Kelsidavis-WoWee/BUILD_INSTRUCTIONS.md

WoWee Build Instructions

This document provides platform-specific build instructions for WoWee.

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🐧 Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)

Install Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  build-essential cmake pkg-config git \
  libsdl2-dev libglew-dev libglm-dev \
  libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
  libvulkan-dev vulkan-tools glslc \
  libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev \
  libunicorn-dev libstorm-dev libx11-dev

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🐧 Linux (Arch)

Install Dependencies

sudo pacman -S --needed \
  base-devel cmake pkgconf git \
  sdl2 glew glm openssl zlib \
  vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-tools shaderc \
  ffmpeg unicorn stormlib

Note: vulkan-headers provides the vulkan/vulkan.h development headers required at build time. vulkan-devel is a group that includes these on some distros but is not available by name on Arch — install vulkan-headers and vulkan-icd-loader explicitly.

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🐧 Linux (All Distros)

Clone Repository

Always clone with submodules:

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

If you already cloned without submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Build

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j"$(nproc)"

Asset Extraction (Linux)

After building, extract assets from your WoW client:

./extract_assets.sh /path/to/WoW/Data wotlk

Supports classic, tbc, wotlk targets (auto-detected if omitted).

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🍎 macOS

Install Dependencies

Vulkan on macOS is provided via MoltenVK (a Vulkan-to-Metal translation layer), which is included in the vulkan-loader Homebrew package.

brew install cmake pkg-config sdl2 glew glm openssl@3 zlib ffmpeg unicorn \
  stormlib vulkan-loader vulkan-headers shaderc

Optional (for creating redistributable .app bundles):

brew install dylibbundler

Clone & Build

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

BREW=$(brew --prefix)
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$BREW/lib/pkgconfig:$(brew --prefix ffmpeg)/lib/pkgconfig:$(brew --prefix openssl@3)/lib/pkgconfig:$(brew --prefix vulkan-loader)/lib/pkgconfig:$(brew --prefix shaderc)/lib/pkgconfig"
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$BREW" \
  -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR="$(brew --prefix openssl@3)"
cmake --build build -j"$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)"

Asset Extraction (macOS)

The script will auto-build asset_extract if needed (requires stormlib). It automatically detects Homebrew and passes the correct paths to CMake.

./extract_assets.sh /path/to/WoW/Data wotlk

Supports classic, tbc, wotlk targets (auto-detected if omitted).

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🪟 Windows (MSYS2 — Recommended)

MSYS2 provides all dependencies as pre-built packages.

Install MSYS2

Download and install from https://www.msys2.org/, then open a MINGW64 shell.

Install Dependencies

pacman -S --needed \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-ninja \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-glew \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-glm \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-openssl \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-ffmpeg \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-unicorn \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-vulkan-loader \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-vulkan-headers \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-shaderc \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-stormlib \
  git

Clone & Build

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Kelsidavis/WoWee.git
cd WoWee
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel $(nproc)

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🪟 Windows (Visual Studio 2022)

For users who prefer Visual Studio over MSYS2.

Install

• Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++ workload
• CMake tools for Windows (included in VS workload)
• LunarG Vulkan SDK (provides Vulkan headers, loader, and glslc)

vcpkg Dependencies

vcpkg install sdl2 glew glm openssl zlib ffmpeg stormlib --triplet x64-windows

Clone

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

Build

Open the folder in Visual Studio (it will detect CMake automatically) or build from Developer PowerShell:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="[vcpkg root]/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
cmake --build build --config Release

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🪟 Asset Extraction (Windows)

After building (via either MSYS2 or Visual Studio), extract assets from your WoW client:

.\extract_assets.ps1 "C:\Games\WoW-3.3.5a\Data"

Or double-click extract_assets.bat and provide the path when prompted. You can also specify an expansion: .\extract_assets.ps1 "C:\Games\WoW\Data" wotlk

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⚠️ Notes

• Case matters on Linux (WoWee not wowee).
• Always use --recurse-submodules when cloning.
• If you encounter missing headers for ImGui, run:

  git submodule update --init --recursive
  

• AMD FSR2 SDK is fetched automatically by build.sh / rebuild.sh / build.ps1 / rebuild.ps1 from:
  • https://github.com/GPUOpen-Effects/FidelityFX-FSR2.git
  • target path: extern/FidelityFX-FSR2
• AMD backend is enabled when SDK headers and Vulkan permutation headers are available.
• If upstream SDK checkout is missing generated Vulkan permutation headers, CMake bootstraps them from:
  • third_party/fsr2_vk_permutations
• If SDK headers are missing, the build uses the internal FSR2 fallback path.