Installing modpacks
One-click packs from CurseForge and Modrinth, how much memory they need, and what players have to install.
A modpack is a ready-made collection of mods, configured to work together. Instead of installing eighty mods and hoping they get along, you install one pack.
Installing
Search in the Modpacks tab — RLCraft, All the Mods, Better MC and thousands more from CurseForge and Modrinth. Pick a pack and a version, then install.
The panel sets everything up: the right engine, the right Minecraft version, all mods and the pack's configuration. This takes longer than a plain server — a large pack is several gigabytes and can take a few minutes.
Memory
Modpacks need considerably more RAM than vanilla. 8 GB is the sensible starting point, and heavier packs want more:
| Pack size | Plan to aim for |
|---|---|
| Light (up to 50 mods) | 6–8 GB |
| Medium (50–150 mods) | 8–12 GB |
| Heavy (150–250 mods) | 12–16 GB |
| Kitchen-sink tech packs | 16 GB and up |
Running a pack on too little memory does not fail cleanly. The server starts, plays acceptably for a while, then stutters badly or dies with an out-of-memory error hours later. If that sounds familiar, memory is almost certainly the cause.
The server calculator estimates a plan from your pack size and player count.
Your players need the same pack
This is the part people forget. A modpack changes the game itself, so every player installs the same pack at the same version through the CurseForge or Modrinth launcher. Without it they cannot connect at all.
Tell people the exact pack name and version. "All the Mods 9" is not enough — 9.1 and 9.3 are different servers as far as the client is concerned.
Updating a pack
Treat it as a planned change, not a routine one:
- Take a backup
- Check the pack's notes for whether worlds carry over — often they do not between major versions
- Update the server
- Tell players to update before reconnecting
Some packs deliberately break world compatibility between versions. If yours does, you are starting a new world whether you meant to or not.
First boot takes a while
A freshly installed pack generates configuration for every mod on its first start. Several minutes of console output with no obvious progress is normal. Let it finish — killing it halfway leaves half-written configs that cause stranger problems later.
If a pack asks you to accept the Minecraft licence during the process, see Accepting the Minecraft EULA.