I'm coming back

I know its been a while. I'm sorry.

Hang in there, I plan to be updating at least once every two weeks with some meaty posts. Hopefully more often. On that note, OnyxBox v2.0 is due to come out soon, within a month. I've stopped updating it regularly, because I've been working on a reasonably big overhaul of the interface, and the current version was working fine enough that I didn't need to keep updating it.

On that note, a few things that happen to be bothering me at the time I'm posting this.

1. I can't even open WoW. I'm getting a fatal error. This is annoying.
2. I have two level 60's on a fresh server (no level 80 help), who both have their epic ground mount, with 2k gold left over. As my friend whines about being poor.
3. BindPad + Bartender + OnyxBox = Hell for vehicles. I did the entire DK starting quests (the vehicle parts) by clicking and keyturning. I felt like I was going to cry.
4. Pitbull 4 raid frames are totaly dieing on me. Totaly. I won't go into it, but truest me when I say its so broken that I can do is pray that the next version will fix it.
   
5. I can't get into my kitchen.
6. I don't update this blog as much as I should

Anyway, that's it. I might be able to log into WoW by tomorrow morning! yay >.>

Publish-Updated-ed! >.>

Its updated to 1.1.0

You can still DL it here.

Published!

I published my UI! YAAAAAAAAY!

You can download it here. =D

Break time

I'm in Florida for the week. No WoW. Most likely no WoW updates. I might try to work a story in if I can/feel like it.

Have a good vacation!

Making a UI (ME) pt 2

Here's another update. I think its starting to look quuuuuite nice! I'm confident with the layout and look, and am thinking about testing it out soon. I'll cover this more later, but the steps to prefecting your UI are:

1. Build the basic framework & design (see previous post)
   
2. Use Align to make sure everything is in tandem (note the square >.>)
3. Look at it. For a long time. Seriously. See what doesn't match
4. Do some light test play with it. This will quickly reveal what problems and limitations the UI has
5. Go back and edit
6. Repeat # 4&5 as many times as nessary
7. Step it up. Play with the UI like it was "real" (and it is becoming a good UI)
8. Polish

Anyway, I realy got off topic. Sort of. Here's the screenies so far:

Casting and Target + ToT

Combat

Making a UI (ME)

So, after writing my own little post about making a UI, here mine is. So far. Its a WIP. I opted to go for minimalistic setup, as you can see. Even though its FAR from done, I'm posting it now because it's usable now. (Click for big image)


Idle and Target of Target

Combat

Casting

There is still a lot of work to do here. Especially lacking (in a very obvious manner) are aesthetics. I haven't gotten time to do the art yet. Also, I have not yet configured many extra addons such as DBM, Omin, etc.

How to make a UI, part 1

Lets get this ball rolling. If you are reading this, either you have mistakenly come across it while journeying through a series of tubes, or you have genuine interest in making a custom UI. If you are the latter, good for you! If you are the former, go say hi to 4chan for me. Or go make a post about spiders. I don't care.

Since if you are still reading this, I assume you want to make a custom UI. Good for you. Seriously. On the flip side, if you are still reading this, you most likely don't know where to start. That's fine. As a matter of fact, that's why I'm here today, posting: to help you out. Lets get started.

Before you think about the actual technicalities of designing a UI, you need to know what kind of UI you want to make / play with. For simplicity, there are three basic types of UIs. (I mean good UIs. The all-too-common "ima throw all sorts of shit on my screen and see how it looks" is NOT a UI type)

• Minimalistic UI - These kinds of UIs scrap everything that isn't necessary. Unit Frames (UFs) are kept small, often without portraits. Most of the screen is very barren, typically devoid of art of other unnecessary things. Bag bars, the Micro Menu, *quite a few* action bars, among other parts of UIs are hidden. The goal here is to provide you with the maximum viewing area for quick reaction timing, as well as freeing you from things you don't relay need to know -- excess information that will paralyze you. A good example is this UI.

• Graphic UI - A graphic UI is just that. Graphic. No, not gory. A graphic UI's point is to be pretty. I'm talking prom queen pretty. It's supposed to look good. To that end graphic UIs use a lot of skins, utilizing addons such as KgPannels to do skin/art. The result is a UI that looks very slick. Here's a good example.

• Generic UI - This is where it gets sticky. I'm actually going to start with a screen shot. As you can see, the UI isn't minimalistic - there's tons of stuff on the screen, much of it which can be downsized or removed. And its definitely not graphic. There's no art. So, if I had to define this kind of UI, I'd say something along the lines of: "A UI that has all the elements of the standard WoW UI, but considerably shuffles and reskins / customises most aspects of it"

So take your pick. Go look over some of the links, see what suites your style. Go on. I'll wait.


...


Back? Ok, good. Did you pick what kind? Good. Hm...interesting choice. But for everybody else out there who didn't pick your kind of UI, I'm going to keep this advise generic.

Step one

Back away from the computer. WAIT! Not yet, read this first. Back away from the computer. Clear your head. Take a quick walk. When you come back, log onto WoW, and just look at your screen. Where do your eyes go immediately? This is an important question, as this is where you are going to put the focal point of your UI. One thing you may notice about all the UIs linked above is that the main points of any UI (UFs and Action Bars[ABs]) are all in the lower center of the UI. The reason is: that's the place that in all likely hood, your eyes are going to be spending a majority of their time.

I'm going to assume you picked the same horizon line as everybody else, lower middle. You can alter some of my advise to suit your needs should the line not be there. Here's what we got so far.


Step two

Now, again, step back from the computer. This time with pen and paper in hand. Take all of two minutes to do a quick map outline of where everything should be. And label it. Go on. Do it.









Here's what I came up with. *SCT Stands for Scrolling Combat Text, or any other addon like that, such as Parrot. Omen Recount

You can see that right now I'm leaning towards a generic UI. At there's nothing 'minimal' about how much screen I'm taking up, and asides from my awsomtastic picture, there's no art (duh).

Step three

Also known as "start downloading". Here's a list of major addons you need in order to be able to customize your UI.

1. Unit frames. Pitbull and XPerl are two good examples, but by no means the only. These allow you to create custom setting for your UFs. Want a portrait? You got it. Need to move it? No problem. Need to do any number of funky things, including change skin? We got ya covered.
2. Some form of Scrolling Combat Text. I just covered that. I use MSBT.
3. Action Bars. These allow you to move your bars into all sorts of custom ways. Want a tiny box of your bars? That can be done. Need a big pet bar? that too. You get the idea. Bartender and Dominos are good ones.
4. Omen Recount. Some need them. I have both, but barely use them, being a tank. Also, if you stare at Recount and then stand in the fire, you suck.
5. Minimap mod. There's a ton of these, and they all do the same thing. Just Google "mini map wow addon" and you should get one. DONT USE SEXY MAP.
6. Buff / Debuff addon. IMO, theres two major competitors here: SBF and Elk Buff Bar. I personally LOVE SBF, but it doesnt fit into the UI that im running at the moment, so I'm using EBB.
7. "Hidden / extra" addons. Quick: these are extra things like Questhelper, DBM, etc. that enhance playstyle, with out affecting how the UI looks. You know what mods you need better then me.
   

Remember, just because I suggested an addon, does not mean that its the end-all, be-all. Now, Log in and play around with those mods. Get comfy with them. Know how they work. I'll be back with part 2 soon.