Reader UI of the Week: Zerfall of Eonar
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 13th 2008 at 8:00PM
Today's Reader UI of the Week comes from Zerfall, and Undead Warlock on server Eonar. He has many addons working together to support his game play. What I particularly like about his UI is that it's not cluttered, allows for good visibility, and uses what I would consider to be critical addons that everyone should at least try out.
I always find that Warlocks and Tanks have the most complicated UIs. Tanks because of the necessary information they need to have about everything and everyone, and Warlocks because of the large amount of spells at their disposal. Zerfall does a good job at organizing all his abilities using his action bars. One area is for miscellaneous items, one area for his pet bar, one for his curses and often used spells, and another for his lesser used spells and abilities. I always find that this kind of distinction is critical in a successful UI.
The major addons that Zerfall's using includes:
- AtlasLoot Enhanced - Database of in game items that you can get from various sources.
- Autobar - Dynamic and self changing button bar.
- Bartender - Action bars.
- Cartographer - World map enhancements.
- Clearfont2 - Changes the default font.
- CyCircled - Rounded action bar buttons.
- ElkBuffBars - Buff bar replacement.
- FuBar - Informaiton bars at the bottom and/or top of your screen.
- Omen - Threat meter.
- Outfitter - Save and change equipment on the fly.
- Prat - Chat modules.
- Quartz - Casting bars.
- Skinner - Apply skins to the UI and the bottom / top of the screen.
- Simple Minimap - Changes the location, size, and shape of the minimap.
- X-Perl - Player and raid frames.
Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send it, along with your character name and server, to readerui@gmail.com.
Filed under: Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Havitech Apr 13th 2008 8:23PM
It's very organized and clean, but there's a lot of empty, wasted space. If he just squished everything a little closer, he'd have a lot more viewing space.
Aiur Apr 14th 2008 12:32AM
I totally agree, I'm actually marveling at how much screen space is lost, especially considering it's mostly empty space. Frankly, I consider that to be an unacceptable tradeoff.
Sneakstar Apr 13th 2008 8:37PM
Hi all,
New to the possibilities of UI modding on your own. I run addons of course. Is there a site with a tutorial or some such for me to have a read of? Or better still some prebuilt UI's available for download?
Cheers
Badger Apr 14th 2008 9:43AM
Sneakstar,
You might try the WOW ACE Wiki. I can't quite recall the site's address off the top of my head, but I know that there is quite a bit of information, especially on ACE-based (or is it ACE2?) XML addons for the WOW UI.
You could also try WOW Interface (www.wowinterface.com). The folks over there have a pretty good idea what they're talking about, and I believe there are frequently-visited Forums, though I've never used them, myself.
outtacontrol891 Apr 13th 2008 9:06PM
I have eePanels which adds the panels like you have on the bottom but how do you have that border or the top of it?
Slayblaze Apr 13th 2008 10:06PM
Looks like he's using a texture with Skinner, but you can do the same thing with eePanels, you just need to look around for some textures for borders and backgrounds. There is also an addon called SharedMedia that will add a good selection of different textures to the default blizzard dropdowns when selecting textures, instead of specifying a directory.
The featured UI is a bit similar to mine, but I would make several changes to it such as making the bottom bar/texture transparent because there's quite a lot of wasted space in the bottom fifth of the screen.
jkuhn76 Apr 13th 2008 9:10PM
I also have ora2 and DBM, they just aren't displayed. I'm using Recount as well now along with CritLine. Glad you all like it.
outtacontrol891 Apr 14th 2008 12:12AM
thanks!
Yinxie Apr 13th 2008 10:33PM
is that really Skinner to modify that lower bar?
it seems to have a rather different texture/border added to it.
or is that just a command I must run?
Yinx
ps: nice UI ;) making it just now LOL
Badger Apr 14th 2008 9:46AM
Yinxie,
I don't think that's Skinner, unless Zerfall adapted his/her own texture. I think it's SunnArt, a really awesome and diverse plugin for adding background textures, adding vertical/horizontal background panels, and scaling your 'Viewport' accordingly. I loved SunnArt back when I used it. Mullgor (#11, below) also appears to be a fan.
blackwolf675 Apr 14th 2008 9:57AM
It looks like what I use, so I'd say SunnArt (love teh SA!).
Even though it looks like it takes up a lot of screen space, the bottom panel actually doesn't - XPerl adjusts your view portal to compensate. So you're still seeing everything, if not a little more (just shorter).
I've been working on my own custom SunnArt panels - but haven't sent them in to get added to the mod yet.
jkuhn76 Apr 14th 2008 1:40AM
Feel free to e-mail me with specifics on the add-on's used
jkuhn76@yahoo.com
Mullgor Apr 14th 2008 2:13AM
You really dont lose screen space. Im using SunnArt which gives the same effect and that one scales the screen to fit inside the viewing area
jkuhn76 Apr 14th 2008 11:05AM
It is SunnArt that I am using :-)
Badger Apr 14th 2008 2:47PM
Hey, this might be a good time to ask the technical question I've wanted to ask for months.
Every time I ever used ClearFont2, it allowed me to change the fonts in FuBar, Bartender, the Quest Log, and the Chat window. But it never, ever allowed me to change the fonts that showed up in the game world - that is, fonts that appear above other players' and NPCs' heads, like the 'name tags' in the screenshot above.
How do I change those fonts from the Blizzard default, to match the fonts in the rest of my UI config?
Sidiousin Apr 14th 2008 5:46PM
Step 1: Backup your existing WoW/Interface/Fonts folder to a safe place, such as a subfolder.
Step 2: Locate the .ttf file of the font you would like to replace in your clearfont directory.
Step 3: Create 4 copies of this .ttf file in the interface/fonts folder and rename them to match the existing file names, i assume case sensitive. FRIZQT__ has two trailing underscores.
Each of these files affects a different piece of in game text, i don't know what file is responsible for which piece. This has the added benefit of eliminating the need for clearfont with the increased hassle when changing fonts. Feel free to search the web for .ttf files that suit your style however, and enjoy.
Badger Apr 14th 2008 8:42PM
You, Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Unless you're actually a woman, in which case, you are a lady and a scholar.
Griselle Apr 15th 2008 1:11PM
That is sexy.
I have to wonder if this is more geared for a point and click play style, or if hot keys can be easily utilized, as I still am using the stock UI, and learned to play based on number key usage.
Also, how easy would it be to set something like this up for someone who is fairly programing challenged?
And finally, why AtlasLoot and Cartographer? Cart shows all the loot that AL does, right?