
Piston Packing
Extended functionality for block creation and collection using pistons.
About this Mod
⚙️ Mechanics
Piston packing
When a piston pushes items into a fully enclosed air space, it can compress them into a single block.
The space must be sealed on all six sides with blocks that have solid sides.
If the chamber isn’t fully closed, items won’t compress.This enables hands-free item processing and storage using only in-world physics and redstone.
Piston shoveling
- The Piston Shovel can be used to break all blocks that a silk touch netherite shovel can break.
Note that only blocks that are registered under the "piston_packing:piston_shovel_breakable" block tag can be broken with a piston shovel.
- The mod itself provides no built-in recipes — all compression logic is defined entirely through data pack recipes.
🧩 Custom Recipes
Define your own packing rules using standard JSON recipe files:
Each recipe describes what items can be packed, how many are required, and what the result should be.
Here’s an example:
{
"type": "piston_packing:packing",
"category": "building",
"ingredients": [
{
"count": 4,
"ingredient": {
"item": "minecraft:sand"
}
}
],
"result": {
"item": "minecraft:sandstone"
}
}
🪓 Acknowledgment
This mod ports functionality from the legendary Better Than Wolves mod,
originally created by FlowerChild and maintained by the CE Team.
👉 Better Than Wolves Official Site
Available Versions
How to Install Piston Packing on Your Server
Order Server
Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).
Set fabric Loader
In the panel under "Egg", select the fabric loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.1).
Install Mod
Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Piston Packing". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.
Compatibility
Mod Loaders
Minecraft Versions
1.21.1
Server-side
✓ RequiredRecommended RAM
4 GB(min. 3 GB)Frequently Asked Questions
Piston Packing server crashes on startup – what to do?
Most common cause: wrong fabric version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.1). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.
Is Piston Packing compatible with fabric?
Piston Packing officially supports fabric for Minecraft 1.21.1. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.
Server lagging with Piston Packing – how to optimize performance?
Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Piston Packing consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.
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Rent Modded Server
Install Piston Packing with just one click on your server.