Minecraft Server on Mac for Cross-Platform

[rusty2192]

I am hoping to setup a Minecraft Server at home. I’m reading that the mobile versions of Minecraft now allow for cross platform play and the Nintendo Switch either already does, or will soon? I’m hoping to be able to connect iOS, Android, and eventually the Switch to the same server.

Does anyone know if I can do this at this time using my Mac?

 

[960design]

My understanding is that there is a Java version of the server. This will serve to any system that is running Java version of Minecraft.

XBox, Win10 ( which can run the java version as well ), Switch, iOS, ect run another version of the Minecraft server. Someday in the far future I can imagine them all combining, but at the moment not now.

You can certainly run a server at home ( always on ).
You can also turn on LAN on your own Java version of Minecraft and "serve up" a multiplayer game.

Points to think about: Spooling up a server, electricity costs, purchasing a static IP, administration all can become quite obnoxious. Minecraft Realms is a very inexpensive option that is very easy to maintain. You will have much less heartache when someone comes in a breaks your world, or runs everyone off by being a complete douche while you are sleeping.

 

[rusty2192]

My understanding is that there is a Java version of the server. This will serve to any system that is running Java version of Minecraft.

XBox, Win10 ( which can run the java version as well ), Switch, iOS, ect run another version of the Minecraft server. Someday in the far future I can imagine them all combining, but at the moment not now.

You can certainly run a server at home ( always on ).
You can also turn on LAN on your own Java version of Minecraft and "serve up" a multiplayer game.

Points to think about: Spooling up a server, electricity costs, purchasing a static IP, administration all can become quite obnoxious. Minecraft Realms is a very inexpensive option that is very easy to maintain. You will have much less heartache when someone comes in a breaks your world, or runs everyone off by being a complete douche while you are sleeping.

Thanks. Yeah, after doing a little more digging I had found the same. The Server for Mac works with the Java Desktop versions, but not the others at this time. I did find what appears to be alpha releases of the new Bedrock servers that do work cross-platform on mobile and console (not desktop), but those are only available for Windows and Ubuntu, and I’m not sure my kid would like it if his world was destroyed because the alpha server crashed

As for the server in general, I would keep it small to only people we know by using the whitelist. Really, it would mainly be for my son and I and maybe some of his friends. Right now he’s spoiled and has about 4 different mobile devices he plays it on and has a separate world on each, so it would be cool to have the server with one central world. With this small user base I think I would be fine with manually fixing things if the IP address changed or anything, though our ISP isn’t too bad about changing it too often.

I appreciate the help. I was thinking I had gotten just about everything you said, but couldn’t find validation anywhere. I guess popularity may have dropped a bit so there’s less new and current material out there for reference.

 

[960design]

As for the server in general, I would keep it small to only people we know by using the whitelist. Really, it would mainly be for my son and I and maybe some of his friends. Right now he’s spoiled and has about 4 different mobile devices he plays it on and has a separate world on each, so it would be cool to have the server with one central world. With this small user base I think I would be fine with manually fixing things if the IP address changed or anything, though our ISP isn’t too bad about changing it too often.

Minecraft Realms solves this issue perfectly. I had a local server running minecraft running for about a year. The poor little server was sitting all alone in the corner, barely getting used, just a whirring away. It was headless, so I didn't update the OS, I didn't update minecraft ( well, once, but it was a pain, plugging in monitor keyboard, moving everything around - I know first world issues ). All that was enough to research what Realms provides for low cost.

Heck if you want to go big, minecraft servers are $3 a month that can host dozens of players at the same time, a few more bucks and you could host 100s of people. For $36/year it is well worth it to pay someone else to keep the OS up and running and minecraft updated properly. That way you and your son can just play.