SamandClaude Fable 5.1
2ec92beeed
- the chat window is the reference's own `ChatFrame.xml` and `FloatingChatFrame.xml`, run off the player's chain; our 2216-line transcription is deleted, the feed fires `CHAT_MSG_*` and the reference's `ChatFrame_OnEvent` prints — no app-side composition into the windows, no routing table, no whisper chime or flash of ours, and the transcribed edit-box machine (sticky type, tell ring, Tab cycle) retires with it; the verbs the two files call are built to the bytes — the whole `0x98` chat-window record and its eight verbs, the 94-entry chat-type colour registry, the language walk, the channel verbs as a command queue, the slash handlers' emote/roll/assist/uninvite/console/logging verbs; `chat-cache.txt` is written and read in the reference's whole grammar, the 68-entry message-group table in flag order and the no-file boot included, and the chat bindings and macro lines run through the reference's own arms (1948) - the spellbook is the reference's own `SpellBookFrame.xml`; our 965-line transcription is deleted, and two quirks it reproduced by hand (the pet page ignores its page number, its arrows write the spell book's counter) now come from the reference's lines; one adapter remains because the reference's autocast shine is a `<Model>` that draws no pixels in this engine — the script puts the token-texture shine beside each button's model and carries it with the model's shown state; the nine spell-slot bindings (`GetSpellName`, `CastSpell`, `PickupSpell` and their kin) now parse their arguments the way the reference's shared marshaller `0x4b3ec0` does — a numeric arg 1, a mandatory arg 2, the index gated to [0, 0x400) with "Invalid spell slot in <Verb>" on a miss, "pet" matched without case — where ours raised mlua's own message on a negative id, answered nil for 0 and above 1024, and read the wrong book for "PET" (1952) - a long-hidden world model part parks its `Mesh3d`: the entity path keeps the batches the retained pass declines resident — 5.3k hidden submeshes at any instant at the Stormwind auction house — and Bevy's sweeps walk every `Mesh3d` whether it draws or not, so a part parks after 30 consecutive hidden frames and unparks the frame its verdict turns visible; every world model part takes part, units' bodies included, while a booth's mirror parts stay out; interleaved pairs read an alone Stormwind 0.1–0.4 ms lighter, and `WOW_NO_MESH_PARK=1` is the A/B; the audio thread's realtime class was the standing suspect for the raid's `cpu_p99` spikes with sound on, and `WOW_AUDIO_NO_RT=1` across two interleaved Blackrock pairs read no difference, so the lever stays as an instrument (1949); and a no-merge prop batch now says which rule declined it — animated (1551 at the auction house) or transparent, not order-free (340) (1951) - the probe reads CPU per thread across its window (user and system split, because a user-mode sampler never sees kernel time) and the main thread's CPU inside the app's frame beside its whole-frame CPU; together they place the vsync tax every player pays by default — cpu_ms 10.7 uncapped against 12.5 under vsync, alone in Stormwind, with no system growing and no thread spinning: it lands on the main thread, in user time, inside the schedules, the same systems each running slower, and a low-priority spinner holding one core busy erases it to the last decimal (vsync + spinner 10.18 against uncapped 10.17), which is frequency scaling — under vsync the cores idle deeper between frames and the next burst starts at a lower clock; nothing in the client is the cause and nothing in the client changes for it (1950) Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Important
Issues and pull requests are closed here. benilla is a solo project developed in a private tree; this repo is its export, published as squashed snapshots, so a PR here has nothing to land on. The best way to contribute is to join the Discord and report the bugs you find. Questions and ideas are welcome in the same place.
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 and PvP honor.
- UI: a from-scratch FrameXML + Lua engine driving the built-in interface, 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, see below). - 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.
- Battlegrounds and meeting stones, then the long tail of small features that separates a working client from a finished one.
- Addons, options and performance, ongoing.
- The no-brainer fixes from VanillaFixes, SuperWoW and the like.
- 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, and stable Rust. 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.
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 interface code under
crates/benilla-app/assets/ui/ is ours, written to the client's own layout and API names so that
the windows look right and 1.12.1 addons find the names they expect.
World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Our own code is licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0, at your option.