Aloft - Enhanced Nameplates (BETA release)

[acapela]

A WotLK/PTR-compatible BETA update of the nameplate enhancement addon Aloft (originally/still at WoWAce: http://files.wowace.com/Aloft/Aloft-r80814.6.zip) is available here at WoWInterface.

This BETA release can be found at http://www.wowinterface.com/download...AloftBeta.html. Feel free to try it out and comment, either here in this thread, or in the comments on the page for the addon.

[oriont]

I was wondering is there anyway to increase the nameplate distance? Or at least a mouse over implimentation? I thought I read that the mouse over ability was live but not sure how to make it so when I cursor over a mob or player it will show the aloft nameplate

[acapela]

Originally Posted by oriont I was wondering is there anyway to increase the nameplate distance? Or at least a mouse over implimentation? I thought I read that the mouse over ability was live but not sure how to make it so when I cursor over a mob or player it will show the aloft nameplate

sorry for any delay in responding.

the answer to this is: no.

more information, for completeness:

Aloft takes over and manages the Blizzard(tm) native nameplates, which (in their native Blizzard(tm) form) include name/level text, a healthbar/castbar, a mouseover highlight, and (with WoW patch 3.0.2) an aggro "glow".

Aloft preserves all of this basic functionality, but also adds additional stuff : a updating mana bar, more detailed/customizable textual health/mana data, additional tag-based text data of various kinds (creature race/type, class, etc), a threat system, customized appearance in terms of colors/fonts/textures, positioning capabilities, etc.

the nameplates themselves, however, remain under the basic control of the WoW client. the WoW client retains pretty much absolute control over whether they are enabled (though Aloft instruments a finer degree of control over this) and how far away they will appear.

i always wished for control over nameplate visibility range myself. perhaps Blizzard(tm) will facilitate that at some point, at which time Aloft can either just inherit the mechanism from the WoW client or add options to control it more completely.

[MoonWitch]

You wouldn't happen to know what the threat/aggro glow texture is called, would you? I've been looking like mad for it but can't locate it.

[ObbleYeah]

Originally Posted by MoonWitch You wouldn't happen to know what the threat/aggro glow texture is called, would you? I've been looking like mad for it but can't locate it.

Tooltips\Nameplate-Glow isnt it?

[Ferous]

first poster on these forums; I was wondering if there was anyway to implement a way to ghost frame Aloft so it is easier to configure the castbar, almost like how AZCastBar's configuration (it showed ghost cast bars, so you can move them in addition to seeing how the grew from left to right).

Also, was wondering is this new beta allowing for regular dogtags instead of the syntax you are using with the released one?

Thank you for your time

[acapela]

Originally Posted by ObbleYeah Tooltips\Nameplate-Glow isnt it?

under 3.0.3, all of these "flash" or "glow" textures were in .../Interface/TARGETINGFRAME/UI-TargetingFrame-Flash.blp. all the fitted glow textures (for the various default unit frames and default nameplates) were in this one file. i could not tell you which MPQ this is in.

i extracted big chunks of the 3.0.8 MPQs, so i could look at LUA. a file of this name/path exists, but it appears to contain only the default target unit frame glow texture. .../Interface/Tooltips/Nameplate-Glow.blp does not really resemble the 3.0.3 nameplate glow texture. i don't know where the other unit frame glows or the nameplate glow have been placed.

in .../Aloft/Aloft/Aloft.lua, rooted at function function Aloft:OnNameplateShow(), there is a whole reverse-engineering process of Blizzard default nameplates that happens. Aloft turns the default Blizzard nameplate glow texture "off" (i.e. sets the texture to "", but leaves it in place so that IsShown()/IsVisible() calls can be made; the texture region itself does not seem to respect standard UI hooks). you could add some diagnostics to dump out what texture file is used there.

hope that helps.

[acapela]

edit: it just dawned on me what you mean by "ghost frame". yes, a "configuration mode" for Aloft is on my TODO list. enabling that will show all enabled nameplate elements, at least in some bogus form, at least on the current/target nameplate, so that the user can configure the layout of nameplates. sorry for being dense .

Originally Posted by Kasprague84 I was wondering if there was anyway to implement a way to ghost frame Aloft so it is easier to configure the castbar, almost like how AZCastBar's configuration (it showed ghost cast bars, so you can move them in addition to seeing how the grew from left to right).

i am sorry, i was never an Az user, so this is pretty much "greek" to me. what do you mean (mechanistically, in terms of the visual effect you want to occur... and i am only assuming this is a visual effect of some sort) by "ghost cast bars"? can you link to a screenshot of some sort that would provide an example?

Also, was wondering is this new beta allowing for regular dogtags instead of the syntax you are using with the released one?

i looked into this when i first took over Aloft. as it turns out, LibDogTags-3.0 requires unitids in order to query for information. unfortunately, there is no actual association between nameplates and unitids (though you can click-target through nameplates, and they are somewhat "secure"... so go figure).

so, LibDogTags-3.0 really only works for things like "unit frames" (where there are static unitids permanently associated with the frames) and "tooltips" (which basically use unitid "mouseover" for everything).

Aloft has to jump through substantial hoops to gather/regather and cache information when it has something "targeted" (i.e. when unitid "target" or unitid "mouseover" address a unit, at least transiently). other more basic things like health, unit name, unit level, etc, are scraped directlty out of the underlying Blizzard nameplate, and yet other things are scraped out of the tooltip (on mouseover). the cast bar is provided by Blizzard (and it only appears for the current target anyway; Aloft basically just tweaks its appearance). things like AOE threat and target-of-target data are supplied via an esoteric/indirect process that has some significant limitations. in other words, no-can-do .

any sort of "dogtags"-style information would only be available for groupmembers and/or the current target. so, Aloft implements its own tag syntax/library, to provide the user with some data selection/customization/formatting capabilities for the data Aloft gathers/caches for nameplates. all of this was originally originated by the original author, Roartindon, and collaborators (originally ).

hope that helps. give me some more detail on "ghost cast bars" and i will at least look into it.

[cara]

I downloaded the Aloft version that was uploaded on Archives yesterday, but just like before, it fails to display enemy class colors. Everyone is red. I've tried mixing around with options inside Waterfall but nothing works.

Wonderful mod otherwise, thanks.

cara

[cora]

Still not showing class colours in arena, I doubt the hide totems is working either, haven't met any shaman yet.

Any plans to fix these?

[Reolin]

Error: LibBabble-Zone-3.0: Translation "Dalaran Arena" not found.
File: ...Ons\Aloft\Libs\LibBabble-Class-3.0\LibBabble-3.0.lua
Line: 51
Count: 1

[acapela]

Originally Posted by cara I downloaded the Aloft version that was uploaded on Archives yesterday, but just like before, it fails to display enemy class colors. Everyone is red. I've tried mixing around with options inside Waterfall but nothing works. Wonderful mod otherwise, thanks. cara

sorry for the delay in responding. hope you all see this.

anyway, at this point, Aloft users should always enable Blizzard's standard interface option "Combat>Class Colors in Nameplates" (otherwise, explicit mouseover or target action will be required to obtain class information on targets, which is generally not how people want Aloft to operate in PvP ).

(perhaps the time has come for Aloft itself to enable this Blizzard option, and force it to remain enabled. for Aloft users, with Aloft's own options for controlling nameplate colors, all this option does is allow Aloft to identify target class more quickly.)

as well, of course, Aloft's "Health Bar>Colors>Color Hostile by Class" option should also be enabled.

i cannot reproduce these problems with class colors, using any recent version of Aloft. generally speaking, these issues trace back to the Blizzard option and whether or not it is enabled by the user.

[acapela]

Originally Posted by Reolin Error: LibBabble-Zone-3.0: Translation "Dalaran Arena" not found. File: ...Ons\Aloft\Libs\LibBabble-Class-3.0\LibBabble-3.0.lua Line: 51 Count: 1

Aloft does not directly incorporate LibBabble-Zone-3.0, and i don't know where your instance of that library is originating. it appears that LibBabble is/was missing a translation for the "Dalaran Arena".

LibBabble-Zone-3.0 has been updated very recently. i will go check when i get a chance and see if this has been added. at this point, it is probably just a matter of updating whatever addon is including LibBabble-Zone-3.0.

[acapela]

Originally Posted by cora Still not showing class colours in arena, I doubt the hide totems is working either, haven't met any shaman yet. Any plans to fix these?

the shaman totem and trap snake stuff works (as far as i can tell) in the enUS locale, and there are user testimonials to confirm this (though if it is not working for you, let me know, include as much detail as you can on what you are seeing, and i will try to reproduce your problems).

i cannot vouch for the others (no way to test, unfortunately). in some cases (koKR, zhCN, zhTW), translations do not yet exist for this stuff.

[dsh]

after patch 3.2 i have noticed a very odd appearance with the class colored name plates.
it used to work perfectly fine, and to an extent it still does
ive read the previous posts about turning the feature on in wow which i have checked was enabled.
the main 'bug' that i noticed was with shamans..ONLY.
their name plates when going into distance for the nameplate to show will appear in red, and will stay red UNTIL targeted which then turns blue(normal).
it stays blue for the duration the name plate is up.
Once going out of range, it will dissapear and upon going back into distance, it will be red once again.
All other classes do not have this issues, they all appear with the right class color upon the name plate appearing.

[skrapes]

hi, im wondering if anyone else has had issues with aloft crashing thier game.
both the prior version and this beta version i seem to have traced my crashes to this addon. my crashes have stopped since i disabled it.
i love this addon and dont want to stop using it.

any ideas or suggestions

[acapela]

Originally Posted by dsh after patch 3.2 i have noticed a very odd appearance with the class colored name plates. it used to work perfectly fine, and to an extent it still does ive read the previous posts about turning the feature on in wow which i have checked was enabled. the main 'bug' that i noticed was with shamans..ONLY. their name plates when going into distance for the nameplate to show will appear in red, and will stay red UNTIL targeted which then turns blue(normal). it stays blue for the duration the name plate is up. Once going out of range, it will dissapear and upon going back into distance, it will be red once again. All other classes do not have this issues, they all appear with the right class color upon the name plate appearing.

the shaman color changed (again, for the second time).

Aloft is being updated to detect the new Shaman color. feel free to visit in a day or two for an updated version.

[acapela]

Originally Posted by skrapes hi, im wondering if anyone else has had issues with aloft crashing thier game. both the prior version and this beta version i seem to have traced my crashes to this addon. my crashes have stopped since i disabled it. i love this addon and dont want to stop using it. any ideas or suggestions

well, just to make sure all bases are covered: don't use the version from Curse, it is incredibly "old" (i.e. originally for WoW 2.4.3 or earlier). it is older even than the last WoWAce version on which the "current" WoWInterface version is/was originally based. (if i had a way to disable/delete that Curse page, or at least warn people there, i would.)

a few other folks have reported crashing problems with the most recent versions of Aloft (i.e. for WoW 3.2... Aloft-2.8.3 or later). you may need to get rid of your Aloft SavedVariables, and reconfigure the addon. as well, depending on how old your current version of Aloft is, you may need to delete everything related to Aloft in .../Interface/AddOns, and re-install the latest version "from scratch". i would do both of these things (apologies for any inconvenience).

[skrapes]

Originally Posted by acapela well, just to make sure all bases are covered: don't use the version from Curse, it is incredibly "old" (i.e. originally for WoW 2.4.3 or earlier). it is older even than the last WoWAce version on which the "current" WoWInterface version is/was originally based. (if i had a way to disable/delete that Curse page, or at least warn people there, i would.) a few other folks have reported crashing problems with the most recent versions of Aloft (i.e. for WoW 3.2... Aloft-2.8.3 or later). you may need to get rid of your Aloft SavedVariables, and reconfigure the addon. as well, depending on how old your current version of Aloft is, you may need to delete everything related to Aloft in .../Interface/AddOns, and re-install the latest version "from scratch". i would do both of these things (apologies for any inconvenience).

Ok, thanks for the tip ill try those things, i should have thought of those solutions myself. always good to reconfigure stuff from time to time anyway IMO keeps you in touch with all the things you can do with addons.

[Jenspro]

Alright. I have no idea where to put this thead. If any admin think its on the wrong place, just move it.

I have 3 chars atm. On 3 diffrent accounts. (no, im not paying for everyone.)

Anyway, Aloft is working fine on 1 of those chars, and on 2 of those not. I have no idea why, I have been reinstalling, deleted wtf folder, you name it.



Screenshot: http://data.fuskbugg.se/skalman01/Wo...309_022347.jpg


As you can see there is somekind of + instead of any namesplates.

Any ideas?