Powered by wowsims and nix.

About

The wowsimcli tool consumes simulation inputs as RaidSimRequests in the protojson format. These input files can be exported from the WowSims Web UI. The core of this project is a workflow that automates simulation at scale. We use nix to programmatically compose the required protojson input files. A script then orchestrates the entire process:

1. Generate Inputs: Based on the simulation you choose (eg dps-p1-raid-single-long), nix generates the corresponding protojson input files for every specialisation.
2. Execute Simulations: The script invokes wowsimcli for each generated file, running the simulation and producing a raw JSON output.
3. Aggregate Data: A script collects the output from all the individual runs and aggregates the data into a single, clean JSON file.

This approach allows us to easily generate thousands of simulation combinations while also leveraging the powerful caching and parallelization features of the nix build system. If a simulation's input hasn't changed, nix can use a cached result instead of re-running it, saving significant time.

Right now the project is still in a proof of concept stage, and requires more work.

Developing

1. Install nix (the package manager)
2. Ensure nix-command and flakes are enabled in your ~/.config/nix/nix.conf:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────[ COPY ]─┐
│ experimental-features = nix-command flakes                                         │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─────────────────────────────────────[ COPY ]─┐
│ experimental-features = nix-command flakes   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

3. run nix develop

This will enter a nix development shell with all the required dependencies in your PATH.

• wowsimcli: The command-line tool used to run the simulations.

• nodejs: Web frontend.

Running and updating simulations

To run simulations use:

• nix run .#<simulation>

Simulations are organized into the following format:

Race comparison benchmarks: race-<class>-<spec>-<phase>-<encounterType>-<targets>-<duration>

DPS rankings: dps-<phase>-<encounterType>-<targets>-<duration>

<class>-<spec>:

• All DPS class/spec options are currently implemented, except for feral
• example: druid-balance

<phase>:

• Only p1 is available currently, preRaid coming soon.
• example p1

<encounterType>:

• Only raid is available currently (dungeon and specific boss simulations are planned for future updates).
• example raid

targets:

• single 1 Target
• cleave 2 Target
• three 3 target
• ten 10 target
• example single

duration:

• long: 300 seconds, with a 60s variance (300s ?60s)
• short: 120 seconds, with a 30s variance (120s ?30s)
• burst: 30 seconds, with a 10s variance (30s ?10s)

Example simulations

nix run .#dps-p1-raid-single-long This will run all dps specs in P1 bis gear, against 1 default raid boss for 300s 60s +/-, for 10,000 iterations each.

nix run .#race-paladin-retribution-p1-raid-cleave-burst This will run simulations for all Retribution's playable races, against 2 default raid boss targets, for 30s 10s +/-, for 10,000 iterations each.

Simulation Output

Running a simulation script generates a JSON file with the aggregated data in your present working directory. These files are also copied to web/public/data/ to be used by the web front-end. The ability to specify an output directory is planned for a future update.

To refresh all data used by the website, run the following command:

nix run .#allSimulations

This command runs every simulation and updates the corresponding data files in web/public/data/.