Sam SungandClaude Opus 5.5
db3be64158
With realms in more than one category, the realm list shows the stock category tabs, so every realm can be reached. Before, it listed only the first category's realms and had no way to the rest. - **The Region** is `Wow.ini`'s `[WoW Config] Region`, read through the archive chain as `0x40249d` loads it (the stock install ships it in `interface.MPQ`), with the section and key compared case-insensitively (`0x445356`, `0x4453cb`) and the value parsed as `0x445470` does. It is 0 when the file or the key is missing. - **The categories** are the `Cfg_Categories.dbc` rows whose Region column equals it, in file order (`0x46e300`): id from column 0, name from the row. - **Placement** (`0x46e510`): a realm's category byte 0 takes the first category's id (`0x46e5b8`), then joins every category with that id (`0x46e60b`). A byte matching no category puts the realm on no tab, as in 1.12.1. Tab ordinals count the non-empty categories only (`0x46edf0`), and the load-band statistics still run over every realm. - **The tabs** are built from `RealmList.xml`: hidden for one category, `RealmListTab1`..`N` with the category names for two to eight, the front one raised and disabled. A click fronts the tab and re-lists (`RealmListTab_OnClick`), the highlight falls back to the current realm or none, and the scroll clamps to the new tab. Change Realm and `OnShow` keep the stored category (`0x46f188`, `0x46f400`). - **No Region rows**: every realm lists on one untabbed page. The reference reads a NULL category there (`0x46f26a`, `0x46e5b8`), and benilla does not copy the fault. - **Logging in** by name, the remembered or current realm, still searches every realm, as the reference resolves by name. - A dev capture, `WOW_CAPTURE=glue-realmlist`, shows two tabs over five invented realms. Checked: tests for the Region read, the category rows for a US and an EU Region from the install's DBC, placement (byte 0 folded, an unmatched byte on no tab), the strip hidden for one category and named for two, a tab click through the real click path, the highlight and scroll on a switch, the stored category across Change Realm, the statistics over every realm, and the no-rows fallback. Each fails with its piece undone. Gates and the smoke run green on macOS; no platform seam touched. Fixes #362 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
benilla plays the whole game: character creation, questing and professions, dungeons and raids, battlegrounds and honor, groups, guilds, trade, mail and the auction house, on the stock 1.12 interface and with your addons. It connects to a 1.12.1 server over the original protocol and reads the game's data from your own 1.12.1 install. Every file format, the network protocol and the interface engine are written from scratch, with no original client code, no third-party WoW crates and no bundled game assets.
What's inside
- Formats: readers for the whole asset stack (the MPQ patch chain, BLP, DBC, ADT, WDT, WDL, M2 and WMO), wired into Bevy as an asset source.
- World: terrain streamed out to the horizon, portal-culled buildings with interior lighting, doodads and ground clutter, swimmable water, sky and weather, and the client's own day/night lighting, fog and gamma.
- Models: GPU-skinned M2s with the full animation controller, particles, ribbons and the spell visuals, and characters end to end: customization, the armor composite, weapons with their enchant glows, forms, stealth and mounts.
- Movement: 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 and the object mirror into the ECS, covering the game from movement and chat through combat, spells, groups and raids, quests, trade, mail, the auction house and battlegrounds.
- Interface: a FrameXML and Lua engine that runs the stock 1.12 interface off your install's patch chain, and third-party 1.12 addons: Questie, pfUI, Bagnon, Bartender2 and most others run. By choice, the options window and the ESC menu follow the Classic Era client's rather than 1.12's.
- Audio: music, ambience and effects under the client's own selection and crossfade rules, with interior and underwater transitions and zone reverb.
The format readers and the UI engine core are plain Rust with no Bevy in them, and the world
renderer runs with no game attached. docs/MAP.md maps every crate and subsystem,
generated from the code.
Status
Complete and fully playable. What is left:
- The long tail of small features that separates a working client from a finished one, tracked as issues.
- Addons, options and performance, ongoing.
benilla is a faithful 1.12.1 client and the foundation people build on. There are no prebuilt downloads: a packaged build, a particular server's changes or anything 1.12.1 never had belongs in a fork, and forks are welcome. GitHub lists every public fork.
Not planned: other expansions or client versions, Warden (anticheat).
Running it
benilla builds and runs on macOS, Linux and Windows. You need:
- An English 1.12.1 client (build 5875) for the game data. benilla only reads it.
- A 1.12.1 server with Warden off. vmangos is what development runs against, and it ships with Warden off; cMaNGOS and the other 1.12.1 cores speak the same protocol.
- Stable Rust and a C compiler, because the client's Lua is built from source: on macOS the Xcode command line tools, on Linux the ALSA and udev development packages and pkg-config, on Windows the MSVC build tools that the Rust installer sets up.
WOW_DATA=/path/to/WoW/Data cargo run --release -p benilla
On Windows, in PowerShell:
$env:WOW_DATA="C:\path\to\WoW\Data"; cargo run --release -p benilla
WOW_DATA names the install's Data folder; a link to the install named WoW at the repo root
does the same (ln -s /path/to/WoW WoW, or on Windows a junction, which needs no admin rights:
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path WoW -Target C:\path\to\WoW). The server defaults to
localhost:3724, the stock auth port. Point WOW_HOST at another (WOW_HOST=play.example.com, or
play.example.com:5000 for a remapped port), or set it from the Realmlist button on the login
screen, which remembers it. Credentials go in at the login screen, or set WOW_USER and WOW_PASS
to skip it.
Settings, screenshots and addons live in benilla-config/ at the repo root: a 1.12 addon goes in
benilla-config/AddOns/. docs/CONTRIBUTING.md has the rest, from the
player build to the tests.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are open. docs/CONTRIBUTING.md says where to
start, what gets in, how a change is judged and what happens to a pull request once it is open.
Bugs, questions and ideas are welcome on the Discord too.
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, and the stock interface runs off its FrameXML at
runtime. The few files under crates/benilla-app/assets/ui/ are our own, not copies of it:
adapters over stock files, and the settings windows and script error log benilla draws itself.
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.