- the texture filter is the reference's policy — two globals, one process-wide mode, no per-texture override — registered as real CVars every sampler reads: the hardcoded trilinear + aniso 8 at five sampler sites had been read off an apitrace of an install whose `Config.wtf` set `anisotropic "16"`, a configured value taken for a default; and `trilinear` ships ON, because the registrar's `"0"` is not what a fresh install renders at — first-launch hardware detection overwrites sixteen video CVars from its hardware table, both rows a real GPU can reach set trilinear, and the reference's own `gx.log` on this machine names that row — while `anisotropic` is not among the sixteen, so anisotropy stays off - the MSAA device clamp ran before the config was read, so a saved `gxMultisample = 8` carried from a machine that offers it still killed the render thread on one that stops at 4; the ceiling is now a property of the write itself, covering the config file, `SetCVar`, the dropdown and any writer added later — and an empty device list is no opinion, so headless runs pass through - one line, one rounding: at a fractional display scale the per-glyph snap's f32 round-trip moved half-pixel ties by an ulp, so caps and ascenders rounded up while x-height letters stayed — the letters left the baseline, the thing the reporter photographed; the line's two anchors now round once and each glyph adds integer device-pixel offsets, so a line cannot be anything but flat at any scale, proven over 15,680 layouts — and `$WOW_DPI`'s size guard, which compared a physical request against the logical size and refused every non-1x run, now reads the unit it is denominated in - a test that panics while holding `ENV_LOCK` no longer poisons the tests behind it — one missing knob resource had reported as twelve red tests, eleven naming the mutex and none naming the bug; there is nothing for the poison to protect, since the guard's `Drop` restores the environment during the panicking test's own unwind Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <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 — 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.
Not built yet
Battlegrounds. Third-party addons are partial: AtlasLoot and Bagnon run, and the addon API fills in as other addons are tried.
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.