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[WoW] UI stands for "User Interface," not "u idiot"
Seattle Thread
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The ultimate World of Warcraft UI thread
You might be an old pro, looking to find a way to automate or otherwise ease the daily chore that is WoW. Or you may be a new player, wondering why all of these people have such funny/cool/retarded-looking actionbars. Both are accomplished through the use of two things: Macros and Addons.
First up, let's talk Addons.
Addons: that which doesn't kill you(r framerate) will only make you stronger
Everything under the sun has an addon for it nowadays--want a customized timer to know when your totems will expire? Lots of Addons for that. Don't like the tiny nature of the built-in Enemy Casting Bar? Plenty of Addons for that, too. Floating Combat Text sucks balls? Yes, more of those. In fact, most areas of the game have multiple available Addons to choose from.
But wait, I don't know the first thing about Addons. Where do they go?
OK, that's good to know. But what about my settings? How can I move them from character to character?
Easy peasy. In Windows, every Addon setting is saved under the WTF folder found in your WoW folder. Typically, it looks something like C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\[ACCOUNT NAME]\[SERVER NAME\[CHARACTER NAME].
Say I spend all afternoon making a sweet UI on my character "Killsurmom." Looks good and all, but now my alt "Stabbinulol" needs the same treatment. All I'd need to do is go into the WTF folder, copy the entire contents of the Killsurmom folder into the Stabbinulol folder and it's all set.
Note that there are a couple of extra steps in some cases. I've noticed that at times the chatframe settings won't properly adjust, in which case copying the "chat-cache.txt" file over a second time usually does the trick.
And some Addons make use of profiles. Profiles are nice if you'd like an Addon to do a specific thing for certain classes or characters, but it also means that copying their WTF information won't load your settings in the way that other Addons will. If you do a WTF copy and you find that certain Addons aren't configured correctly upon logging in, try opening their respective menus and see if there's an option for profiles.
When dealing with profiles, it's always easiest to set them up when configuring your UI initially. Go through and decide which ones will be the same for all characters (setting these profiles to "Default" is the easiest) and which will be class-based.
One handy thing to note: if you have some Addons on a class-based profile, you can copy the profile from one class to another, saving yourself a lot of re-configuration.
Are we ready to move on, now?
If not, send me a PM or ask in yon thread.
So where does one get these things? The most common method is through various internet repositories, specializing in WoW Addons, Macros and the discussions thereof.
[*]www.wowace.com
[*]Saeris's website
Hold up there, cochise. Read the disclaimer first.
Before you go gallavanting off to various UI sites and downloading everything under the sun, note that there are some dangerous elements involved. Both Curse.com and WoWUI.Incgamers.com have in the past been caught sneaking malicious ActiveX scripts into their sites, and WoWInterface.com recently had two malicious Addons uploaded to their site. As far as I know, Curse and Incgamers have since amended their issues (though they were tremendous assholes about it), and WoWInterface removed the offending addons within minutes of discovery. So a few general pointers to remember:
A quick note about this whole Ace thing
Ace came about sometime late in 2006, with a slew of "lightweight, modular" addons. Presumably a group of authors got together an decided that writing a number of libraries stacked full of basic functions would allow the addons themselves to be written smaller and more efficiently. Problem is, that library is still being loaded into memory, so the whole point is a little moot. Saeris can expound on the matter better than I can, but it really boils down to how well the addon itself is written. No amount of super-detailed framework can make up for a poorly-coded mess.
Most people have figured out the Ace ruse by now, but there's still some out there that believe the hype. Ace addons are not inherently more "lightweight," as that still depends on the quality of the written code. The only valid reason to stick with Ace addons is the uniform aesthetics you get from them.
You might be an old pro, looking to find a way to automate or otherwise ease the daily chore that is WoW. Or you may be a new player, wondering why all of these people have such funny/cool/retarded-looking actionbars. Both are accomplished through the use of two things: Macros and Addons.
- Macros consist of small, in-game strings of code that can range from the simple (such as /target Ragnaros, /wave) to the ridiculously complex (such as /script if(QUEST_FADING_ENABLE) then QUEST_FADING_ENABLE = nil; message("Fast Quest Text Enabled") else QUEST_FADING_ENABLE =1; message("Fast Quest Text Disabled") end). Each Macro has a default 255-character limit, and each of your WoW Characters have a default pool of 36 Macros to choose from--18 General Macros shared by all, and 18 Character-Specific Macros.
- Addons are essentially very large Macros, which are contained outside of the game itself and loaded into memory upon logging in your characters. All Addons are written in the LUA language, with some of them drawing on XML. Some Addons come with additional artwork and textures, to further customize one's interface. Some are unnecessary, when a Macro might do the same thing just as effectively. Some are bloated pieces of shit--there are a vast amount of Addons available, ranging from completely overhauling packages (such as PhotekUI or MazzleUI), to small tweaks (such as QuestLevels). Generally speaking, the mark of a quality addon will be how it is written, not necessarily what it does.
First up, let's talk Addons.
Addons: that which doesn't kill you(r framerate) will only make you stronger
Everything under the sun has an addon for it nowadays--want a customized timer to know when your totems will expire? Lots of Addons for that. Don't like the tiny nature of the built-in Enemy Casting Bar? Plenty of Addons for that, too. Floating Combat Text sucks balls? Yes, more of those. In fact, most areas of the game have multiple available Addons to choose from.
But wait, I don't know the first thing about Addons. Where do they go?
The vast majorty of Addons come downloaded off of the internet in a *.ZIP file, which can be unpacked using your favorite software (or Windows Explorer). Inside said *.ZIP file is a folder, or a set of folders--these go into the "...\Interface\Addons" folder, found in the main WoW folder. So, if I were to wish to install SpeakEasyGUI so's I can get my RP on, I would place the contents of the SpeakEasyGUI *.ZIP file here:
Subsiquently, all of the files needed for SpeakEasyGUI would now be contained here:
That is the long-and-short of it. Some Addons might include multiple folders, such as AutoBar: there is the AutoBar folder, and then there's the AutoBarConfig folder (the current record-holder is Cartographer, with around 25-30 separate folders for a full installation). In any case, all such folders go in the same place:
Hey waitdaminnit... I have a Mac!
- C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Addons
Subsiquently, all of the files needed for SpeakEasyGUI would now be contained here:
- C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Addons\SpeakEasyGUI
That is the long-and-short of it. Some Addons might include multiple folders, such as AutoBar: there is the AutoBar folder, and then there's the AutoBarConfig folder (the current record-holder is Cartographer, with around 25-30 separate folders for a full installation). In any case, all such folders go in the same place:
- C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Addons
Hey waitdaminnit... I have a Mac!
TheSkyIsBurning wrote: »To install addons, go to Finder > Applications > World of Warcraft > Interface > Addons > *drag files here*
OK, that's good to know. But what about my settings? How can I move them from character to character?
Easy peasy. In Windows, every Addon setting is saved under the WTF folder found in your WoW folder. Typically, it looks something like C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\[ACCOUNT NAME]\[SERVER NAME\[CHARACTER NAME].
Say I spend all afternoon making a sweet UI on my character "Killsurmom." Looks good and all, but now my alt "Stabbinulol" needs the same treatment. All I'd need to do is go into the WTF folder, copy the entire contents of the Killsurmom folder into the Stabbinulol folder and it's all set.
Note that there are a couple of extra steps in some cases. I've noticed that at times the chatframe settings won't properly adjust, in which case copying the "chat-cache.txt" file over a second time usually does the trick.
And some Addons make use of profiles. Profiles are nice if you'd like an Addon to do a specific thing for certain classes or characters, but it also means that copying their WTF information won't load your settings in the way that other Addons will. If you do a WTF copy and you find that certain Addons aren't configured correctly upon logging in, try opening their respective menus and see if there's an option for profiles.
When dealing with profiles, it's always easiest to set them up when configuring your UI initially. Go through and decide which ones will be the same for all characters (setting these profiles to "Default" is the easiest) and which will be class-based.
One handy thing to note: if you have some Addons on a class-based profile, you can copy the profile from one class to another, saving yourself a lot of re-configuration.
Are we ready to move on, now?
If not, send me a PM or ask in yon thread.
So where does one get these things? The most common method is through various internet repositories, specializing in WoW Addons, Macros and the discussions thereof.
- www.wowinterface.com
-
Considered the best site by many (myself included), WowInterface is quick, clean and well-designed. Most Addons hosted here are frequently kept up-to-date by their authors, and their site admins will move discontinued/outdated Addons into a special category (allowing you to confirm if your favorite Addons from days past are dead, or giving you the choice to take up the reins in the original author's stead). Recently-updated addons have a color-coded tag, and those compatible with the latest patch are also tagged as such. Overall, it's a good place to go first.
- www.curse.com
-
Formerly Curse-Gaming.com, this site is another popular choice, albeit not quite as nice as WowInterface in my opinion. It's lacking a few categories that WowInterface has, and it doesn't seem quite as intuitive. Additionally, it seems that the Addons listed here are not quite as up-to-date; this is not the fault of the site, but the authors. Still, it does have a large volume of Addons, some of which which you may not be able to find elsewhere.
- wowui.incgamers.com
-
Another UI site, this one having a bit of a troublesome layout. It's main advantage is the extensive Macro section, which other sites tend to lack.
- www.cosmosui.org
-
CosmosUI was the first major "all-in-one" Addon pack, containing many various Addons as well as a GUI management tool. Since then, others have come and gone, and Cosmos has taken a back burner to the shinier new kids, but the ringmaster still keeps plugging away at it. Some of the addons in the package are unavailable anywhere else, though installing
[*]www.wowace.com
-
Ahh, the Ace empire. Here is where the most up-to-date Ace Addons are found, including a handy forum for Addon support. Many of these can be found elsewhere, but this site contains the latest release version (if available--some Addons are in a perpetual Beta state), as well as all previous Beta versions. More about Ace later on.
[*]Saeris's website
-
Our own Saeris Sanoora has been writing addons for years. Dude knows how to turn out a good chunk of code, and thanks to his hand we have a load of wonderful addons such as LinkBot, QuickChatLink, Segui, BigBankStatement and SlashLanguage.
Hold up there, cochise. Read the disclaimer first.
Before you go gallavanting off to various UI sites and downloading everything under the sun, note that there are some dangerous elements involved. Both Curse.com and WoWUI.Incgamers.com have in the past been caught sneaking malicious ActiveX scripts into their sites, and WoWInterface.com recently had two malicious Addons uploaded to their site. As far as I know, Curse and Incgamers have since amended their issues (though they were tremendous assholes about it), and WoWInterface removed the offending addons within minutes of discovery. So a few general pointers to remember:
- Never run any kind of script from these websites, ever. That goes for a lot of the Internet in general, but if you find that you can't download a file without allowing a script first, go to another site.
- Never run any kind of executable. Addons consist entirely of text--there is no way for one to infect your computer with a trojan or keylogger on its own. However, an executable (i.e., *.EXE file) has that capacity, and people have been burned in the past. This goes for Installation/Update programs--WoWUI.Incgamers and Curse provide an optional Updater program that one can use as a one-click tool. Use any and all of these programs at your own risk.
- For god's sake, run spyware & virus scans every week. This is good practice, regardless. There are a bevvy of programs out there that will handle this. H/A or Accumulated Forum Knowledge should have some reccommendations.
A quick note about this whole Ace thing
Ace came about sometime late in 2006, with a slew of "lightweight, modular" addons. Presumably a group of authors got together an decided that writing a number of libraries stacked full of basic functions would allow the addons themselves to be written smaller and more efficiently. Problem is, that library is still being loaded into memory, so the whole point is a little moot. Saeris can expound on the matter better than I can, but it really boils down to how well the addon itself is written. No amount of super-detailed framework can make up for a poorly-coded mess.
Most people have figured out the Ace ruse by now, but there's still some out there that believe the hype. Ace addons are not inherently more "lightweight," as that still depends on the quality of the written code. The only valid reason to stick with Ace addons is the uniform aesthetics you get from them.
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Posts
Last updated: January 1st, 2009
Actionbar Addons
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Unitframe Addons
Interface Enhancements
--
--
Combat Addons
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Chat Addons
HUD Addons
Data Addons
ToolTip Addons
Shits-and-giggles Addons
Except now I've figured out a few friends from class play. And I'm looking for something to do until WAR comes out. And so I'm reinstalling WoW. It's been about a year since I last played; 2.03 is the latest patch I've still got sitting around.
Can someone give me a quick rundown over what's still being used UI-wise these days? Did Discord ever come back to be useful? WoWace still big?
I'm looking at WoWinterface and WoWace, but it's hard to get a feel for what's what, and I've probably got eons of patching ahead of me.
or bar mods, Bartender (3, I think?) and Bongos are the two that spring to mind.
Prat is a great chat addon. Does a tonne of stuff from formatting your chatlog to look pretty, to remembering who you sent tells to/which channel you spoke in so you don't need to type /g every time.
Scrolling Combat Text is uh... scrolling combat text. Look for SCTD.
Elkano's Buff Bars makes buffs into pretty bars instead of boring icons, not really needed for functionality though.
FuBar is the new TitanPanel. If you weren't around for either, it's a toolbar with billions (maybe not really billions) of smaller modules written for it for almost any possible application imaginable.
Cartographer is an awesome map mod. Look for that and LightHeaded (quest addon) for levelling ease.
That's all I can think of that are "necessary" off the top of my head.
Dongpuller, what damage meter and action bar frames are you using? The action bars look kinda like Bongos but I don't recognize the healing value or outlines listed.
PitBull is a mod for unitframes, not actionbars.
EDIT:
Akira, the healing and damage numbers on the actionbars are from an addon called Dr Damage.
If there is no such thing, I'd like to try my hand at making it. Is there a better resource than WoWwiki for modmaking stuff? It's pretty outdated and the things that are updated are done to the most basic of levels so figuring out anything complicated is pretty tough.
Near as I can tell, you learn Lua, look at other people's addons and see how things work. Then try your hand and modifying and/or making your own. The WowAce site has a Wiki entry for a basic Ace2 mod tutorial (a relatively complicated "Hello, World!", if you will).
I think Cladhaire and one other addon developer are writing a book geared towards [hopeful] addon authors. I'm sure Saeris will have some suggestions when he sees your post ;-)
Is there a way around this?
edit: Seems it was just a bad download.
I know I had one of those mods way back when, but I can't remember the name of it. They do exist though.
This?
EDIT:
Sorry, but I was stuck with one when my old monitor died (same resolution, but wasn't shitty). My replacement came in December (sold out when I had the money for it). Going from 1680x1050 back to 1024x768 leaves me pining for more space. WoW always felt cluttered, mainly due to the fact that there wasn't a good way to position two chat windows at that resolution. If I was on my priest (and thus using Grid)...well, let's just say that I like to see the game that is behind my UI
You're not looking at Grid itself are you? You can resize the frames to be any shape/size you want. A lot of people use small squares.
Mine, things are out of position since I'm playing on my girlfriends computer at the moment. But most of the stuff I use is visible.
All the heals are mouseover macros. In raids I'll usually just target a tank then spot heal by healing through Grid.
Oh, that's Decursive, not Grid.
I really really like the ForteWarlock DoT timer bars. I wish I could use the same bars for all my other characters too. I tried Chronometer and Sorren's Timers over the weekend and neither look as good or work correctly.
Warrior70,Attack,Axe Specialization,Blacksmithing,Block,Blood Fury,Command,Dodge,Dual Wield,Find Minerals,First Aid,Hardiness,Master Swordsmith,Mining,Parry,Shoot,Smelting,Throw,Weaponsmith,Battle Stance,Charge,Hamstring,Heroic Strike,Mocking Blow,Overpower,Rend,Retaliation,Thunder Clap,Battle Shout,Berserker Rage,Berserker Stance,Bloodthirst,Challenging Shout,Cleave,Commanding Shout,Demoralizing Shout,Execute,Intercept,Intimidating Shout,Piercing Howl,Pummel,Recklessness,Slam,Sweeping Strikes,Victory Rush,Whirlwind,Bloodrage,Concussion Blow,Defensive Stance,Disarm,Intervene,Last Stand,Revenge,Shield Bash,Shield Block,Shield Wall,Spell Reflection,Stance Mastery,Sunder Armor,Taunt
Warlock:
Warlock70,Attack,Cannibalize,Dodge,Engineering,Find Minerals,First Aid,Goblin Engineer,Mining,Shadow Resistance,Shoot,Smelting,Underwater Breathing,Will of the Forsaken,Corruption,Curse of Agony,Curse of Doom,Curse of Recklessness,Curse of Shadow,Curse of the Elements,Curse of Tongues,Curse of Weakness,Death Coil,Drain Life,Drain Mana,Drain Soul,Fear,Howl of Terror,Life Tap,Seed of Corruption,Banish,Create Firestone,Create Healthstone,Create Soulstone,Create Spellstone,Demon Armor,Demon Skin,Detect Invisibility,Enslave Demon,Eye of Kilrogg,Fel Armor,Health Funnel,Inferno,Ritual of Doom,Ritual of Souls,Ritual of Summoning,Sense Demons,Shadow Ward,Soulshatter,Summon Dreadsteed,Summon Felhunter,Summon Felsteed,Summon Imp,Summon Succubus,Summon Voidwalker,Unending Breath,Conflagrate,Hellfire,Immolate,Incinerate,Rain of Fire,Searing Pain,Shadow Bolt,Shadowburn,Shadowfury,Soul Fire
Regarding keybindings from the earlier thread, there is nothing combat oriented that I have to click. All the non-combat crap (Buffs, Food, Water, Portals, Armors, Etc.) are kept on Cyrolsis, and there are some combat things that I click. For instance, Evocate. I haven't played my mage much at all since the patch they changed Evocate (if they did at all, I don't know), and the five second rule gave me plenty of time to bush butan for that. And besides, before modifiers, I've got 37 keys/buttons to bind combat stuff to.
It also lets me unclutter my action bars, which is important to me.
Because it would really, really suck to do some tinkering with my UI and then not be able to revert back once I realize I like things the way they are.
I've been tempted to do saved variable backups the same way I handle my UI backups (the latter is because I use an updater and things may break unexpectedly):
Only the addons that I've changed myself (which is limited to Denial2 ATM) are exempt from this, since it has its own repository.
I'm not sure whether that makes me a special kind of crazy.
The Addon list is also nowhere near a comprehensive list... I just can't sit and type in BBcode for longer than a couple of hours at a time before my brain starts seizing up. More to come later.
Just post a link to WoWWiki. No need to duplicate good information.
I also feel that TomTom (coordinates/waypoint addon, for those who don't want or need everything that Cartographer offers) and LightHeaded (in-game quest information from Wowhead) deserve to be mentioned as well.
EDIT: Fixed link.
What I want is something like Clique, but for the keyboard. Macros are messy and I have a limited number of them anyway. Click2cast almost works like this, but with key bindings, you have to press the hotkey then click on a unit frame for the spell to cast.. not precisely what I want.
You can look at TipHookerLib for that. RatingBuster uses it so you should find some examples of its usage there.
local function l_replacement_OnTooltipSetItem(tooltip) local orig = tooltip.YOUR_ADDON_NAME_orig_OnTooltipSetItem; if (orig ~= nil) then orig(tooltip); end local _, link = tooltip:GetItem(); local baseID = link:match("item:(%d+)", 13); local points = YOUR_DATABASE[tonumber(baseID)]; if (points ~= nil) then tooltip:AddLine(points); tooltip:Show(); end end local function l_Hook_Tooltip_OnTooltipSetItem(tooltip) tooltip.YOUR_ADDON_NAME_orig_OnTooltipSetItem = tooltip:GetScript("OnTooltipSetItem"); tooltip:SetScript("OnTooltipSetItem", l_replacement_OnTooltipSetItem); end l_Hook_Tooltip_OnTooltipSetItem(GameTooltip); l_Hook_Tooltip_OnTooltipSetItem(ItemRefTooltip);Just replace "YOUR_ADDON_NAME" with some unique string that's not going to overlap any other addon's hook, and "YOUR_DATABASE" with the name of your giant "[baseID] = pointsValue;" table.
And what's with all the Ace libraries with zero lines of documentation?