SamandClaude Fable 5.1
2f7cfcabf5
- the action-bar cluster is the reference's own: `MainMenuBar.xml`, `ActionBarFrame.xml`, `MultiActionBars.xml` and `BonusActionBarFrame.xml` run off the player's own chain, and our `ActionBar.xml` (2047 lines), `MultiBars.xml` and `StanceBar.xml` are deleted — three, since the stock bonus-bar file declares the shapeshift bar too; one engine verb, `ChangeActionBarPage`, fires `ACTIONBAR_PAGE_CHANGED` and nothing else; one load blocker: stock `MultiActionBars.lua` writes the options window's table from its OnLoad, the reference's own load-order hack, so our options window moves to the reference's toc slot; and ten things the reference does that ours did not: an empty button is HIDDEN while showgrid is 0, the bonus overlay sits one pixel right of the main buttons, every slide takes one frame more than its time, and `ActionButton_ShowGrid` ghosts EVERY ring, occupied included (1938) - a gift can be wrapped: right-clicking wrapping paper fell through to plain use and sent `CMSG_USE_ITEM`, so nothing happened — you could receive a gift and never give one; the wrap is a displayed-cursor MODE plus a stashed slot, never a payload, so `CursorHasItem()` stays false and every stock gate on it stays shut: right-click arms it, a left-click on a bag slot sends `CMSG_WRAP_ITEM`, and the client applies no eligibility test — the server's `ERR_CANT_WRAP_*` reasons are the error line (1934); a duration-limited item counts down: `SMSG_ITEM_TIME_UPDATE` parks a deadline and the tooltip's `ITEM_DURATION` line runs the enchant countdown's bucket ladder, so "Duration: 1 days" is what the reference renders; an update for an item we do not hold is DROPPED, no queue (1933); and a renamed crowd-control refusal names its mechanic — "Can't do that while stunned" — off `SpellMechanic.dbc` (1943) - a creature paths on a boat: `SMSG_MONSTER_MOVE_TRANSPORT` carries the transport's guid and deck-local coordinates, and is the attach/detach edge; a deck sample lands on the rider or nowhere, never as a world write a few yards from the map origin; and "there is no terrain under a boat" turned out wrong: the ground probe admits GameObject meshes — a boat's `.wmo` is a GameObject, so the probe hits the deck (1936); `MSG_MOVE_TIME_SKIPPED` is read, not dropped — the reference adds the lag to the observed unit's last-wire stamp, so dropping it scheduled their next packet `lag` ms late, a hitch for every player who stalled zoning in near us; and our own settle hold reports once (1935); and the tradeskill tool order was backwards — focus FIRST, so every two-tool recipe had read "Blacksmith Hammer, Anvil" for the reference's "Anvil, Blacksmith Hammer"; the focus's `hasTool` is 1.0 in the reference too (1942) - the crowd's second sitting, instruments first: the probe line carries the tail — cpu p95/p99 and the six worst frames — because a mean under budget hides the one frame in twenty over it (raid legs railed at 16.67 with p95 at 18–20 ms) and whether that frame was work or a wait is the first question about a stutter, and the visible meshes are counted by lane; then two cuts — a terrain tile furnishes as 4×4 cells of 4×4 chunks, one mesh, one entity, one draw per 133-yd cell instead of per 33-yd chunk (a city horizon is over a thousand chunks a frame, and a cell changes nothing a pixel can see; Stormwind 10.55 → 10.32 `cpu_ms`), and an authored point light is our own `WorldPointLight`, not Bevy's `PointLight`, which was only a data carrier while Bevy ran its whole light lane over every lamp, ~2 % of the alone frame; the sitting's record is 1945, and the code says so (1945) 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.