How to install and play OWCraft (Minecraft in Outer Wilds)

OWCraft puts real Minecraft on the planets of Outer Wilds. This guide follows v0.1.1 from Yaekai/OWCraft. New to mods? Read Start here first.

1. What you need

• Windows and Outer Wilds on Steam. The project doesn’t name a specific game version.
• Outer Wilds Mod Manager (OWML). Start Outer Wilds from it once before installing.
• Minecraft: Java Edition 26.3 with Fabric Loader 0.19.5+ and Fabric API for 26.3.
• From the release: Yaekai.OWCraft-0.1.1.zip and skycraft-0.1.2+owcraft.5.jar.

2. Install

1. Unzip Yaekai.OWCraft-0.1.1.zip into %AppData%\OuterWildsModManager\OWML\Mods\, so you end up with Mods\Yaekai.OWCraft.
2. Put skycraft-0.1.2+owcraft.5.jar and Fabric API into your .minecraft\mods folder. If an older +owcraft.1 jar is there, remove it.

3. Play

1. Start Minecraft with your Fabric profile in the normal launcher.
2. Start Outer Wilds from the Mod Manager.
3. Minecraft opens a void world and waits. Fly to a planet, stand on the ground and press F6.

Press F6 again to get back into your spacesuit. Whatever you built stays on the planet.

4. Controls

You can change the toggle and menu keys, the FPS cap (default 60), walk speed (default 6.0) and verbose logging in the Mod Manager’s settings for OWCraft.

5. Known limits

• Translucent blocks are drawn opaque.
• The Outer Wilds player doesn’t collide with placed blocks.
• There’s no day/night sync, and no Nether or other dimensions.
• Mobs only appear within about 40 blocks.
• Giant’s Deep islands aren’t solid while you fly over them.

It has been tested on one Windows PC so far. If something breaks, open an issue with your OWML log and Minecraft’s logs/latest.log.

6. Uninstall

The project doesn’t document this. Removing the Mods\Yaekai.OWCraft folder and the jar from .minecraft\mods takes out both halves.

No Outer Wilds? Play the tribute

The Voxel Portal Sandbox is a clean-room block-building tribute you can play in your browser.