Making an Un-Clunky UI

[Chikt]

So after Yatokth's comment in another thread I decided that I needed to do something about my UI. Previously it was the result of getting several different addons over time, I'd not put much effort into making my screen less busy. Since I want to be doing more recording, it seemed a good idea to reduce the busy-ness levels.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r217/DMDyet/UnclunkyUI.jpg

So this is what I have now. I dramatically increased the space around the character and moved my target panes to be in easier sight. You can't see it, but the party pane has been changed to no longer show buffs and debuffs or target or target, and the raid character panes have been reduced down to about 50% their previous size to give more space in the center of the screen. The Titan Bar is set to fold out on mouse over at the top of the screen, and I also modified my map to not show location or time unless moused over too.

I'm still not 100% sure about it, but it at least feels a little better. Post up your own UI with your screen resolution and hopefully we can make some un-clunky UI's for people.

That said, any suggestions?

[Agnarr]

alt-z + record = win

[Chikt]

alt-z + record = win

PvPing without a UI = Lose.

Your post = Fail

[Yatokth]

Here's my stance on add-ons:

What could you absolutely not play without?

What would make your experience different, but maybe not all that much more convenient?

What do you have for lolz?

Everything you answer at 1, you keep, everything for 2, you ditch, and 3 is conditional depending on the amount of lolz provided.

I use ecastingbar (because it makes my reaction time faster - since blizz unit frames are incapable of disabling NPCs, I can't use those cast bars for world PvP. This also gives me a focus cast bar) and Gladius (ease of arena focus targs and switches) only when I asked those questions.

This is my UI:

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n191/Runeblade279/YatUI.png

Now I realize since you have healing capability you would need xperl or a similar raid addon, but other than that, why have all those extra addons?

I also usually play much more zoomed out than this screenie, but as it's in arena, my view was auto-zoomed.

[Abric]

If you are making PvP videos, keybindings will work without you having your UI up.

Or - you can make your UI extremely small so that you still have the utility of clicking whatever it is you want when you want it ... but its not taking up 1/5 of your screen.

You also don't need chat if you are making videos! That is what voice comms are for.

[Agnarr]

PvPing without a UI = Lose.

Your post = Fail

I call b.s.
Mister pro keybinder doesn't need a UI, just spam your lava nuke spell like a good little elemental shammie.

Edit: yeah, they already covered that above me.

[Vaaldis]

http://i48.tinypic.com/v75c7b.png

Big picture, I added in the text before resizing, sooo whoops!

This is pretty much what my UI looks like, my action bars are super minimal because I use the addon Opie for my buffs, food, mounts, demons, quest items, and trade skills. Ontop of my action bars is an addon called ForteXorcist I think, black bar is a CD tracker, ontop of my pet bar is the spell timer that comes with. It has a shaman version, which is why I'm bothering to mention it.
For chat options, I would definitely go about getting Prat from wowinterface or curse.com, and cellular for a mimalistic whisper handler.
Action bars are bartender4, cast bar is AZCastBar, user frames are pitbull, SLDT are those neat numbers in that cute little bar on the bottom, cool ass moveable buffs/debuffs are Satrina Buff Frames.

Things I suggest: Putting your user frames where you can see them, so you don't need that stupid ass HUD or whatever they call it. It just seems like needless clutter, IMO. Get rid of your microbar or whatever, they have keybindings, only show when you need to open a ticket. I would even suggest placing your chat frames where I placed mine. You can do that already with the layout your UI is in.

Hope I helped :x

[Chikt]

What could you absolutely not play without?

What would make your experience different, but maybe not all that much more convenient?

What do you have for lolz?

This is exactly what I went through when setting this up.

The health and mana bars are a must, because it lets me know when I'm being focussed without needing to look at the corner of my screen. xPerl is there for the off heal utility.

Stuff I had for lolz has been removed, or actually cleans up my UI - like the map addon that I've got.


If you are making PvP videos, keybindings will work without you having your UI up.

Or - you can make your UI extremely small so that you still have the utility of clicking whatever it is you want when you want it ... but its not taking up 1/5 of your screen.

You also don't need chat if you are making videos! That is what voice comms are for.

I am not so sure that being a caster and doing things without a UI up is as easy as you think. Being a melee DPS and doing it is one thing, but I have to watch cooldowns, party members health to do off-healing if necessary, totem timers...

I could make the UI smaller, but I still want it to be functional OUTSIDE of combat. And as far as the chat goes - we have a lot of people in the guild that can't talk over vent. So it's not really so much of an option.


I call b.s.
Mister pro keybinder doesn't need a UI, just spam your lava nuke spell like a good little elemental shammie.

Edit: yeah, they already covered that above me.

You have no idea how to play a good elemental shaman if you think it's just spamming lava burst. :P

[Yatokth]

Guys, seeing your health and the health of both your enemies and allies is important for coordination - you need a UI.

[Jeedup]

http://borrowed.timeguild.org/forums/download/file.php?id=110&mode=view

Heres mine if it helps to look at and see if this similar set up appeals to you. I can explain what shit is later if necessary.

[Chikt]

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r217/DMDyet/UnclunkyUI2.jpg

Took some of Vaaldis' UI stuff and threw it into my own. Dramatically reduced the size of all my buttons and got an addon for my chat (for the lolz) so I could reduce the size of text and put some timestamps on world defense.

I also changed the guild chat from "Guild" to "The Nest" :D

[Yatokth]

That's much better.

[Jeedup]

I'd consider moving the mini-map and maybe your character frame down towards the bottom, so that if your looking around your screen your eye doesn't have to go far, allowing you to spot things in your 'view' alittle easier. I found that helped me out a tad.

Edit- Freaky...thats the same color for InfectionOOC as I have on mine.

[Grev]

That's actually a pretty nifty design.

Mine could use some work, but I'm absolutely too lazy to mess with it.

[Vaaldis]

I also changed the guild chat from "Guild" to "The Nest" :D

:O I should do that, too.
UI looks much better! Jeed made a point with the user frames and the mini map, too. I might even find a spot for my mini map down there.

[Chikt]

UI looks much better! Jeed made a point with the user frames and the mini map, too. I might even find a spot for my mini map down there.

I would move it down there but I can't move my buffs, and I don't want to clutter up the bottom of my screen TOO much. The minimap does look good in the bottom right, but since I cannot move my buffs and debuffs it looks like silly with them just floating up there.

[Jeedup]

I would move it down there but I can't move my buffs, and I don't want to clutter up the bottom of my screen TOO much. The minimap does look good in the bottom right, but since I cannot move my buffs and debuffs it looks like silly with them just floating up there.


Getting xperl would help in allowing you to add more customizable options, even shorten/lengthen the size of the character frames as well.

-Edit- Wait. Your using xperl. You know, you CAN actually fiddle around with the size and location of the buffs. And clutter issues are mostly just something you're gonna need to adjust over time. My first attempts at making a new UI looked alot like yours, then I decided to stack my bars in the middle, sort of like a flight HUD, but not really. I'm still looking for ways to change it, but due to the size of my screen, there isnt much for me to do that doesn't make it just look odd.

[Vaaldis]

Satrina(I think) Buff Frames work, too.
Not sure how Xperl handles buffs since I've never used Xperl for more than five minutes.

[Chikt]

Probably the final iteration.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r217/DMDyet/UnclunkyUI4.jpg

[Lurile]

My ui is clunky, but it has plenty of bars where i likes them, http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/45f2c4ea86659c08b4c2532effa5813e78207a03.png

I now have shield of righteousness under hammer of righteousness and also to the right of holy wrath (should i ever use holy wrath and have my moose over there)

[Rethius]

Jesus Christ Lurile....

Anyways: LOOK AT ME!!


I use addons I personally deem necessary, if I don't use them regularly they get pitched.

Quest Helper: Because I'm a lazy git who doesn't read his quests half of the time.

One Bag 3: It turns all of your bags into one big bag, like a guild vault, easy peazy. Oh, and yes it isn't always up like that, it collapses like your default blizzard bags.

X-perl It organizes my buffs, and gives me a wider health bar, it allows me to more easily keep track of my character's status.

Grid Almost forgot about this one... One of my alts is a healer... so... yeah.


.... And my icon is pretty cool.... doesn't afraid of anything.... chya.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2w50d4i.jpg

[Chikt]

Reduce the size of your target panels and player panel, IMO Reth.

[Rethius]

But...But...


It helps me keep track of mah HP!

[Chikt]

It helps me keep track of mah HP!

You can keep track of your HP without it being a gigantinormous bar!

EDIT: Scrub.

[Ryoku]

I've been working hard and playing with a my Unit frames, and well.. This is what I have to show for it.. Be warned.

http://i46.tinypic.com/xlbkw6.jpg

Basically for anatomy, my frame is below my health, my target below my mana, and my focus above my gladius. I tried to organize my spells based on my healing spells being above my cooldowns / Totems, and my offensive abilities being to the right of my healing spells. Additional cooldowns are to the right as well as clickables and mounts, and the turkey gun is taking the place of my traditional "Assist Friend" macro that I can't take away.

It needs A LOT of work. I liked Dio's example UI, so I took it and tailored it to my playstyle with the idea of keeping everything sort-of close together, but after looking at it it looks incredibly jumbled and mashed up. I think I'm going to spread things out, and size things down and see what comes of it. I may also play around with moving things around for ease. Possibly swapping places between the focus and Gladius for ease of sight, and I may possibly just bag the whole "Player frame on the bottom" thing to clear things up.

An irking pet peeve of mine is that I don't know how to get rid of that frame that overlaps my map when I highlight something.

Something I like about the way I set it up is how I gave the bag an "Open all" feature and put goodie abilities that I don't need to click and my various hearthing abilities up in the corner where they are out of the way.

Yup. Feel free to critique and advise. Like I said, this isn't what I plan on truly rolling with, but it's the best I could come up with between study sessions at 2AM while suffering sleep deprivation. Consider it a "Rough draft" if you will.

EDIT: I should also note that I do not plan on making PvP videos as Dio is, thus I have no plan on building a UI based on other people's tastes. Also the Gladius frames wont show up in any non-arena situation.

[Chikt]

EDIT: I should also note that I do not plan on making PvP videos as Dio is, thus I have no plan on building a UI based on other people's tastes. Also the Gladius frames wont show up in any non-arena situation.

My advice - lose the textured bars on xPerl, make them a solid color. It's so goddamn noisy.

Scale down Gladius, it makes a giant blind spot for you when you're in arenas which could be detrimental. I know you're a healer and don't need to see much more than party/raid panes, but just be careful.

I'd also say thin out your bars on iceHUD and make them a solid color too. But I can see how paying a lot of attention to your health and mana would make sense for a healer. XD

[Irontoe]

Good God, Lurile.

[Leoren]

I had one small idea Dio.

I keep my world defense pings in a seperate tab behind the default window. I think it would help clean up even more space if you did the same? I'm not sure how passionate you are about it being visible at all times, but I'm content with checking it back and forth now and then.

[Chikt]

I had one small idea Dio.

I keep my world defense pings in a seperate tab behind the default window. I think it would help clean up even more space if you did the same? I'm not sure how passionate you are about it being visible at all times, but I'm content with checking it back and forth now and then.

I could make it a seperate tab but I'd forget to check it most likely. I like knowing that Venture Bay is under attack every 30 seconds.

[Sejarki]

Yup. Feel free to critique and advise. Like I said, this isn't what I plan on truly rolling with, but it's the best I could come up with between study sessions at 2AM while suffering sleep deprivation. Consider it a "Rough draft" if you will.

You appear to have your own health/mana displayed at least two times, and possibly three times. Redundancy is redundant!

[Cyrass]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v719/Choran/UI.jpg

I'm using my DK to, amongst other things, test out a new UI. Here is the result thus far. Not pictured is SCT, which I'll try to get some shots of next time I take him into combat.

[Chikt]

You appear to have your own health/mana displayed at least two times, and possibly three times. Redundancy is redundant!

Unavoidable with xPerl. Despite my efforts I couldn't remove my character pane.

[Rethius]

You can keep track of your HP without it being a gigantinormous bar!

EDIT: Scrub.

NU UH.

Anyway I find in the heat of battle I tend to forget to watch my status... Having it bigger kinda helps.

[Kredorian]

I have discovered one of many reasons why I fail... I don't use any addons except Recount and DbM... No gladius, no other nonsense, Default UI.

[Chikt]

NU UH.

Anyway I find in the heat of battle I tend to forget to watch my status... Having it bigger kinda helps.

That's why I use iceHUD. Health and mana bars right there in the middle of your screen.

[Kredorian]

That's why I use iceHUD. Health and mana bars right there in the middle of your screen.

This too, and is there somthing that tells me when stuff procs? Haha yeah, I know nothing

[Grayslin]

One Bag 3: It turns all of your bags into one big bag, like a guild vault, easy peazy. Oh, and yes it isn't always up like that, it collapses like your default blizzard bags.
ArkInventory > One Bag

Does the same thing, but with the added feature of convenient sorting based on parameters you set.

Ignore my crap gear, this is an old screenshot.
http://tsurokigaarai.net/images/wow/Bags.jpg

[Ryoku]

My advice - lose the textured bars on xPerl, make them a solid color. It's so goddamn noisy.

Scale down Gladius, it makes a giant blind spot for you when you're in arenas which could be detrimental. I know you're a healer and don't need to see much more than party/raid panes, but just be careful.

I have tried to remove all textures from the X-Perl bars and for some reason see no change. It's a good idea though.

And as far as gladius goes, I suppose it could be smaller. The way I have it set up now, if I can recall, doesn't look as big as in that SS.

[Domni]

Macro your mounts. You can save screen space by combining four mounts onto one key. If you keybind the macro, then the same combination that you use to mount will also dismount you. I recommend setting your flying mount to a modifier so you don't accidentally drop yourself out of the sky.

If you use Bartender or a similar add-on, make use of the resizing and autohide/mouseover features.

You can clean up your UI by shrinking down your icons in increments over the course of a few weeks. Once you get used to the smaller icons, shrink them a bit more until your UI is clean and you are familiar with the layout.

Sidebars, micromenus, etc. can be set to appear on mouseover. The bars are still accessible without cluttering your screen. This gives you a cleaner work space.


Many add-ons allow you to adjust the opacity. IceHuD and others can be less obtrusive by making them slightly transparent.

Consider removing your bag bar entirely, as it's pretty easy to hit Shift+B. FuBar, TitanPanel, or Data Broker can keep track of your bag space for you if you need to know.

[Szordrin]

My UI is fairly clunky. I use Clique, Grid, Pally Power, Recount, uh... Quartz(casting bar everyone should have).

Think thats about it as far as UI goes.

Still got the blizzard bars but I might change that this week.

[Yatokth]

I have discovered one of many reasons why I fail... I don't use any addons except Recount and DbM... No gladius, no other nonsense, Default UI.

This isn't too bad really, I've done arenas with addons disabled and while it was tougher, I think I could get used to it just playing default.

But I don't want to bind ANOTHER key(s) to all these focus macros when I can just use Gladius to right-click and get 'er done.

Anorah, mah super duper 5s Ret Paladin, plays with no addons and she's fantastic. Addons don't make a player, they just make some things easier.

The game itself usually tells you all the procs you'll need to know.

[Alishondra]

Welp I'm on the wrong account atm, but I don't really care to much while I'm posting this 5 minutes before I get my son off the buss ;p

Dio, do yourself two favors -

ONE - get Grid - and use IT for your raid frames and party frames. Its light weight, customizable, and doesn't take up HUGE AMOUNTS of room like xpearl does. You can use it with clique-esque addons and mouse over macros for those occasions when an oshit heal is quickly needed - getting rid of the - click target, press heal button, not fast enough - issue you might see when pvping (OMG I CAN"T BELIEVE I'M HELPING YOU KILL ME FASTER >.<)

grid - its beautiful.

#2 - Get rid of xpearl, and get Pitbull. Pitbull uses WAY less resorces, is very very very customizable, and you can turn off group frames with it to use grid as your 5 to 40 man frames.



here's my ui as an example :)

We totally won too. <3 disc healing siva in bgs ;p

http://dark-heroes.net/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=462&mode=view


The hole between my own UF, and my ToT frame is my mouse over frame - so I have a general idea who I'm healing with my clique and mouseovers (which are all missing from my disc spec! I don't do much disc' playing these days ;p)

But I use Grid, seen in the middle there, for my 5 man, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc etc. The only time it gets rough and I have to unlock and move it is in AV - which I never do av, so there you go ;p



Also one more edit..

I SEE YEW OPAL

[Ryoku]

Raid frames are all personal preference, friend.

I personally don't like the layout of grid compared to x-perl. I know lots of people prefer grid and I might just be old fashioned, but x-perl bars are more simple and logical to me. You have a bar that goes down when someone gets hurt, goes up when they are healed, and glows in purple/yellow/green when they are debuffed. I've thought about trying grid again, but really I'm not thinking I'm going to find them any more impressive.

Then again, I'm also really unimpressed with clique too even though it's apparently "The best mod ever"

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is no raid frame is really better than another (except Blizzard frames. They're worse than everything.) You like po-tae-tos, I like po-tah-tos, ja?

[Lisbet]

You're unimpressed with a mod that allows for keybindings through the mouse - giving you more access to macro keybinding and mouseover spells (See , no need to click on your personal frame to send mai healing your way)?

All my holy spells are bound to my mouse or to a macro that allows me to cast my spell (say, PoM) at whomever I'm currently moused over, rather then having to take that extra second (which offten times can mean life or death for a tank or a person I'm pvp healing, which admittidly I don't do much of) to select their raid/party frame and pray I don't lag.

As for grid - When their health goes down, their namebox fills with class color (Or empties depending on how you set it) and when they're healed it goes the other way. When they're debuffed, I can see which debuff they have, weither I can dispell it or AP it, if its something that needs power heals, is a curse, is something that needs to be babysat with Renews .. its very very very informative and customizable. You can litterally add every buff and debuff in the game to show in several different ways at once -- all while being light on resources and doesn't hog lots of room up on my screen.


Not.. that I came into the thread to argue how good I think or don't think an addon is - Dio was asking for opinions on how to make his UI less cluttered for Vidieo PVP owning of people like dear squishy little me - my response is - xpearl is large, cluttery, and clunky. Go Pitbull for streamlined Unit frames, and Grid for Party/Raid frames to reduce the amount of stuff blinking and whistling at you while you're recording/pvping.

[Fynne]

I don't think Jilli uses clique, although she uses grid (begrudgingly). But I could be mistaken. She runs very minimalist when it comes to mods.

[Lisbet]

I don't think Jilli uses clique, although she uses grid (begrudgingly). But I could be mistaken. She runs very minimalist when it comes to mods.

She doesn't. I picked it up late BC with my druid for the rolling lifeblooms of eyeball pealingly boring. I just stuck with it through wrath on my priest for the occasional oshit healing needed to lawlshadowpvponpvpserver, and moved it over to use when I swapped to healing.

Some classes don't need it - Shamans don't need clique to chain heal or powerbomb tanks with LHW and Riptide. Pallies really don't need it for powerbombing heals into a tank. With preists its helpful because we have and use ALOT of spells --- and I am in love with it because it helps reduce the sheer amount of time lost in lagging due to my POS CPU.

Clique isn't required, but it's beast none the less ;p Most of the big raiding guilds DO require it though, and I remember an offserver transfer of ours berating our healers (me and jill both come to mind) for doing any "target clicking" at all when she had us up on focus (and ftot) right before she gquit and went back to her horde guild.

To each their own really, so long as the job gets done I suppose - I just thought Ryo's comment deserved a response :)

[Jeedup]

After talking over stuff with Dio in trying to get Xperl to work for his specific uses, this has me wanting to re-re-re-re-do my UI again. Hell, I've been scribbling down location ideas for things (map, Omen, Recount, Chat panel, Bars, ect) for places on my HUD, and if certain add-ons should be axed (Xperl has its own built in threat monitor based on Blizzards basic data FYI), and if I should look into others (BigWigs vs. DeadlyBossMods).

I've been interested to see that most peoples addons however, all remove or just go with a 'clear' based UI, ie, no form of frame to seperate your 'work area' to your 'visual area'. Personal taste sure, but I cant seem to work with it, having a mildly see through barrier helps me, due to my over-visual memory, it helps me with what little clicking I actually due during raids/world stuffs.

[Sabachthan]

I've been interested to see that most peoples addons however, all remove or just go with a 'clear' based UI, ie, no form of frame to seperate your 'work area' to your 'visual area'. Personal taste sure, but I cant seem to work with it, having a mildly see through barrier helps me, due to my over-visual memory....
When I played I preferred the way others were showing, but just for the record, if I were watching a video of a PvP session recording, I'd prefer a UI with a separation of the visuals from the UI buttons/maps/text like the one you posted. (Excepting arcHUD or whatever y'all are using there.)

[Jeedup]

I believe mine is eepannels. I was HOPING, it would make the area under unclickable, like, JoeSchmo of <CoffeeYUM!> standing where my Omen pops up when I'm in raid, but I missed my Death Wish button, but I click nothing. Nope, instead, I see JoeSchmo on my target section, and him highlighted, which distracts me. I spent alot of time trying to configure color seperations and what not for it, borders ect ect. Instead? Just one grey transparent panel. Kinda a waste maybe, but, its a small addon. Doesn't even show up on my data usage in WoW.

I looked at other 'stock' UIs too. Ones that people put togther to look like Diablo2 or something. Gave a few a go, liked them, but alot of them just look odd. I haven't really found a good one I would enjoy that would be close, or agreeable with my current set up. I wanted a nice troll themed one too, and that seemed to be hard to find.

Anyone finds one decent, post here!

[Vaaldis]

For anyone looking for a 'premade' UI: Wowinterface - Damia (http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13206-DamiaUI.html)

Great for raiders, and I use it for PVP just fine. I took out a few addons that i didn't care for, but wuteva. Also had to add a few, like gladius and stuff. It's nice looking for anyone who likes graphical UIs, and it's minimal to boot.

[Jeedup]

Eh...the raid composition of one of the screenshots still seems MASSIVELY cluttered, yet at the same time, has very nice streamlined features. Yet again, UNORGANIZED UI MESS!

From the looks of it, its really just a shit ton of addons people use to customize a UI, just all done for you. Which, you could then just tinker with afterwards. Sorta defeats the point really but hey, saves time for sure.

The composition though gave me a few ideas.

[Härken]

Reduce the size of your target panels and player panel, IMO Reth.

You think that's big wait till you see mine.

[Szordrin]

You're unimpressed with a mod that allows for keybindings through the mouse - giving you more access to macro keybinding and mouseover spells (See , no need to click on your personal frame to send mai healing your way)?

All my holy spells are bound to my mouse or to a macro that allows me to cast my spell (say, PoM) at whomever I'm currently moused over, rather then having to take that extra second (which offten times can mean life or death for a tank or a person I'm pvp healing, which admittidly I don't do much of) to select their raid/party frame and pray I don't lag.

As for grid - When their health goes down, their namebox fills with class color (Or empties depending on how you set it) and when they're healed it goes the other way. When they're debuffed, I can see which debuff they have, weither I can dispell it or AP it, if its something that needs power heals, is a curse, is something that needs to be babysat with Renews .. its very very very informative and customizable. You can litterally add every buff and debuff in the game to show in several different ways at once -- all while being light on resources and doesn't hog lots of room up on my screen.


Not.. that I came into the thread to argue how good I think or don't think an addon is - Dio was asking for opinions on how to make his UI less cluttered for Vidieo PVP owning of people like dear squishy little me - my response is - xpearl is large, cluttery, and clunky. Go Pitbull for streamlined Unit frames, and Grid for Party/Raid frames to reduce the amount of stuff blinking and whistling at you while you're recording/pvping.


This.

All of this.

Clique and Grid combo is great for PVP healing too, although I first started using it back in BC while raiding T5 content.

I dont think I can go back after using it for so long, I have both my Paladin and Priest keybound to my mouse. Sometimes it doesn't allow me to turn fully with my mouse but that's easily fixable with strafing. You know, anything but backpeddling.

[Chikt]

I did use Clique and Grid at one point.

xPerl is just a personal preference for me.

Just like I used to use Bartender and even though people swear by it, I went and got Dominoes and am a huge supporter of it.

I don't think it really makes that much of a huge difference outside of personal preference. And besides, xPerl DOESN'T take up an assload of space on my screen, since I scale it down. :P

[Szordrin]

You can scale down Grid.

[Chikt]

and doesn't take up HUGE AMOUNTS of room like xpearl does.

I was responding to this, Szordrin. :P

[Härken]

Perl has been a great addon regardless, the sizing to your preffrenc is always your choice try playing tournament style for a week and see how you feel ( no addon that re-work interface)

[Szordrin]

I was responding to this, Szordrin. :P

Oh....

FIVES?

[Ryoku]

Here is my final result I think:

http://i46.tinypic.com/2lk79d1.jpg

I changed more than I anticipated, including moving the map to the center (my eyes kept forgetting to check it way back in that corner) and gave it a little bit of flavor with the sun effect.

I also moved my abilities that do not require clicking towards the edges, swapped my focus with my gladius, resized my gladius, thinned down those IceHUD bars, trimmed down my party, converted my target's buffs / debuffs to the Satrina frames, and moved my totem timer bars to a more out of the way location that is still visible.

Also, if you notice, I got Grid and am trying it out again. I've managed to figure it out, and it is more compact than the xperl bars. Playing with keeping them near gladius and reversing their direction since Gladius won't show up in any other sort of situation (meaning I can get a full 40 man with grid and it'll just overlap gladius). That way I'll have nice big party frames on the left and reminders next to Gladius on the right to help with tunnel visioning. However, I haven't found it but is there a way to get it so that I can only see debuffs that I can dispell? As much as I enjoy seeing that someone has living bomb on them, I'd much rather see the curse of exhaustion or hex.

And.. That's what I got. All of these mods are taking up a suprisingly low 9.5MB

[Akuje]

Ive been reworking my UI, its sloppy as hell still, but it works.

Grid for Raid UI, Pitbull for frames, Bartender for bar mod, Quartz cast bar, Squawk and Awe DoT timer, Omen, Recount, Elkanos buff bars, with certain ones pulled out to the left to match SnA.. kinda tuned to boomkin raiding. It works.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/raven97990/WoWScrnShot_112409_184346.jpg

[Yatokth]

You think that's big wait till you see mine.

That's what she said...?

[Kained]

Sick addon bro

[Swerto]

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/Swerto/WoWScrnShot_110209_143538.jpg

Okay, so I have xperl for my unitframes, I'm using both BF and BT for my action bars, I have carbonite for my map and quest tracking, I have sexymap for my minimap, I have recount and omen for PvE (I usually toggle them off for, giving me more open space) I have titan panel at the top for tracking multiple things (money, repairs, location, etc.)

I have no chat mods at this time.

[Jeedup]

..please tell me thats not Executioner on that sword...

[Swerto]

I was testing it out, I'm back to zerking/zerking

[Domni]

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz199/Inspire_Ethos/WoWScrnShot_112409_233756.jpg

The UI could still use some work, but overall I'm pleased with it. I like seeing as much of my screen as possible, so I prefer add-ons for which I can alter the transparency or have spaces within the add-on to see through it. I recently switched to xPerl after relying on IceHuD and not using party frames. I have Visual Heal to keep an eye on overhealing. I'm considering trying Elkano's Buffbars, but I have DoTimer set just the way I like it right now and it serves the purpose. DoTimer is configured to show my raid-wide buffs, my buffs, the tank I'm healing, and where my PoM is. It also tracks my cooldowns by my action bars. ForteXorcist gives a little bit of redundancy, but I love the visual cooldown bar. Luckily, my little computer is quite powerful and runs all the shiny things with no complaints.

I use Healbot and I've gotten it small enough that it doesn't take over my entire screen. I recommend Grid or VuhDo for a cleaner UI, but I haven't been able to make the jump. I have every healing spell mousebound through Healbot or keybinds, but I keep some on the action bars for simplicity. The small box on the right holds macros I'm using frequently, but not enough to bind. This would be a lot cleaner if I axed the macro box and Healbot, then tucked Grid into that spot. I could also change the opacity of my main action bars.

My PvP layout is similar. Notable differences include re-sized Xperl party frames coming down the left side of the screen and Gladius tucked onto the right side. I toggle recount and omen off. I replace 1-4 with my main damaging spells and add an extra row of action bars for my offensive spells. I've tried Pitbull in the past, but it didn't work well for me.

Interface Add-ons:
Healbot; Xperl; DoTimer; Quartz; Bartender; ForteXorcist; MikScrollingBattleText (Limited Use: Gladius; IceHuD; Visual Heal)

Appearance Add-ons:
SexyMap; Mapster; ButtonFacade; Skinner

Information Add-ons:
DBM, Recount, Omen, Headcount; Databroker/Chocolate Bar; Atlastloot; RatingBuster

No chat add-ons, but I have multiple tabs on the chat window to track specific channels.

In the second photo, I've unlocked the hidden sidebars so you can see them. ChocolateBar at the top, two sidebars on the right, a weapon bar and the micromenu to the left of my action bars. Normally these are all set to auto-hide and only appear on mouse-over.

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz199/Inspire_Ethos/WoWScrnShot_112509_115202.jpg

[Lurile]

Okay, so I have xperl for my unitframes, I'm using both BF and BT for my action bars, I have carbonite for my map and quest tracking, I have sexymap for my minimap, I have recount and omen for PvE (I usually toggle them off for, giving me more open space) I have titan panel at the top for tracking multiple things (money, repairs, location, etc.)

I have no chat mods at this time.

BF? BT? I want. What stand for?

[Swerto]

Button Facade and BarTender

Bar tender changes the bars, Button Facade changes the buttons, go figure.

[Lurile]

Button Facade and BarTender

Bar tender changes the bars, Button Facade changes the buttons, go figure.

I need to figure out button facade, i copy pasta'd your ui and it makes mine so much smaller (i got rid of mine)

[Swerto]

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/Swerto/WoWScrnShot_121509_202414.jpg


I <3 my new interface.

[Chikt]

THIS THREAD. IT IS ALIVE AGAIN.

Click for huge version!
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6420/newuismall.jpg (http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/4073/newuilarge.jpg)

So I think this is about as un-clunky as I'm going to get.

All my bars and everything still exist, but since I have everything set to keypresses now I can set them to fade through Dominos until I mouse over them. Titan Bar is at the top of my screen doing the same thing. Really, REALLY handy.

IceHUD is a permanent addition and I added custom modules to track my two most important and most used cooldowns - Lava Burst and Thunderstorm.

I swapped from xPerl to Pitbull and it's certainly far prettier looking, but I REALLY dislike how it handles buffs and debuffs. I'm holding onto it for now though. I do like that I can get rid of my player frame unless I'm in a raid or party. That's all I ever really use my player frame for - to right click on and choose to leave the group.

[Zultingo]

you should email me all your addons and then teach me how to use them.

[Chikt]

you should email me all your addons and then teach me how to use them.

It's a long list, the main ones though:

Dominoes (For the action bars)
IceHUD (For the health/mana bars in the center of the screen)
Titan Panel (For information display at the top of the screen)
Mik's Scrolling Battle Text (For the custom repositioned battle text)
PitBull Unit Frames 4.0 (For the party, target and raid frames)
Prat (For the chat customization)
Satrina Buff Frames (For the repositioned custom buff and debuff area)
Sexy Map (For the repositioned custom map)
Totem Timers (For much more economical handling of totems than the Blizzard UI)
Warcraft Instant Messenger (For whispers)

Customizing your UI is iterative, I suggest you try to take control of it and play around with it yourself bit by bit. Because your needs are going to differ from somebody elses entirely. It's better to work through it yourself, learn your UI as you create it. Because otherwise you are going to feel blind.

[Vaaldis]

Oh shit, Dio. I've been working on my UI all goddamn day.
I'll post mine in a bit.

[Rahul]

http://i40.tinypic.com/swuwzn.jpg

Simple, yet effective.

Also, BROOOOOOSTOOOOOOORM.

[Vaaldis]

KAY! I am really close to being finished, so here it goes.

Clean. (http://i40.tinypic.com/s338mf.png)

"Combat" (http://i42.tinypic.com/167kth0.png)

That scary 26.5mb will go down looots when I disable auctioneer.

Only missing a DoT timer and Power auras, if not I'm pretty much finished.
Not happy with the user frames at the moment, but I'm just testing the waters right now with editing LUA files.

[Ryoku]

I redid mine awhile ago, but I guess I'll share.

I like to describe it as a really healer-friendly setup for PvP. The party is at a place that is easy to watch, totems and abilities are all in places easy to manage, and the focus is a gigantic cast bar right under my actual character.

The buttons above my target with the two eyes are basically a focus and clear macro. Clicking the open eye sets the target as a focus, and clicking the closed one clears it. I find it helpful because although I have my gladius set up for right-click on portrait to focus, I found it irritating to have to type "/focus [Skaadvik]" in World PvP, and then type "/clearfocus" to remove it. It's something that's just stuck with me, I guess.


* (http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1425/wowscrnshot040710202536.jpg) Cleaner, w/ Gladius

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9692/uieditedrsizeclean.jpg

* (http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/470/wowscrnshot040710230855.jpg) Casting + focus, w/ minor tweak (realized my action bars were off center a bit)

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/13/uieditedrsizefilthy.jpg

(Click stars for fullsize)

[Chikt]

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9692/uieditedrsizeclean.jpg

Why do you need Grid AND PitBull?

[Chikt]

So I worked out how to add custom sounds on events through Mik's Scrolling Battle Text. Now whenever I get a killing blow, Heavy says "You are dead. Not a big surprise."

[The Bjarnistone]

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/Swerto/WoWScrnShot_041010_130407.jpg

Hasn't changed much since last time, other than I've switched to Pitbull and am loving it.

[Serenity]

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/synkara/Warcraft/WoWScrnShot_041510_141050.jpg

The latest UI, after being forced to make a new one once again. Not sure why my computer loves to erase my UI so much...

Anyway, not very different from my last one, but not sure if I had posted it or not. The only visible thing that's new are the LBD displays at the bottom, I think. :X

I'd love any criticisms (that aren't preferences), or suggestions for mods that would help. =] Trying to keep a lot of real estate with a slightly minimalist look.





Oh yeeeeah, being a douche and stretching the screen! But it looks like crap resized.

[Turnip]

Raid :

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2564/wowscrnshot011310231148.jpg

In town :

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/346/wowscrnshot011310233338.jpg

[Skaadvik]

what healing mod are you using? and what mod is that showing the timer for SS/Bacon/JotP?

[Villayna]

looks like grid and maybe needToKnow?

[Turnip]

Grid for my raid frames. I use mouseover macros for the majority of my healing spells. I bind some of my less used abilities (single kings, single bow, res, etc.) to Clique as well.

CLCBPT is the JoW/SS/BoL tracker in the corner. It's not very aesthetically pleasing, but it works so well!

[Cyrass]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v719/Choran/Interface.jpg?t=1271358707
Made some modifications, still working out placement for a few things. Also, managed to find someone he ripped the WC3 Orc Skin, trying to work with that

[Serenity]

While you know I don't like viewports, Cyrass, that UI isn't too bad! Can't really complain, just preference.

Personally, I don't like where the default UI puts the player and target frames. Your eyes have to travel so far, all the way up to the top of the screen. @@ It's nice when you can have yours, your target and focus, and your party frames (plus Gladius!) all right next to each other, for clicking as well as looking.

[Skaadvik]

I use the default UI + pally power and healbot. It works pretty well for me. It took a lot of tweaking to get Healbot working in a way I liked, but it serves me really well now.

[Swerto]

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/Swerto/AlexInterface.jpg

Switched mine up a bit to give it a more 'badass' feel. My main bars I pay attention to for target debuffs, target and player health/mana is now on IceHUD, removing the need for pitbull to be in the way so much. Instead I moved it down to make it simply look nice and give myself a nice portrait to look at if I want an exact number on my health and to see my buffs/debuffs. Carbonite in the lower right corner gets ovrelapped by my target window with Pitbull (it goes over Carbonite, pretty much hiding the map).

I moved Sexymap to the middle, I actually like it there more. My boss status that is usually under the minimap is located directly below recount, my 'base capture' status is right below Sexymap.

I used pretty much the same Bartender4 setup as before, instead I split them and moved them a bit so I could fit sexymap in the middle. ButtonFacade still used for bar effects.

SunnViewport is used less for an artsy effect, and more for a window so everything I see is in a set location. I have created an upper part as well to go behind titan panel.

[Abric]

Still haven't figured out how to move the player frame and target frame (top left) with Quartz. Was of the understanding it also did that? Or is that going to have to be another plethora of mods?

[Swerto]

Get Pitbull for those frames, disable raid and party frames with pitbull and use quartz for that.

[Abric]

Anything other than Pitbull? I remember installing that a year ago, and ... I think it punched me with its retarded interface. That, or my fail at mods scared me away. Probably the second one.

[Urivial]

I use the default UI plus... _corpse... thats about it. Works well for me.

[Swerto]

Anything other than Pitbull? I remember installing that a year ago, and ... I think it punched me with its retarded interface. That, or my fail at mods scared me away. Probably the second one.

Pitbull does take a bit of time to set up, xperl is also good for unit frames. You can also use IceHUD like I do to replace them completely.

[Lisbet]

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn58/RoseChyld22/WoWScrnShot_051410_125858.jpg


Spartan UI --- and various self downloaded personal preference mods ;p

[Emmons]

One thing I hate about most of these UIs is the immense amount of blocked off space at the bottom. Here's how I have mine set up. I have RoguePowerBars set up so that it only comes up in combat. If you're not a rogue, you probably don't need to bother with them. The left chat box is my general chat and the right is guild/ooc channels. I like this setup because with the combo points in the dead center of my screen, I only need to look an inch up/down/left/right to get all the info I need for my raids. Everything is moveable and scaleable, keep in mind my resolution is only 1440x900.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/MattManv2/UI.png

[Swerto]

Emmons, vieport doesn't block any space. Instead it re sizes your game screen.

[Emmons]

But there is physical screen space there which is not being utilized by rendering my pretty grass. It also takes up more system resources to do that.

[Swerto]

Heh, I run on 2 gigs of ram at max settings with all my mods on... usally sit around 28 FPS. Drops down in crowded spaces though.

[Emmons]

I run on 2 gigs at max settings and get 60 FPS.

[Swerto]

In barrens.

[Emmons]

Also, why would you not want to use your maximum resolution solely in exchange for having some nice grey area?

[Swerto]

Because I like my view being obscured by as few things as possible. I have a fairly large monitor, and I sit fairly close to it (and it's a widescreen). And I use the largest resolution. I can afford to give away some monitor space so my view space actually is as uncluttered as it can be.

[Xaraphyne]

Here's my current UI, at rest.

http://renedreamer.com/ui_may162010.jpg

I'll upload one in combat/group later. It's a bit more interesting.


Edit: Here it is in party/combat.

http://renedreamer.com/ui_may162010c1.jpg

If you want to try to make any sense of it (the buff bars being separated and moved around as they are is definitely confusing unless you know what's what), here's a guide (http://renedreamer.com/ui_may162010c.jpg).


What I go for is to keep the information you actually -need- close at hand, that is, near the center where your character is. I'd prefer to have my character unitframe a bit closer on my hunter, but I'm too lazy to maintain separate UIs for my DPS and healer characters, and needless to say raidframes need to be right in the center for healers. Anyway, the things I'm usually keeping an eye on are my debuffs on the tagret; any debuffs on me; cooldowns for my abilities (which are those PowerAura numbers there), and any warnings/circumstances around me I need to react to. My health, mana, and aggro I monitor mostly by means of sound effects or PowerAuras.

I just got rid of the error message spam by putting a suppressing line into my steady macro. I'd like to get rid of the party frames entirely, but I seem to recall there's no way to actually do that in xperl. I've tried other unitframe mods and none of them give me the options I like with xperl, or are that much more lightweight, so I'm just going to scale it down.

[Turnip]

@ Xaraphyne

I'd be careful with a UI like that. You're obstructing a large portion of your screen which can be dangerous in a raiding / pvp environment.

Then again I tend to prefer minimalistic UIs so your experiences may vary. One thing I would reccomend is sitting down with one open action bar (12 slots) and considering what abilities you really, really need to have visible. Put these important abilites on the bar and hide everything else. It's really surprising how much junk you can pull off your screen when you try.

[Xaraphyne]

@ Xaraphyne

I'd be careful with a UI like that. You're obstructing a large portion of your screen which can be dangerous in a raiding / pvp environment.

Then again I tend to prefer minimalistic UIs so your experiences may vary. One thing I would reccomend is sitting down with one open action bar (12 slots) and considering what abilities you really, really need to have visible. Put these important abilites on the bar and hide everything else. It's really surprising how much junk you can pull off your screen when you try.

I'm rather familiar with raiding environments.

I find that the bottom third of the screen or so really isn't that important, especially with how zoomed out I keep my camera. Plus, most portions are actually translucent, not opaque, so it's not completely obscured. Pluuuus... it's pretty. :)

As for the action bars, that's one of my foibles. I like to have all of my buttons available. For one thing, I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what's on 6 through =, or F3 through F12. I actually do have to glance at them for reference at times. <.<

[Tylorvias]

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/dy51exi4/WoWScrnShot_051610_193811.jpg

Domino's and Btex to clean my UI up. I have a second set of spells designed to target my focus target simply by holding shift and hitting 1 - =. My more utility spells such as curses, infernal, mana drain, soul link etc are hidden away on alt 1 - = and I have four abilities bound from my mouse. Because I have so many macros and spells I use up all my action bars on all my tabs, necrosis lets me bind directly from it so it frees up some room for me. Other then that it's pretty clean and it gets the job done.

[Swerto]

I'm rather familiar with raiding environments.

I find that the bottom third of the screen or so really isn't that important, especially with how zoomed out I keep my camera. Plus, most portions are actually translucent, not opaque, so it's not completely obscured. Pluuuus... it's pretty. :)

As for the action bars, that's one of my foibles. I like to have all of my buttons available. For one thing, I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what's on 6 through =, or F3 through F12. I actually do have to glance at them for reference at times. <.<

Or you could use sunn viewport, where it actually resizes your screen so there is nothing obscured.

[Gorvena]

Or you could buy a 32" LCD and set it up as your main monitor...

[Lisbet]

Xara, listen to the turnip - while you might "understand the raiding scene", she (or he? possibly it, since its a turnip ;) ) kicks the raiding scene in the teeth with spiked shitkickers ;p

If you want pretty - go SpartanUI!


To emmons comment about waisted screen space -- I've got a 22inch monitor, and that black bar on the bottem probably only takes up an inch and a half- and has everything I need squashed into it (minus skada, because on Clarity's ui I have double chatboxes to avoid raid/guildchat disappearing into the spam ;x).

22 inches - minus an inch and a half = a hell of a lot of screen space, and I am a "must see everything lest I die in fire" kind of person ;p

[Chikt]

I have to ask people, why the giant bar at the bottom of your screen?

That bar takes up 20% of your screen space in most cases, and are dreadfully cluttered with buttons with little visual organization. If you need to see your icons, why not separate them and keep it simple so they're not taking up so much space?

I'm really disliking this whole new theme of "giant bar at the bottom of the screen" that UI's seem to be developing.

[Swerto]

I resize my viewport with it, effectively removing all buttons from the actual viewspace. The game screen actually starts where the bar stops.


I've never been a fan of minimalist outside of ultra realism games.

[Chikt]

I resize my viewport with it, effectively removing all buttons from the actual viewspace. The game screen actually starts where the bar stops.


I've never been a fan of minimalist outside of ultra realism games.

You know what game used a giant bar at the bottom of the screen?

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9482/full858920070704.gif

World of Warcraft isn't that kind of game.

Here's a Top Gear GUI TOP TIP.

If your UI looks like this.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4413/12149468300c220cb37.jpg

Or this.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2963/wowscrnshot101407130246.jpg

You're doing it wrong.

But if your UI looks like this.

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/7067/halflife2e.jpg

High five, good sir!

Less is more. Learn to work with less, and you'll get more out of your UI. You don't need to take up that much space ever. Look at any good game interface out there and it keeps as little cluttering your screen at any one time as humanly possible. Moving everything into one spot isn't getting rid of clutter. It's like having a house full of garbage and sweeping it under the rug - it's still messy, it's just all in one place now.

TL;DR - Moving everything into one place is not utilizing the full potential of your UI. No matter what the game. The default WoW UI is a good example of half-way there.

[Urivial]

I liek the third one :O

[Chikt]

I liek the third one :O

You're a Ret Paladin, you don't need to see what you're doing.

[Urivial]

Pretty much.

[Swerto]

I'm not doing it wrong at all, I have a huge ass monitor and I play ultra zoomed out, I've got so much shit I can see at once it's insane. Carbonite overwrites the maximum zoom distance so I can zoom out even further if I want to.

That bar at the bottom keeps shit out of my way, I think it looks nice, and it's all in one spot with everything able to be grabbed. I don't do minimalist in MMOs, I don't like how it feels.

[Villayna]

Feel free to point out things you see that you think can be improved, but try to keep the epeens in check, ok?

One thing that I see alot of people do is they have party frames AND raid frames. If you have raid frames you don't need party. If you aren't a healer or tank, do you really need to see what everyone's health is? If you are using it for targeting, then consider picking a specific person to assist off of, and use a focus frame.

Also, as someone else pointed out, there's a big difference between if you are using a large screen versus a small screen. Also, some of us are old and half blind, so we need big buttons ;)

[Chikt]

Also, as someone else pointed out, there's a big difference between if you are using a large screen versus a small screen. Also, some of us are old and half blind, so we need big buttons ;)

Keyboards have big buttons!

I didn't mean to come across as arrogant. The point I was trying to make was simply that once you've had an established UI for long enough, you should be able to do things without even looking at your keyboard or the UI itself. In fact, I'd wager a guess that many clickers click without even looking at where they are clicking. That's three clicks in one sentence. Awesome.

Perhaps I'm just jaded because I get in trouble when my UI's are cluttered and since I've learned to un-clutter my own UI and love it, I've become a proponent of a clean screen.

[Turnip]

I don't really want to get too involved in this arguement since it's really up to each person how they want to play and their UI generally reflects this.

I want to comment on this though :


I find that the bottom third of the screen or so really isn't that important, especially with how zoomed out I keep my camera.

I actually find this to be untrue. In fact, I find that the most useless portion of my screen is the top third rather than the bottom third. Does anyone else feel this way?

[Swerto]

When I'm PvEing, for sure. PvPing? Hell no, that's where the ranged guys are (I play looking at the ground slightly with an angle... about 20 degrees, allows me to play with less video lag because less explosions in the distance that don't matter to me are getting drawn).

[Chikt]

So I just had an awesome idea for a WoW themed keyboard with modifiable key sets with spells from all the different classes. You could pop out your Qwerty keyboard and replace it with a key set with themed keys for your class in the places they're meant to be.

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8687/wowkeyboardidea.jpg

Probably undermines the whole point of keybinding in the first place (it clears up your UI AND your keyboard) but I still thought it would be cool to see put in action.


I actually find this to be untrue. In fact, I find that the most useless portion of my screen is the top third rather than the bottom third. Does anyone else feel this way?

The top third is typically sky. When you're running around you don't look up, you look down. At the ground and where you are moving.

I'd imagine for raiders it's particularly important to have that bottom third of the screen to keep them from burning/freezing/electrocuting themselves to death.

[Swerto]

There's a thousand dollar keyboard that does that with LED's.

[Fhoyle]

This is mine. Most of my casts are mouse-over-macro'd and there is very little I actually click on. I like being able to see all the cooldowns on the buttons rather than needing some bar mod to tell me when things are available.

I could probably make self and target units smaller, but meh..it works for me.

http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/fhoyle/wow/fhoyleui.jpg

[Moknim]

I just got rid of the error message spam by putting a suppressing line into my steady macro. I'd like to get rid of the party frames entirely, but I seem to recall there's no way to actually do that in xperl. I've tried other unitframe mods and none of them give me the options I like with xperl, or are that much more lightweight, so I'm just going to scale it down.

If you haven't tried it Xara - Shadowed Unit Frames was my upgrade from XPerl. I can't find anything SUF can't do that XPerl could do (including the pretty pictures of you, come on - I know how vain you are ;) ) and it seems to be much 'lighter' than XPerl. Also party frames gone!

[Crushem]

This is semi unrelated, but the chat log in Fhoyle's screenshot made me giggle.

[Lurile]

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/96909969-4.jpg


Map isn't really visible in there but it's carbonite's map. Lotta contrast to my earlier SS of my ui when I was levelling my Paladin

[Gorvena]

http://wow-tng.org/picture.php?albumid=250&pictureid=2150

Bartender, Omen, REcount, Decursive. Lots of space on the monitor.

[Fjordan]

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb185/Etaurseytu/WoWScrnShot_051710_173456.jpg

Finding premade UI's are a good way to clean up a clusterfuck UI. This is RothUI, which nearly overrides WoW's default UI.

I also have other addons installed: 84 to be exact. My FPS ranges from 8 - 19 depending on hte situation, and my graphics card is a little under mediocre. Needless to say, if taken the right way, premade UI's area big help.

[Xaraphyne]

I love customizing and talking about UIs, so skip my overly long post unless you really care. <.<


That bar takes up 20% of your screen space in most cases, and are dreadfully cluttered with buttons with little visual organization. If you need to see your icons, why not separate them and keep it simple so they're not taking up so much space?

I've really minimized mine as much as I'm able. Well, I could probably get rid of a line or so of buttons, but then I'd have to go into my bags to put on my fishing pole, use buff items, etc., and I'm way too lazy for that. :D Otherwise, refer to my previous explanation of really -not- having most my keybindings memorized. (In defense of that, I'm a hunter, and I come from the generation where all you needed was mousewheelmousewheelmousewheelmousewheel...)


If you haven't tried it Xara - Shadowed Unit Frames was my upgrade from XPerl. I can't find anything SUF can't do that XPerl could do (including the pretty pictures of you, come on - I know how vain you are ;) ) and it seems to be much 'lighter' than XPerl. Also party frames gone!

I tried it, but I seem to recall that I ended up pretty displeased. Something or another that I'd gotten used to having in xperl I couldn't seem to replicate in SUF. And Pitbull was just horrible. Sorry I don't have the specifics, it was months back. As is, xperl isn't even near the top of my memory-hogging addons anyway... WIM and Elephant both win by a loooooong shot.


Or you could use sunn viewport, where it actually resizes your screen so there is nothing obscured.

I considered it, actually. It wouldn't be a bad idea. Unfortunately, scaling down the viewing area has its own downsides too, so I haven't been convinced to try it quite yet.


Xara, listen to the turnip - while you might "understand the raiding scene", she (or he? possibly it, since its a turnip ;) ) kicks the raiding scene in the teeth with spiked shitkickers ;p

If you want pretty - go SpartanUI!

No really... I'm pretty familiar with raiding. -_- I know TNR never ranked above FL, and TS was more about the community than the progression, but sheesh, I think my experience is pretty sufficient!

And... My UI is plenty pretty!! :p


In fact, I find that the most useless portion of my screen is the top third rather than the bottom third. Does anyone else feel this way?

That's interesting. I guess it depends on what kind of angle you keep your camera at? But an additional thing for me would be, having anything across the top of the screen makes me feel totally... squished in. It feels a lot less cluttered and easy to see things without anything across the top. (One of my former UI incarnations had even the minimap moved down to the bottom. I might do that again.)

Also, it's probably a bit different for melee and ranged. I'm willing to bet that the melee folks are the biggest objectors to the bottom half of the screen being at all obscured, because they're more sensitive to positioning.

[Agnarr]

So I just had an awesome idea for a WoW themed keyboard with modifiable key sets with spells from all the different classes. You could pop out your Qwerty keyboard and replace it with a key set with themed keys for your class in the places they're meant to be.
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

[Swerto]

God I would kill for the Optimus, we used to nerdgasm about it at the tech center my senior year.

[Karkarov]

Honestly you can take out as much of your screen as you want for UI elements so long as you are also willing to play with viewport mods. If you are going to make giant blocks of buttons etc it is best to do it this way especially if you are a class that really does need to see the whole screen. The problem is if you don't play on a high resolution it can make it hard to see things.

[CytianaMoonarrow]

Excuse me while I take the down time to rebuild a sleeker UI.

Can anyone reccomend anything simple for tech-tards that reduces the size of things? I've already picked myself up bartender, and would like to minimize the size of buffs, and my chatbox also. :>

[Vaaldis]

Satrina Buff Frames is pretty handy for sizing buffs, you can even move shit around if you wanted to. Go crazy!
Not sure how well it'd work with unit frames that already handle your buffs for you, like Xperl, but it's worth a go.

I use Chatter (for now) for my chat needs, besides whispers. Does a good job at resizing.

I'm assuming you've already scaled down the UI through the video options?

[CytianaMoonarrow]

I havent' yet done that. D: How's that work? D:

[CytianaMoonarrow]

http://i339.photobucket.com/albums/n469/ravynsfaery/WoWScrnShot_070610_180320.jpg

The end result! Added bartender and prat!
Changed my ratio to about 1152x864. If it needs to go higher, I'll give it a shot. =]
I am most pleased.

[Vaaldis]

The UI scale I was talking aboot is under Video, in the options menu.
There should be a dropdown box saying "multisampling" yeah, underneath that has a check box for "Use UI scale"

Turning it all the way to 'low' might be what you're looking for.


& derrr, I forgot all about Prat.

[Selash]

Alright, I finally ditched the regular UI and found a combination of Addons to my liking:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/K0LD/Liberator%20Kills/WoWScrnShot_071010_202130.jpg

For my keybindings, I mainly use 1-4, E-T, A-D and Q & E. Few not-often-used buttons are bound to other keys, as you can see, and my UI tends to be minimalistic and clean. As for AddOns...

Perl Classic - Unit frames. Lightweight, flexible, and sexy looking.
Dominos- Very customizable action bar/UI customizer.
ButonFacade & ButtonFacade:Renaitre - Allows me to reskin the button borders.
Omen - Threat meter.
DeadlyBossMods - Boss ability/PvP objective tracker.
CooldownTimers3 - Flashes abilities that are ready to use in the center of my screen.
Power Auras - Creates cool little auras for tracking my status and what's on my target.
MonkeyClock - Clock on the top center of my UI, tracks more than just time.
Quartz - Attack bar, tracks auto-shot/swing timer as well as other timers.
AddOn Control Panel - Allows me to turn addons on/off without logging. Very useful.
Scrap - Adds a button to all vendor windows that lets me sell all grey/junk items with one click and tells you how much money you made total in your chat log when you do.
SexyMap - Area map customizer.
Recount (Raiding only) - Damage/DPS tracking
Gladius (Arenas only) - Enemy tracking

I'll grab another few screens in a minute to explain things a bit more.

[Cedes]

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/masterpd85/WoWScrnShot_051610_200117.jpg

I "stole" the UI art frame from someone on the MMO-champ boards awhile back to deal with my (excuse my french) clusterfuck of junk with the wow UI. When I'm not healing its rather clean hehe. (much cleaner on my DK and alts as well since they have less buttons to mash than a damn paladin -_________-)


My secret is fame scaling or just size in general. I reduce as much as possible as long as I can still see or read it. My biggest issue is my healbot which is as small as I'd like it to be but could be smaller. It may seem clutty but it isnt. Its on a 15'' laptop and I have 50 billion buffs and trauma slashing everywhere so ignore those..... and *cough* ignore Paard's arch druid healing*cough*

[Cedes]

my mods are:

-atlas/atlas loot enhanced
-Chinchilla mini map
-BTEX (the UI art frame at the bottom)
-CT_mod (buff bar, bottom bars, etc)
-healbot
-x-pear unite frames
-and the usual's = recount, pallypower, titan panel, etc etc etc

[Turnip]

I still think most of you guys have too many buttons on your UIs. I understand some of you are clickers, another topic in itself, so the buttons are unavoidable for you. That being said, being able to efficiently use keybinds will allow you to remove many spells from your screen.

In my case I ended up re-examining my bindings and decided to just bind everything while at the same time completely eliminating buttons from my screen.