benilla

A from-scratch World of Warcraft 1.12.1 client in Rust and Bevy

Important

Issues are off, and pull requests are not open yet. docs/CONTRIBUTING.md says what will get in when they are. Until then, the 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, 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 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 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 or Apache 2.0, 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.