benilla-octo/README.md

# benilla — Everwood graphics

A graphics fork of [**benilla**](https://github.com/samwhosung/benilla), the from-scratch World of Warcraft
1.12.1 client in Rust and Bevy by samwhosung. This repository adds an optional modern look on top of it.
Every feature has its own switch under **Options → Advanced Graphics**, and the **Classic** preset keeps
the original 1.12 image.

**This repository is maintained and will stay open source. Contributions are welcome:** open an issue or a
pull request.

## Graphics features

**Lighting and shadows**
- Realtime sun shadows for characters and the world, including foliage; moon shadows at night
- Dynamic building interiors lit by their own fixtures
- Torches, braziers and lamps emit flickering light and cast cube-map shadows; terrain blocks torch light
- Daylight through doors and windows (including Stormwind's rooms and cathedral windows)
- Spell and ground-effect lights, lava glow
- Screen-space ambient occlusion (soft contact shadows)

**Sky**
- Smooth sky gradient with dithering, soft sun glow
- Procedural star field with a Milky Way
- Sun-lit, detailed clouds
- Zone skyboxes (Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, Mount Hyjal) and the 1.12 `LightSkybox` clear-weather slot

**Fog and atmosphere**
- Modern fog model: the world fades into the horizon, sun-coloured toward the sun
- Volumetric fog with sun and moon light shafts
- Lamps glowing through fog at night
- Screen-space sun shafts
- Render distance up to 1497 yards

**Post-processing**
- HDR bloom for fire, lava, spells and lit windows
- Per-zone colour grading (day/night LUTs)

**Water**
- Enhanced water: refraction, caustics, depth colour, screen-space reflections
- Enhanced city and building water (Stormwind canals)
- Gerstner waves with whitecaps, finer mesh up close

**Weather and nature**
- Rain: wet ground, puddles, glossy stone, rings on water, shelter under roofs and bridges
- Wind: grass and tree sway with gusts, grass parts around characters

**Settings**
- One Graphics Preset: Classic / Low / Medium / High / Ultra / Custom (default High)
- Every feature individually switchable on the Advanced Graphics page

Details: [`LIGHTING.md`](LIGHTING.md), [`WATER.md`](WATER.md). Third-party credits, including code ported
from [WarcraftXL](https://github.com/WarcraftXL) by iThorgrim: [`THIRD-PARTY.md`](THIRD-PARTY.md).
Licence: same as upstream benilla, MIT OR Apache-2.0.

---

*The upstream benilla README follows.*

<div align="center">
  <h1>benilla</h1>
  <p><b>A from-scratch World of Warcraft 1.12.1 client in Rust and <a href="https://bevy.org">Bevy</a></b></p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://discord.gg/wJSJx467G4"><img src="https://img.shields.io/discord/1529280129518538922?style=for-the-badge&logo=discord&logoColor=white&label=discord&color=5865F2" alt="Discord"></a>
    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdCnpZNKxyb8"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/devlog-youtube-FF0000?style=for-the-badge&logo=youtube&logoColor=white" alt="YouTube devlog"></a>
    <a href="LICENSE-MIT"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT%20%2F%20Apache--2.0-blue?style=for-the-badge" alt="License"></a>
  </p>
</div>

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](https://github.com/vmangos/core) is what development runs against, and cMaNGOS and
the rest speak the same protocol.

```sh
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.

Optional, locally built skybox and colour-grading data: [`Optional/sky-and-grading/`](Optional/sky-and-grading/README.md).

## Contributing

Issues and pull requests are open. [`docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`](docs/CONTRIBUTING.md) says what gets
in and how a change is judged. Bugs, questions and ideas are welcome on the
[Discord](https://discord.gg/wJSJx467G4) too.

---

Early inspiration and file format guidance came from the
[wowemulation-dev](https://github.com/wowemulation-dev) community, and
[warcraft-rs](https://github.com/wowemulation-dev/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](LICENSE-MIT) or [Apache 2.0](LICENSE-APACHE), 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`](THIRD-PARTY.md).