Going lightweight

[nightcracker]

At the moment my Interface folder is 30MB large and my memory usage is 14MB. That´s too much. I want it to be lightweight, and so I start stripping/replacing in my UI. Can anyone give me tips on where to start(for example lightweight alternatives) with becoming lightweight? Thanks in advance. Here are the addons that I use, and a picture of my UI(the image is 4 months old though, and not entirely correct anymore):

Clique
Prat-3.0 < I'm going to cut out the few modules that I use and get rid of the rest.
PowerAuras < Hmm, I think I'll just link people the download for this one, it's optional
Forte_Core
SpellAlerter
Omen
SatrinaBuffFrame
SharedMedia < Already stripping all textures I don't use
Gladius
Combuctor
Bartender4
kgPanels
ButtonFacade
SexyMap
Recount
MonkeyQuest
BindPad
Geist
Aloft
BuyEmAll
OmniCC
Quartz
Grid < Going to replace this with Stuf_Raid, or going with oUF for all UF's
CowTip
XPBarNone < Really looking for an alternative of this one, it's kinda but the only experience bar skin addon I've found.
SellFish
Stuf
Forte_Cooldown
GridStatusHealingReduced - Plugin of grid
RangeColors
Shard
ncUI < The config files of my UI, only 7KB
Reflux
HatTrick
VendorBait
ButtonFacade_Caith
AmbientAura
DKIDiseases
SLDT_Experience
SLDT
Scrap

[Katae]

Here's some from your list I'd suggest as alternatives, perhaps others can help.

PowerAuras: Mik's Scrolling Battle Text can alert you of buffs/debuffs, but only with text and/or sounds.
kgPanels: LitePanels
SexyMap: pMinimap
Recount: Skada
MonkeyQuest: Blizzard's
BindPad: mBindings
Aloft: TidyPlates
Quartz: AzCastBar; remove modules you don't use to cut further.
CowTip: TipTac
Forte_Cooldown: Never used this, but I'm guessing it's something like CoolLine.
RangeColors: If you're using Bartender4 (I use Dominos with RedRange), I think range colors is built in.

[nightcracker]

Originally Posted by Katae Here's some from your list I'd suggest as alternatives, perhaps others can help. PowerAuras: Mik's Scrolling Battle Text can alert you of buffs/debuffs, but only with text and/or sounds. Nah, PowerAuras is unique, but it's so big, it's going to be optional. kgPanels: LitePanels Going to try this out SexyMap: pMinimap GTTTO (Going to try this out) Recount: Skada Aint this an even bigger addon? MonkeyQuest: Blizzard's MonkeyQuest allows me to skin the names, and relocate it without all kinda ugly anchors being shown on right click BindPad: mBindingsGTTTO Aloft: TidyPlates Not GTTTO - Tried this one out and I didn't like it, I'm GTTTO caelnameplates Quartz: AzCastBar; remove modules you don't use to cut further. GTTTO CowTip: TipTac GTTTO Forte_Cooldown: Never used this, but I'm guessing it's something like CoolLine. GTTTO but then I'll also have to get Ghost: Pulse back RangeColors: If you're using Bartender4 (I use Dominos with RedRange), I think range colors is built in. Already deleted this one, forgot it to remove it from addon list

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[Gandoch]

Power Auras: Definitely a pretty unique addon, but Good News Everyone and Surge Tracker are also excellent proc monitoring solutions you might want to try out.

Skada vs. Recount: In my experience Skada does use less memory than Recount, and I've found that I like it more. At the very least you should give it a shot as there aren't really any other alternatives.

Forte vs. Ghost: Pulse: If you get Forte you won't need Ghost: Pulse, check out your cooldown options and you'll find that it can do the same thing - at least in regards to flashing an icon in the middle of your screen when a cooldown finishes. I believe it's called Secondary Flash/Pulse/Cooldown/Something, just under the Spell Cooldowns heading.

MonkeyQuest vs. Blizzard: If you disable mouseover/lock the objectives frame after moving it to where you want it, you avoid ugly anchors and such, too. Not really skinnable, but having changed all my default fonts in game I think it looks just fine. YMMV.

[Katae]

Recount: Skada Aint this an even bigger addon?

From my time with it, it uses far less memory than Recount while active.

[Bruners]

Prat-3.0: oChat, idChat
SexyMap: BasicMinimap, oMinimap
Quartz: use the cast bar built into the unit frame addon of your choice.
Grid: oUF, perfectraid
CowTip: TinyTip
XPBarNonethe: most unit frame addon's got an xp bar, or just hide it
SLDT: CargoShip

[Miralen]

I don't know what you use Aloft for. I know it is a name plate mod but I don't what extra goodies you have added to your name plates or if you just changed the look of them but a good alternative in my opinion is CaelNameplates and as far as grid there is oUF_Freebgrid which I put on my sister's computer when she decided that she should cut back on addons and the oUF layout I use is oUF_Caellian. Yes I do heal with Caellian's oUF layout I prefer it to grid personally because it has a nice style but I know it isn't for everyone who wants to heal which is why my sister settled for freebgrid because she prefers to heal with that. The nice thing with Caellian's layout and I am sure other oUF layouts that utilize this is you can get an xp bar and reputation bar plugin and at least with Caellian's layout they auto hide and sit above the player frame so if you are like me and dont need to see the xp/rep bar all the time its nice. Also the cast bar from Caellian's player frame does everything I need it to so I imagine you could probably replace quartz as well. Oh and Caellian's oUF layout also supports buffs and debuffs so you might also be able to replace SBF as well.

I also second or third litepanels for kgpanels while it might seem daunting to try to transfer and remake your panels in an lua file it isn't really that tough and if you need any assistance people are usually nice enough to throw you a bone. As for proc monitoring addons I use InlineAura. I have also replaced Prat which was hard to do cause its an addon I just love and replaced it with basicchatmods cause I had found myself more and more cutting modules from prat and realized that basicchatmods comes with everything I was using from prat.

Apologies for such a long post and not putting things in list form but I just started typing and it came out in this big pile of words . I personally prefer Recount to Skada *waits patiently for gasps of shock and horror* the reason I prefer it to skada is because it gives me more info and well quite frankly, I am willing to pay the little amount of memory usage for it and combined with recount_threat I don't need omen either! Of course in this day and age who really needs omen anyways it isn't as easy as it was to pull aggro. I would also recommend grabbing an addon called AddonLoader, basically from what I understand (yes I use it...I know bad of me to put something on my computer without fully understanding it) it prevents addons that support it from loading until you need them so for instance if you have a mod that modifies the vendor window such as GnomishVendorShrinker than it won't load until you first visit a vendor. There are alot of mods that actually support it and it doesn't really use much memory so you might as well grab it and it isn't like it will hurt your memory usage at all. Anyways again I apologize I tend to ramble on, hope some of this helps.

[Slakah]

I would personally replace, Aloft with NameplatesModifier

I would also probably end up replacing Bartender4, Quartz and XPBarNone with Dominos purely because it handles those features so well.

[Bornabe]

Just my 2 cents, but you want to work on CPU usage, not Memory usage. There's not a player out there who doesn't have at least 1 GB of memory. When you talk about using 14mb of ram, you're talking tiny numbers that won't matter if another uses less memory or not, you'll not notice any difference other than maybe a touch of a difference with zone loading.

Work on the CPU usage / cycles and you'll end up with a fully featured UI that runs faster than your lower-memory counter-part. If your game runs choppy, it won't be because of UI Addons, unless one of them is coded to the point of sucking down your CPU cycles.

[Miralen]

Ya I would personally stay with bartender but I personally like it better than dominos just personal preference really but the main reason is I like bartender's right click self cast option which last I checked which was pretty recent no other bar mod I could find came with this functionality. But as for a another addon or two you could replace I suppose you could replace ButtonFacade with ractionbuttonstyler but to be honest I prefer button facade as I never quite got my button skins to look just right with RABS. While I am sure BuyEmAll doesn't use all that much memory you might look into GnomishVendorShrinker (linked in my previous post) as it has the same functionality as BuyemAll as far as i could tell as well as adds searchability to the vendor window and well it puts the window into list form which I much prefer.

And I agree with Bornabe but all of the ideas being thrown your way for addons are great suggestions and you might as well give them a look-see..Who knows you might find something you like better and will give you a chance to change up your ui some

[Bluspacecow]

You can't get much lower addon memory then no addons at all (IE Pretty much zero as far as I know).

Start with the basics and build up. Ignore all the pretty screen candy. Think about what you can do without. Soon you'll have the lowest memory UI you can

My point is yeah you could spend a lot of time trying to get your UI to use the least amount of memory as possible. But is it really worth it ? Are you running on a laptop where the more addons that are actively using the CPU and the more memory they use makes your FPS go through the floor ? Or is it just e-peen ?.

My other point would have to be : at some point you're going to have to make a trade off : pretty features & screen candy or less memory. There's going to be a point there where it's going to be an either OR decision. There is a point where you can't have both.

Personally my bare essentials UI is this : a threat meter , dps meter , death counter , something to load other addons as needed and something to move the mouse over your cursor.

IE These ones:

LoadIT
Skada
Tooltip on Mouse

Should use about 1-2 MB if that.

PS Skada will replace a threat meter , death meter , heal meter & dps meter. Also it has seperate modules you can disable when you don't want to use them. Last time I checked it used about 700k of memory
PPS The UI I run around with in game runs at around 34MB or so and no way does it look as pretty as yours

[shkm]

Originally Posted by Bornabe Just my 2 cents, but you want to work on CPU usage, not Memory usage. There's not a player out there who doesn't have at least 1 GB of memory. When you talk about using 14mb of ram, you're talking tiny numbers that won't matter if another uses less memory or not, you'll not notice any difference other than maybe a touch of a difference with zone loading. Work on the CPU usage / cycles and you'll end up with a fully featured UI that runs faster than your lower-memory counter-part. If your game runs choppy, it won't be because of UI Addons, unless one of them is coded to the point of sucking down your CPU cycles.

This.

In addition, I'm also a lover of lite addons, but there are some places where functionality > memory and CPU usage. There is absolutely no reason to cut down on addons like Power Auras or Aloft if you're using features that cannot be replaced. Otherwise, I agree that there's no reason to "pay" for features you're not using.

Though some have already, I'll go down your list with that in mind. All my opinion, of course. -- means I have no opinion on the addon in question.

Clique You could switch to macros, but clique gives you simplicity.
Prat-3.0 Way too many features in my opinion. I used to use prat too, but I've cut down to oChat and pChat because it was all unnecessary bloat.
PowerAuras No replacement. SBF (also a big addon) does a good job of separating buffs, but currently I have not found anything as easy to register as this.
Forte_Core --
SpellAlerter I like WitchHunt because of its SCT integration. Whether it's liter or not, I do not know.
Omen Skada
SatrinaBuffFrame No replacement, provided you use its features well enough. There is an up and coming mid-range (feature-wise) buff addon, but its name escapes me.
SharedMedia You simply won't get away from some addons that use it, so trying to remove SharedMedia is virtually futile. It's really a good idea.
Gladius Replacing this depends on your unit frames. Some have plugins specifically for this functionality.
Combuctor Bag addons are highly subjective, but you may want to look at the new Bagnon.
Bartender4 rActionBarStyler may suit you if you don't need many features.
kgPanels --
ButtonFacade No replacement I'm aware of. Certain addons have their own way of handling it, but if a uniform look is your concern, stick with ButtonFacade.
SexyMap pMinimap, but it's not quite the same.
Recount Again, Skada. Just set it to threat in combat and DPS out.
MonkeyQuest I find alternative quest logs unnecessary, so you may want to just remove it. If not, no opinion.
BindPad BindPad is an excellent addon, so I wouldn't recommend removing it if you use its macro functionality. The only thing I'm aware of that comes close is Macaroon.
Geist Loose suggestion is OPie.
Aloft Stick with it if you need features, otherwise try what others are suggesting. After some time playing with the config, you may find it more vital than before.
BuyEmAll --
OmniCC OmniCC is fine.
Quartz You can usually replace this with your own unit frames' functionality. If you use more features than simple cast bars, just keep it.
Grid You already seem set on replacing this, so go ahead. Don't overlook Shadowed Unit Frames, though.
CowTip I've yet to find a lite tooltip addon that doesn't break every patch.
XPBarNone jEXP might do it. Very simple.
SellFish Deprecated. Remove it.
Stuf Way too subjective to get into. If you're really concerned about memory, try oUF. Shadowed Unit Frames are also a very good choice.
Forte_Cooldown --
GridStatusHealingReduced - If you're using grid anyway, what's the problem?
RangeColors I use RedRange, but most action bar addons already provide this functionality (including Bartender).
Shard --
ncUI --
Reflux --
HatTrick You really want liter than HatTrick?
VendorBait You really want liter than VendorBait?
ButtonFacade_Caith --
AmbientAura Unnecessary, but if you like it there's no reason to change.
DKIDiseases Don't play a DK, but assume you can do this with SBF or another of your addons.
SLDT_Experience --
SLDT --
Scrap tekJunkSeller

[Akryn]

Others have already made some useful points about the actual question asked, so I'll just say that if you're worried about 14MB of RAM, take a look in your OS's process manager (hit "from all users" if you're in Windows 6+) and notice how many programs are already individually using tens or hundreds of MB, possibly without you being aware of it before now. Or, if you are low on RAM and need to recover some, kill Explorer/Nautilus/Finder/etc. while WoW is active, that will free up tons more memory. If you're worried about addons reducing your framerate, profile your addons for CPU usage.

[Slakah]

Ya I would personally stay with bartender but I personally like it better than dominos just personal preference really but the main reason is I like bartender's right click self cast option which last I checked which was pretty recent no other bar mod I could find came with this functionality.

Dominos has right-click target functionality, you can set it to target self/focus/targetoftarge/none.

[nightcracker]

Thanks all for your awesome replies! Helps me so much, going to apply most of it. I'm not so much worried about my memory, but about the total size of the UI, the people who are going to download it see "OMG 30 MB UI LOOOOOOL NOT GOING TO DOWNLOAD THAT" you get the point? Once again, thanks all! I think I can strip down an additional 10MB without ANYTHING changing in the UI, and another 12MB with changing. Thanks all!

[Bornabe]

I author the BornabeUI Compilation and it's a whole lot larger than what you're going after (265mb is what I ended up with, haha). You're doing damn good if it's 30mb unZipped. I wouldn't worry about the size itself, go for the base features you believe your users are going to want and go from there. I featured BornabeUI as an over-featureful setup with plenty of eye-candy. In fact, there's a whole ton of built-in features in my UI that most don't even notice for a few weeks, lol. Yours seems to be headed towards the more minimalistic approach, and I believe you're well on your way to achieving exactly what you want. Any help we can give you, we will. This community here on WoWinterface.com is absolutely amazing and is exactly the reason I still play WoW and have only tried the other games out there.

[ravagernl]

I love the way you handled the xp bar by the way. You can easily see the amount of bubbles :P

[Zyonin]

Originally Posted by nightcracker Thanks all for your awesome replies! Helps me so much, going to apply most of it. I'm not so much worried about my memory, but about the total size of the UI, the people who are going to download it see "OMG 30 MB UI LOOOOOOL NOT GOING TO DOWNLOAD THAT" you get the point? Once again, thanks all! I think I can strip down an additional 10MB without ANYTHING changing in the UI, and another 12MB with changing. Thanks all!

OK first thing, do not post an entire full-sized screenshot especially if your image host is really slow when it comes to transferring data (as your current one is). Not everyone has the luxury of a large screen to view your screenshot. Either post a thumbnail (most image hosts provide clickable thumbnail forum code that is copy and paste ready) or just post a simple link to your screenshot.

Second, if someone is going "WTF! That is too much memory!" then they should not be downloading UIs in the first place and should either make their own "lightweight" UI or just the stock UI. In many cases, mods that use a larger amount of memory do multiple tasks (an example is Forte Xorcist which does a number of tasks such CDs, timers, etc). Those tasks can be split up into "smaller" mods, however the amount of memory used in total may be the same or more. In addition, your CPU usage may be much higher. Other reasons why mods will use more memory include:

• data mods: any mod that use a database of some kind. This would include bag mods, many quest helper type of mods and others.
• mods that totally customize the user interface: the more you customize your UI the more memory is required to store the data.

The two things that really need to be stressed are:

• CPU usage: Any mod that requires your CPU to work harder will result in lag and other performance issues.
• increasing memory usage (as opposed to static): This is where memory usage can come into play. A mod whose memory usage remains static is not going to be an issue to anyone unless for some reason, you have very little RAM that can be addressed by your OS (>512 MB).

Some increase in memory usage is to be expected if you use any kind of a Damage Meter type of mod (like Skada, Recount, Recap and others). Likewise mods that store data for later usage/viewing will show an increase in memory usage (mods like Prat, Recount, Auctioneer or Close Up). Usually such mods will increase in memory usage fairly slowly unless you are collecting alot of data at once (such as scanning with Auctioneer) However a mod that suddenly starts eating memory unexpectedly can be a cause for concern. Usually a sharp increase in unexpected increasing memory usage can mean that your mod has a memory leakage issue (CowTip using DogTags had this issue).

If you are really concerned about cutting down the size of the finished file to be downloaded consider stripping any textures and graphics that are not going to used in your UI. For example if you only use the texture "Minimalist" from SharedMedia in any bar type of mod (UF, casting bar, etc), then you can strip out the other textures from SharedMedia. However 30 MB is quite small for a zip file to be downloaded these days.

[nightcracker]

Originally Posted by mrruben5 I love the way you handled the xp bar by the way. You can easily see the amount of bubbles :P

Thanks

To all, another question:
Is it possible to get all libs ONCE and prevent having doubles in my UI? I have like 20 times AceGUI-3.0 as lib (161KB) which is about 3MB, and I also have more double libs, can't these be all united to one from which all addons call? I thought that was the function of a library at first instead of having functions 200 times

[nightcracker]

Originally Posted by Lykofos OK first thing, do not post an entire full-sized screenshot especially if your image host is really slow when it comes to transferring data (as your current one is). Not everyone has the luxury of a large screen to view your screenshot. Either post a thumbnail (most image hosts provide clickable thumbnail forum code that is copy and paste ready) or just post a simple link to your screenshot. Second, if someone is going "WTF! That is too much memory!" then they should not be downloading UIs in the first place and should either make their own "lightweight" UI or just the stock UI. In many cases, mods that use a larger amount of memory either due mutiple tasks (Forte which does a number of tasks such CDs, timers, etc). Those tasks can be split up into "smaller" mods, however the amount of memory used in total may be the same or more. In addition, your CPU usage may be much higher. Other reasons why mods will use more memory include: data mods: any mod that use a database of some kind. This would include bag mods, many quest helper type of mods and others. mods that totally customize the user interface: the more you customize your UI the more memory is required to store the data. The two things that really need to be stressed are: CPU usage: Any mod that requires your CPU to work harder will result in lag and other performance issues. increasing memory usage (as opposed to static): This where memory usage can come into play. A mod who memory usage remains static is not going to be an issue to anyone unless for some reason, you have very little RAM that can be addressed by your OS (>512 MB). Some increase in memory usage is to be expected if you use any kind of a Damage Meter type of mod (like Skada, Recount, Recap and others). Likewise mods that store data for later usage/viewing will show an increase in memory usage (mods like Recount, Auctioneer or Close Up). Usually such mods will increase in memory usage fairly slowly unless you are collecting alot of data at once (such as scanning with Auctioneer) However a mod that suddenly starts eating memory unexpectedly can be a cause for concern. Usually a sharp increase in unexpected increasing memory usage can mean that your mod has a memory leakage issue (CowTip using DogTags had this issue).

Sorry, will thumbnail from now Your right anyway, but this UI is not only for people who are download UI's, I want this UI for everyone, and I don't feel like scaring away people that I would love see using my UI. Your target public makes the product (No I'm not selling this UI lol...)

Another question:
Is there some intro section/thread, I'm planning to stay here for a while