- the tooltip is the reference's own file: `GameTooltip.xml` loads off the chain, ours is deleted, and every verb it calls was already bound, so this is a plain swap; retired with it: the `$parentThicken` plate fill that thickened the plate from the art's ~73% to ~84% opacity — the reference's plate is the raw `UI-Tooltip-Background` tint, and that is what ships; the one engine fact the transcription had been hiding: the reference's instance declares no size, and a frame with one anchor and no size resolves to NO rect under the reference's own layout law — our declared size had been a harness crutch (1968); and the dressing room goes stock with `<DressUpModel>` as a widget kind (factory `0x495c00`): a `PlayerModel` plus its own `Undress`/`Dress`/`TryOn`, where `Undress` strips the body and not the hands, and Close is read off the window since the stock OnHide queues nothing (1969) - the mail window and the auction house are the reference's own: `MailFrame.xml` loads off the chain and brings the stationery picker, invoice pane and autocomplete ours had left out; the stationery family is built off wow-re's carve over a list computed off `Stationery.dbc` rows × the player's bags (`0x622270`, not the bank); the selection rides `CMSG_SEND_MAIL` field 6 and a send with none silently aborts; its two events fire where the client fires them (1970); `Blizzard_AuctionUI` loads on demand from the `AUCTION_HOUSE_SHOW` arm, and three root fixes its Lua surfaced: `GetAuctionItemClasses()` is static — read at the addon's load, before any session, so the class tree is a login-scoped push; `SetAuctionCompareItem` (`0x535d70`) on the vendor compare's one body; `NEW_AUCTION_UPDATE` resets the create form; its dressing-room pane shares the app's one room (1971) - the battleground keeps score: `WorldStateFrame.xml` loads off the chain and ours is deleted; the stock file is three things where ours was one: the readout, the capture bars, and the battleground scoreboard this client never had, built off wow-re's round — `MSG_PVP_LOG_DATA` both ways (throttled to 5000 ms client-side, `0x4aa170`) and `CMSG_LEAVE_BATTLEFIELD`; eleven score verbs over a board the app pushes, where the filter is a SORT, not a compaction — team first, killing blows descending, deaths ascending, honor descending, name — so the filtered count shrinks while `GetBattlefieldScore` still reaches every wire row; `HIDE_OUTDOOR_WORLD_STATE` joins the options uvar block, a capture point is a bar, and the scoreboard and battlefield-minimap toggles become bound specs at the install's own `SHIFT-SPACE`/`SHIFT-M` (1972) - the trade skill and craft windows go stock as `Blizzard_TradeSkillUI`/`Blizzard_CraftUI` on demand, from the reference's own UIParent arms; our two transcriptions are deleted; the four item-link verbs are built off wow-re's carve on the client's link builder (`0x52adb0`) — zero values on any miss, `GetTradeSkillReagentItemLink` raising Blizzard's own typo'd Usage, kept, and `GetCraftItemLink` the `|Henchant:` link in fixed white; `SetTextColor`'s channels coerce nil to 0 on FontString, Font and Button where ours had raised (1973); and the Inspect, Talent, Macro and Raid addons load on demand — `benilla.toc` lists no `Interface\AddOns` row, and below level 10 the talent addon is never even loaded; the gates walk every reached addon and found `Blizzard_GMSurveyUI`'s four engine verbs nothing answers, reachable only through `GMSURVEY_DISPLAY`, which nothing fires (1889; 1967) 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.