Pistons are blocks capable of pushing or pulling adjacent blocks, depending on the direction they face. The original version of this feature was a mod posted on the Minecraft Forums by Hippoplatimus.[1] Pistons were added in version 1.7, along with Sticky Pistons.
Functionality
Pistons are slightly altered from the original mod; for example, while the original Piston Mod could gravity-affected blocks, as well as entities and mobs, vanilla Pistons do not.[2]
Pistons cannot move blocks like obsidian and bedrock to avoid abuse, and any blocks with tile entities,[3] as moving blocks are stored as tile entities on the piston.[4]
Piston functions include:
- Pushing (and pulling if sticky) at least 1 block, and at most 12.[5] Pulling will always only pull 1 block, while pushing will push between 1 and 12 blocks[6]
- Moving the player and other mobs
- The ability to toggle fluid flows like a flood gate
- Redstone triggered, so that en masse automated block is possible (e.g. piston walls and retractable bridges)
- Pistons do not launch blocks, entities or mobs, but gravity-affected block do fall to the piston if the piston contracts under it
- Pistons can be moved by other pistons, but only when the piston is not extended.
A basic demonstration on the functionality of pistons can be seen here:
Crafting
Ingredients | Input » Output | Description |
---|---|---|
Wooden Planks + Cobblestone + Iron Ingots + Redstone (Dust) |
Template:Grid/Crafting Table | Used to push blocks. Tutorial |
As a Crafting Ingredient
Ingredients | Input » Output | Description |
---|---|---|
Slimeball + Piston | Template:Grid/Crafting Table | Used to push/pull blocks. Tutorial |
Bugs
- When gravity-affected blocks are pushed over a hole in the ground and quickly pulled back again (or pushed away with another piston), a duplicate block appears in the hole.
- Pushing a rose with a Piston causes the game to crash with a "Saving Chunks..." screen, and may also corrupt your world.
Gallery
- OldPiston.png
How pistons in the mod look.
- Pistons.png
Another screenshot of official pistons.
Notch's explanation on how the rod fits into the piston box.[7]
References
- ↑ http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=247686&f=1032
- ↑ http://twitter.com/jeb_/status/55921671009353728
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZJr86d2IUo
- ↑ Attribution of the Piston Mod in vanilla Minecraft, Jeb, 2011-06-09, Reddit r/Minecraft
- ↑ http://twitter.com/#!/jeb_/status/81386768913534976
- ↑ Sticky_Piston_Mechanic.jpg on Minecraft Wiki.
- ↑ http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/83513677654929408