[zork]

Genius idea. I love that.

I would add one exception to the setpoint function though. A function that checks if the plate is shown before you apply the new setpoint. Because otherwise you might show a plate that is not visible.

Btw there is another thing that I read about. NamePlates change index on every /reloadui. But one could check the worldframe children on every OnUpdate until the first one pops up.

After that one just checks for nameplates per index instead of parsing the children all the time.

Here is the adapted code:

local newPlates, namePlateIndex, _G, string = {}, nil, _G, string
 
WorldFrame:HookScript('OnUpdate', function(self)
  if not namePlateIndex then
    for _, blizzPlate in pairs({self:GetChildren()}) do
      local name = blizzPlate:GetName()
      if name and string.match(name, '^NamePlate%d+$') then
        namePlateIndex = string.gsub(name,'NamePlate','')
        break
      end
    end
  else
    local blizzPlate = _G["NamePlate"..namePlateIndex]
    if not blizzPlate then return end
    if not newPlates[blizzPlate] then
      local newPlate = CreateFrame('Frame', nil, WorldFrame)
      newPlates[blizzPlate] = newPlate
      print(namePlateIndex)
      namePlateIndex = namePlateIndex+1
      newPlate:SetSize(1, 1)      
      for i = 1, 500 do -- Make a bunch of regions for a stress test
        local fs = newPlate:CreateFontString(nil, nil, 'GameFontNormalHuge')
        fs:SetText(namePlateIndex)
        fs:SetPoint('CENTER', newPlate, math.random(-50,50), math.random(-12,12))
      end       
      -- Attach a frame to the nameblizzPlate which will fire OnSizeChanged when it moves
      local sizer = CreateFrame('Frame', nil, newPlate)
      sizer:SetPoint('BOTTOMLEFT', WorldFrame)
      sizer:SetPoint('TOPRIGHT', blizzPlate, 'CENTER')
      sizer:SetScript('OnSizeChanged', function(self, x, y)
        if blizzPlate:IsShown() then
          newPlate:Hide() -- Important, never move the frame while it's visible
          newPlate:SetPoint('CENTER', WorldFrame, 'BOTTOMLEFT', x, y) -- Immediately reposition frame
          newPlate:Show()
        end
      end)     
      blizzPlate:HookScript('OnHide', function() newPlate:Hide() end)
      blizzPlate:HookScript('OnShow', function() newPlate:Show() end)
    end
  end  
end)