Power Auras Classic 5.0 - Page 19

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 11:30 AM

Rough preview of what I want to do with aura editing.

First up, I've removed that intermediary step of category selection. We can all agree it was pointless.
The categories are listed as tabs as opposed to sidebar links. I'm hoping this doesn't end up looking too ugly, but it fixes the previous worry I had of the depth in the treeview becoming too large.
The aura preview is at the top right. I may put it back to the top left, however (it's likely).
The default category is style this time around. I'm going to see if I can fit all the elements safely onto the page without a separate subcategory.

I won't do mockups for the animations and sounds pages - they'll remain as is with the plan for animations to be similar to what sounds is now (as in, no subcategories).

Edit: One thing I forgot to include in that preview was where the child displays (ie. timers) would be. Probably in the treeview is the answer.

Stabilo · 08-31-12, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Meorawr

Rough preview of what I want to do with aura editing.

First up, I've removed that intermediary step of category selection. We can all agree it was pointless.
The categories are listed as tabs as opposed to sidebar links. I'm hoping this doesn't end up looking too ugly, but it fixes the previous worry I had of the depth in the treeview becoming too large.
The aura preview is at the top right. I may put it back to the top left, however (it's likely).
The default category is style this time around. I'm going to see if I can fit all the elements safely onto the page without a separate subcategory.

I won't do mockups for the animations and sounds pages - they'll remain as is with the plan for animations to be similar to what sounds is now (as in, no subcategories).

Edit: One thing I forgot to include in that preview was where the child displays (ie. timers) would be. Probably in the treeview is the answer.

It doesn't quite matter which is first, style or activation, you need to change them for every aura anyway. The style layout looks much cleaner, although i'd switch x/y in positioning to the left and parent display to the right side to match the location of width/height (i'm a little anal about organization)

I like where you're going with this, although i was just thinking that the more I think about this myself, the more I'd actually still prefer having 2 windows, the other one with groups/auras and the other one.. well, like you're imagining it in the mockups. I don't care about screen estate, It's only during configuration, the windows move around, and you can make them transparent so very quickly. (Repeated "I", "me" etc many times because it's just one opinion among many

)

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 11:42 AM

I might still go back on the one window design (I could also possibly make it so that the sidebar could be detached from the main window at will). Mockups are one thing, ingame proof-of-concepts are another thing entirely

I'm working on the activation now, I've got a "few" changes made there already.

Shanyn · 08-31-12, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Stabilo

You don't need a custom trigger for this. In a displays Activation, click Support Triggers at the bottom of the window, navigate to Timer with the arrows at the top right, enable it and match it with <= 6.

Ah, thanks. I hadn't realized there was a Timer option there, though I knew about everything else in that section, hah. >.<

I'm still not sure how I'd set that up in the advanced editor, though. Let's say I want an aura that only displays if I do not have the Metamorphosis buff AND there are less than 6 seconds on my target's corruption. Do I need to split that up into multiple auras or sequences and do something tricky with the display state trigger? Since there are no options under the "Timer" trigger to say which timer it is I'm asking about...

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 11:52 AM

The timer works off of the first 'main' trigger that it finds. I'm intending on letting this be configured eventually.

Shanyn · 08-31-12, 11:55 AM

Thank you very much for the assistance and support. Not many addon authors bother. That this one has inspired such a nice community really says something.

I am asking because I'm planning to do a narrated how-to-power-auras video here in the next day or two, setting up my warlock's auras from the ground up. Even if you're going to change the interface much more, I believe it will still be really helpful to people who are melting down about the new interface.

Stabilo · 08-31-12, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Shanyn

Ah, thanks. I hadn't realized there was a Timer option there, though I knew about everything else in that section, hah. >.<

I'm still not sure how I'd set that up in the advanced editor, though. Let's say I want an aura that only displays if I do not have the Metamorphosis buff AND there are less than 6 seconds on my target's corruption. Do I need to split that up into multiple auras or sequences and do something tricky with the display state trigger? Since there are no options under the "Timer" trigger to say which timer it is I'm asking about...

Tried this on my warlock. 3 triggers:
1. Is corruption on target?
2. Is it less than 6 seconds?
3. Do you have Metamorphosis buff?

Then type "1&2&!3" in the Trigger Operations window. Voila! Corruption shows IF there's less than 6 seconds on it and you DON'T have Metamorphosis active.

galvin · 08-31-12, 12:08 PM

I like the mockups I never liked having two windows, it just took up more screen space and just seemed to make it harder to move around from group to group. Most people are probably using 1080p with 1600 or 1920 wide. So wouldn't worry too much about minimum resolution.

http://i.imgur.com/dmh2f.png

So in this mockup there be 2 ways to pick an aura? click on group1, then click on the icon, or go to the tree and click on the aura by name instead?

I like this, good work.

Edit: One thing but this may make it too complicated. I would live a one level deep folder option. The reason is I can do say Dragonsoul, then have a folder for each boss fight.

Code:

Auras
  Dragon soul
    Spine
      Aura#1
      Aura#2
    Madness
      Aura#1
      Aura#2

This helps keep the tree view smaller as I add more bosses too it.

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 01:16 PM

I'll consider allowing subgroups. At the moment I'm trying to decide if I should also put in a few 'risky' internal changes with the ID system. In theory, doing so would fix every possible deletion, creation, linking, and so on bug. It's just that it'd take a few days to fully remove the old stuff from the code.

Thank christ for branches <3

Anyway back to the UI subject, before posting the mockups here's a quick rundown of the things I want to change:

Support triggers are badly implemented - they're too well hidden for most users to find.
The advanced editor is poorly designed - while it allows for nice configurations (I managed to set up a display which tracks the application of pyroblast, ignite and the cooldown of combustion whilst also checking the strength of ignite last night), it's a bit too...Well. Take a look at it

Now the screenshots, this also includes the explanation of what I want to do regarding the Matches configuration system.

Conditions, Conditions pt. 2 (with new Match system), Rules, Sequences

So what I've done there is merged the basic and advanced editors, and added a second sublevel for navigating. I'll run down the changes in order of the links:

Conditions

Currently you're only able to have a single Main trigger. This is the same as 4.x, but a consistent request is for an easy way to check multiple things at once (buff + cooldown, for example). So the change I want to try here is removing the one main trigger limit, and using the pagination system at the bottom for accessing additional main triggers.

The risk I'm running in to with pagination is that numbered pages are too vague, and named pages are too verbose. What I'd be willing to try out is another search bar for filtering the types.

This example also gives an idea for the tabled match system - each row is a separate match, and clicking the edit button will open the configuration UI for that match in a sort of 'overlay' that would appear docked to the bottom of that particular row. This is where scrollframes are buggy - they really hate it when things like this are done, so it's certainly not final and is pending a working PoC.

The second image gives an example of that configuration window's location.

Moving onto the third, the Rules page: I'll flat out state that this page is probably too vague for users to find still, however I think the concepts within the page are fine.

Support triggers are fairly simple in their configuration, so I've opted for the same tabled approach as shown on the previous image. Each option has its own row, and will be filterable via a search box (which isn't included). The edit system will work the same as on the previous page.

Again, to support advanced configurations, you'll be able to define additional rulesets on a page by page basis.

Now, the Sequences page will only need to be touched by the user in extreme situations. The plan is the automatic configuration will work by combining main triggers into a series of AND checks, and rulesets into OR sets - (1&2&3&4)&(5|6|7) as an example. However, for advanced users, manual configuration is again added. Pagination isn't needed on this page, and we'll just reuse the tables.

Clicking the Edit button on a table row in the Sequences editor will also expose the per-sequence action settings (eg. Color, Scale) for users to play around with. I may have to unfortunately 'hide' the duration stuff in here as well, but I'll try to keep it exposed.

I'm going to start working on some ingame concepts tonight to see how well these ideas truly work. My worry is the activation editor now leans too much on the advanced side again.

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 01:21 PM

Actions are the do-ers, triggers are the poking sticks and sequences are the groups that hold triggers.

Let's take the simple task of showing a display - what happens there is we have an action (DisplayActivate). We create triggers on that action (UnitAura, SpellOffCooldown, etc.) and use sequences to combine the triggers into logical sequences (hence the name) - an example is "1&2&3" which means "if triggers 1 and 2 and 3 are active, then activate this action".

You can have multiple sequences on an action, and the first one takes priority over the second which takes priority over the third, and so on. The reason for this is because other display actions (like Color) can then be set up to dynamically change the colour of a display based upon the active triggers - say you wanted a display to be red when a spell was off cooldown, but green if it was on cooldown. Sequence #1 would be the on cooldown check, and #2 would be the off cooldown check.

You can only have one of each type of 'display action' per display - this is to avoid conflicts, imagine having two color actions activate at once. There'd be no real defined behaviour.

CobraA1 · 08-31-12, 02:08 PM

Note to self: Reload thread before deleting post.

Meh, didn't realize you were still working on it when I posted.

But thanks for the explanation.

And now that I've completely confused both of us, heh, time for bed X(.

Pretty powerful stuff you're doing here. Seem to be able to do a lot with it.

Stabilo · 08-31-12, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by Meorawr

Wall of text about new ideas

That was slightly hard to follow but I think I got the idea. I don't think the layout will completely fix the fundamental issue people have with finding stuff in the layout compared to the old one though. The "multiple main triggers" pagination at the bottom of the page seems.. Off, I'd understand it better if it was above the table somewhere, but layout -wise that seems a little troublesome. Start with one page/main trigger, and perhaps have a button that says "add main trigger" that adds a tab or something.

In this retrospect the rules would be support triggers I guess. I need to admit I don't fully (or not at all) understand the sequences yet, but somehow have the feeling that I should figure it out to get full benefit of the addon.

I think I need sleep, so many things come to mind but nothing comes out as letters or words.

Meorawr · 08-31-12, 03:12 PM

I'll finish the idea tomorrow and post some shots here - but yeah, I'm still very iffy on that activation mockup. Anything after this post gets a response tomorrow.

galvin · 08-31-12, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Meorawr

I've located the source of the bugs where by stacks starts off as inverted, and with the Use Ability Icon toggling itself off. It was a stupid late night mistake that I didn't notice.

Basically, take a look at these bitfields:

Lua Code:

--- Flags for inverted linked displays.
Metadata.DISPLAY_INVMASK     = 0x00000070;
Metadata.DISPLAY_INV_AUTO    = 0x00000010;
Metadata.DISPLAY_INV_MAIN    = 0x00000020;
Metadata.DISPLAY_INV_SUPPORT = 0x00000040;
 
-- More source flags. These ones are for determining what optional services
-- are enabled.
Metadata.DISPLAY_OPTMASK     = 0x000000F0;
Metadata.DISPLAY_OPT_STACKS  = 0x00000010;
Metadata.DISPLAY_OPT_TEXT    = 0x00000020;
Metadata.DISPLAY_OPT_TEXTURE = 0x00000040;
Metadata.DISPLAY_OPT_TIMER   = 0x00000080;

Now guess what problems that causes

I'd like to know what I need to change so I can get rid of the annoying stacks that like to stare at me all the time.

Dalmasca1 · 08-31-12, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by Meorawr

I could also possibly make it so that the sidebar could be detached from the main window at will.

I was just going to suggest this as I read the post.

Dulci · 08-31-12, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by Dalmasca1

How did you attempt to setup this aura? I just made one that recognizes CoE and Master Poisoner by setting those two different matches to the main trigger, and it works fine. What did you do specifically? It sounds like you may have tried to make an aura for the debuff type rather than making multiple spell matches. As far as I know, that doesn't work.

There is a Main Trigger "Unit Buff/Debuff Type" where I can choose things like "Debuff: Magic Vulnerability." I was hoping that would cover all magic vulnerability debuffs like CoE so I wouldn't have to list every spell. If that's not it... what does it do?

To give some more positive feedback, thank you for the awesome implementation of profiles. When I saw how you made them work I went holy sheeeet this is awesome! I also like where you're going with the mock pictures.

yodawhip · 08-31-12, 09:05 PM

For some reason Explosive Trap (and its spell id) could not render it's own texture (just show the timer underneath no matter what, but Snake Trap was fine.)

Also, if I run out of focus, the timers will show "99" when the value is 0 or off cooldown (when counting down, it is fine.) eg, focus drain can't fire black arrow (shot is off cd) > timer glitches > focus regen's > timer disappears as its supposed to.

Using spelloffcooldown

Only other bug I noticed was sometimes the spell name would disappear from the input field for the aura in spelloffcooldown after setting up a timer.

lcy860218 · 08-31-12, 10:23 PM

why i cant find then new version on wowinterface or curse?

galvin · 08-31-12, 11:41 PM

I imagine the author is setting up a new spot or something. Or shutting out the outside world so he can get actual work done. For my self when coding, if I get distracted too much it breaks my train of thought. Very difficult when trying to work on new stuff.

boo-chan · 09-01-12, 01:07 AM

I'm not sure if someone has asked this question already, but I'm trying to set up a timer so that it counts down the remaining time when my spell is on cooldown. I've managed to do this but when I'm out of combat, the timer constantly displays 99 on the screen. Is there any way to set it so that it doesn't do this? I have my auras only showing when I'm in combat and when they're useable and I suspect that my problem stems from the fact I've checked the invert button on the timer activation. I can't figure out another way to get the timer to show up when I want it to though. Am I missing something?

Thanks for the great work!

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