SamandClaude Fable 5.1
404708859a
- every dialog is the reference's own: `StaticPopup.xml` + `StaticPopup.lua` load off the player's chain, and 0308's engine with its 37 dialogs leaves `UiPanels.xml`; all 76 of the reference's dialogs are the stock table's, 28 of which no file of ours had ever registered (the resurrect family among them); the nine hidden listener frames that existed only because benilla once had no `UIParent_OnEvent` come home to it verbatim from UIParent.lua, and the seven files that were nothing but a dialog and its driver are deleted; what the swap surfaced: the reference capitalises the countdown's unit word ("5 Minutes until release") where ours had lowercased it, and ESC in the typed delete confirm's box is swallowed — the entry names no escape handler; arms for events this engine never fires (PLAYER_SKINNED, TRADE_REQUEST) wait on their feeds rather than being armed blind (1960)
- the social window and the unit menus are the reference's own files: `FriendsFrame.xml` loads off the chain and our transcription is deleted — its twelve dialogs re-homed, `FRIENDLIST_SHOW` fired as the answer to an explicit `ShowFriends()`, and `Get`/`SetLookingForGroup` a client-side flag until their bodies are carved; `UnitPopup.xml` loads off the chain, our row catalogue and its driver frame go, and nine verbs are built for it — `HasFullControl` off the player-control flag the reference reads at `0x51a158`, `UnitPlayerOrPetInParty`/`InRaid` over a new unit owner, and the six pet one-shots, each pressing the bar's own reaction or command slot word through the same latch and `CMSG_PET_ACTION`, confirmed by wow-re's carve; the Guild Leave/Promote confirms 1958 believed nothing registered were our social file's all along, and the duplicate went with it (1958, 1959)
- the trainer loads on demand: our `TrainerFrame.xml` is deleted and no row replaces it — `Blizzard_TrainerUI` loads off the player's own chain through the reference's `ClassTrainerFrame_LoadUI`, and the LoadOnDemand `Blizzard_*` addons are registry rows read off the chain; the timing IS the mechanism: the list builder writes the state-filter mask to 3 on every `SMSG_TRAINER_LIST` (`0x4d75d9`) and the stock addon pushes its saved filters exactly once, on its own ADDON_LOADED — which fires on the session's first trainer, after that packet, so the saved filters win that open and an eager load would never have applied them; the loader holds an anchor to a sibling not built yet and applies it once the subtree exists; and `UNIT_FLAGS` fires only on a change between two snapshots — wow-re's trio found the per-field watch bridge runs no notify pass on the create leg, correcting 1953 (1957)
- the additive window, built and withdrawn the same hour: under `BLEND_ADD` every additive particle draw commutes with every other, so same-key additive draws can be regrouped exactly — built in the effect lane's merge walk and measured on the crowd rig (Stormwind, forty partybots): the adjacency merge already folds about half the effect items and the regroup found two more folds in a frame of ninety-three, so the pre-regroup walk is what runs; what stays: an `fx=` items/merged census on the FPS probe line, a `DRESS_PART` line per drawn part of the self body on the dress census, and the regression the A/B uncovered: 1948's stock chat migration dropped the drain's plain-line sender, so every `WOW_PROBE_CHAT` rig — the crowd rig's forty `.partybot add`s among them — had gone silent on the server; a probe's slash-less line reaches the wire as SAY again (1955)
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.