Legal Disclaimer: This is an educational/research project. It does not include any Blizzard Entertainment assets, data files, or proprietary code. World of Warcraft and all related assets are the property of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. Users are responsible for supplying their own legally obtained game data files and for ensuring compliance with all applicable laws in their jurisdiction.

Status & Direction (2026-02-18)

Compatibility: Vanilla (Classic) 1.12 + TBC 2.4.3 + WotLK 3.3.5a are all broadly supported via expansion profiles and per-expansion packet parsers (src/game/packet_parsers_classic.cpp, src/game/packet_parsers_tbc.cpp). All three expansions are roughly on par — no single one is significantly more complete than the others.
Tested against: AzerothCore, TrinityCore, and ChromieCraft.
Current focus: protocol correctness across server variants, visual accuracy (M2/WMO edge cases, equipment textures), and multi-expansion coverage.
Warden: Full module execution via Unicorn Engine CPU emulation. Decrypts (RC4→RSA→zlib), parses and relocates the PE module, executes via x86 emulation with Windows API interception. Module cache at ~/.local/share/wowee/warden_cache/.

Features

Rendering Engine

Terrain -- Multi-tile streaming with async loading, texture splatting (4 layers), frustum culling
Water -- Animated surfaces, reflections, refractions, Fresnel effect
Sky System -- WoW-accurate DBC-driven lighting with skybox authority
- Skybox -- Camera-locked celestial sphere (M2 model support, gradient fallback)
- Celestial Bodies -- Sun (lighting-driven), White Lady + Blue Child (Azeroth's two moons)
- Moon Phases -- Game time-driven deterministic phases when server time is available (fallback: local cycling for development)
- Stars -- Baked into skybox assets (procedural fallback for development/debug only)
Atmosphere -- Procedural clouds (FBM noise), lens flare with chromatic aberration, cloud/fog star occlusion
Weather -- Rain and snow particle systems (2000 particles, camera-relative)
Characters -- Skeletal animation with GPU vertex skinning (256 bones), race-aware textures
Buildings -- WMO renderer with multi-material batches, frustum culling, 160-unit distance culling
Particles -- M2 particle emitters with WotLK struct parsing, billboarded glow effects
Post-Processing -- HDR, tonemapping, shadow mapping (2048x2048)

Asset Pipeline

Extracted loose-file Data/ tree indexed by manifest.json (fast lookup + caching)
Optional overlay layers for multi-expansion asset deduplication
asset_extract + extract_assets.sh for MPQ extraction (StormLib tooling)
File formats: BLP (DXT1/3/5), ADT, M2, WMO, DBC (Spell/Item/Faction/etc.)

Gameplay Systems

Authentication -- Full SRP6a implementation with RC4 header encryption
Character System -- Creation (with nonbinary gender option), selection, 3D preview, stats panel, race/class support
Movement -- WASD movement, camera orbit, spline path following
Combat -- Auto-attack, spell casting with cooldowns, damage calculation, death handling
Targeting -- Tab-cycling, click-to-target, faction-based hostility (using Faction.dbc)
Inventory -- 23 equipment slots, 16 backpack slots, drag-drop, auto-equip
Spells -- Spellbook with class specialty tabs, drag-drop to action bar, spell icons
Action Bar -- 12 slots, drag-drop from spellbook/inventory, click-to-cast, keybindings
Trainers -- Spell trainer UI, buy spells, known/available/unavailable states
Quests -- Quest markers (! and ?) on NPCs and minimap, quest log, quest details, turn-in flow
Vendors -- Buy and sell items, gold tracking, inventory sync
Loot -- Loot window, gold looting, item pickup
Gossip -- NPC interaction, dialogue options
Chat -- Tabs/channels, emotes, chat bubbles, clickable URLs, clickable item links with tooltips
Party -- Group invites, party list
Warden -- Warden anti-cheat module execution via Unicorn Engine x86 emulation (cross-platform, no Wine)
UI -- Loading screens with progress bar, settings window, minimap with zoom/rotation/square mode

Building

Prerequisites

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libglew-dev libglm-dev \
                 libssl-dev cmake build-essential \
                 libunicorn-dev \          # for Warden module execution
                 libstorm-dev             # for asset_extract

# Fedora
sudo dnf install SDL2-devel glew-devel glm-devel \
                 openssl-devel cmake gcc-c++ \
                 unicorn-devel \          # for Warden module execution
                 StormLib-devel           # for asset_extract

# Arch
sudo pacman -S sdl2 glew glm openssl cmake base-devel \
                 unicorn \               # for Warden module execution
                 stormlib                # for asset_extract

Game Data

This project requires WoW client data that you extract from your own legally obtained install.

Wowee loads assets via an extracted loose-file tree indexed by manifest.json (it does not read MPQs at runtime).

1) Extract MPQs into `./Data/`

# WotLK 3.3.5a example
./extract_assets.sh /path/to/WoW/Data wotlk

Data/
  manifest.json
  interface/
  sound/
  world/
  expansions/

Notes:

StormLib is required to build/run the extractor (asset_extract), but the main client does not require StormLib at runtime.
extract_assets.sh supports classic, tbc, wotlk targets.

2) Point wowee at the extracted data

By default, wowee looks for ./Data/. You can override with:

export WOW_DATA_PATH=/path/to/extracted/Data

Compile & Run

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Kelsidavis/WoWee.git
cd WoWee

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

./bin/wowee

Controls

Camera & Movement

Key	Action
WASD	Move camera / character
Mouse	Look around / orbit camera
Shift	Move faster
Mouse Left Click	Target entity / interact
Tab	Cycle targets

UI & Windows

Key	Action
I	Toggle inventory
P	Toggle spellbook
L	Toggle quest log
Enter	Open chat
Escape	Close windows / deselect

Action Bar

Key	Action
1-9, 0, -, =	Use action bar slots 1-12
Drag & Drop	Spells from spellbook, items from inventory
Click	Cast spell / use item

Debug & Development

Key	Action
F1	Performance HUD
F2	Wireframe mode
F9	Toggle time progression
F10	Toggle celestial bodies (sun + moons)
F11	Toggle procedural stars (debug mode)
+/-	Change time of day
C	Toggle clouds
L	Toggle lens flare
W	Cycle weather (None/Rain/Snow)
K / J	Spawn / remove test characters
O / P	Spawn / clear WMOs

Documentation

Getting Started

Project Status -- Current code state, limitations, and near-term direction
Quick Start -- Installation and first steps
Build Instructions -- Detailed dependency, build, and run guide

Technical Documentation

Architecture -- System design and module overview
Authentication -- SRP6 auth protocol details
Server Setup -- Local server configuration
Sky System -- Celestial bodies, Azeroth astronomy, and WoW-accurate sky rendering
SRP Implementation -- Cryptographic details
Packet Framing -- Network protocol framing
Realm List -- Realm selection system
Warden Quick Reference -- Warden module execution overview and testing
Warden Implementation -- Technical details of the implementation

Technical Details

Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 Core, GLSL 330, forward rendering with post-processing
Performance: 60 FPS (vsync), ~50k triangles/frame, ~30 draw calls, <10% GPU
Platform: Linux (primary), C++20, CMake 3.15+
Dependencies: SDL2, OpenGL/GLEW, GLM, OpenSSL, ImGui, FFmpeg, Unicorn Engine (StormLib for asset extraction tooling)
Architecture: Modular design with clear separation (core, rendering, networking, game logic, asset pipeline, UI, audio)
Networking: Non-blocking TCP, SRP6a authentication, RC4 encryption, WoW 3.3.5a protocol
Asset Loading: Extracted loose-file tree + manifest.json indexing, async terrain streaming, overlay layers
Sky System: WoW-accurate DBC-driven architecture
- Skybox Authority: Stars baked into M2 sky dome models (not procedurally generated)
- Lore-Accurate Moons: White Lady (30-day cycle) + Blue Child (27-day cycle)
- Deterministic Phases: Computed from server game time when available (fallback: local time/dev cycling)
- Camera-Locked: Sky dome uses rotation-only transform (translation ignored)
- No Latitude Math: Per-zone artistic constants, not Earth-like planetary simulation
- Zone Identity: Different skyboxes per continent (Azeroth, Outland, Northrend)

License

This project's source code is licensed under the Wowee Source License (Entity-Restricted).

References

WoWDev Wiki -- File format documentation
TrinityCore -- Server reference
MaNGOS -- Server reference
StormLib -- MPQ library

Known Issues

Water Rendering

Stormwind Canal Overflow: Canal water surfaces extend spatially beyond their intended boundaries, causing water to appear in tunnels, buildings, and the park. This is due to oversized water mesh extents in the WoW data files.
- Current Workaround: Water heights are lowered by 1 unit in Stormwind (tiles 28-50, 28-52) for surfaces above 94 units, with a 20-unit exclusion zone around the moonwell (-8755.9, 1108.9, 96.1). This hides most problem water while keeping canals and the moonwell functional.
- Limitation: Some park water may still be visible. The workaround uses hardcoded coordinates and height thresholds rather than fixing the root cause.
- Proper Fix: Would require trimming water surface meshes to actual boundaries in ADT/WMO data, or implementing spatial clipping at render time.

Languages

C++ 98.8%

CMake 0.5%

Python 0.3%

Shell 0.2%

GLSL 0.2%

README.md

WoWee - World Of Warcraft Engine Experiment