SamandClaude Fable 5.1
c34ea85c1b
- the character sheet is the reference's own — `CharacterFrame.xml`, `PaperDollFrame.xml` and `PetPaperDollFrame.xml` off the player's chain in the reference's own order, 2800 lines of ours deleted — and the one engine verb it needed had no pixels: a bare `<PlayerModel name="CharacterModelFrame">` drew nothing here, so the swap as written would have replaced a working paper doll with an empty rectangle, invisible to every loader and gap check; a `<Model>`/`<PlayerModel>` widget now draws its window's booth, keyed on the reference's own frame names, and the booth mirrors take their yaw off `PlayerModel:SetRotation`'s own state, which is what the reference's `Model_Rotate*` write - what the stock file calls that was not there: `MicroButtonTooltipText(text, action)` (all five tab hovers), the two scripts `CharacterFrameTabButtonTemplate` carries — without them the five tabs are DEAD, since the reference's `PaperDollFrame` is `enableMouse` with a hit inset the tabs sit inside — `GetGuildInfo` on a recognised-but-unresolvable token answering `(nil, nil, 0)` rather than raising (`0x4c9330`), and `UnitAttackBothHands` pushing four values not two (`0x518810` calls the hand accessor twice; the reference's own Lua destructures two and says `FIXME` about the off hand, so no amount of running the sheet could expose it) — both skill verbs clamp a debuff deeper than the skill to zero as `0x5188a7` and `0x519298` do - a gate for the question that bites AFTER a swap: for every chain window, census the bare `name(` call sites across it and its `.lua`, subtract what those define, keep what the reference's own `_G` carries, and require every survivor non-nil in a VM with the whole interface up — `LootFrame.xml` had shipped load-clean and raised at line 85, and the stock character sheet would have raised on the first tab hover; the stock sheet is driven end to end over a level-60 body with a +105 buff, a −12 debuff and a resistance school whose debuff outweighs its buff, at the rendered strings 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.