Compact Machines Wiki

Compact Machines (mod id compactmachines) lets you build an entire base inside a single block. Every Compact Machine block contains its own room in a pocket dimension: walk in, build freely, walk out - and everything stays exactly where you left it, compressed into one placeable block.

The rooms live in the mod's own dimension, sealed behind unbreakable machine walls and kept safe from the outside world. Rooms are template-based spaces - no world scanning, no chunk abuse - so they stay lightweight even with many machines placed.

Typical uses:

• Compress a sprawling machine hall into one tidy block.
• Hide infrastructure (power, storage, farms) inside your walls.
• Carry a whole workshop between locations by picking up a single block.
• Nest rooms inside rooms - a Compact Machine works perfectly well inside another Compact Machine.

Compact Machines is a standalone content mod with no library dependencies. The original mod is by the CompactMods team - davenonymous, robotgryphon and contributors (github.com/CompactMods/CompactMachines), released under the MIT license.

Two items are all you need:

1. Craft a Compact Machine of the size you want. Each machine is built from a room template (see Room Templates & Sizes) - the template decides how big the room inside will be. If no templates are available on your world yet, an operator can enable the built-in set with one command (see below).
2. Craft the Personal Shrinking Device (PSD). This handheld device is your door into every room.
3. Place the machine block anywhere in the world. Its distinctive black-and-white casing with a green core marks the entrance.
4. Use the PSD on the placed machine - you are shrunk and teleported inside, into a sealed room made of machine walls, ready to build in.
5. Build anything inside - machines, farms, storage, even more Compact Machines.
6. Use the PSD on a room wall to step back outside, right where the machine block sits.

Every machine is created from a room template that defines the interior size of its room. The built-in template set covers the full range:

Templates are loaded per world as data. On a fresh world where no templates exist yet, an operator can enable the built-in set with:

/compactmachines enable_basic_templates

Restart note: after enabling, the game reports "Enabled basic templates, restart game to sync changes" - room templates are read when the world loads, so restart (or reconnect to) the world once for the machines and their recipes to appear. The command only shows up while no templates are loaded, so you cannot enable the pack twice.

Modpack makers can also ship their own template data for fully custom room sizes, colors and floors.

The Personal Shrinking Device (PSD) handles all movement in and out of rooms:

• Entering. Use the PSD on a placed Compact Machine block. You are shrunk down and teleported into that machine's room.
• Leaving. Inside a room, use the PSD on one of the machine walls. You step back out next to the machine block in the outside world.
• Nesting. Rooms can contain more Compact Machines - enter them the same way, and leave level by level.

Rooms are sealed: the walls are unbreakable from the inside, and out-of-bounds movement is controlled by game rules (see Commands & Game Rules), so survival players cannot escape a room except through the PSD.

Machine blocks can be dyed to keep multiple rooms apart at a glance:

• Use any vanilla dye directly on a placed Compact Machine block to tint its casing with that color.
• Both fresh (unbound) machines and machines already bound to a room can be dyed.
• Built-in templates also carry a default color of their own, so different sizes are distinguishable out of the box.

Combined with room codes, coloring makes a wall of identical machine blocks readable: dye by purpose (power, farms, storage) or by owner.

Everything administrative lives under the /compactmachines command family (operator level unless noted):

• /compactmachines tp <room> / /compactmachines tp <player> <room> - teleport yourself (or another player) straight into a room by its room code.
• /compactmachines give new <template> / /compactmachines give existing <room> - hand out a machine block: either bound to a brand-new room made from a template, or bound to an existing room by code. Both forms also accept a target player: /compactmachines give <player> new <template>.
• /compactmachines rooms summary - an overview of all registered rooms.
• /compactmachines rooms find chunk|connected_to|player ... - look up rooms by chunk position, by connected machine, or by which player is inside.
• /compactmachines unbind <pos> - detach the machine block at a position from its room (the room itself is kept).
• /compactmachines rebind <pos> <room> - bind the machine block at a position to an existing room code.
• /compactmachines eject - leave the room you are in without a PSD (escape hatch).
• /compactmachines upgrades ... - manage per-room upgrades.
• /compactmachines enable_basic_templates - enable the built-in room-template pack on a world that has none (restart afterwards; see Room Templates & Sizes).

Game rules

The mod registers its own namespaced game rules, set with the vanilla /gamerule command:

• compactmachines:allow_survival_oob (default false) - whether survival players may move out of a room's bounds.
• compactmachines:allow_creative_oob (default true) - the same for creative players.
• compactmachines:allow_spectator_oob (default true) - the same for spectators.
• compactmachines:damage_oob (default true) - damage players who end up out of bounds.
• compactmachines:damage_psd_on_exit (default false) - consume PSD durability when leaving a room.

Example: /gamerule compactmachines:allow_survival_oob true

Rooms are fully persistent:

• Everything built inside a room is saved with the world. Leave, save, quit, restart - re-enter and every block, item and machine is still exactly where you left it.
• Rooms survive their machine block. Breaking a bound machine block does not delete the room - the block keeps its binding, and admins can re-attach blocks to rooms at any time with unbind/rebind.
• Each room has a stable room code, the mod's address for that room in every command (tp, give existing, rebind).
• Rooms work identically in multiplayer: they are stored server-side, multiple players can be inside rooms at once, and the rooms find player lookup shows who is where.

Do I need any other mods? No - Compact Machines is standalone with no library dependencies.

How do I get in and out? Use the Personal Shrinking Device on a placed machine to enter, and on a room wall to leave. Stuck without one? An operator can /compactmachines eject you.

Why can't I craft any machines? Your world probably has no room templates loaded yet. An operator runs /compactmachines enable_basic_templates, then restart the world - the machine recipes appear once the templates are loaded.

Can I put a Compact Machine inside a Compact Machine? Yes - rooms nest without limit in practice.

What happens to the room if I break the machine block? Nothing is lost. The room stays saved with the world; place the block again (it keeps its binding) or bind any machine block to the room code with /compactmachines rebind.

Can players escape a room without the device? Not in survival by default - out-of-bounds movement is blocked by the compactmachines:allow_survival_oob game rule (off by default), and compactmachines:damage_oob punishes anyone who glitches out.

How do I tell my machines apart? Dye the blocks with any vanilla dye, and note each room's room code - /compactmachines rooms summary lists them all.

Is it multiplayer-safe? Yes. Rooms are stored server-side with per-room codes, and the command family gives admins full control - teleporting, handing out bound machines, and finding which player is in which room.