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DFD Workshop Admin edited this page Aug 30, 2026 · 1 revision

ORION Mod

A Fabric mod that adds ORION robot from the DFD Workshop to Minecraft: a small differential-drive robot with two articulated arms, tamed with iron ingots, that follows you around like a pet.

orion_real_life

ORION is not a made-up creature. He is a real robot built by the DFD Team you can explore more about it on orion_common repository, and this mod is a faithful port of that physical build into Minecraft, geometry and all.
Minecraft 1.21.5
Loader Fabric 0.16.14+
Java 21
Side Client and server (both required)

Media

ORION in action

Screenshots

Front view Side view
ORION seen from the front ORION seen from the side
The tilted screen and both arms, ported straight from the physical build. The stepped chassis, drive wheel and rear details.
Taming Spawn egg
ORION just after being tamed The ORION spawn egg in the hotbar
Hearts confirm the bond after feeding him an iron ingot. The egg icon is ORION's own screen, his screen displaying two eyes.

Hitbox

ORION's hitbox

ORION is a short robot: 0.75 × 0.75 blocks, wider than he is tall. For comparison, a wolf is 0.6 × 0.85 and a player is 0.6 × 1.8.

Features

Taming

Right-click ORION with an iron ingot. Each ingot has a 90% chance to bond him to you. Once tamed, right-clicking with an empty hand toggles between following and sitting.

Tamed ORIONs remember their owner across server restarts and chunk unloads.

Movement and animation

ORION follows his owner closely — he starts moving once you are 4 blocks away and stops within 1.5 blocks, at a speed slightly above yours so he closes the gap instead of trailing behind.

His two drive wheels spin as he moves, the arms swing with his gait, and the tilted screen stays fixed at the same 45° angle as the real robot. All animation is procedural Java, driven by his actual movement rather than a looping keyframe track.

Water is his weakness

ORION is not waterproof like in real life (it is a diy robot).

Condition Damage Interval
Touching water 2.0 HP (1 heart) every 0.5 s
Standing in rain 1.0 HP (½ heart) every 2 s

Submersion takes priority, so standing in a pond during a storm does not stack both. His pathfinder treats water as impassable, so he will route around ponds rather than walk into one while following you.

Combat

ORION is a utility robot, not a war machine. It is just companion as its original Human-Robot Interaction robot on the real life.

  • Damage: 1.0 — half a heart, the weakest meaningful hit in the game.
  • One hit, then disengage. After landing a blow he clears his target and refuses to re-acquire one for 5 seconds.
  • He never starts fights. He only retaliates when attacked, or backs you up against something you attacked first.

Installation

The mod must be installed on both the server and every client. Fabric does not sync mods automatically — a player without it will be disconnected on join.

Client

  1. Install the Fabric Loader for Minecraft 1.21.5.
  2. Drop these into your mods/ folder:
    • Fabric API (0.128.2+1.21.5 or compatible)
    • orion_robot-1.0.0.jar

Server

  1. Install Java 21 on the host.
  2. Run the Fabric Server Installer for Minecraft 1.21.5.
  3. Accept the EULA in eula.txt.
  4. Drop the same two jars into the server's mods/ folder.

No configuration files, no commands, no setup. Note that Paper and Spigot cannot run Fabric mods — the host must support Fabric specifically.

Building from source

git clone <repo-url>
cd orion_mod
./gradlew build

The distributable jar lands in build/libs/orion_robot-1.0.0.jar. Ignore the -sources.jar alongside it.

To test locally:

./gradlew runClient    # launches a dev client
./gradlew runServer    # launches a dev dedicated server

Project structure

src/
├── main/java/.../orion_robot/
│   ├── OrionRobot.java              Mod initializer, registries
│   └── entity/OrionEntity.java      AI, taming, water damage, combat
├── main/resources/
│   ├── fabric.mod.json
│   └── assets/orion_robot/          Textures, lang files, spawn egg
└── client/java/.../client/
    ├── OrionEntityModel.java        Bone hierarchy + procedural animation
    ├── OrionEntityRenderer.java
    └── OrionRobotClient.java        Client-side registration

ORION 2.0.bbmodel at the repo root is the Blockbench source for the model. The Java model in OrionEntityModel.java was hand-ported from it — re-export and re-port if the geometry changes.

The main and client source sets are split (splitEnvironmentSourceSets() in build.gradle), which makes the compiler reject client-only APIs used from common code. Keep it that way; it is what prevents dedicated-server crashes.

Known limitations

  • ORION cannot heal. There is currently no way to restore his health. Combined with water and rain damage, this means damage accumulates permanently. Repairing him with iron ingots is planned.
  • No breeding or spawning in the world, he only appears via the spawn egg.
  • Uses the vanilla drowning damage type, so the death message reads as drowning rather other behavior.
  • Arms are animated but have no distinct idle, wave, or attack poses yet. Wheels keep spinning whether the robot is moving or not.

Credits

Built by the DFD Team: David, Felipe, Danna and ORION.

ORION's physical design, and the Blockbench model derived from it, are original work.

License

MIT © 2026 DFD Workshop

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