new to UI's, trying to recreate LaveUI

Masaq · 03-18-08, 07:42 AM

Hi guys,

I should say upfront that I've never tried making my own UI before, so with that said I'm probably trying to bite off more than I can chew. But I'm willing to learn and spend the time playing around with stuff to try and get it right.

I'm totally in love with the LaveUI. The only problem is that its not made for my screen resolution. I've tried installing the UI package and mucking around with it but its using addons I've never used b4, plus what seems a whole bunch that I don't actually want to use. And I can't seem to move/manipulate some panels for some reason.

So I've done a lil research and hopefully found the addons that will help me replicate the UI as much as possible. I figured its better that way so I'm learning from the ground up.

The possible list is

Bartender3
eepanels2
Bongos (although not sure if I need this or not)
Fubar (and assorted plugins)
Ace2
CyCircled
Pitbull and
Chinchilla (map addon that lets me move, resize, reshape the minimap)

What I'm trying to replicate is this http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laveui1ek9.jpg

Now I'm ok with the minimap part, the bartender part of it I think I can get undercontrol (although not sure tbh) but how on earth do I replicate the areas in green with eepanels? How do I get those shapes and borders? The top green area is the chat area....not worried about that atm. But the 2 bottom outlined areas? And the blue bordered area is I think another panel?

Any help here guys would be immensely appreciated. Even just to get me started with other websites or other faq's/ppl to contact.

I'm not trying to copy or plagerize (sp?) Lave's work to publish. I'm immensely respectful of it. But installing her UI package just doesn't work for me and my resolution. I'd like to try and come as close to her UI without the hundred other addons if possible.

Any help or ideas please folks?

Masaq

**Seerah** · 03-18-08, 08:58 AM

You don't need Bongos (you have Bartender), though you will need a casting bar mod to move the cast bar (unless you put it right in your unit frame with PitBull).

And you don't need Ace2 - that's only a library, and your mods come with it already.

As for the art, take the textures out of LaveUI (you'll find them in a folder somewhere) and put them into your UI using eePanels. There are tutorials and a wiki for eePanels, you can find all you need to know about how to use it on wowace.

Masaq · 03-18-08, 09:43 AM

Thanks for replying Seerah. And sorry for the double post. Was kinda hoping if this one didn't get any responses then the other might work.

Anyways, regarding the textures. Keep in mind I'm very "interfacially challenged" and pretty hopeless with all this stuff please, I found a folder in the original LaveUI called "phaltextures". Its located inside the actual eepanels folder making up a part of all the other addon folders. There are 8 TGA files in there, would these be the right ones?

As you can see, I don't even know what a TGA file is, is it possible to open it to see it? Also regarding the wiki tutorials and wowace info....any chance there's like a "for dummies" version? Because some of that goes right over my head.

Masaq · 03-18-08, 09:50 AM

Ok nevermind the question about how to see TGA files, found out how to do it and yes they're the right ones.

Will try to read through, and more importantly understand how to import/use those textures in eepanels from wiki and wowace sites.

If I have any probs, hope you don't mind if I post again for some help.

erica647 · 03-18-08, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by Masaq

Ok nevermind the question about how to see TGA files, found out how to do it and yes they're the right ones.

Will try to read through, and more importantly understand how to import/use those textures in eepanels from wiki and wowace sites.

If I have any probs, hope you don't mind if I post again for some help.

I hope everyone understands that we're a community here and helping each other is what we do... after all, it's what us "tiggers" do best. :P

Masaq · 03-18-08, 11:59 AM

Ok well not having much luck yet.

I've found this guide http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....86940116&sid=1 that I'm using. I haven't bothered with the 1st part because the textures are already done. I'm using them from the original UI. As the guide says,

After you have successfully logged in and entered the world, open up you eePanels menu, and goto global settings. First set the Background color's transparency to 0%, next select border textre to “none”, set width and height to 512 and hit enter.

Now create new panel from global settings, move your mouse over to 1. > and you should have panel popping up witch has same options as global settings panel+ few more. Now goto Background texture and enter this line: \\Interface\\AddOns\\eePanels\\<name of your 1st texture file>.tga. If everything went right, you should see your 1st part of your UI In the middle of screen. After this Name the panel, and move it to place using vertical and horizontal Position (http://koti.welho.com/mvuori/pics/Cu...ositioning.jpg), and repeat again until you have all your textures visible and aligned. Remember that when you are aligning the parst of your UI, it's the eePanel's top left corner witch is anchored, menaning that if you try 0 on Vertical and horizontal aligment, you won't be seeing your panel and when you change the size of your panel, it expands down and right.

*In Latest eePanels, you first need to check Advanced Mode (http://koti.welho.com/mvuori/pics/Cu.../eepanels1.jpg) Before you can apply custom textures to them (http://koti.welho.com/mvuori/pics/Cu.../eepanels2.jpg)

I've copied the textures into the Interface\Addons\eepanels\ folder. I've also tried making a seperate "textures" folder in the eepanels folder and also putting them in there. Neither seems to work. Not sure if that makes a difference as long as I make sure the path is correct.

I'm using epanels2...I don't if that is where the probelm is or not either. But some of the directions in that section of the guide don't correspond to exactly how my eepanels2 looks. Like the global settings > background color transparency...I see nothing that says transparency. Forgive me if I'm stupid but there's only the background color option (small colored square), which when I click on gives me the multi-colored sphere thing and the opacity control? Is that what the author means? Also I have to click on New Panel first before I can go to global settings.

Unfortunately this link http://omgphatloots.org/UI/Videos/ee...20Tutorial.pdf is no longer valid. And the eepanels thread has 24 pages (of which I've gone through about the first 10) and still not really found the infomation/help I need.

Sorry to be a pain about this but its really something I want to try and get the hang of. Any extra help or advice would be greatly appreciated please.

Mas

**Seerah** · 03-18-08, 12:08 PM

Yes, transparency/alpha is the slider next to the color picker circle (in the same frame). And, yes, the new eePanels requires you to create a panel first (iirc).

Make sure you have completely exited/restarted the game when adding textures (you can't add new textures when the game is running).

Another way you could add your textures is to download and install SharedMedia, then take a look at the "Instructions for MyMedia.txt" file included therein. Then, you will create your panel, set it's background color alpha to 0, set the border to 'none', and then add the background texture from the dropdown list of Shared Textures.

Masaq · 03-18-08, 12:20 PM

Ok I've done some more searching and found this bit of info too on the eepanels2 wiki. Meh...I was looking at eepanels1 wiki before.

Important: The background color, background blend mode and texture opacity all affect the texture's visibility. If you know the texture is right (for instance, you're using my icon image above), but can't see the texture, make sure the panel is transparent, or that the blend mode is set how you need it. It's also possible if you have tiling enabled that you've set a tile size so large, you can't actually see the image. Double check these settings. You may also alter the texture's transparency without altering the transparency of the whole panel.

Will try playing around with some of these things first. If still no luck then I'll try using the SharedMedia addon.

Main thing though is that I'm on the right track?

Masaq · 03-19-08, 03:35 AM

Ok Seerah, just a small progress report and then some more questions please.

Spent most of the night farting around with these addons and the UI and have had partial success. I didn't bother downloading SharedMedia as I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with the textures.

Original http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laveui1ek9.jpg disregard the colored areas

My progress so far http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laveui2kt7.jpg

The textures and panels at the bottom aren't finished yet, there's still some tweaking going on the make sure the sizes and dimensions perfectly fit with everything else.

But some questions/problems that have been plagueing me are...and I have spent some considerable time trying to find the answers myself, in case anyone asks.

*** The blue outlined bars...is there anyway to rotate them to a horizontal position with BT3, CyCircled or anything? I've spent so much time looking and can't find any option for it.

*** The orange outlined area....where the player buffs/auras usually are...what is that area actually called on the interface? And with what addon, Pitbull, eePanels2 or BT3 do I use to move that area, or designate to where I want those buffs to appear on my screen? Or do I need to make a new eepanel and select all the possible buffs and so on that could go there?

*** In BT3 I think it was...sorry was a late night and I forget which mod did what now, I found a bar called the Roll Bar. What is the roll bar and what does it do? Looked through wiki/wowace forums but still couldn't find an answer as to what it actually is.

*** Regarding Pitbull and the 3 yellow outlined areas. Is there any way through Pitbull to actually seperate/detach the player icon/health bar/and mana/rage/energy bars so I can resize them and position them independently?

*** And last question

Regarding the chat area in green, what would be the best mod, or way to hook (don't know if thats the right word) the chat area into that chat background that I have there please? Did that make sense?

And oh well, one more question has just come to me. Now that I have a slightly better inkling of how some of these mods work, would it perhaps be a better idea for me to install the original LaveUI to an alt, ignore the resolution and graphical problems, but go into the eepanels/BT3/Pitbull configs and so on and see what actual settings have been used, write it all down and then try to duplicate those settings through my own UI? Like all the scripts and hundred other details that the author used? Sorta like reverse engineering.

Just a thought, anyways, as usual, any help and advice most appreciated,

Masaq

**Seerah** · 03-19-08, 09:20 AM

Originally Posted by Masaq

*** The blue outlined bars...is there anyway to rotate them to a horizontal position with BT3, CyCircled or anything? I've spent so much time looking and can't find any option for it.

All cyCircled does is skin the buttons. You want to go into your BT3 options and change how many rows/columns those bars have. ie, 1 row of buttons means laid out horizontally.

*** The orange outlined area....where the player buffs/auras usually are...what is that area actually called on the interface? And with what addon, Pitbull, eePanels2 or BT3 do I use to move that area, or designate to where I want those buffs to appear on my screen? Or do I need to make a new eepanel and select all the possible buffs and so on that could go there?

That's the buff frame. PitBull has an option to hide them so you can use its display at the unit frame instead, or you could use an addon like Buffalo or Satrina's Buff Frames to move/customize them. I can't quite make out the buffs in the LaveUI screenshot, but those two mods can do what you want. Buffalo is availabe at wowace (note: just get Buffalo, not Buffalo2) or SBF is here. Buffalo I know will get skinned with cyCircled. SBF, I'm pretty sure it will, but I don't use it.

*** In BT3 I think it was...sorry was a late night and I forget which mod did what now, I found a bar called the Roll Bar. What is the roll bar and what does it do? Looked through wiki/wowace forums but still couldn't find an answer as to what it actually is.

The roll bar is what pops up when you're in a group and need to roll on an item. It's there in BT3 in case you need to move it so that it won't hide behind your setup. If you already have a mod to handle the roll bar like XLoot_Group, then disable the roll bar in BT3. But, whatever you do, don't leave it enabled but hidden (red instead of green) - as that will not let you see it when you need to roll on an item.

*** Regarding Pitbull and the 3 yellow outlined areas. Is there any way through Pitbull to actually seperate/detach the player icon/health bar/and mana/rage/energy bars so I can resize them and position them independently?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that - the setup in Lave is pretty much what you have there already. Parts of the unit frames cannot be separated, but there is the blank space bar if you need a little blank spot anywhere. What most people do if they want their portrait separate from the unit frame is disable portraits in PitBull and use a separate mod like ZMobDB (available here).

*** And last question

Regarding the chat area in green, what would be the best mod, or way to hook (don't know if thats the right word) the chat area into that chat background that I have there please? Did that make sense?

You don't need to connect them in any way, but I'm not sure how LaveUI works wrt the chat frame. LaveUI does have a chat mod installed that formats chat differently, hides buttons, moves edit box to top, etc. You can look back in the LaveUI folder to see which one it is. It might be mumble, but, again, the screenshot is a little small to tell.

And oh well, one more question has just come to me. Now that I have a slightly better inkling of how some of these mods work, would it perhaps be a better idea for me to install the original LaveUI to an alt, ignore the resolution and graphical problems, but go into the eepanels/BT3/Pitbull configs and so on and see what actual settings have been used, write it all down and then try to duplicate those settings through my own UI? Like all the scripts and hundred other details that the author used? Sorta like reverse engineering.

That's up to you - you've already put a lot of work into creating it on your own.

If you want the eePanel behind your target frame to only appear when you have a target (like in LaveUI) then parent that eePanel to the target frame. I *think* the name of the frame is PitBullUnitFrame3, but you can use the script given in the eePanel wiki to make sure.

Masaq · 03-19-08, 05:55 PM

Thanks for the replies again Seerah.

Going to check out Buffalo and ZmobDB. They sound like they may do the trick. As to the other advice you've given me in your latest post, thank you.

Going to spend some time adjusting things and seeing if I can get them to work and will get back in a day or two if I have any questions. hehe That's almost a given.

Thanks again,

Mas

Phanx · 03-19-08, 07:54 PM

Use SatrinaBuffFrames, not Buffalo. The author of Buffalo has officially abandoned the project, so there will be no further development or bugfixing. The author of SBF is actively developing and supporting that addon. Both can be skinned with cyCircled, and SBF is much more flexible.

As for parenting an eePanels2 panel to a PitBull frame, you can't just directly attach your panel to a specific frame, because although this session the frame PitBullUnitFrame3 may belong to the target unit, tomorrow you might log in and find PitBullUnitFrame3 has now been assigned to the party2 unit. I don't use any PitBull-attached panels, but I believe the wiki has some scripts for attaching panels to specific PitBull units, and there's probably information about it in the eePanels2 thread as well.

**Seerah** · 03-19-08, 08:36 PM

Yes, the author did abandon Buffalo and Buffalo2, but Buffalo2 is the one that people are discouraged from using. The original Buffalo is so simple, it still works and (apart from one tiny fix it got for 2.3) hasn't needed any updates.

So... I still say use Buffalo (not Buffalo2, as I mentioned in my original post).

Phanx · 03-20-08, 02:14 AM

Eh, even if Buffalo still works, I prefer using an addon that's actively supported. In addition, SBF is much more configurable, and has a nice config GUI instead of a Dewdrop menu that has an annoying habit of disappearing and requires me to type a slash command to reopen. That was my main complaint against Buffalo, back when I actually used it.

**Seerah** · 03-20-08, 08:43 AM

If they want all the features of SBF, it's there.

But if they only want to move the frames and have cC support, then why all the extra stuff?

Phanx · 03-20-08, 11:22 PM

Maybe because it's nice to know that if something breaks, or there's a conflict with another addon, or I can't figure out how to do something, there's someone actively supporting the addon who will fix the problem or answer my question.

Masaq · 03-24-08, 05:45 AM

Thanks for the Buffalo vs SBF discussion folks.

I've tried both now and like both. For the time being though I'm going to use Buffalo. If at any point Bufflo becomes unusable then I know that I can switch to SBF with no probs anyways.

One small question regarding Buffalo though, and its only an aesthetic question, is there any way to remove the black background that seems to stay behind the buff areas? I know SBF doesn't have this so was wondering the same about Buffalo.

Small update on the UI and another couple of questions please. Most of the panels are all set now along with the pitbull frames. However when I tried a small combat test I found these frames appearing...

http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?i...8035448pc7.jpg

I've spent so much time going through the countless pitbull frame options that I've got myself thoroughly lost now and I'm not sure what to do to disable these yellow unit frames from appearing with the mobs. I'm assuming it is something to do with Pitbull. Any help would be great please.

Along with that, the tooltip thingy you see there with "Adder"...for some reason I couldn't get rid of it...no matter where I moved my mouse, the tooltip stayed with my mouse icon. With npcs and players...this doesn't happen...only seemed to happen with the mob. Not sure if this is the "Sticky Targetting" option in the blizz interface options or not?

Anyways, more questions but gonna see if I can iron out some more wrinkles first. Thanks in advance,

Mas

**Seerah** · 03-24-08, 09:18 AM

I don't see the black background in your picture, as it's a bit small, but I've never liked the circle button skins anyway.

Those yellow frames are the nameplates. It looks like you have Aloft or something installed to change how they look. But just press V to get rid of them.

As for the tooltip, you have a mod installed that controls where the tooltip shows - go into its options and change where it's anchored to.

Masaq · 03-24-08, 11:02 AM

Thanks Seerah,

Ok so the yellow nameplate frames issue has been fixed. Cheers.

The black background on the Buffalo buff areas...yeah its a lil hard to see and tbh, its not that big a deal. Don't think I'm going to worry about it for the time being.

As for the tooltip...I have TinyTip installed. Haven't gotten around to having a look at that yet. Will do later. But something else came up.

Tried entering AV to test some things, for grid resizing and how/if elements of the UI work in combat. Mostly good. But...

seeing as I'm using grid...I don't really need the raid frames that you can see in the pic below circled in yellow. It travels up and behind the grid layout there. Same thing...I've spent sooo much time inside the Pitbull menu, going backwards and forwards that I forget where what is and what what does anymore.

http://img367.imageshack.us/my.php?image=masui1et5.jpg

Is there a simple "enable checking" box somewhere for that or is the solution a lil more complex?

Also, the area in red is totally frustrating me. I log in, and its not there. But at some point it seems to come back. I thought I found the option in the pitbull/player/aura section of the menu but now I'm not too sure. Because it always seems to come back.

Any ideas?

<edit> Forgot one other problem. I never used to get an error upon login with Lave's set of addons, but I updated Omen...I "think" that was the only mod I updated and now upon login I get the following error...

Interface\Addons\Ace2\Ace00-2.0\Ace00-2.0lua:734:AceComm-2.0:AceComm-2.0 requires AceEvent-2.0

Any ideas what that means and/or what I can do to correct it please?

Thanks,

Mas

**Seerah** · 03-24-08, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Masaq

seeing as I'm using grid...I don't really need the raid frames that you can see in the pic below circled in yellow. It travels up and behind the grid layout there. Same thing...I've spent sooo much time inside the Pitbull menu, going backwards and forwards that I forget where what is and what what does anymore.

Is there a simple "enable checking" box somewhere for that or is the solution a lil more complex?

Those are the raid frames. PitBull -> Raid -> uncheck enable

Also, the area in red is totally frustrating me. I log in, and its not there. But at some point it seems to come back. I thought I found the option in the pitbull/player/aura section of the menu but now I'm not too sure. Because it always seems to come back.

First, double check that you aren't running both Buffalo and SBF at the same time. Second, check your PitBull options and go to the Hide Blizzard part of the menu. See if Blizzard buffs are set to hidden or not (they shouldn't be, I don't think) and try toggling that check mark.

<edit> Forgot one other problem. I never used to get an error upon login with Lave's set of addons, but I updated Omen...I "think" that was the only mod I updated and now upon login I get the following error...

Interface\Addons\Ace2\Ace00-2.0\Ace00-2.0lua:734:AceComm-2.0:AceComm-2.0 requires AceEvent-2.0

Any ideas what that means and/or what I can do to correct it please?

Install BugGrabber and BugSack, please, and copy/paste the full stack trace for the error. Alternatively, you may be able to just install the Ace2 library, but I think something else is the cause of the issue.