PullWatch

PullWatch is a lightweight Windows desktop app for recording World of Warcraft gameplay. It watches the WoW process and combat log, starts recordings for Mythic+ runs and raid encounters, and keeps finished videos in a browsable in-app library.

Screenshot

Download

Download the latest Windows x64 installer.

View release notes and other assets.

Release builds are currently unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may show a warning for new downloads.

Closing the PullWatch window keeps the app running in the system tray. Use Exit from the tray icon menu to fully quit PullWatch.

Status

This project is in early development. Expect issues.

The current release focuses on World of Warcraft Retail. Automatic logs folder detection looks for Retail _retail_\Logs directories. Classic, PTR, and other variants may work only with manual folder configuration and are not the primary target yet.

Features

• Automatic recording for Mythic+ runs from CHALLENGE_MODE_START and CHALLENGE_MODE_END combat-log events.
• Automatic recording for raid encounters from ENCOUNTER_START and ENCOUNTER_END combat-log events.
• Manual start and stop when the World of Warcraft window is available.
• In-app playback with seeking, time display, and fullscreen viewing.
• Saved recordings table with start time, dungeon or encounter, key level or raid difficulty, outcome, and duration.
• Recording management actions for opening the recordings folder and deleting a selected finished recording.
• Settings for combat-log and recordings directories, recording filters, storage limits, encoder profile, quality preset, frame rate, output scaling, system audio, microphone, cursor capture, capture border, and Windows startup.
• Automatic video encoder testing with a choice of the H.264 and H.265 profiles that pass on the current system.
• Diagnostics view with combat-log, WoW process, recorder state, effective settings, and recent application logs.

Keyboard Shortcuts

These are PullWatch-specific shortcuts. Standard Windows keyboard behavior such as Tab navigation, Enter on focused buttons, and dialog cancellation is not repeated here.

View keyboard shortcuts

Recording Player

Shortcut	Scope	Action
Space	Anywhere in the Recordings view while media is ready, except text-entry and combo-box input	Play or pause
Left / Right	Player focused or fullscreen, unless a slider is focused	Seek backward or forward 5 seconds
Up / Down	Player focused or fullscreen, unless a slider is focused	Raise or lower volume by 10 percentage points
M	Player focused or fullscreen	Mute or unmute
F / F11	Player focused or fullscreen	Enter or exit fullscreen
Escape	Fullscreen	Exit fullscreen
Alt+F4	Fullscreen	Exit fullscreen instead of closing PullWatch

Space is reserved for playback in the Recordings view even when a list or button has focus. Use Enter to activate a focused button. Playback and slider shortcuts do not run while Ctrl, Shift, or Alt is held. Escape and Alt+F4 remain available to leave fullscreen.

When the playback timeline itself has keyboard focus, it provides additional seeking controls:

Shortcut	Action
Left / Down	Seek backward 5 seconds
Right / Up	Seek forward 5 seconds
Page Down / Page Up	Seek backward or forward 10 seconds
Home / End	Seek to the beginning or end

The volume slider retains the standard Windows slider keyboard controls.

Settings

Shortcut	Scope	Action
Enter	Editing the WoW logs or recordings directory path	Validate and save the edited path

Requirements

• Windows x64

Release installers are self-contained and do not require a separately installed .NET runtime.

Automatic recording requires World of Warcraft combat logging to be enabled so the game writes WoWCombatLog*.txt files.

Data Locations

Recordings are saved by default to:

Videos\PullWatch

You can change this in Settings.

PullWatch stores its settings and recording catalog under:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\PullWatch

The catalog database is pullwatch.db; it stores metadata for finished recordings, not the video files themselves.

Privacy

PullWatch does not contain app telemetry or upload recordings, settings, combat logs, or diagnostics. Recording files, settings, and the recording catalog stay on your machine unless you share them yourself.

Diagnostics can include local file paths, WoW window details, recent application log messages, and selected settings. Review copied or exported diagnostics before posting them publicly.

Recording Behavior

PullWatch tests the H.264 and H.265 hardware and software encoders available on your system. It automatically selects the highest-priority profile that passes the test, and you can choose another passing profile under Settings > Video. Recording stays disabled until an encoder profile passes.

PullWatch uses simple quality presets instead of exposing raw bitrate controls:

• Compact for smaller files
• Balanced for the default quality and size tradeoff
• High for cleaner motion and larger files

Frame rate is selectable as 30 FPS or 60 FPS. The settings screen shows an approximate recording size per minute based on the primary display; actual recordings use the captured WoW window size.

The following estimates assume 60 FPS, system audio enabled at 96 kbps, and a five-minute recording. FFmpeg uses the target bitrate shown here, plus a 1.5x max rate and 2x buffer size. Lower frame rates use proportionally less video bitrate.

View bitrate and file-size estimates

Compact

Resolution	H.264 target	H.264 size	H.265 target	H.265 size
2160p / 4K UHD (3840x2160)	24 Mbps	~904 MB	16 Mbps	~604 MB
1440p / QHD (2560x1440)	10 Mbps	~379 MB	7 Mbps	~266 MB
1080p / Full HD (1920x1080)	6 Mbps	~229 MB	4 Mbps	~154 MB
720p / HD (1280x720)	4 Mbps	~154 MB	4 Mbps	~154 MB

Balanced

Resolution	H.264 target	H.264 size	H.265 target	H.265 size
2160p / 4K UHD (3840x2160)	35 Mbps	~1,316 MB	20 Mbps	~754 MB
1440p / QHD (2560x1440)	16 Mbps	~604 MB	9 Mbps	~341 MB
1080p / Full HD (1920x1080)	9 Mbps	~341 MB	5 Mbps	~191 MB
720p / HD (1280x720)	4 Mbps	~154 MB	4 Mbps	~154 MB

High

Resolution	H.264 target	H.264 size	H.265 target	H.265 size
2160p / 4K UHD (3840x2160)	50 Mbps	~1,879 MB	30 Mbps	~1,129 MB
1440p / QHD (2560x1440)	22 Mbps	~829 MB	14 Mbps	~529 MB
1080p / Full HD (1920x1080)	12 Mbps	~454 MB	8 Mbps	~304 MB
720p / HD (1280x720)	5 Mbps	~191 MB	4 Mbps	~154 MB

Automatic recording starts only when PullWatch can see the WoW window and read the configured logs directory. If combat-log monitoring is unavailable, manual recording can still be used while the WoW window is available.

Finished recordings are saved as .mp4 files. File names include the recording start time and context, such as manual, mythic-plus, or raid.

Building from Source

Building locally requires:

• Windows x64
• .NET 10 SDK

Run the test suite:

dotnet test PullWatch.sln -c Release -p:Platform=x64

Create a local self-contained Windows x64 publish build:

./scripts/publish-win-x64.ps1

Publish builds include Gyan FFmpeg release essentials under the ffmpeg folder and Flyleaf's playback libraries under the FlyleafRuntime folder next to PullWatch.exe. PullWatch uses the bundled ffmpeg.exe before falling back to a machine-level FFmpeg install.

Key Dependencies

• FFmpeg via Gyan FFmpeg builds
• Flyleaf
• Dapper
• FluentMigrator

License

PullWatch is open source and licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Disclaimer

PullWatch is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment.