saying "figure it out yourself."

That is exactly what I have been trying to do for a week with no avail. Oh well, thanks anyways.

in some ways: yes, but isn't it how we all learn things?
It is already difficult enough to support here for game related questions.
And I think I gave you fairly enough hints (even more than usual) so you can really find out yourself.

If not: don't you have friends who know somehow more about network configuration and who would help you directly?
Because I can't see what you are doing, and also don't know anything of your setup.
And to give you advanced training about network systems or even do the configuration for you, is certainly not the task of anyone here.

It is realy hard to explain to someone, if you can`t see, what he is doing and what settings he has. In my beginning I have been stuggling with the exact same problem for maybe 2 weeks, before I finally found out, that my problem was this port forwarding. Afterwards all was great. Basically you have to access your router, and that is something different for everyone. I can do it via my browser and there I can define in the home network settings of the router the ports to forward. To access your router you may need a password, which is either some default by your provider or set by you/your parents/wife/kids/whoever set up your local WLan/Lan.
If you have done this and it is still not working, it is most probably a firewall problem.