DuskUI Development Thread

[Nadger]

Well with the help of Garadan on Hisbury server, and my good friend Nrobria i was able to get a downwards expanding group list complete. Funnily enough though when i was asking for group members for me (Nadger) to do the group window for my new UI i was accused of impersonating nadger...aparently the real nadger does not play on Hilsbury. I was reported for impersonating Nadger and trying to steal passwords.

Hehe anyway, I did not get the group member hotkeys done so I still need to do that and get the upwards expanding grouplist done which will be the default. The downwards expanding one I dont think ill have an in game option for...ill have people who really want it to expand down make a quick index.xml edit to change it. As I will include 2 group window xml files, the upwards and downwards expanding ones...maybe even horizontal.

I also got in a sunken marble background behind the arc buttons. So here is my new todo list:

Upwards Expanding Group (easy just need 2 group members)
Group Hotkeys (one for upwards and one for downwards)
Finish Class Labels in group window
Upwards Expanding Encounter List
Make a User.ini so users can bind keys to my hotbars
Minimap
Castbar
Extra Hotkeys
Options
Templates
User Saves
A few Infopanel Elements
Optimize VGParts.xml files (remove default graphics that are no longer used)

And thats about it for the first version. The UI is actually nearly 100% useable...soon as I get those class labels for the group window done I could release a beta....

[Hootmon]

Spiffiness! Lookig forward to giving it a test drive...

[techywarrior]

I was about to hack down coreUI2 to just the bare minimum I use and see how it affects performance on my machine but seeing as you are nearing release I may just wait.

[Cbr600f]

Just some notes / ideas.

I don't know how you're implementing the group hotbars.

I purposed long time ago to have them respond to click event by two ways.
First, /targetdefensive <member_name> (since it's a list you cannot use /targetgroupmember #). I don't know if it would be possible to do the member_name thing (it's a variable extracted from the actual list entry, isn't it?)
Second, useability or button press or whatever is needed to send in hotbars (cannot remember).

Another idea I really love. I modded Drox's Off. Target window to have a small hotbar bellow. Obviously it's inside the target's window so only displays when you have a target. This keeps UI clean when not in combat but also gives you some buttons to click when you are in combat. It's pretty nice and clean, and having most commonly used abilities just below target's health is a great way to keep eyes in important things.

If it is possible to do the group thing, it would be also posible to have a hotbar for the encounter entries.

Imagine you pop up a Options window for setting up your UI.
One of the options are "Group and Target hotbars" and you have there a 5 slot hotbar (name it hotbar 101) for group, a 6 slot hotbar(name it hotbar 102) for Off. Target and a 2 slot hotbar (103) for encounter. Those are drop targets for abilities / macros / items.
Then on each entry you create a hotbar and use the corresponding slot (102 101 103 etc) but no drop target not drop source. Also, the events of those objects are dispatched to two listeners, fist the /targetXXXX <name> and then the action itself.

That way, I can as paladin (for example) place a taunt and a root on Encounter, taunts on target window and heals / rescues on group window. I don't have to worry to press'n move the mouse (I won't move the icons, they're not dragsource) in the UI, but they're in the "Options".

When I need to do it, I taunt any mob (and it becomes my target). When I need to heal / rescue, I do it with only one group button.

But it's important to keep them no "drag" source, so you can have smaller icons (30x30 works for me) and had no risk to move them arround the screen instead of clicking them.

Ju8st my 2cents brainstorm.

Will organize this in my mind later!

[Cbr600f]

				
Maybe having this in the encounter_entry can work to attach a hotbar at encounter window
                        <Action event="anti_group_set_target" senderName="#SetAsSender">
					<Notifications>
						<Message>LEFTCLICK</Message>
					</Notifications>
				</Action>

			<Action event="wndbank_activate_slot" senderName="#SetAsSender">
				<Notifications>
					<Message>BUTTON_PRESS</Message>
					<Message>ABILITYSLOT_SELITEM</Message>
					<Message>ITEMSLOT_SELITEM</Message>
				</Notifications>
			</Action>
... put here target info as any UI

	<!-- WindowBank for holding hotkey slots -->
	<UseControl type="WindowBank">
		<WindowBank numBanks="1"
					beginDragDrop="true"
					allSourcesValid="true"
					showSpinner="true"
					bankID="3"
					emptySlotGraphic="background"
					registerAsOptionalBank="true">
			<!-- NOTE: uses makes size in parent setting -->
			<Rect x="0" y="0" width="517" height="42"/>
			<SlotSize>
				<Size width="40" height="40"/>
			</SlotSize>
			<SlotStart>
				<Point x="0" y="0"/>
			</SlotStart>
			<SlotSpacing>
				<Point x="43" y="0"/>
			</SlotSpacing>
			<ValidSourceNames/>
			<!--NOTE: self is already a valid target (hotkeys_)-->
			<ValidDropTypes>
				<WndType>BUTTON</WndType>
				<WndType>ABILITYSLOT</WndType>
				<WndType>ITEMSLOT</WndType>
			</ValidDropTypes>
			<GraphicName label="background" isBaseName="false">
				<Name>VgrdIconBlankSlot</Name>
			</GraphicName>
			
		</WindowBank>
		
		<Settings	searchKey="m_ref_left1"
					name="m_ref_left1">
			
			<!--Actions: triggers to start events-->
			<Action event="wndbank_activate_slot" senderName="#SetAsSender">
				<Notifications>
					<Message>BUTTON_PRESS</Message>
					<Message>ABILITYSLOT_SELITEM</Message>
					<Message>ITEMSLOT_SELITEM</Message>
				</Notifications>
			</Action>
		</Settings>
	</UseControl>

Note there is no drag'n'drop. The hotbar can be configured at options panel.

The same could be done at group window.

I've not tried this myself, but It seems it can work... ideas?

[Nadger]

Why not just lock the interface and leave drag and drop on? That way you cant drag anything off, but you can drag things on when you want to.

I am not doing the hotbars inside the the group window. They are in a seperate xml widow that sibling attaches to the group window. So I will be using /targetgroupmember commands.

[Cbr600f]

Originally Posted by Nadger

Why not just lock the interface and leave drag and drop on? That way you cant drag anything off, but you can drag things on when you want to.

I didn't know that with interface locked you couldn't drag things out of a hotbar. I though you could add and remove them from hotbars even with interface locked.

Originally Posted by Nadger

I am not doing the hotbars inside the the group window. They are in a seperate xml widow that sibling attaches to the group window. So I will be using /targetgroupmember commands.

That's a common aproach, but IMHO it has some disadvantages, for example, you'll have six different hotbars and I'll need to put my abilities on each of them. My idea is to have only a hotbar but replicated on every group member. This aproach -IMHO, again- is better because when you're in a small group (two / three people) only two hotbars apear, while when being in a big group, every hotbar is there.

The reason to don't make them valid dragndrop sources is to avoid confusing people. When you see a hotbar, you think you can drop there anything. But the hotbar I'm purposing is the same hotbar, reacting diferent on each groupmember. If it were dragndrop, people would start saying "when I drop X on groupmember 3 it also replaces Y on every other groupmember".

I'll try to make it working (or at least a simple test) to test if it can be done, which would be a great thing. I doubt most people (ubers will do definetively) will set up different hotbars depending group and group members. An uber gamer would like to place small & fast heals on casters and big / HoT / Heal Procs on tanks, and deagros on himself. But a purpose of a fast group bar is to help standard players, since Ubers will macro everything. Having a "Set up your group bar here" where you can drag and drop / create macros in a fast way -even out of group- and then automagically have those icons on every group member (no matter when, how and what) is great, I think.

I'll test it on group and on Encounter window. If I manage to make it work, I'll tell you here. It can be a great improvement for most common players.

[Nadger]

I originally had planned to do that cbr. But when I tried to put hotkey slots in a group window component to be cloned it crashed vanguard even when the xml validated true. Maybe it was just a fluke, ill have to try again.

On a side note I updated the progress screenshot. here is my updated to do list:

Upwards Expanding Group (easy just need 2 group members)
Group Hotkeys (one for upwards and one for downwards)
Upwards Expanding Encounter List
Make a User.ini so users can bind keys to my hotbars
Minimap
Extra Hotkeys
Options
Templates
User Saves
Optimize VGParts.xml files (remove default graphics that are no longer used)

[Krytain]

I loved your CoreUI interface, and hope that this one will be even better. I like the idea that it won't be as FPS demanding as CoreUI. Good luck, and thanks for all the hard work that makes my game time more enjoyable.

[ratxtom]

will there be options to enable horizontal placement of group members?

i find this very useful to find def targets in a hurry for rescues
(i'm not too used to the F keys to target defensive targets in a hurry)


the UI looks great, i'm really looking forward to the release