My latest UI build around tanking in raids on my Paladin.
Main idea behind the UI is to show only the information I need based upon importance, with the use of dirrerent opacities in various elements. This has the advantage that I have acces to everything I know, but the most important features stick out more.
Main focus are the UF's which are a modified old ouf_nin. The main idea behind the frames fit my needs perfect. UF's who loose health gradually stick out more thanks to the way ouf_nin is written. Thus providing more vieuwing area when things are going good.
My health frame is in the middle. Always in my eye vision with the most important buffs I need to track above my health frame. Long duration cooldowns are shown relatively big under my UF. Short duration cooldowns (hammer of the righteouss, holy shield, consecration, etc.) pop up as a big icon on the top middle part of my screen.
Right part of the UI is basically my information panel and "oh shit" actionbar (This because I find it more easy to click on the right side of my screen). It has the Target UF which shows 6 debuffs (mine only) and 4 buffs (to see what buffs bosses get, nice to time my cooldowns appropriately). Below are the party/raidframes which fade out to 0.2 opacity when engaged in combat. As a tank there is little I can do for them and my nameplates give me all the Aggro information I need. Still thanks to ouf_nin it's very easy to see when people are dying. And ofcourse, mousing over them gives them full opacity again. Out of combat they just fade depending on being in range or not. They also support Raid Icons and aggro notifiers (a little red * on the UF).
Next to my target frame is the ToT frame with 9 debuffs max. Again easy for a tank as a lot of encounters need tank switching at specific debuffs.
Above my target frame is the threatbar. A maximum of 3 bars (my threat, offtank threat and first DPS behind us) because that's all I need. Again faded to 0.2 opacity. Still easy to see on the fly and give way more visability of my surroundings.
Topleft show all my buffs (except for the one filtered above my UF), which again totally fade out when engaged in combat. I have no interest in seeing all my buffs constantly. When engaging a Boss the DXE boss panel shows up instead.
Left of my UF are the bosstimers. It creates a nice simmetry with the target frame. My UI are basically 2 major lines, which can be seen on the thumbnail of this UI.
At the very left, quite big debuff frames with timers colored in debuff type. They're not in the way and are still great eyecatchers.
A basic square minimap which again fades to 0.2 opacity when engaged in combat. I have no need for a minimap in combat, yet it doesn't fully fade away mainly because I'm a miner and don't want to miss nodes when doing my daily tours. ;)
Nameplates (not shown here -.-*) color depending on aggro and only show a simple HP bar with name and level. Green = aggro, orange = loosing aggro, red = no aggro. This makes AoE tanking a breeze.
I think this covers up the whole idea behind my UI. Sorry for the huge wall of text, but I find it important that people know WHY I choose the things I did.
Apart from some small elements which still need to be aligned perfect the UI should be finished.
I hope you like it.
Right, so it seems it didn't upload the pretty thumbnail I made with my noob photoshop skills. And it didn't upload the picture of how the actual tot frame looks (cause you can't see it in the screens and I didn't notice).
http://img9.abload.de/img/targettot4snu.jpg
There you go.
oh this is why u needed nín ;D
Haha cheers Taeo, it's a crappy thumbnail tho. xD
nice one led, nice work indeed. btw what font do you use in chat?
kawne said:
if i were you, id make party frames and raid frames as a seperate thing ;) gJ
Why would I do that? :)
edit:
Oh and I don't really mind the downgrading all that much. I like my UI and that's what counts. Ofcourse it's nice to know other people like it to but still .. If I sometimes see what kind of UI's are popular I just die a bit ;)
@Benzon:
It's Supernatural2, it's used in the chat, UF's, buffs, .. well every pixelfont you see is it. :)
Well you've obviously put a lot of effort into the description so I'm going to do the same for my comment :-)
I think what makes this UI (and your previous UIs too for that matter) so good is the fact that you put a lot of thought into it. Nothing is randomly thrown in there, everything has a reason for being where it is. You design your UI to be used, not showcased, which is what many authors fail to do nowadays.
Although I could probably never use your UI since it doesn't fit my playstyle, I have to admire it for being one of the most functional and well-done interfaces out there.
Design-wise, I feel I should be complimenting nin more than you :p. Jokes aside, I like the fact that you follow the "see as much of the game world as possible" premise... and that's about it. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but it doesn't really have that "OHMYGOSH" flare many of your earlier works had (I'm talking about interfaces such as this http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw30274.jpg or this http://img8.abload.de/img/partygyhh.jpg which were absolute masterpieces in both design and functionality, IMO). Nowadays most of your UIs look the same overall. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, just that it's not what I'm used to expect from a Led(tm) interface.
Having said all that, I'll have to praise nin for his awesome oUF work, you for putting everything together and your ideas, some of which I'm going to steal (combat fading is really a great idea to save space). I hope you enjoy raiding and can't wait to see what you come up with next :-)
I'll agree with Haylie wholeheartedly. Nice UI, definately some of Led touches but there again...at first glance, I would have thought it was Nins with some of your flare added in.
Everyone, including myself (which I have never uploaded nor posted on here any of my UI incarnations), get sick of "same ol same ol" even if the "look" is defining. Guess it's like being a star stuck playing one type of role :P
I use Nins alpha frames myself and cant lat go of them for now so I understand why you use them in yours with all the faded elements and it works VERY nicely.
Also, you are always so generous in giving credit to those you use for inspiration and really, why try to reenvent the wheel?
Good job on this one :)
@Haylie:
Perhaps it doesn't have the OOMPH feeling some of my other UI's had. But when I look back at the 2 screenshots you provided I can't stop thinking "Why on earth did it have so much useless shit in it?" or "Why did I place xAddon there when it shouldn't be there ...". They may have a better first impression (especially the first screenshot you linked), but in the end it hasn't got half the useful things this UI has.
As you said, I mostly design UI's around making my role (tanking in this case) better and easier. Ofcourse the looks still play a role, otherwise I wouldn't use a bottom and top panel for example, but the main goal is the ultimate use for it.
Everything has a reason. With my playstyle, in my current raidrole, there's only so much I can do with a UI. Sure I can move some thigns around, but the core wouldn't change. It's something I see in general with the UI community tho. It's either minimal designs like my old UI's that people use. Or typical caith/tuk like UI's with 2 panels, 1 row of actionbars, UF's on top of it, ..
@Gloss:
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, that would be useless. I'm trying to shape and texture my wheels so it gives me a better grip and performance. ;)
I would go further with it, using nin's base as oUF layout, but my skills in .lua won't allow it. Believe me, I've shared some (imo) uber nice ideas for raidframes but it's just impossible at this time. :)
Cheers for the replies.
1200 views, it's allowed to criticize or comment on my UI btw. I won't bite .. hard. ;)
kawne said:
TBH im very upset that good ui's get downgraded... mine usually do and i never get why :S
I don't know why Led's UIs get downgraded, but I know why yours does.
kawne said:Anyways looks great, if i were you, id make party frames and raid frames as a seperate thing ;) gJ
Why would he do that, as it would take more space for two things that are essentially the same. Raidframes = partyframes*5.
Terrific UI Led, may I ask why your tooltip is positioned so far up? I'm guessing it's something like a threat/damage meter or even the bags that show up under it.
Also, why show the ICC buff as a huge icon next to sated, am I missing something here as I've been inactive for a long time? :)
// Wimpface.
@Wimpface:
The tooltip is there because at some point my Minimap was under it. I pay very little attention to my tooltip anyway so I can't bother to reposition it constantly.
As for the ICC debuff. Well .. that's where my debuffs begin and in ICC you always have that debuff so ... I should probably filter it out tho as after 7235022 times you know you have 20% dodge less.
led how is the chatfont lined, thin, monochrome or??
and where can i find that font without paying for it only found Supernatural?
