SamandClaude Fable 5.1
f0d1bacf0a
- the help window is the reference's own `HelpFrame.xml`, and ours was less than half its size, so this is mostly arrival: the category list, the per-category GM and harassment pages, the stuck page, the bug report, the PvP policy line; four things we had built go with the swap — one-click filing from Home, the Home unstick button, the downed-queue refusal message, and ticket abandonment, a capability loss rather than a look change, since `AbandonTicket` exists in neither the binding table nor the 1.12 FrameXML corpus and any return of it goes on top of the stock window; `GMSURVEY_DISPLAY` arrives with no producer, a real 1.12 event (`SignalEvent` `0x5e797b`) whose whole UI is a LoadOnDemand addon not on our chain; and the stock file needs two orderings ours did not, the micro-button row before its GM status ask and the buff frame before its repoll timer (1889, superseding 1687)
- the cast bar, the action-button regions and the font registry are the reference's own files too: our `CastingBar.xml` was `CastingBarFrame.xml` under another name, with the literal "Failed" where the reference reads the `FAILED` GlobalString (1886); `ActionButtonTemplate.xml` seats above our `ActionBar.xml` because the later-registered template wins, and it declares zero scripts, so the regions migrate while the handlers stay ours until `ActionButton.lua`'s verbs do (1887); `Fonts.xml` is manifest entry 0, all 51 fonts match by name, and its one real difference, `ITEM_QUALITY_COLORS`, moves to UIParent where the reference declares it (1888); the harnesses were the real cost — those reading our files off disk could not name a chain file and now read through the manifest's own rule — and the event-producer gate, having cried wolf at the cast bar's `SPELLCAST_INTERRUPTED` fired through a variable, now matches the fired tuple's shape
- of the 189 events benilla fires, three are not in the client — `BAG_UPDATE_DELAYED` (a Classic Era name), `LOOT_UPDATE` and `UPDATE_LOOT_ROLL` (invented here, no listener anywhere) — found against the reference binary's own string table, and a gate now fails any fire of a name the client cannot dispatch unless it wears a `BENILLA_` prefix (1883); two payloads the reference gives that we did not: `UNIT_HAPPINESS` carries its unit token, without which no `UNIT_*` consumer reads it, and `CHARACTER_POINTS_CHANGED` carries the point deltas `ChatFrame.lua` compares unguarded, so nil raised (1884); and `PLAYER_LEVEL_UP` carries all nine — level, health and mana gain, talent points (not on the wire: the client derives `(newLevel >= 10) ? 1 : 0` at `0x5e407c`) and the five stat gains — matched to the ding by level, a demotion's absent gains sent as zeros since a nil raises where a zero reads as no line
- the chain gap report could not run — one of its six probes had no player seated where a stock addon formats `UnitName("player")` at load, the other five each carrying an identical copy-pasted seed — and the repaired instrument prices each window's cost: 13 stock files load clean with nothing missing (the action bars, the cast bar, the fonts, the help, friends, game-menu and sound-options windows among them) and the near ones name their missing verb, with "loads clean" still not "swapped" (1885); and `UpdateNameplates`, recorded as the missing engine verb blocking the UIParent keystone, is FrameXML — defined in `UIOptionsFrame.lua`, absent from the binding table, its whole body four nameplate verbs that are already ours — so it is twelve lines transcribed into our options frame, the reference's own Show-then-Hide no-op included (1890 corrects 1878)
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.