Claude
1f094e7880
At skyQuality >= 1 the dome and cloud materials were rewritten every frame only because `fx.y` carried the sky clock, so each frame re-prepared both material bind groups. The clock now lives in `SkyClockBuffer`, a 16-byte STORAGE | COPY_DST buffer created beside the shared light buffer (AssetSet::Open) and bound read-only by both materials (sky binding 101, cloud binding 103), the same shape as the materials' shared `light_buf`. The render world writes `SkyClock::secs` into it in PrepareResources each frame. `fx.y` is now reserved (0), so `write_gated` only touches a material when a real input moves. The clock is still our own f64 accumulator with the seamless 86400 s wrap (Bevy's globals.time wraps hourly); capture mode still freezes it. A headless build with no RenderDevice gets no buffer and spawns no sky or cloud dome. Verified: cargo check -p benilla; cargo test -p benilla-world --lib (643 passed, 8 ignored); sky.wgsl (Classic and SKY_FX) and cloud.wgsl (plain and SKY_FX_CLOUDS + VERTEX_COLORS) compose and validate under naga_oil 0.20 / naga 27 offline against stubbed bevy_pbr imports and the real fog_hook, monkey_frame and sky_fx modules. No GPU or WoW data here; built on Linux only. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Y6yUWgPosSakvL23gtgvpH
benilla speaks the original 1.12.1 protocol, so it connects to any server the real client could, and reads its game data at runtime from your own 1.12.1 install. Every file format and the network protocol are implemented from scratch, with no original client code, no third-party WoW crates, and no bundled game assets.
What works
- Formats: readers for the full asset stack (MPQ patch chain, BLP, DBC, ADT/WDT/WDL, M2, WMO), wired into Bevy as an asset source.
- World: streamed terrain out to the horizon, portal-culled WMOs with interior lighting, doodads and ground clutter, swimmable liquids, sky and weather, and the client's own day/night lighting, fog and gamma passes.
- Models: GPU-skinned M2s with the full animation controller, a near feature-complete particle system, ribbons, and animated gameobjects from doors to lifts.
- Characters: customization end to end, the armor texture composite, weapons with sheathing and enchant glows, shapeshift forms, stealth and mounts.
- Movement: a WoW-feel controller, networked movement in both directions, the server-granted modes from slow fall to roots, a follow camera with collision, boats, zeppelins and taxi flights.
- Networking: SRP6 auth through world-session crypto, the object mirror into the ECS, and live wire coverage from movement and chat through spells, party, quests, mail, trade, vendors, bank, loot, the auction house, PvP honor and battlegrounds.
- UI: a from-scratch FrameXML + Lua engine that runs the client's own stock interface off
your install's patch chain, from the login and character screens through the full HUD, the
classic windows (guild, macros and key bindings included), chat, nameplates, floating combat
text and tooltips; third-party addons load from a
benilla-config/AddOns/folder beside the executable (partial: AtlasLoot and Bagnon run). - Combat: melee on the faithful swing law, ranged and Auto Shot, casting with GCD and cooldowns, combo points, crowd control that really holds you, and the spell visual pipeline.
- Audio: music, ambience and SFX under the client's own selection and crossfade rules, with interior and underwater transitions and zone reverb.
Where it's going
benilla is done when a 1.12.1 player can do everything here that they could in the original client, it looks and feels the same, and it runs from a download on Windows, Linux and macOS. No dates; the order is what is likely, not a promise.
- The long tail of small features that separates a working client from a finished one.
- Addons, options and performance, ongoing.
- Playable downloads for Windows, Linux and macOS. Linux first.
Not planned: other expansions or client versions, Warden (anticheat).
Running it
You need a 1.12.1 (build 5875) client install for game data, a vanilla server to connect to, stable Rust and a C compiler (the Lua is built from source; on macOS the Xcode command line tools, on Linux the ALSA and udev development packages). Any 1.12.1 core works; vmangos is what development runs against, and cMaNGOS and the rest speak the same protocol.
WOW_DATA=/path/to/WoW/Data cargo run --release -p benilla
The server defaults to localhost:3724, the stock realmd auth port. Point WOW_HOST
at any IP or hostname, appending the auth port if yours is remapped
(WOW_HOST=play.example.com:5000). Credentials go in at the login screen, or set WOW_USER /
WOW_PASS to skip it.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are open. docs/CONTRIBUTING.md says what gets
in and how a change is judged. Bugs, questions and ideas are welcome on the
Discord too.
Early inspiration and file format guidance came from the wowemulation-dev community, and warcraft-rs in particular.
benilla is an independent fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment.
It ships no Blizzard content — no art, models, sounds, maps, MPQ contents or FrameXML; you
provide your own legally obtained 1.12.1 client. The stock interface runs off your own install's
FrameXML at runtime; the handful of files under crates/benilla-app/assets/ui/ are our own
adapters and developer frames, not copies of it.
World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Our own code is licensed under
MIT or Apache 2.0, at your option. The two vendored components
under third_party/ — the kira audio engine, and a Lua 5.1 patched to the 1.12 client's dialect —
keep their own upstream licenses, alongside each. Code and techniques ported from other projects
(WarcraftXL, by iThorgrim) are credited file by file in THIRD-PARTY.md.