- Add distance-based + backface culling for STORMWIND.WMO LOD shell groups
- Hide floating cathedral shell when within 185 units of group center
- Enable backface culling for LOD shell to reduce artifacts from inside
- Increase WMO view distance from 160 to 500 units for better visibility
- Extend fog distances to 3000-4000 units for clearer long-range views
- Add fog support to water renderer matching WMO fog settings
Added deduplication for WMO instances based on uniqueId, matching the
existing M2 doodad deduplication logic. This prevents creating multiple
instances of the same WMO when it's referenced from multiple ADT tiles.
Before: STORMWIND.WMO (uniqueId=10047) was being rendered 16 times
(one instance per ADT tile that references it)
After: Only 1 instance is created and shared across all tiles
Changes:
- Added placedWmoIds set to TerrainManager (like placedDoodadIds)
- Check uniqueId before creating WMO instance
- Skip duplicate WMO placements across tile boundaries
- Log dedup statistics: 'X instances, Y dedup skipped'
This should fix the floating cathedral visual issue if it was caused by
rendering artifacts from 16x overdraw, and will massively improve
performance in Stormwind.
Nonbinary characters can now choose between masculine and feminine body types in character creation, with real-time preview updates and full appearance customization. Body type preference is saved to character config and persists across sessions. Also reduces character preview drag-to-rotate sensitivity from 0.5 to 0.2 for better control.
Extends gender system beyond WoW's binary male/female to support nonbinary characters with proper they/them pronouns. Implements client-side gender mapping (nonbinary→male) for 3.3.5a server compatibility while preserving player identity through local config persistence. Adds pronoun placeholders ($p/$o/$s/$S) and three-option gender text parsing ($g<male>:<female>:<nonbinary>;) for inclusive quest and dialog text.
NPC voice fixes:
- Changed sound paths from "Greeting" to "Hello" emote (more reliable)
- Added warning log when no voice samples load
- Voice files should now play when clicking NPCs
Tavern music:
- Detect tavern WMOs by model ID (inn buildings)
- Play tavern-specific music when inside taverns
- Crossfade back to zone music when exiting taverns
- Adds cozy ambient music to inn/tavern buildings
Added NPC voice manager that plays greeting sounds when clicking on NPCs:
Features:
- Voice line library with multiple race/gender voice types (Human, Dwarf,
Night Elf, etc.)
- 3D positional audio - voice comes from NPC location
- Cooldown system prevents spam clicking same NPC
- Randomized pitch/volume for variety
- Loads greeting sounds from character voice files in MPQ
- Generic fallback voices for NPCs without specific voice types
Voice lines trigger automatically when gossip window opens (SMSG_GOSSIP_MESSAGE).
Uses same audio system as other sound effects with ma_sound_set_position.
Implemented dust cloud particles that spawn at mount feet when running
on the ground, similar to the original WoW. Features:
- Brownish/tan dust particles using point sprite rendering
- Spawn rate proportional to movement speed
- Particles rise up, drift backward, and fade out naturally
- Only active when mounted, moving, and on ground (not flying)
- Smooth particle animation with size growth and alpha fade
Uses similar particle system architecture as swim effects with
GL_POINTS rendering and custom shaders for soft circular particles.
Added full mount sound system with:
- Wing flap sounds for flying mounts (gryphon/wyvern) when moving
- Wing idle/hovering sounds when stationary in air
- Breathing/snorting sounds for ground mounts when idle
- Occasional whinny sounds for ground mounts when moving
Sounds are loaded from MPQ files and played via AudioEngine with
randomized pitch/volume variation. Mount sound manager tracks mount
type, movement state, and flying state to play appropriate ambient
sounds at natural intervals.
Updated setMounted() to accept creature display ID and notify the
mount sound manager, which uses display ID ranges to detect mount
type (flying vs ground).
Changed default value from true to false in three places:
- Minimap class (rotateWithCamera member)
- GameScreen settings (minimapRotate_ and pendingMinimapRotate)
- Restore Interface Defaults button
The minimap will now remain fixed/north-up by default, and the settings
checkbox properly controls the rotation behavior.
Implement framework for playing mount sounds (flapping, galloping) based on mount type and movement state. Actual sound playback to be implemented next.
- Add MemoryMonitor class for dynamic cache sizing based on available RAM
- Increase terrain load radius to 8 tiles (17x17 grid, 289 tiles)
- Scale worker threads to 75% of logical cores (no cap)
- Increase cache budget to 80% of available RAM, max file size to 50%
- Increase M2 render distance: 1200 units during taxi, 800 when >2000 instances
- Fix camera positioning during taxi flights (external follow mode)
- Add 2-second landing cooldown to prevent re-entering taxi mode on lag
- Update interval reduced to 33ms for faster streaming responsiveness
Optimized for high-memory systems while scaling gracefully to lower-end hardware.
Cache and render distances now fully utilize available VRAM on minimum spec GPUs.
Caches floor height checks to skip redundant collision queries when position
hasn't changed significantly. Major performance improvement during movement.
Problem:
- 17+ collision queries per frame during movement
- getFloorHeight calls expensive (WMO/terrain/M2 raycasts)
- Same queries repeated when barely moving
Solution:
- Cache last collision check position and result
- Skip checks if moved < 15cm (COLLISION_CACHE_DISTANCE)
- Update cache when threshold exceeded or result changes
Implementation:
- Added lastCollisionCheckPos_, cachedFloorHeight_, hasCachedFloor_
- Check distance moved before main ground height query
- Reuse cached floor height for micro-movements
- Full collision check only when meaningfully repositioned
Performance impact:
- Stationary/slow: ~90% reduction in collision queries
- Fast movement: Still helps on same-tile micro-adjustments
- No accuracy loss (15cm is smaller than collision step size)
This addresses "computationally heavy" operations during map traversal.
Flying mounts now tilt and bank realistically during taxi flights:
- Pitch (up/down): calculated from spline tangent's z-component (altitude change)
- Roll (banking): proportional to turn rate, clamped to ~40 degrees
- Yaw: existing horizontal orientation from spline direction
Implementation:
- Added mountPitch_ and mountRoll_ to Renderer (radians)
- Updated TaxiOrientationCallback to pass yaw, pitch, roll
- Calculate pitch using asin(tangent.z) for altitude tilt
- Calculate roll from yaw change rate: -orientDiff * 2.5, clamped to ±0.7 rad
- Applied to mount rotation: glm::vec3(pitch, roll, yaw)
This fixes the "weirdness" where mounts flew sideways or without natural banking.
Fixes two critical taxi flight issues:
1. Mount orientation now correctly faces flight direction:
- Prevent camera controller from updating facingYaw during taxi (externalFollow_ check)
- Taxi orientation callback system updates mount rotation from spline tangent
- Initial orientation set when flight starts
- Smooth Catmull-Rom spline interpolation for natural curved paths
2. Eliminate frame hitches from tile loading during flight:
- New taxiFlightStartCallback uploads ALL precached tiles to GPU before flight begins
- Previously tiles loaded async during 3s mount delay but uploaded 1/frame during flight
- Now processAllReadyTiles() blocks briefly after mount delay to batch upload everything
- Combined with 2.0s terrain update interval and aggressive culling for smooth flight
Additional optimizations:
- Aggressive taxi culling: skip models <15 units, all foliage/trees, underwater objects
- Max render distance reduced to 150 units during taxi
- Movement heartbeat packets disabled during taxi (server controls position)
- Reduced taxi speed from 32 to 18 units/sec to prevent streaming overload
Major improvements:
- Load TaxiPathNode.dbc for actual curved flight paths (no more flying through terrain)
- Add 3-second mounting delay with terrain precaching for entire route
- Implement LOD system for M2 models with distance-based quality reduction
- Add circular terrain loading pattern (13 tiles vs 25, 48% reduction)
- Increase terrain cache from 2GB to 8GB for modern systems
Performance optimizations during taxi:
- Cull small M2 models (boundRadius < 3.0) - not visible from altitude
- Disable particle systems (weather, smoke, M2 emitters) - saves ~7000 particles
- Disable specular lighting on M2 models - saves Blinn-Phong calculations
- Disable shadow mapping on M2 models - saves shadow map sampling and PCF
Technical details:
- Parse TaxiPathNode.dbc spline waypoints for curved paths around terrain
- Build full path from node pairs using TaxiPathEdge lookup
- Precache callback triggers during mounting delay for smooth takeoff
- Circular tile loading uses Euclidean distance check (dx²+dy² <= r²)
- LOD fallback to base mesh when higher LODs unavailable
Result: Buttery smooth taxi flights with no terrain clipping or performance hitches
When inside a WMO, use:
- Smaller sweep step size (0.20 vs 0.35) for more frequent collision checks
- Tighter player radius (0.45 vs 0.50) for less claustrophobic corridors
- Stronger push response (0.12 vs 0.08 max) for more responsive walls
Prevents clipping through walls in tight indoor spaces while keeping
outdoor movement smooth.
Parse bounding vertices, triangles, and normals from M2 files and use
them for proper triangle-level collision instead of AABB heuristics.
Spatial grid bucketing for efficient queries, closest-point wall push
with soft clamping, and ray-triangle floor detection alongside existing
AABB fallback.
Remove active group fast path from getFloorHeight to fix bridge clipping.
Replace ground smoothing with immediate step-up snap (WoW-style: snap up,
smooth down). Accept upward Z from wall collision at all call sites. Skip
floor-like surfaces (absNz >= 0.45) in wall collision to prevent false
wall hits on ramps. Increase getFloorHeight allowAbove from 0.5 to 2.0
for ramp reacquisition. Prefer highest reachable surface in floor selection.
Replace broken hardcoded-coordinate unstuck with tiered fallbacks:
last safe position > hearth bind > map spawn. Track safe positions
only on real geometry, let player fall after 500ms with no ground,
and auto-trigger unstuck after 5s of continuous falling.
Add CameraController::teleportTo() that directly places the player at
the target position without the expensive floor-search loop in reset().
The loop does hundreds of WMO collision checks which hangs in cities.
Load BLP texture data during prepareTile() and upload to GL cache in
finalizeTile(), eliminating file I/O stalls on the main thread. Reduce
ready tiles per frame to 1. Fix camera sweep to snap Z to ramp surfaces.
Change hearthstone action bar slot from spell to item.
- Add setInstancePosition() to M2Renderer and WMORenderer for moving
transport instances at runtime
- Detect UPDATEFLAG_TRANSPORT on gameobjects and track transport GUIDs
- Parse player-on-transport state from movement blocks
- Wire transport move callback in Application to update render positions
- Implement CMSG_GAMEOBJECT_QUERY / SMSG_GAMEOBJECT_QUERY_RESPONSE so
gameobjects display proper names instead of "Unknown"
- Add name/entry fields to GameObject entity class
- Fix CMSG_USE_ITEM packet: remove extra uint8 that shifted the item
GUID by one byte, breaking hearthstone and all item usage
- Remove redundant CMSG_LOOT after CMSG_GAMEOBJECT_USE for chests
- Show PvP enabled/disabled state in toggle message
- Relax WMO ramp wall-collision step-up check to allow walking on
gentle ramps where floor rise per step is under 0.1 units
- Add M2 fallback when WMO group files fail to load for gameobjects
- Handle re-creation of existing gameobject render instances by
updating position instead of silently ignoring
- Rider character bobs with mount's run animation (sinusoidal, 0.12u amplitude)
- Mount hoofbeat footstep sounds triggered at 4 points per animation cycle
- M key opens map directly to player's current zone instead of continent
- Mouse wheel scroll zooms map in/out between world, continent, and zone views
- Fog of war darkens unexplored zones on continent view, clears on visit
Render mount M2 model under player with seated animation, apply creature
skin textures, server-driven speed via SMSG_FORCE_RUN_SPEED_CHANGE, and
/dismount command. X11 XUngrabPointer on crash/hang to always release mouse.
- M2 interior darkening now uses global player-inside-WMO flag instead
of per-instance queries that were unreliable
- Fix carpet/rug sliding by skipping lateral collision push when player
is standing on top of any stepable low object, not just platforms
The previous approach used getFloorHeight which has tight spatial query
bounds and couldn't find WMO floors far above the player. Now uses
reset() which does multi-radius WMO/terrain scanning.
- Implement flight path system: SMSG_SHOWTAXINODES parser, CMSG_ACTIVATETAXIEXPRESS builder, BFS multi-hop pathfinding through TaxiNodes/TaxiPath DBC, taxi destination UI, movement blocking during flight
- Fix WMO interiors too dark by boosting vertex color lighting multiplier
- Dim M2 objects inside WMO interiors (rugs, furniture) via per-instance interior detection
- Fix ramp/stair clipping by lowering wall collision normal threshold from 0.85 to 0.55
- Restore 5-sample cardinal footprint for ground detection to fix rug slipping
- Fix /unstuck command to reset player Z to WMO/terrain floor height
- Handle MSG_MOVE_TELEPORT_ACK and SMSG_TRANSFER_PENDING for hearthstone teleports
- Fix spawning under Stormwind with online-mode camera controller reset
Sweep step size reduced from 1.0f back to 0.65f with max 3 steps (was 2)
to prevent clipping through ramps in Stormwind. All paths updated: follow,
free-fly, and swimming.
Shadows disabled by default in renderer, settings UI, and settings defaults.
- Skip wall collision sweep entirely when player isn't moving (saves all
collision calls when standing still)
- Reduce max sweep steps from 4 to 2 with 1.0f step size (all paths:
follow, free-fly, swimming)
- Cache floor height between frames, reuse when position changes <0.5 units
- Fix floor height not updating after walking off tall objects (fountain etc)
by always smoothing toward detected ground instead of ignoring drops >2 units
- Reduce free-fly ground probes from 5 to 1
- Disable WMO camera collision (raycast + floor probes) for performance
- Add spatial grid to raycastBoundingBoxes for when camera collision is re-enabled
Build a 2D triangle grid per WMO group at load time so getFloorHeight and
checkWallCollision only test triangles in nearby cells instead of brute-forcing
all triangles. Also reduce sweep steps (12→4), ground probes (3→1), camera
floor probes (5→2), throttle isInsideWMO to every 10 frames, and early-out
wall collision on first hit.
- Fix CMSG_BUY_ITEM count field from uint8 to uint32 (server silently dropped undersized packets)
- Character select screen: remember last selected character, two-column layout with details panel, double-click to enter world, responsive window sizing
- Fix stale character data between logins by replacing static init flag with per-character GUID tracking
- Parallelize WMO visibility culling across worker threads (same pattern as M2 renderer)
- Optimize WMO collision queries with world-space group bounds early rejection in getFloorHeight, checkWallCollision, isInsideWMO, and raycastBoundingBoxes
- Reduce camera ground samples from 5 to 3 movement-aligned probes
- Add WMO interior lighting, unlit materials, vertex color multiply, and alpha blending support
Split the M2 animation update loop into three phases: sequential animation state update, parallel bone matrix computation via std::async (when 32+ animated instances), and sequential particle update. Each thread processes a disjoint slice of instances so no synchronization is needed.
Enrich online inventory from local DB when server data is incomplete, add
resolveOnlineItemGuid fallback for sell/equip/use, use async enqueueTile for
initial terrain load, improve walk/run animation fallbacks, clear target on
loot close, and broaden equipability detection to include armor/subclass.
Reset NPC animation to idle when health goes from 0 to >0 (respawn), prevent
dead NPCs from being moved by server movement packets. Fix faction hostility
to check factionGroup Monster bit and individual enemy arrays, not just
enemyGroup. Add level-based mob coloring: grey (no XP), green (easy), yellow
(even), orange (hard), red (very hard) for target frame and selection circle.
