I wanted to see how far modern WebGL2 could actually be pushed, so I built a fairly large 3D game client around it.
Large worlds, GPU skinning, custom shaders, lighting, fog, particles, UI and moving environments, all running at 60+ FPS in the browser.
WoW 1.12.1 was basically my test case.
Hey everyone,
For the last few months I've been working on a side project that got way bigger than I originally expected.
A few months ago I had some free time and I was messing around with a few projects. I also work a lot and at the time I was thinking about how annoying it is when you're on a laptop where you can't really install/download wow or anything like that.
At some point I had the stupid idea of basically, why not just make World of Warcraft run in the browser instead.
So that's what I've been doing.
This is a custom client for WoW 1.12.1 Build 5875, written from scratch in TypeScript. It's using WebGL2, Three.js, HTML5 Canvas, Web Audio and WebSockets and it runs directly in Chrome/Firefox without plugins, cloud streaming or running WoW.exe through WebAssembly.
For the backend I'm using a normal vMaNGOS 1.12.1 core, movement validation, combat, quests, loot, inventory, NPCs, persistence etc are still handled by the real server.
The browser is basically just a modern client.
Because browsers can't connect directly to the TCP socket WoW expects, I have a small Node.js WebSocket to TCP bridge in the middle. The actual protocol is still handled by the browser client itself, including the SRP-6 authentication, encryption, packed GUIDs, UpdateTypes, movement packets and so on.
One thing that took me way more time than expected was the graphics layer.
If you just load the old WoW assets into Three.js and use normal modern lighting it kinda looks like WoW, but at the same time it doesn't. The colors, fog and lighting feel wrong.
So I ended up comparing a lot of it with the original client and going through reversed/disassembled WoW.exe behavior.
Terrain uses the original MCAL alpha maps with 4 texture layers on the GPU, I'm matching the older gamma-space lighting as close as I can, WMO vertex colors are there, day/night lighting, distance fog etc.
I'm not really trying to remaster the game. I actually want it to keep that old look for now, this engine is highly capable to be customized.
Characters are GPU skinned from the original M2 bones and all 8 playable races with both genders are working. Weapon animations also use the original AttackAnimKits and AttackAnimTypes, so different weapons actually use their proper attack animations.
Transports are working too, which was honestly annoying to get right.
Right now I have 33 elevators using around 630 original animation nodes, and ships/zeppelins running over 8 routes.
When you're standing on a ship your character is actually moving relative to the transport, so you can walk around the deck, jump etc while the whole thing is moving.
Most of the UI is also drawn directly using HTML5 Canvas instead of having hundreds of HTML elements sitting on top of the game.
I've been recreating parts of the original Interface 11200 FrameXML/Lua UI in my own canvas system, so bags, action bars, character screen, chat, quests, merchants, stack splitting and a lot of the normal interface is already there.
At the moment I'm calling the build Alpha 1.0.
I currently have 584 tiles covering the Level 1-40 areas I've implemented in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, the major cities and also places like Deadmines, Scarlet Monastery, Wailing Caverns and Deeprun Tram.
Combat, spells, projectiles, quests, loot, vendors, trainers, professions, inventory/equipment and most of the normal PvE stuff is working now.
Audio is also there with around 3,887 sound entries and 11,514 spell sound references, plus zone music, day/night transitions and different weapon impact sounds.
Also just to get this out of the way because I know people are probably going to ask, yes, I used AI quite a lot while building this.
I'm one guy and realistically I wouldn't get anywhere near this amount of work done in a few months without it. I still review and test the code myself and I've built a lot of custom systems/pipelines around the project, but AI definitely helped me move much faster.
I recorded around 15 minutes of completely unedited freestyle gameplay where I basically just walk around, cast some spells, show random parts of the client and explain what I've done so far.
Youtube Video <- Any updates about the project will be posted here on youtube for now.
I also plan to open source the project once I clean up the extraction/build tools enough that somebody besides me can actually use them.
Just to be clear, I'm not distributing WoW.exe, Blizzard game files or game assets. Everything currently runs locally from my own files, and any future GitHub repo would only contain the code/tools I've written. People would need to provide their own game files in order for the browser client to extract its graphics layer.
There's still a lot left to polish and probably a lot of things I'm going to find are completely wrong, but at this point it's actually playable and not just another WoW browser map viewer/demo.
I'm curious what people think about it.
I'm also curious what kind of QoL changes or custom features people would want, and honestly if you think I should keep working on this.
I know some people will probably see it as pointless compared to just playing the real game, and I get that. For me it's mostly a fun and challenging project, and I still think having WoW run on basically any device without installing anything could have some interesting uses in the near future.
I tested DeepSeek V4 Pro , Gemini 3.7 Flash, and Sonnet 5 on the same large private codebase.
This is not a standardized benchmark, and the results should not be generalized to every programming task. It is simply a comparison of how these models performed on one large, complex repository.
Each model received the same audit prompt, containing approximately 7,500 words of requirements. The prompt asked them to inspect the repository and produce an evidence backed QA report covering:
The prompt specifically required the models to verify every claim against the current source, attempt to disprove their own findings, and avoid reporting plausible but unverified bugs.
| Model | Time |
|---|---|
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | 7 minutes |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | 12 minutes |
| Sonnet 5 | 28 minutes |
I used two separate models as judges:
The judges reviewed the submitted reports, checked their important claims against the repository, and then cross-examined each other’s scoring.
This cross-check materially changed the results. Opus initially scored Sonnet at 96/100, but later found that it had accepted one of Sonnet’s conclusions without checking an alternative implementation elsewhere in the repository. It revised Sonnet to 81/100.
Opus also discovered that it had incorrectly dismissed part of Gemini’s statistics as fabricated. The underlying category totals were reproducible, although Gemini’s headline totals and several citations were still wrong.
| Model | GPT-5.6 Sol | Opus 5 Max | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | 83 | 85 | 84.0 |
| Sonnet 5 | 79 | 81 | 80.0 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | 43 | 38 | 40.5 |
| Model | Speed | Investigation depth | Evidence quality | False-positive control | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Fast | Good | Excellent | Excellent | 1st |
| Sonnet 5 | Slowest | Excellent | Very good | Good | 2nd |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | Fastest | Good | Weak | Weak | 3rd |
DeepSeek produced the most consistently trustworthy report.
Its strongest qualities were:
DeepSeek’s main weakness was breadth. It investigated fewer areas and missed the deepest architectural issue found by Sonnet.
One of its minor findings also had incomplete measurement: it showed only two relevant logging sites even though a broader search returned more. The specific two hot-path sites it identified were real, but the accompanying search output was incomplete.
My summary: the safest report to act on directly.
Sonnet conducted the broadest and deepest investigation.
It found the strongest unique issue in the entire comparison: a major state pipeline was decoded correctly but never consumed by the runtime system. Sonnet traced the problem across several layers and demonstrated why the existing test suite did not cover it.
Its strongest qualities were:
However, Sonnet also produced one material false positive.
It correctly found an unused pipeline, but then concluded that the corresponding user-facing functionality never worked anywhere. An alternative implementation elsewhere in the repository already provided that functionality. Sonnet’s falsification section claimed it had searched for an alternate path, but it missed the real one and introduced an incorrect protocol statement while doing so.
Its strongest finding was also rated HIGH without a demonstrated runtime reproduction. The underlying issue was real, but the evidence supported MEDIUM until the concrete runtime trigger was confirmed.
My summary: the best model for discovering deep problems, but its final verdicts still require review.
Gemini was dramatically faster than the other two and produced the most polished-looking report.
It identified several real missing features. However, those findings already appeared in an existing backlog document inside the repository. Gemini presented them as independently discovered findings and added citations that did not match the actual source locations.
Its report also contained:
One correction is important: Gemini’s detailed category breakdown was reproducible. One evaluator initially called the entire table fabricated, but running the repository’s own diagnostic tool produced the same category totals. Only Gemini’s two headline totals were impossible.
My summary: useful as a fast source of leads, but not safe to use without independently checking every claim.
The final ranking came down to the cost of false positives.
Sonnet found the best individual issue, but it also promoted one incorrect conclusion to a confirmed bug.
Gemini generated useful leads quickly, but mixed them with unsupported statistics, incorrect citations, and stale findings.
DeepSeek found fewer problems, but its findings were the most consistently defensible. Both evaluators ultimately agreed that this made it the strongest report overall.
The practical lesson for me is that AI-generated code audits should themselves be audited. A report can be detailed, polished, and mostly correct while still containing one false conclusion that materially changes the ranking.
This remains one test on one private repository, so your results may vary.
I benchmarked three AI models on an in depth QA audit to diagnose complex 3D WebGL rendering, asset pipeline, and entity physics bugs in a large browser MMO codebase (350,000+ files including reversed C++ binary exports from Ghidra, WebGL2 shaders, DBC assets, and protocol code
(Scored by Opus 5 Max)
| Model | Execution Time | Opus 5 Rank | Key Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek 4.0-Flash | ⏱️ 37m 23s | 🏆 #1 | Empirical Measurement: CDP Chrome frame captures, pixel luminance sampling, honest hypothesis filtering |
| Claude 4.6 | ⚡ 18m 23s | 🥈 #2 | Root-Cause Analysis: Pipeline DBC diagnosis & live asset re-bake execution |
| Gemini 3.6 | ⚡ 12m 42s | 🥉 #3 | Edge-Case Logic: Discovered line-547 un-guarded corpse height snap missed by others |
Quite interesting how 4.6 is faster than v4 flash (max) that was quite surprising for me, Deep Seek v4 won, by also took almost 37 minutes.
I’m sharing this test to give people a better understanding of how these models perform in different real world codebase environments. This test alone does not represent their full capabilities across all domains, it was a fun targeted experiment I made to see how they compare when handed a complex, medium to large codebase with legacy constraints.
Opus 5 Max is agreeing that he was wrong and DeepSeek was right, and this is not the first time i've experienced this, in different kind of projects.
Kudos DeepSeek!
Dear Travian community,
After almost 10 months of development and five full rounds, we are ready to begin our sixth round.
This round includes major backend improvements, as we have rewritten the game backend using a modern PHP stack. With these changes, Nataris is now as secure as any production-grade browser game.
We have also added a new mobile mode, as the original game interface comes from the 2006 era and is not fully optimized for tablets and phones.
We are still keeping the game faithful to how it was in 2010, which was the final version of T3.6, as our goal is to preserve the original feeling of the game.
Settings:
Server Speed: 5x
Troop Speed: 2x
Map Size: -200 to +200
Free daily and voting gold
Full round settings here: Round Settings Page
Server main page at: Project-Nataris.com
Discord: Join Here
PS: You can register for the new round once the countdown reaches 6 PM GMT+3
Thank you!
Hey Travian community,
We are opening a special Project Nataris T3.6 event server: The Ancient Lands.
This round is built for players who want a faster, more chaotic, more aggressive version of the classic T3.6 experience while still keeping the core gameplay old-school.
The server starts on June 20, 2026 at 19:30 GMT+3.
This is not a normal round. The Natars have discovered a land of endless grain, and they have already begun sending farming outposts across the map. These Natar Farmlands will appear from the start of the round as weak, resource rich targets that players can raid early.
The idea is simple: raid them before the Natars grow too strong.
For this special server, we also added four 18-croppers, placed at:
25|25-25|2525|-25-25|-25Each one is surrounded by three 50% crop oases, giving it up to 150% crop bonus. They are limited, extremely valuable, and designed to create early map conflict. Players can settle them from the beginning, but the Natars will not simply ignore them forever.
Some of the main settings:
When artifacts arrive, the Natar invasion escalates. Their Farmlands will be reinforced, stores will be replenished, and the war for control of the Ancient Lands will move into its next phase.
We also continued improving the server itself:
Project Nataris is still focused on keeping the old Travian T3.6 feeling alive without merging it with T4.4 systems, and our aim is to create more lore around it.
If you played T3.6 years ago and want a fast, intense event round, this is probably the one to try.
Server:
https://www.project-nataris.com/
Special server details:
https://www.project-nataris.com/index.php#info2
Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/N5aAF4626j
Good luck to everyone joining The Ancient Lands.
Hey everyone,
Since summer is coming and a lot of people will be away, on vacation, or just playing more casually, we wanted to prepare something a bit different for the next Project-Nataris round.
Our Discord community now has over 400 members, and after a community vote, the result was clear: players wanted a 3x speed round for summer.
This is actually the first time we are running such a low speed round, so we spent time making sure it still has a good pace and does not feel empty or too slow.
The goal for this round is to bring back the old Travian T3.6 3x feeling as closely as possible, with classic mechanics, slower pacing, and more meaningful map competition.
We also reworked the spawn system so players are placed more naturally and closer together, similar to the original game, instead of being spread too far across the map.
Oases, resources, and nature troops have also been adjusted to better match the 3x speed. Another important change is that 150% 15c spots will be limited, so they should be more competitive and actually matter again.
Nataris is also not pay to win . Players earn free daily gold and rewards via voting, so everyone can keep playing without having to worry about gold, we also don't lock features behind a pay wall, you will have access to the same features as everyone else.
The server will start Today at 18:00 GMT+3.
Join our Discord in order to monitor our progress and stay up to date with our changes and updates.
Full game details:
https://www.project-nataris.com/#info
Main page:
https://www.project-nataris.com/
Thanks to everyone who has chosen to play with us over the past months and helped us improve with each round. A lot of the progress came directly from your feedback, reports, and suggestions.
We’re trying to give something back to the Travian community by keeping the classic T3.6 experience alive and making each round better than the last.
Good luck to everyone joining Round 5.
Hey everyone,
Since summer is coming and a lot of people will be away, on vacation, or just playing more casually, we wanted to prepare something a bit different for the next Project-Nataris round.
Our Discord community now has over 400 members, and after a community vote, the result was clear: players wanted a 3x speed round for summer.
This is actually the first time we are running such a low speed round, so we spent time making sure it still has a good pace and does not feel empty or too slow.
The goal for this round is to bring back the old Travian T3.6 3x feeling as closely as possible, with classic mechanics, slower pacing, and more meaningful map competition.
We also reworked the spawn system so players are placed more naturally and closer together, similar to the original game, instead of being spread too far across the map.
Oases, resources, and nature troops have also been adjusted to better match the 3x speed. Another important change is that 150% 15c spots will be limited, so they should be more competitive and actually matter again.
Nataris is also not pay to win . Players earn free daily gold and rewards via voting, so everyone can keep playing without feeling forced to pay.
The server will start on May 22nd at 18:00 GMT+3.
Full game details:
https://www.project-nataris.com/#info
Main page:
https://www.project-nataris.com/
Thanks to everyone who has chosen to play with us over the past months and helped us improve with each round. A lot of the progress came directly from your feedback, reports, and suggestions.
We’re trying to give something back to the Travian community by keeping the classic T3.6 experience alive and making each round better than the last.
Good luck to everyone joining Round 5.
I was doing some work using GPT-5.5 on Extra High with the Plus plan. My usage was around 14% of the 5-hour limit and 55% of the weekly limit. After about 14 hours of continuous high usage, it was still showing 14% and 55%. The bug disappeared and usage started updating again once the context window reset to 0. Now my weekly usage is at 53%.
I’m quite familiar with Codex and the usage limits. To achieve 14 hours of work on Plus, I would normally need to wait quite a lot for the limits to reset, so I don’t think this was just a simple desync.
