nUI -- A full feature standalone UI replacement

[spiel2001]

nUI has been in public release for several weeks now on two of the "other" WoW mod sites. I'd love to invite you to have a look at it and provide feedback.

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...fo.php?id=9108

Feel free to contact me here or via the comments section on my mod page. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

[Eas]

looks neat, i'll give it a try once it's approved

[Yhor]

Nice looking UI. What raid frames do you use, or if custom, what do they look like?

[spiel2001]

All of the unit frames are custom using a single code base for all units. In fact, the entire UI is custom code. No third party mods or dependencies.

The raid frames are very simple. Player name, health, mana at present. However, all units are configurable once I get the basic functionality complete and code the options panels.

[Dreadlorde]

This is pretty cool. I couldn't use it, but it's cool you managed you fit everything into one addon, and just under 1mb (as a zip file).

Good job.

[spiel2001]

Dreadlord... Thanks for the kind word. Was there a particular reason why "I can't use it" ??

[spiel2001]

Okay -- v0.1.8 is out and should fix ALL taint issues related to action bars, etc. Rogues, Druids, Warriors, etc. should all be able to navigate their action bars without error. Likewise, the taint on Kara's Chess event is fixed, as well.

For the moment, out of mana and out of range do not work on the main action bar. I'll get that fixed in the next update.

[Dreadlorde]

Originally Posted by spiel2001

Dreadlord... Thanks for the kind word. Was there a particular reason why "I can't use it" ??

I'm a minimalist, and it takes up too much screen real estate imo.

[spiel2001]

Originally Posted by Dreadlorde

I'm a minimalist, and it takes up too much screen real estate imo.

Gotcha -- thanks for the feedback.

[Eas]

Well, I downloaded it and played around with it and I must say it is a VERY good interface. I thoroughly enjoyed using it. I only have one complaint.

Everything is too big. I would use this all the time for sure, but it's just too big for me. If you could give the ability to scale it smaller, I would love this interface, completely.

[spiel2001]

Originally Posted by Eas

... I thoroughly enjoyed using it ...

Thanks for the kind word

Originally Posted by Eas

... I only have one complaint ...

Uh oh ~grin~

Originally Posted by Eas

... Everything is too big ...

That's one of those things where I can't win. For every "it's too big" I get an "It's too small" /sigh

To be honest, I really am at a loss for how to satisfy both points of view. Font are too big, fonts are too small, buttons are too big, buttons are too small, etc.

I could conceivably scale the entire thing down for those who feel the dashboard is too big, but then there's the issues of the sides as the dashboard cannot logically have an infinite width since the textures must be pre-defined. And there's issues about how WoW handles text scaling and the ability to read button text, etc. The more scaling you permit, the more complicated laying out the UI becomes and the more load you place on the game engine when it has to redraw the screen.

Finding that happy place in the middle is an endless challenge.

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by spiel2001

To be honest, I really am at a loss for how to satisfy both points of view.

You don't. You satisfy your own.

[Belszy]

I wanted to thank you for this UI. It is not to large it is actually perfect. Gives great use of action bars and maps. I am going to add 1 little add on at a time ( like one bag ) and some others i like to use ( tradeskill ) and see how it interacts with them. One thing though i do have a problem with. I miss my quest cup, spell/skill book and talent buttons. Is there a way to get those back?

V/r
Belszy

[spiel2001]

Thank you, Belszy, for the kind word as well.

Originally Posted by Belszy

I miss my quest cup, spell/skill book and talent buttons. Is there a way to get those back?

As I explained in my e-mail reply to you, those items are there... it's just that by default they "fade away" when not in use. If you pay attention, when nUI first loads there is a console displayed in the center of the top edge of your screen. That console contains the micro-menu (the buttons you are looking for) as well at the latency bar and the frame rate meter. About 15 seconds after you enter the world, that frame fades away and is hidden from view.

If you mouse over the console, it will reappear and you can use the buttons as you normally would. If you prefer that the console be visible all the time, you can use the command "/nui console show" to disable the fade feature. You can use "/nui console fade" to turn that feature back on.

If you happen to be using Titan Bars and/or Fubar, then you may not notice the console at the top of your screen. If that's the case, you can move it down by using the command "/nui yofs2 {n}" where {n} is some number greater than zero. The larger {n} is, the further down the console will move. You'll find something around "/nui yofs2 24" is about right to move the console down one Titan Bar.

As a matter of record, you can use "/nui yofs {n}" to move the bottom dashboard up the screen to allow for Titan Bars and Fubar Bars at the bottom of your screen.

[eloora]

Even though I predict the bottom dashboard might be a bit bulky for my tastes, I must say I'm impressed with what I see and am going to give this UI a try later today.

I just have one preliminary question...can the opacity of the dashboard graphic be adjusted?

[Eas]

Originally Posted by spiel2001

To be honest, I really am at a loss for how to satisfy both points of view. Font are too big, fonts are too small, buttons are too big, buttons are too small, etc.

I could conceivably scale the entire thing down for those who feel the dashboard is too big, but then there's the issues of the sides as the dashboard cannot logically have an infinite width since the textures must be pre-defined. And there's issues about how WoW handles text scaling and the ability to read button text, etc. The more scaling you permit, the more complicated laying out the UI becomes and the more load you place on the game engine when it has to redraw the screen.

Finding that happy place in the middle is an endless challenge.

My suggestion, just let it scale and leave open spaces in the sides. People could throw other mods in there or something, just me, I would throw Pallypower in on one side and recount on the other.

Anyway, I'm going to continue to use it for a bit. Maybe I'll adjust, gotten so used to mine having just one little bar across the bottom.

[spiel2001]

Originally Posted by Eas

My suggestion, just let it scale and leave open spaces in the sides.

You can do that now.... "/nui scale {n}" where {n} is some number greater than zero. You can force nUI to use any scale you want that way and you will get the blank space to the left and right. "/nui scale 0" will return you to the default nUI scale.

You'll note black regions on the left and right if you make nUI smaller than the display width. The reason for those black boxes is that nUI shifts the WorldFrame up by 1/2 of the dashboard height so that the loss of vertical viewport is split between the top and bottom of the world frame. You can do with that region as you will.

I do see that causes the HUD to shift south of the player character position in the world frame, but I can fix that easily enough in the next update.

And good luck putting Recount to the right of the dashboard ~grin~

[spiel2001]

Originally Posted by Eas

Maybe I'll adjust, gotten so used to mine having just one little bar across the bottom.

Except for the minimalist among us, for those who use a slew of addons, I strongly suspect you'll find you actually have more open display area than you used to. The motivation behind nUI was the fact that as you add more mods -- recount, omen, KLH threat meter, pally power, healbot, WIM, x-perl, etc. -- the usable display area keeps getting smaller and smaller until you find yourself playing through a peephole surrounded by mods. The goal of nUI is to move all the on-screen clutter into a managed dashboard and a meaningful HUD.

Again, putting the true minimalist aside, I honestly believe that for most the notion that nUI "uses to much display area" is an optical illusion. Generally, it likely uses much less area than you were using before but rather than a piece here and piece there, it's all one place and until you get used to the dashboard, it has a feeling of being "out of place"

[eloora]

I can't seem to make the Omen window appear. Omen is installed, enabled, and I can access the options window, I just can't see the threat window itself. Recount I can see fine.

[spiel2001]

Originally Posted by eloora

I can't seem to make the Omen window appear. Omen is installed, enabled, and I can access the options window, I just can't see the threat window itself. Recount I can see fine.

The Omen window will only display while you are in combat. It has no meaning when you are out of combat as there is no such thing as threat. Select the "Omen" mode in the information panel and enter combat. If you have Recount installed, the Recount window will vanish and the Omen window will display.

You should also see the threat bar in your HUD after you enter combat.