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12-24-13, 04:38 AM   #1
bonytony
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What I'm working on

Started working on this, this week. Im likin it so far but it seems to lag me out quite a bit when in combat. Maybe i need to use more lightweight addons or something, not sure. I run every other UI ive tried great, but when making my own I always get this problem.

If i can ever get it to run more smoothly Id like to learn to have toggleable layouts for lvling, raiding, questing, and farming.........errrr without reflux

Anyways, what do you guys think? Like it? Hate it?

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12-24-13, 05:44 AM   #2
Phanx
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Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
... it seems to lag me out quite a bit when in combat. Maybe i need to use more lightweight addons or something, not sure.
Do you have BugSack running, or at least "Display Lua Errors" checked under Interface Options > Help? If you're seeing a huge drop in FPS when you enter combat, that usually means there are errors occurring. However, the game does not display errors by default.

Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
... Id like to learn to have toggleable layouts for lvling, raiding, questing, and farming.........errrr without reflux
Why without Reflux?
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12-24-13, 12:56 PM   #3
bonytony
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Originally Posted by Phanx View Post
Do you have BugSack running, or at least "Display Lua Errors" checked under Interface Options > Help? If you're seeing a huge drop in FPS when you enter combat, that usually means there are errors occurring. However, the game does not display errors by default.



Why without Reflux?
Ill check for errors because a few of the addons are out of date but not by much.

And without reflux just because id like a bar similar to RealUI and id want the profile buttons to switch on tht bar instead of using macros.......unless im completely confused and dont realize thats how nib does it with his layout changer.
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12-24-13, 06:16 PM   #4
Tonyleila
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There are some things:
1. You coud remove the 100% text from recount so it only shows dps/dmg done and more of the name
2. Only 5 lines of chat? You are on a very low pop server and have no friends that write long texts with more lines to you? I don't know how you planned it but if it shows everything - loot guild wisper petbttel - it will spam very much. you can use MiniLoot to reduce the spam. Or think about if the chat is such an important thing to you in combat that you want it in the middel of your screen...

3. For the Quest thing maybe use http://www.wowinterface.com/download...hFrameAdv.html

4.... Whats with that blue bars left and right? Is that HP and Runepower? Where is the Runecooldown timer?

5. I woud not advise to make a toggel layout that changes for everything. I think everyone wants the things always to be at the same possitions so that you later don't have to think about where they were - if they change very time its hard to remember. Your job as UI designer is to make one layout that works good in every situation.
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12-24-13, 11:29 PM   #5
bonytony
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Originally Posted by Tonyleila View Post
There are some things:
1. You coud remove the 100% text from recount so it only shows dps/dmg done and more of the name
2. Only 5 lines of chat? You are on a very low pop server and have no friends that write long texts with more lines to you? I don't know how you planned it but if it shows everything - loot guild wisper petbttel - it will spam very much. you can use MiniLoot to reduce the spam. Or think about if the chat is such an important thing to you in combat that you want it in the middel of your screen...

3. For the Quest thing maybe use http://www.wowinterface.com/download...hFrameAdv.html

4.... Whats with that blue bars left and right? Is that HP and Runepower? Where is the Runecooldown timer?

5. I woud not advise to make a toggel layout that changes for everything. I think everyone wants the things always to be at the same possitions so that you later don't have to think about where they were - if they change very time its hard to remember. Your job as UI designer is to make one layout that works good in every situation.

All fair points, I'm pretty new to this so I'm mainly experimenting with the idea. I'd just like to have a layout similar to SnailUI where almost everything is in a small hub at the bottom that doesnt extend to the ends of the screen.

1. Great Idea, actually Ill do that as soon as I log in.

2. Ive realized this the more I played around with it. While it looks cool to me and I wouldnt mind personally, It would be much more practical to have that space used for a better purpose and just moving chat to the side and have it fade on combat.

3. Actually added that in shortly after posting this!

4. Yes those are the health bar and power bars, not too sure i like them there, Might even put them in place of the chat to see if i like then there. Errr I havent picked a Rune CD timer i prefer yet, wanna get something clean and simple but not too space consuming.

5. You're definitely right about that layouts, but i would still prefer about 3 different options for Heals, Tank/DPS, and lvling/social mostly because Ill be making layouts for these 3 just for personal preference, and giving that option doesnt seem so bad, plus theyll all be versatile and usable in most situations. But I definitely agree that the amount i listed earlier was too much. Like i said very new to this.

I appreciate the feedback and I now realize that it was a bit impractical to just think aesthetically. Ill adjust it a bit and try and smooth out the way it runs this week/weekend (probablytry and learn to use oUF as well) and post the updates!
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12-25-13, 10:34 AM   #6
Mirrikh
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I would've said try using WeakAuras for tracking runes, since you can customize it to no end, but with your odd situation of lag, i don't know how well that would roll over. My 2nd/3rd options would be:

1: DocsDebugRunes: http://www.wowinterface.com/download...ebugRunes.html

or

2: RuneHUD: http://www.wowinterface.com/download...0-RuneHUD.html
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12-25-13, 12:19 PM   #7
ravagernl
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Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
(...)Errr I havent picked a Rune CD timer i prefer yet, wanna get something clean and simple but not too space consuming.
I'm finding Nibelheims nibRunes to be irreplaceable
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12-25-13, 04:41 PM   #8
Tonyleila
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Originally Posted by ravagernl View Post
I'm finding Nibelheims nibRunes to be irreplaceable
NibRunes is out of date as far as I know.

I've used Vexpower and Vexrunes since then it has more options and it works very good to and looks the same.

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/vexrunes
http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/vexcombo
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12-25-13, 07:42 PM   #9
bonytony
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Some updates:

Got it running much more smoothly and got the visuals a bit touched up, actually started editing an oUF layout looks way better and is more lightweight, added another action bar because 20 wasnt enough it seemed haha.

Couple of problems/thoughts so far though; My panels for KgPanels are having the problem where the edges fudge/smudge out a bit. They're fine when I first create them but then after a UI reload or a client restart they seems to find theyre way back to becoming an ocd irritant. I feel like more info couls be packed into the little hub down there, but the simplicity feels good too. Cannot for the life of me find a way to hide chat on combat.

Anyways here are some pics of the updates:


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12-25-13, 10:59 PM   #10
Mirrikh
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the border smudging for kgpanels is a 1px border not landing on a pixel. i believe you can go into your saved variables of kgpanels and put the x/y on a whole pixel instead of like #.######
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12-27-13, 02:02 AM   #11
bonytony
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the current state,need to work on other class profiles, but its very close to me wanting to release it. Looking for criticism no matter how harsh (raided too long not to be able to take it haha).

Also im having one issue with the broker bar, when logging in its off center but after one reload in game it sets perfectly, using Bazooka. Dunno why it does it at all really.

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12-27-13, 04:09 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
Looking for criticism no matter how harsh (raided too long not to be able to take it haha).
Clearly you never raided with me... or maybe you were that guy who really liked when I yelled at the raid.

Anyway, my overall impression is that you are paying too much attention to "what looks cool when I sit here and stare at it from real close" instead of "what will work well in actual gameplay when spells are flying and things are moving all over the screen and I'm trying to watch out for void zones while also keeping an eye on all my procs and cooldowns and listening to the raid leader's instructions". Here are some specific problems I see:

(1) Tiny pixel font. If your target audience is strictly "people with perfect vision" and/or "people playing on huge monitors with low resolutions", go for it. However, that text is literally unreadable to me at a normal viewing distance. It's much too small, for one, and pixel fonts are really horrible for readability. I saw someone playing DotA 2 today, and had to stop and remark on the fact that the game's UI designer(s) actually used a readable font at a readable size. I understand that some people (including you, apparently) like the "pixel font" look, but it's really really hard to read, especially at a glance, and for people with less-than-perfect vision. There are a huge variety of readable fonts. I'm sure you could find one you liked if you looked around.

(2) Too many bars in one place, with not enough separation between them. Are those XP and rep bars right next to the rune bars? Why are some of the rune bars aligned with the player frame, but some with the target frame? Why do the rune bars fill sideways (compared to their shape)? The whole "bar block" looks weird, and I think it would be very easy to get confused about which bar is which in the middle of combat unless you're actively staring at it.

(3) Too many action buttons. Are you clicking? Stop that right now. If you're keybinding, there's no reason to have that many buttons shown at once. You're obviously not using them to remind you what's bound to what, since there are no visible keybind labels. Pull those long cooldowns and situational utilities off your bars. Bind them directly to keys or stick them in OPie.

Combine some of those other things using modifier keys -- one button can cast up to 4 different spells with single modifiers (X, Alt-X, Ctrl-X, Shift-X) or up to 7 if you're willing to combine modifiers (Alt-Ctrl-X, Alt-Shift-X, Ctrl-Shift-X). I'm not super familiar with death knight abilities, but if you have two abilities that both use blood runes, for example, you're probably casting one or the other, not both, so you can combine them. Or, if you have two related abilities, one with a cooldown and one without, you can combine them.

(4) Minimap and damage meter are too prominent. The unit frames would be less "buried" if you moved these things -- which are generally not important to see in combat -- off to the side. Put them on the right to balance the chat frame on the left. Hide the damge meter in combat; you'll be a better player and more valuable to your raid if you're focused on playing your character correctly and performing your raid duties correctly instead of focused on padding your bar on the meter. The minimap is generally not terribly useful in PVE combat either; set it to hide or fade to a lower opacity, with a temporary fade-in if someone pings.

(5) Do you really need to see anything on your Broker bar all the time? Set that thing to show only on mouseover. The less "interesting but basically useless" stuff you have taking up space, the easier it will be to see the things that actually matter.

(6) Randomly placed objectives tracker is randomly placed.
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12-27-13, 04:52 AM   #13
bonytony
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Originally Posted by Phanx View Post
Clearly you never raided with me... or maybe you were that guy who really liked when I yelled at the raid.

Anyway, my overall impression is that you are paying too much attention to "what looks cool when I sit here and stare at it from real close" instead of "what will work well in actual gameplay when spells are flying and things are moving all over the screen and I'm trying to watch out for void zones while also keeping an eye on all my procs and cooldowns and listening to the raid leader's instructions". Here are some specific problems I see:

(1) Tiny pixel font. If your target audience is strictly "people with perfect vision" and/or "people playing on huge monitors with low resolutions", go for it. However, that text is literally unreadable to me at a normal viewing distance. It's much too small, for one, and pixel fonts are really horrible for readability. I saw someone playing DotA 2 today, and had to stop and remark on the fact that the game's UI designer(s) actually used a readable font at a readable size. I understand that some people (including you, apparently) like the "pixel font" look, but it's really really hard to read, especially at a glance, and for people with less-than-perfect vision. There are a huge variety of readable fonts. I'm sure you could find one you liked if you looked around.

(2) Too many bars in one place, with not enough separation between them. Are those XP and rep bars right next to the rune bars? Why are some of the rune bars aligned with the player frame, but some with the target frame? Why do the rune bars fill sideways (compared to their shape)? The whole "bar block" looks weird, and I think it would be very easy to get confused about which bar is which in the middle of combat unless you're actively staring at it.

(3) Too many action buttons. Are you clicking? Stop that right now. If you're keybinding, there's no reason to have that many buttons shown at once. You're obviously not using them to remind you what's bound to what, since there are no visible keybind labels. Pull those long cooldowns and situational utilities off your bars. Bind them directly to keys or stick them in OPie.

Combine some of those other things using modifier keys -- one button can cast up to 4 different spells with single modifiers (X, Alt-X, Ctrl-X, Shift-X) or up to 7 if you're willing to combine modifiers (Alt-Ctrl-X, Alt-Shift-X, Ctrl-Shift-X). I'm not super familiar with death knight abilities, but if you have two abilities that both use blood runes, for example, you're probably casting one or the other, not both, so you can combine them. Or, if you have two related abilities, one with a cooldown and one without, you can combine them.

(4) Minimap and damage meter are too prominent. The unit frames would be less "buried" if you moved these things -- which are generally not important to see in combat -- off to the side. Put them on the right to balance the chat frame on the left. Hide the damge meter in combat; you'll be a better player and more valuable to your raid if you're focused on playing your character correctly and performing your raid duties correctly instead of focused on padding your bar on the meter. The minimap is generally not terribly useful in PVE combat either; set it to hide or fade to a lower opacity, with a temporary fade-in if someone pings.

(5) Do you really need to see anything on your Broker bar all the time? Set that thing to show only on mouseover. The less "interesting but basically useless" stuff you have taking up space, the easier it will be to see the things that actually matter.

(6) Randomly placed objectives tracker is randomly placed.
1. Good point, I tried to stick with a more RealUI-ish font because I love pixel font, even have most of my desktop on my pc changed over to pixel font. I could look around for an alternative font, but im picky haha.

2. The rune bars are actually just spaced evenly and line up with the player/target frames that way on purpose. The bars beside them are disease trackers. Ive actually had a bar block like this for almost all of my UIs I guess im just personally used to it. Ill play around with some alternative layouts for it and see if i can come up with something less confusing I guess. they disappear OOC so its less cluttered normally

3. No Im not clicking haha, its mostly to watch CDs. Had three bars personally for a long time and its been just enough because I utilize every button on my naga as well. But 2 bars may be better since a lot of people prolly dont use a mouse like that. Ill try that out because it can downsize the hub a bit.

4. Yeah this is definitely where my looks over function side comes in, like you said earlier. The only reason i started on this project at all was to make a UI similar to SnailUI. The central hub thing seemed cool to me. Ill experiment with faders to try and get to a happy median. And as a note I only ever keep my damage meter up to make sure im on top of my damage while doing what I need to do. I dont neglect any raid duties even if it means dps loss, but I like to push my damage while being active to improve my overall game.

5. personal preference , ill get on fading it though

6. Agreed, havent tried moving it yet though
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12-27-13, 06:34 PM   #14
Mirrikh
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quick question, what nameplate addon you using (if using 1), also whats the name of the font you're using?
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12-27-13, 11:14 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
3. No Im not clicking haha, its mostly to watch CDs.
Have you tried using a cooldown monitor addon? A single-bar cooldown display like CoolLine or SexyCooldown would be easy to fit in there.
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12-28-13, 07:35 AM   #16
Tonyleila
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Originally Posted by Mirrikh View Post
quick question, what nameplate addon you using (if using 1), also whats the name of the font you're using?
I guess its KuiNameplates.

But her shoud change the texture of them...
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12-28-13, 06:43 PM   #17
bonytony
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Originally Posted by Tonyleila View Post
I guess its KuiNameplates.

But her shoud change the texture of them...
Yes it's KUI, but why should i change the texture? It's Flat, the same texture on everything in the UI.
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12-28-13, 10:47 PM   #18
Tonyleila
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Originally Posted by bonytony View Post
Yes it's KUI, but why should i change the texture? It's Flat, the same texture on everything in the UI.
Sorry only saw old screens now I see the new one has change to flat textures very good
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01-04-14, 03:13 AM   #19
bonytony
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Updated the layout some more, here's the thing so far.

Wanna clean up the in combat layout a bit more, and i really need to put together a shot of bigWigs/grid while in a raid. Might do that tonight.

Out of combat:


In combat:
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01-04-14, 05:13 AM   #20
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Wow, it's like a completely different UI now! Big improvement. Main complaints now:

(1) Top of the infobar (above the minimap) should be moved down ~5px so there's a consistent amount of spacing.

(2) Bottom of the damage meter should line up with the bottom of the minimap.

(3) Tooltip still seems randomly placed. Needs to move ~5px to the right for consistent spacing, and probably down to the bottom of the screen, or at least line the top up with the top of your debuff timers (not really sure what those things in the middle of the screen are... rune timers + debuffs???).

(4) Pixel font. ... But if you're going to keep it, at least make it consistent everwhere (eg. the tooltip) except maybe the chat frame. That "MISS" floating combat text looks like some serious 1990-level graphics, haha.
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