Private server in offline mode - any possibilities for skin support?

Hey guys,

I have a small server running, just for a few friends and myself. Now I want to ask you if there is any possiblity to let the server distribute the player-skins?
Is there a special folder where I have to save the playerskins to? ... or is this feature just not available in offline mode? ... any workaround?

Why are you running in offline mode? Doesn't make much sense, does it.

You can choose this option in the server settings. So there is sense anywhere, isn't it?

Thank you for this answer!

So, would it be possible to write a plugin which loads locally stored serialized <minecraft.net player profile> objects?

Or is this something that must be changed inside of CraftBukkit itself?

Surely you can just set online mode to true? Then your players will get get their skins and your server will be more secure...

my server is in offline mode and skins still work..

are your CLIENTS in offline mode?

Thank you all for these answers. In fact I was interested in beeing independet of the Minecraft-Servers. Some time, when there is nothing else to do, I will fight trough the server sourcecode. When I get some results, I'll let you know.

note: MY server is in offline mode because i got sick of not being able to connect when minecraft.net goes down. All my clients are in online mode with legal, paid accounts.. hell, my 2-year old daughter has an account.. (i use it for testing)

'can we go hunt creepers daddy?'

@op, this may or may not help, but i saw a plugin (or maybe it was a stand-alone mod) that stored players skins and basically made an NPC of the character after that player logged out... maybe that would have the right "hooks" or watever in it? sorry if wording is bad i have zero programming exp.

Client has no offline mode(yes I know all about modification/special launchers to fake names). Skins are handled 100% client side.
In short OP has not bought minecraft, nor have the people who play on his server. And he wants a way to have skins for them.

What? Client has offline mode, when it cannot connect to minecraft authentication. In that case you are called "Player" and so you lose your skin.

I'm running offline mode, not because I don't have a minecraft account (since I do) nor because my users don't have it, but its because I've HAD it with the damn minecraft.net downtimes, and instead of shutting down the server just to put it in offline mode every damn time I turned it off and that's that.

"Not everyone is alike, not everyone will do the same."

S'pose I'm getting even more offtopic by the minute, anyhow.... just don't like when people accuse others when they have no idea.

There's no justification for being Minecraft Piracy Police. I see it anywhere people talk about Minecraft, but it's worst on the minecraftforum.net. Notch feels he has piracy in hand. We know that because he hasn't stepped up his anti-piracy efforts. I'm not saying people aren't pirating Minecraft, just that Notch doesn't need any help from white knight idiots on a forum to stop them.

You can work for Notch, doing IMPORTANT PIRACY BUSTIN work he didn't ask for, unpaid, if you want to, but I would reconsider my priorities.

this is sort of why I made a similar post.. that said, I run my CLIENT in online mode (I assume you do as well)..otherwise you end up as 'player' with no skin.. Even when the auth servers are slammed, you can leave your client in online mode and hit retry a few times and usually get on.. the problem is that the servers don't retry as well..

OP is running BOTH in offline mode.. there is USUALLY only one reason anyone does that..

Any chance we could get a feature to have this plugin query minecraft.net every so often, then switch the server into offline mode and force people to log in only when minecraft.net is down?

When I install a texture pack,I find a .png file that contain player's skin in that texture zip file.I think we can create a file like it with Skineditor and exchange with that file.

i am also looking into this i am useing the citizens mod and it relies on useing online skins. but i want to customize them to look like guards so it's kind of a prob

No one here awnsered the original question... Is there any plugin that let's us use skins in offline mode? Like, custom skins, saved in the server folder... Or could any one make it? Reason is, I run a small server, only for friends, and It's heavily customized, and the reason I run it in offline mode is for custom usernames, as it's an RPG kind of server... It would work like this... My friends send me the skin they want, I save it on a folder in the server folder, something like that? Please, if any one knows please tell me...

bukkit contrib and another client mod on the forum i think

It is possible, just not made yet. There are some nickname plugins that will allow you to have custom usernames on online mode.

well... i run both my server and client on offline mode sometimes, i have a legit account, i have paid. but whenever i use my server it is for Lan events where no internet connection is available, and in this situation i think it is an important feature to be able to use player skins as names arent much good for distinguishing when getting into it.
now, back on topic.
i currently use the RoyalAuth plugin to handle logging in whilst having no internet connection and when i log in to my server with my client online, my skin shows up. i havent tested this fully, but i believe that due to the data stored by the plugin, i am able to use my skin when offline as the server itself authenticates me and allies its own login identity to my player. correct me if im wrong but if you were to turn your client to online and login to a server with royal auth, on any neccesary users, then turn back offline, skins will be saved?