SamandClaude Fable 5.1
eadacac998
- a comment that justifies code by an engine difference is a claim with an expiry date, and the tree had ~96 expired ones across `assets/ui`, `ui_script/` and `benilla-ui` — a hygiene pass, no behaviour change: dangling `Benilla*` names with zero definitions (`BenillaMoney_*` at thirteen sites after 1937/1962 converged the coin cluster onto the stock `SmallMoneyFrameTemplate`; `BenillaGossipRow_Resize`, `BenillaErrorsFrame_AddMessage`, the digit feed 1285 deleted, `BenillaMerchantItem_OnClick` and three more), "the shipped `assets/ui/<X>.xml`" for thirty-odd files the directory no longer holds — it holds nine — each site now naming the chain file that actually loads, `UiPanels.xml` in the present tense after 1988 took the panel manager and the dialog engine stock, and expired self-deprecation: SimpleHTML "a widget kind we do not have" (1337 built it), "benilla has no console" (1948 bound `ConsoleExec`), `Model`'s "seven verbs not published yet" and "`ClearFog` is a guess" (all 23 are published, the carve sits 500 lines below, `UNBUILT` has been `[&str; 0]` since 2027), `frame_flag_gate`'s doc describing four groups of accepted mouse divergences over a `KNOWN` list that is empty (the empty array and its enforcement stay), five comments saying key delivery is not gated on `keyboard_enabled` where `script::keyboard`'s walk filters on exactly that field (1319), `SetRaidTarget` called a verb this house lacks beside an assert that its intent IS queued (1820), two questlog tests deferring to a screenshot for `GetPoint`/`IsVisible` the regions already answer, `benilla.toc`'s "trade still needs four engine verbs" (all four bound, 1966) and its ping `Model`s "this engine draws no pixels for" (2013 renders `MinimapPing.mdx` itself), and `rig_anim`'s `set_paused` naming a booth caller it does not have; and the code the prose was propping up goes with it: `GameMenuFrame.xml`'s six `<OnLoad>` label setters, because `text=` on a `<Button>` is a global-string lookup at the loader's attribute step (0995, built 61 seconds before the file was written) — the buttons carry `text="LOGOUT"`/`"EXIT_GAME"`/`"MACROS"`/`"RETURN_TO_GAME"`/`"MAIN_MENU"` as the reference's own do; `ScriptLogFrame`'s five authored close-button lines, now `inherits="UIPanelCloseButton"` off the chain's `UIPanelTemplates.xml` seated 757 lines above it (1846); and the editbox's 22-line "gap" doc claiming only the self-acquire `autoFocus` path is built and its `false` default unverified — path 1 is 1686's `visibility_focus`, and the default is `true`, byte-read off `flags = 1` at `0x779a29`/`0x779a2e`, so the test named `autofocus_does_not_focus_on_show…` is renamed for what it actually pins (2044) - the `text=` divergence never existed: `resolve_text`'s doc had claimed since 0068 that falling back to the raw attribute on a GlobalStrings miss was "one deliberate divergence" from a reference that draws the empty string, and read at the byte it is the reference's own behaviour — `FrameScript_GetText 0x703bf0` does return a pre-seeded empty string (`0x882748`) when the global is not a string, but that return never reaches a label, because all three `text=` readers image-wide test it and substitute the raw attribute: `Button::LoadXML` at `0x778c07` (`0x778c31 mov eax,esi`), `CSimpleFontString::LoadXML` at `0x771006` byte-identically, and `0x7292a6`, which pushes `edi` on the empty arm; so the loader changes nothing, the two test comments that had called `PetLevelText`'s "Level level race class" placeholder and `CLOSE` our divergence now name the reference's arm (a real 1.12 client draws them too), and what IS ours is the extra warning on a key-shaped miss (0983 → 0991), a strict addition; beside it, `GetEffectiveScale`'s root factor is 1 not because "benilla has no `uiScale` CVar" — 1804 registered one, default 0.9 — but because the dial is applied at the raster seam, `768/uiScale` UI units of virtual-screen height rather than a scale on `UIParent`, so every coordinate the VM hands Lua is already in those units and the reference's `GetCursorPosition()/GetEffectiveScale()` transcriptions convert correctly with a root of 1 (2044) 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.