Shadowed Unit Frames - Page 2

Duilliath · 05/08/09, 5:11 AM

I think the majority of people use addons (and UF in particular) to get away from Blizzard's. Not to expand on them.

Ajuga · 05/08/09, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Duilliath

I think the majority of people use addons (and UF in particular) to get away from Blizzard's. Not to expand on them.

There's nothing wrong with the Action Bars - as soon as they've been stripped down to just buttons. There's nothing wrong with the minimap - as soon as the buttons around it are gone. My point is I think people use addons to customize the interface - not to redesign it entirely.

With most UF addons we start from scratch and reuse nothing from Blizzard's interface. Other addons usually expand on Blizzard's interface and makes it better. Bar addons reuse the bars with a default Blizzard skin. Minimap addons often come with a Blizzard border/skin for both squared and round. Etc.

Shadowed · 05/08/09, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Ajuga

There's nothing wrong with the Action Bars - as soon as they've been stripped down to just buttons. There's nothing wrong with the minimap - as soon as the buttons around it are gone. My point is I think people use addons to customize the interface - not to redesign it entirely.

With most UF addons we start from scratch and reuse nothing from Blizzard's interface. Other addons usually expand on Blizzard's interface and makes it better. Bar addons reuse the bars with a default Blizzard skin. Minimap addons often come with a Blizzard border/skin for both squared and round. Etc.

I'd have to agree with Duilliath actually, if I remember right most of the default unit frames are targets which don't lead to being that flexible for customizing without stretching them which generally makes them not look as good. Most people who would want to use default probably aren't going to want to change them that much anyway.

If you meant reusing the actual frames themselves and reskinning them, that would just be a huge hassle for not really that much benefit, what you can actually add becomes more restricted unless you start overriding the functions used and at a certain point you're rewriting it all anyway.

It works for action bars (and the minimap) because you don't change them that much, it's mainly just visual changes not rewriting functions to make the buttons/minimap function differently like you do with unit frames.

diospadre · 05/08/09, 12:57 PM

Yes it's subjective but all the Blizzard default stuff is pretty ugly, people absolutely do make an effort to break away from it. Like you said, the entire bottom bar is stripped down to only buttons leaving none of the art, the majority of people who use mods tend to drop the minimap down to a square with a black border. If people want unitframes that look like Blizzard's they can find/make a texture for it (there is an oUF layout that recreates Blizzard frames but with the added functionality of real UF mods).

Papajan · 05/08/09, 6:07 PM

I've always wanted something like Keynote's snap-to-align for unit frame config. It's a pain to manually align frames to be aligned. Something like that would probably be painless for the person setting up the frames (and if I'm really lucky, other mods might start doing that too).

Shadowed · 05/09/09, 4:09 AM

Originally Posted by Papajan

I've always wanted something like Keynote's snap-to-align for unit frame config. It's a pain to manually align frames to be aligned. Something like that would probably be painless for the person setting up the frames (and if I'm really lucky, other mods might start doing that too).

Keynote the Apple software, or is it a mod? I actually like the idea of a snap-to-align a lot better than simply saying anchor target frame to player frame but offset it by 50.

f1reburn · 05/09/09, 5:19 AM

As a Pitbull fan, there's only 1 thing on my wishlist: aura configuration that at least matches Pitbull 4's. Ideally I should be able to drag the debuffs to where I want instead of tweaking it with horizontal and vertical positioning sliders. Some kind of horizontal and vertical offset are a must for me. Also I'd like to have seperate positions and sizes of my auras and auras of others.

I would prefer to have a lot of configuration options, the disadvantage of being overwhelmed at the start doesn't outweigh the benefits of a lifetime of customizability.

Shadowed · 05/10/09, 1:24 PM

You're not going to be able to drag auras around, you'll just be able to set an anchor position (Top/Bottom/Left/Right/Inside) and tweak it the x/y axis. Not going to be able to set a custom location for your own auras, but you will be able to have their sized increased if you casted it.

And it really doesn't, too much configuration is most definitely a bad thing especially when done poorly and you have to still figure out what option does what since all that was given is basically a frame editor.

As for the status of this, I still need to add party pets/basic raid frames and then clean up the code and start with the configuration, depends on how busy I am with college but I think I'll have a beta in maybe 2-3 weeks.

Ferous · 05/10/09, 9:55 PM

Originally Posted by Winco

I've personally moved on from Pitbull, to Stuf. The lack of DogTags is a bit irritating, though it has its own imitation, but not nearly to the same extent. Some sort of Discord UF with DogTags would be very nice.

You can add dogtags with kgPanels you know

I am not exactly sure on how you can do that, but I know that you can, from OOMMs latest stuff. You can check it out either on Ioq's website or maybe check it out on the kgPanels forums. I don't know much about scripting, or I could give you an example.

Shadowed · 05/11/09, 1:47 PM

Since I've finished pretty much all of the core code and starting on configuration, I could use some feedback at least some of these on what people generally use and think. If all you do is say more options is better, I'll ignore you, since knowing why you do or don't use something helps me more.

What kind of text do you show in your both health and mana? Is it just the standard name/level/current,max health/current,max power/race"
How much filtering do you use for auras, do you really need a specific list of what to/not to show, or is letting you choose filtering by what you can cast (Group buffs), can cure, what you did cast (Your auras on the unit)
Portraits, automatically swapping them to the other bar side for target units, annoying or not.
Are additional text options needed, right now it just has left/right health bar, left/right cast bar, but it can let you create and position your own additional text that uses tags.
Gloss for auras, actually a point? Beyond showing a colored class if you can dispel it, I don't see a point to it.
Highlighting, same question. I don't see a point for highlighting a frame if you're targeting it... because you're already targeting it.
Indicators, is there anything else that people use besides status, PvP, leader, master looter, raid target, happiness
Smooth health bar updates (Not quick updates, the ones where the health bar will slowly changed based on health), does anyone use those? Seems annoying to me.
LibHealComm-3.0, anyone use this for anything beside raid frames?
Rune and Totem bars, personally I think colored rectangles are annoying and would rather have icons that show exact time before they're ready/fading
Range checking, useful for anything besides raid frames?
Dummy frame configuration, this was a random idea I was playing with which was to create a dummy frame that you can modify everything on, drag it to increase width, drag portrait to the right side to change it to the right side, etc. Basically it just speeds up configuration since you aren't digging through everything.

And things from IRC so I don't forget.

Enable/disable units based on where you are, so in arenas you could disable party/raid, as well as unit modules
Some sort of CC timer, maybe something like Gladius where the portrait becomes the spell icon + time left
Do square icons for runes/totems as well, probably an option to toggle
Indicator on debuffs of what ones you cast vs everyone else (Size, border, etc?)
Copy settings over cleanly between profiles
Split configuration, basic configuration goes into one category, while OCD tweaking goes into another.
Visual LibHealComm support

Woops · 05/11/09, 4:13 PM

So, this is kind of like just another UF addon that allows configuration of showing stats? Also, can you post a SS of what you have done so far? As an addon author myself, I'm curious what you have gotten accomplished so far.

Shadowed · 05/11/09, 4:19 PM

There's nothing to show in a screenshot right now, it pretty much just looks like agUF since I needed a basic visual style to work off of, the codes at Shadowed's ShadowedUnitFrames at master - GitHub thought.

Kuosi · 05/11/09, 4:30 PM

Well this is what I personally want to see on player frame: My current mana, my current hp and percent hp. For target: Name, current mana, current hp and percent hp. So for me left and right text positions are easily enough.
For buffs the things I like to see on my own frame are: Buffs that I can cast and all debuffs. For target: All buffs+debuffs and my own casts slightly bigger than the rest for better visual.
Never really liked the potraits so that part is really irrelevant for me.
Gloss is not needed on buffs imo.
Highlighting for targeting is useless, but some ppl prefer frames to be highlighted when the player is afflicted by a debuff they can cure.
think that's the common indicators, myself I only use leader, master looter, raid target.
Smooth bar updates are atleast not my thing but I guess some people prefer them for some eye candy.
I actually use healincoming on my priest inside arenas, not something I couldn't do without but find it somewhat useful.
Don't play death knight or shaman so can't comment on that.
Range fading is sometimes useful when you try to estimate the distance in arenas.
Dummy frame configuration sounds good and should make the configuration much smoother.
Being able to select the frames you want to use in certain environment is pretty handy.
Is additional CC timer on top of party debuffs really needed? and for enemy targets there's already Gladius.
Like listed above being able to see your own debuffs/buffs from the target frame is pretty important(this is what I find aguf lacks the most).
Naturally working profile system is quite nice to have for people who play more than one character and want different type of frames on different characters(like I don't need that centered and well detailed party frames on my mage as I do on my priest)

That's my view. Imo pve you can do with pretty much any frames but in pvp I value good unitframes high.

tfp · 05/12/09, 5:51 AM

I would like to give you my oppinion on some of your listed points.

How much filtering do you use for auras, do you really need a specific list of what to/not to show, or is letting you choose filtering by what you can cast (Group buffs), can cure, what you did cast (Your auras on the unit)
This would not be enough for me, as I want to see not all of the debuffs I can cast (though that would be not very important) but I want to see in addition debuffs that improve my dps. So I would like to have your basic filterings and a possibility to white/blacklist some auras too.

Highlighting, same question. I don't see a point for highlighting a frame if you're targeting it... because you're already targeting it.
Would be great to have on at least raid frames as a indicator. When I heal I want to see what I target for a few spells without having to look at my target (most spells I do cast via click cast, but some not).

Indicators, is there anything else that people use besides status, PvP, leader, master looter, raid target, happiness
Aggro would be an important indicator on raid and party frames.

Range checking, useful for anything besides raid frames?
I use and love range checkings on party, target and focus frames. Party frames are for healers like raid frames; you want to see who is in range. And as a damage dealer I want to see if both target and focus frame are in reach without having to look at my bars.

Shadowed · 05/12/09, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by tfp

I would like to give you my oppinion on some of your listed points.

How much filtering do you use for auras, do you really need a specific list of what to/not to show, or is letting you choose filtering by what you can cast (Group buffs), can cure, what you did cast (Your auras on the unit)
This would not be enough for me, as I want to see not all of the debuffs I can cast (though that would be not very important) but I want to see in addition debuffs that improve my dps. So I would like to have your basic filterings and a possibility to white/blacklist some auras too.

Highlighting, same question. I don't see a point for highlighting a frame if you're targeting it... because you're already targeting it.
Would be great to have on at least raid frames as a indicator. When I heal I want to see what I target for a few spells without having to look at my target (most spells I do cast via click cast, but some not).

Indicators, is there anything else that people use besides status, PvP, leader, master looter, raid target, happiness
Aggro would be an important indicator on raid and party frames.

Range checking, useful for anything besides raid frames?
I use and love range checkings on party, target and focus frames. Party frames are for healers like raid frames; you want to see who is in range. And as a damage dealer I want to see if both target and focus frame are in reach without having to look at my bars.

I'll see about filtering out useless debuffs that aren't related to you, but specific whitelist/blacklist are something I'll only add as a last resort if I don't find a better solution.

Aggro's a different indicator since it uses a bit more code than the party/leader/etc ones, but aggro alerts are coming once I get the interface in.