A nameplate question.

TruFyre · 10-10-09, 12:52 PM

I'm seeking help, or ideas at least, on what I can do about a blizzard UI problem.

I'm running a triple-monitor setup with an effective resolution of 5040x1050. I do this because I'm a raid leader and my UI is often too cluttered with more parsers and raid observing addons than one monitor can accommodate. The problem is that the default UI's nameplates and combat text is now huge, which makes my job of selecting and marking targets for my raid to deliver dps to very difficult.

I've tried a few addons that modify the nameplates and while they're all excellent addons - none of them seemed to be able correct the problem. They were either huge as well or spread too far out across my screen to be easily associated to which NPC they actually represent. (Almost as if the space on the screen was still being taken up by the standared blizzard UI element.)

In trying to fix the my combat text issue (to be specific, outgoing damage from my character), I have tried a couple of mods liek mik's scrolling text and SCTD. I like both mods but they don't seem to be able to place the damage over the nameplates correctly. This is also something that I use because I like to tell if my effects that hit multple mobs are all successful or, if they are not, which ones were resisted.

I've also submitted a bug to the blizzard folks - but I haven't received a response.

Again - I'd like to reiterate that I'm not looking for a magic wand answer; just some insight into what may be causing this. I figure if I can learn enough about it I can affect a fix myself.

(Although if someone wants to use a magic wand in this case - go for it.)

Thanks,
Ghivan TruFyre
Dolus Nomen Hic
Dalaran

acapela · 10-10-09, 01:52 PM

seems likely that your underlying issue is that your actual "gross" multi-monitor resolution is not really any greater than what you would realize out of a single monitor. the net effect of this is to take the static "root window" and stretch it accross all your extra screen real-estate, without really making anything on-screen "smaller" in relative/resolution terms.

ideally you would be able to indicate to the WoW client that your hardware-supported resolution is actually huge (1600x6000 or whatever), and allow WoW to make use of this and your graphics hardware to render it and spread it accross the multiple monitors.

assuming this is not possible... you need to shrink individual UI elements.

there is the global Blizzard "UI Scale" interface option.

beyond that, Aloft would allow you to reduce the gross "resolution" size of nameplates, by adjusting layout, shrinking health bar sizes, using tiny(er) fonts for text, and etc.

at the same time, there are risks: i don't know if this will yield nameplates that are actually legible (the bitmaps for tiny fonts will not increase in resolution, so your text could be quite ugly), and contorting nameplates beyond a certain shape/size/placement will render them insensitive to the mouse (still visible, just not useful for click-targeting).

edit: as well, as far as i know, no nameplate addon will have any control over how/where Blizzard displays nameplates. WoW 3.3 has an "allow nameplates to overlap" option coming (see this thread; currently available for test in the 3.3 PTR), which will prevent nameplates from jumping around in crowded sitiuations and/or from appearing at large distances from the associated character model. currently, shrinking the size of nameplates using Aloft will alleviate "packing" (or tiling, or crowding) behavior to some extent, and Aloft also allows some degree of control over nameplate "footprint" (as Blizzard implements it; in Aloft these are the "packing" height/width, available under Aloft's "Frame" options), which can also permit some control over nameplate "packing" (again, at the risk of rendering nameplates insensitive to the mouse).

in fact most addons, for every conceivable purpose, will allow some sort of layout/scale control (icon/bar height/width, font size, placement of visible elements, etc). crafting a comprehensive custom UI (or just using one someone else has built and packaged as a "compilation") would let you shrink and place things pretty much arbitrarily (with the same risks: tiny fonts may not look very good, etc).

anyway, hope that helps.

TruFyre · 10-10-09, 03:43 PM

I agree that it's possible that my setup is confusing WoW. I'm running a hardware video multiplexer that fools the computer into thinking the three monitors (each running at 1680x1050) is just one large moniter running at 5040x1050.

I messed with aloft and did have some success making the nameplates smaller -but as you suspected, they were very spread out. I noticed that as npcs came into range the standard blizzard UI nameplate would be placed for a split second and then be replaced by aloft's... at the same distances. This is why I was wondering if the blizzard UI nameplates still defined the placement of any addon's nameplates.

I didn't know about the 3.3 nameplate overlay function. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it will help.

acapela · 10-10-09, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by TruFyre

I agree that it's possible that my setup is confusing WoW. I'm running a hardware video multiplexer that fools the computer into thinking the three monitors (each running at 1680x1050) is just one large moniter running at 5040x1050.

I messed with aloft and did have some success making the nameplates smaller -but as you suspected, they were very spread out. I noticed that as npcs came into range the standard blizzard UI nameplate would be placed for a split second and then be replaced by aloft's... at the same distances. This is why I was wondering if the blizzard UI nameplates still defined the placement of any addon's nameplates.

I didn't know about the 3.3 nameplate overlay function. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it will help.

yeah, unless WoW is showing a configurable resolution of 5040x1050 on the Blizzard standard "Video>Resolution" interface dialog, you are getting whatever WoW is providing in the way of a hardware resolution, stretched to fit your display (and while a good graphics card might be able to handle custom resolutions, i am dubious whether WoW can deal with them). probably not very attractive.

Blizzard does indeed retain control of nameplate placement, even if an addon like Aloft is running. if the in-game area is crowded, and a lot of nameplates are visible, there is currently no way to force them to stay close (on the screen) to the units that own them. Blizzard is going to stick them wherever there is room on the screen. the WoW 3.3 "overlap" feature will rectify this, but then you have a lot of nameplate overlap (which IMO is also confusing and tends to complicate click-targeting, but YMMV).

i thought of something else while i was reading your response: in addition to reducing the total size of the nameplates (via Aloft's "Frame>Height/Width" options and the "Health Bar>Height" option) and the nameplate "footprint" (via Aloft's "Frame>Packing Height/Width" options), you can also free up screen real-estate by disabling nameplates (in the "keybinding" sense): turn off all friendly nameplates, or all hostile/neutral nameplates, via keybindings or Aloft's "Show"/"Auto Show" options. the fewer nameplates that are showing, the easier it will be for Blizzard to place them.

TruFyre · 10-11-09, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by acapela

yeah, unless WoW is showing a configurable resolution of 5040x1050 on the Blizzard standard "Video>Resolution" interface dialog, you are getting whatever WoW is providing in the way of a hardware resolution, stretched to fit your display (and while a good graphics card might be able to handle custom resolutions, i am dubious whether WoW can deal with them). probably not very attractive.

It does actually show a configurable resolution. I did a little bit of research before I jumped into this; per a blue post on Blizzard's WoW forums I was told that WoW should be able to render any hardware supported resolution. The Blizzard Video Conf interface does, in fact, give me 5040x1050(wide) as a resolution option and it looks great... except for the nameplates.

Some UI elements don't behave as they should, but there are very few. (the default raid UI sometimes messes up when shifting people around in their groups and occasionally the full screen map doesn't play nice - both are fixed pretty easily).

I'm going to load Aloft back up and go back over some of these functions you've mentioned. I'll see if it gets me anywhere and check back with you.

Again, thanks for your time.

littlebuddha79 · 10-11-09, 01:28 PM

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I remember seeing it on the recent update list a while back, and thought it was a pretty good idea for those who run more than one monitor at a time. It probably won't fix your resolution problem, but it might allow you to revert to a more normalized resolution while giving you an off-screen space to put some of your UI elements.

Duality