One day, when I rolled a druid healer and entered my first raid with her, I have discovered, that Blizzard UI is not helping much my performance. Ever sinse I worked on trying to move things out of my way and, finally, ended with a panel UI.
I tried a couple graphical designs, tryed to draw my own graphics but sense of simplicity took over me and this is the result.
I hope someone find this usefull for themselves and it will save your time building your own UI from a scrach.
Purposes
I like to say shortly about what I tried to achive in my interface.
I am more or less a clicker. I like all my spells and abilities to be visible or, at least, at ease access. Also, as a raider I wish every single bit of needed information to be clear and noticable while having a clear viewport and minimum of not related graphics. What I have achieved with this UI satisfies me fully in all my demands.
This UI is for you if
- you are tired of Blizz frames overlaping the whole your viewport
- you always miss at least 12 extra bars besides those Blizz offers
- you never have room to place your 24 bars
- you are tired of looking for the spell you need in the brick of bars you got
- you are sick of brightly colored mosaic of your addons but need them all
- you often get ganked by something from outside your viewport
- you love things to be sorted thematically
- you love your minimap to be clean
- you are fan of panels
- you are fan of X-perl default skin
The attached arhive contains:
-basic configuration for core addons
-textures for kgPanel
-graphic for SunnArt
THERE ARE NO ADDONS IN THIS DOWNLOAD
Making it work
You will need:
1) X-Perl Skin UI package;
2) The following addons:
- Bartender 4(3.3)
- Button Facade(3.3)
- Button Facade: Apathy(3.3)
- Chinchilla Minimap(3.3)
- kgPanels(3.3)
- LunarSphere
- Minimap Button Frame(3.3)
- Titan Panel(3.3)
- Recount (Optional)
- SatrinaBuffFrame
- Reflux
- Sunn's Viewport Art
- Tipsy
- XPerl Unit Frames(3.3)
Installation
1) Remember to backup your WTF folder
2) Install the listed Addons
3) Install X-Perl Skin UI (see How To for detailes)
4) Log into game and call UI layout with /reflux switch X-Perl
5) Change Titan bar profile to Custom > X-Perl
6) Enjoy your new UI!
Where the heck is ..
- stance bar?
Its switched off. You may recativate it via Bartender options. See "How To..." for detailes.
- my experience bar/reputation bar/map location lable?
I use Titan for those.
-calendar minimap button?
It iss turned off in Chinchilla minimap settings if you want it back or to be displayed in MBF. Myself I use macroed /calendar command and keep the macro Calendar in Lunar
- micromenu?
I keep em Lunar-ed as well. Last X-Perl Skin UI version has them bind there already.
-bags?
- using [b]-key for that myself, but titan bags have open-on-click function
too.
How to...
Install X-Perl Skin UI package
1. Extract X-Perl Skin UI:
- Interface into your WoW\Interface\ directory, replacing the existing SunnArt\CustomTheme.lua
- Files in WTF into your WTF folder
2. Rename:
-WTF\Account\YOUR_ACCOUNT with your account name
-WTF\Account\YOUR_ACCOUNT\YOUR REALM with your realm name
-WTF\Account\YOUR_ACCOUNT\YOUR REALM\YOUR_CHARACTER with your character name
Change Titan Profile
Right-click the panel, then chose from drop down menu:
[Profiles: Manage] > [Custom:X-Perl] > Load
Move tooltips
Type in chat /tipsy then drag the anchor to the position you desire your tooltip to be.
Configurate Bars
The layout you will get by default is build for a pet class. You may want to expand Bar3 from two buttons to twelve and replace the most low bars (nr4 and nr5) with Stance and/or Micromenu bars. Use your imagination.
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Use Blizard Interface configuration > Addons or /bartender command toaccess bars configuration
Configurate the circles
This bit is actually main reason for this UI to be build. I always missed some extra bars but never had space for them. Lunar is perfect solution for the problem but I dont like the sphere to be in the middle of my screen or destroy all linel layout I always had. Hello, linel Lunar!
Three of the main buttons shall already be detached. They have black and very thing border so it may be not easy to see them. Move your mouse over one of the rings and you will see it to be hightlighted
To edit bar you will need to enter edit mode and check move detached buttons. Move button from its main position, fill up bars and move the button back.
I will not go into details about Lunar configuration. If you are newbie with it, visit their website.
If you dont want to use Lunar sphere, and/or happy with minimum bars you are free to remove Lunar from your addons collection and hide the lunar graphical arrangement under a kgPanel. Or use them for minimap buttons or any other addons.
Again its a free highway for your imagination.
Additional niterface skinning
After you have turned on your own addons you may want them fit into X-Perl gamma. Its possible for most more or less popular addons to change their apperance.
Some (like Omen) do support texturing. Use X-Perl texture (which you can upload into addon library from Interface\AddOns\Textures\ directory) and Blizzard tootip borders with slight grey-ish color.
For some addons (like Recount) you can remove their not fitting colors by making them totally transparent and underlayed with additinal kgPanels.
Some addons (like ArkInventory or HealBot) can be colored into gray-ish colors to fit the general gamma of UI.