AddOn Spotlight: MetaHUD
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 31st 2007 at 5:27PM
When I posted my UI the other day, as well as when I posted about ArcHUD, I got a lot of Drathal's HUD (DHUD) fans telling me I should use that instead. I had tried DHUD before, but it never really grabbed me. However, I figured if so many nice WoW Insider readers liked it, perhaps I should give it another shot. MetaHUD seems to be DHUD's successor, so I downloaded that, and have been playing with it for the last day or so.
The verdict? I love it! You guys were right; MHUD is really, really nice. I'm not sure I'm going to throw away Arc just yet, but MHUD is making me very happy indeed. I think my favorite part is the casting bar, which I liked so much I put up a shoddy video on YouTube of it (please excuse my YouTube noobiness; it looks better on screen, I swear).
Ooh, so pretty.
I did end up having to enlarge the HUD, to 0.9 rather than its default of 0.8, and move the whole thing down about 24px to make it look good to me. I find the default-on range indicator distracting, too, as it can't show anything over 25 yards, so I turned that off. Also, the Target's Target display, while I'm sure it's great for tanking, distracts considerably, flashing right there in the middle like that. In my opinion, that should definitely default to "off." But overall, MHUD is a great, solid, very customizable HUD, and I can recommend it, right next to ArcHUD, to just about anyone. Only time will tell if I'm going to stick with this or move back to Arc, but I'll let you guys know in a future post.
P.S. I did take up your suggestion to get MobHealth3, jellywerker, and it's great. The reason the targeted mob's HP aren't known is because he's friendly, so I've never killed him.
Download at ui.worldofwar.net
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Previously on AddOn Spotlight
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rogue Jan 31st 2007 5:58PM
I have two issues with MetaHUD:
There is no enemy casting bar that I can figure out how to enable so I have to resort to having the Blizzard target window on screen to see it, which defeats the purpose of using a HUD in the first place.
The other is that "energy watch" doesn't seem to ever work for me, unless the option for energy watch isn't actually referring to a 2-second ticker to let you know when your energy gain is going to happen.
Lastly, I downloaded this some time last week from curse-gaming and couldn't get it to work at all but managed to find a good copy at wowinterface.com (unless the 2 things I've mentioned actually work in the version that's linked in the post).
Prauche Jan 31st 2007 7:17PM
I will say I was surprised to find that the Target's target bar wasn't able to be moved like virtually everything else. I was hoping to just move it a little lower on the screen, but alas, that is like the ONLY thing that can't be moved. It's cool that I found like hud like 2 weeks before it shows up here so I have a frame of reference.
jellywerker Jan 31st 2007 6:55PM
I'm happy you like it. Dhud is also being continued, but there is very little difference between it and metahud. And yes folks, the castbar does look much better onscreen, it doesn't jump up like it does in the video.
Lastly I just wanted to say the user interaction on this blog is really awesome. I'll have to get around to sending in a shot of my ui.
Klatz Jan 31st 2007 8:17PM
I used Drathal's HUD, the continued version and Natur Enemycastbar and just move the cast bar to where I want it to show up. I like the fact that it's very customizable. You can change the size and position of the text, colors, and what gets displayed as the target, target's target etc.
Chris M Jan 31st 2007 9:10PM
Eliah, thanks for introducing me to this HUD. I've been in search of a working, decently developed HUD for a while, and this is definitely the proverbial jackpot.
Very customizable, smooth operation, and at-a-glance workup. Almost e-drool worthy.
Chris
ace danger Jan 31st 2007 9:43PM
What is the difference between MetaHUD and ArcHUD2 that was showcased earlier?
Alarius Jan 31st 2007 11:52PM
Yes! MetaHUD FTW! :)
Guernia Feb 1st 2007 12:12AM
I tried DHUD while waiting for ArcHUD to work with 2.0.1, and while it was an adequate HUD, I was only too happy to go back to ArcHUD2 when it was finally updated due to the lag I encountered in the HP bar going up and down whenever a large hit/heal was incoming.
ArcHUD2 also has a nifty casting bar - what's so great about the one showcased above?
Lodcid Feb 1st 2007 12:43AM
You want a real hud? IceHUD rocks them all. This is coming from a former Drathal's HUD user. The second I went over the options IceHUD has I realized how much better it is than all the others. It simpily can be configured in ways the others can't. It is very low on mem usage too. Check it out
Kovah Feb 1st 2007 3:04AM
Of course MetaHUD is good. ^^ We told you so.
Anyway, take a look at WIM (WoW Instant Messenger). Absolutely one of the best chat mods, I can't stand getting whispers and losing them. This mod logs them and even shows them inside a cute little messenger window which is awesome as well. ^^
http://www-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/3921/wim-wow-instant-messenger/
Becca Feb 1st 2007 8:08AM
Prauche - you can move the ToT bar, just go to Offsets and then select the little ToT Text up/down buttons.
Speaking of which, the ToT bar is my only qualm with MetaHUD. It seems to merely show you what your target is targeting, but you can't click on the bar to instantly select the ToT. I think I've gotten it to select my target's target once or twice, but you have to click in a very certain area.
I use X-Perl Unit Frames, which has an awesome target of target bar already, but before that, using MetaHUD's ToT bar was a nightmare. Still, it's my favorite hud out there and it's very similar to the old DHUD I used to use, so I didn't have to learn too much to use MetaHUD.
Dewbie Feb 1st 2007 11:29AM
X-Perl is awesome, I wish more people would use it. The features are INSANE. I can see everybody's target, so I can see who is targetting something they shouldn't be. I can see who is assisting me. There's a threatmeter right in the MT window (provided you have KTM). I can see all the pets, all the debuffs/buffs (or only the relevant ones). You can even put it in healer mode and see hp as deficit values.
Along w/ DoTimer, X-Perl gives me (almost) more information than I can deal with. But it's all put up so cleanly, that it's no problem.
Oh yeah, MetaHUD is nice too. I use ArcHUD though, I find it easier to read (and there's an enemy casting bar).
rogue Feb 1st 2007 2:21PM
If you want to select your target's target, just click your assist button. Mine is bound to the F key. Lot easier that way.
Jennifer Feb 8th 2007 7:45PM
DHUD is not discontinued. Drathal HUD was the best HUD hands down. What happened was the original author (drathal) got mad that other HUD authors were taking his code to make their own HUD mods, and not giving him credit.
Drathal threw a fit and said that he would stop all public updates of his mod. Some person took all the DHUD code, added more features to it, and renamed it MetaHUD (http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/3784/metahud/)
Later on, another person named Caeryn took DHUD's code and started updating it for Burning Crusade, but with it kept in line more like the original DHUD. This version is still named DHUD, and can be found here: http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/4783/drathals-hud/
Personally, I've used both (the new DHUD and Metahud) and I prefer Caeryn's DHUD because it's less bloated and less filled with extra features that I don't need, personally.
People who like the extra features may prefer Metahud, so try them both out.