The Creamy GUI Center: Big bag blowout Part II
by Matthew Porter 
Jul 19th 2008 at 9:30PM
Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.
I want to take a second and thank everyone who takes the time to comment, rather it be a constructive criticism or a much appreciated "good job". I value your opinion so please be aware your voice is being heard. Last time I got a lot of comments
asking why I didn't cover such and such addons, and I doubt it'll be the last. There are a few reasons an addon may not be reviewed, such as time and space constraints, too similiar to another addon, or just plain ol' not knowing about it. However, when an addon I missed seems to be a top contender in its category, be assured I'm reading your comments notifying me to such, and that they'll be looked at in depth the next time we visit the subject. Having said that, I decided to extend our look at inventory managers to three parts so that we can look at the fan favorites I missed.ArkInventory
The most requested addon talked about in the comments was ArkInventory, and after trying it I can see why it's a fan favorite. ArkInventory uses the one big window divided into sections approach to bag management. It accomplishes this by dividing sections, or "bars" as the author describes it, into user defined categories. On the surface ArkInventory doesn't seem much different than other addons of its ilk, but first impressions can be deceptive. ArkInventory separates itself from other alternatives with an extensive rules system that lets the user have complete control. However, this control does come at a price, as the rules system is complex and could be daunting to new users. ArkInventory has all the features you'd expect from a high end inventory addon; movable and resizable windows, options on if you want ArkInventory to replace the default bags, rather or not to show at the bank, auctions house, or mail box, and the ability to show the contents of your bank, guild bank, and alts' inventory. Features such as these may not be exciting and seem standard, but they are often taken for granted and aren't noticed until you find yourself in a position without them. Now that we got the basic features out of the way let's take a look at what makes ArkInventory so special.
Setting up how you want ArkInventory to sort and organize your belongings can be as in depth and detailed as you want it to be. First you enter the edit mode where you'll see numbered sections. The author refers to these as "bars" so we'll do the same. Each bar can be assigned rules to determine what items are displayed in each bar. You can technically make unlimited bars, but you'll be hindered by your screen size. Clicking on the number of the bar opens a window with the options to edit the bar's contents. You can give it a name, select its position, and most importantly define which items you want this bar to display. There's categories you can assign such as equipment, comsumables, and trade goods just to name a few. There are even categories that filter items usable by class and trade skill type. For example, set up a bar to only show items usable by druids with leather working. The downside to all this are that the categories are generalized; "equipment" instead of narrowed down to "weapons" or "armor." This is where ArkInventory's rules system comes into play.
By writing rules for the bars, you are able to define the bars' content down to the finest detail. ArkInventories' greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. These rules enable you complete control over sorting your inventory, but are written in a precise, programming like syntax that can be daunting to learn. Explaining it is beyond the scope of this article and is best served for a more in depth look at another time, but for the curious you can find documentation here. I can already hear your rant forming in your head, "whatever noob, you're just an idiot who didn't take the time to learn it." However, your every day player wanting an addon to help them manage their inventory isn't going to want to learn rule syntax just to accomplish their goal. Do you need to learn how to write the rules? No, but then you're not getting all ArkInventory has to offer and are better off served by another addon. For the people willing to put in the time though, ArkInventory is a dream come true to the advanced user.
The other requested addon I heard in the comments was TBag. Its new author, who recently took the project over, was gracious enough to stop by and leave a comment. He summed up his design philosophy behind TBag saying,
"The primary reason I took over TBag was to have a useable default config.I didn't really want to spend a ton of time configuring it. I didn't like the idea that everytime I'd come across a new item I'd have to categorize it possibly. TBag had rules that are generally written to catch items even ones that are brand new to the game."I like the fact he had automation in mind when writing TBag, as having to take a break from the action to teach your inventory addon how to organize your new treasures can be a pain in the neck. (Fortunately, most of the addons covered during this week and last have an equivalent features.) TBag handles all the basics that we talked about, like bank and alt inventory management, and even seems to be inspired by ArkInventory as its sections are divided into bars that you apply category filters to. I'd almost go so far as to say TBag is "ArkInventory Lite" as they seem to be cut from the same mold.
Upon entering TBag's edit mode, you're able to see how the bars are divided up and are able to assign the categories that will decide the bar's contents. TBags built in categories are extensive, so the main hurdle of configuring TBag is deciding the layout of the categories. You can create your own, but unfortunately the documentation as to how was a little vague, and all in all you shouldn't really need to. I'd recommend TBag to the intermediate addon user who liked the look and feel of ArkInventory. as TBag offers a lot of the same features in a slightly easier to use package.
I think (hope) that covers it
Like last week's bag addon reviews, it's hard to pick a clear winner as each of these addons do a great job at what they do while still offering a unique user experience. ArkInventory has an extremely powerful system for dividing items into user created categories, but may be daunting to some people TBag is a little easier to set up but still offers an extensive sorting mechanism. I know I say this a lot, but try these and the addons mentioned last week to find which suits your needs best, and if none of these do, tell us what you use in the comments section. Next week we'll wind down our look at inventory addons with outfit managers. And in the coming weeks I have a surprise topic in store, so be sure to stay tuned!
Matthew will continue spending more time building the ultimate UI than actually playing his Hunter and assorted alts in his quest for usability nirvana. Need more for your addon and interface fix? Check out my past columns in The Creamy GUI Center's archives and our other addon features Addon Spotlight and Reader UI of the week.Filed under: Add-Ons, Features, The Creamy GUI Center
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Pan2 Jul 19th 2008 11:15PM
A good friend of mine uses this mod and swears by it. Even though my bags have always been and still are a mess, I've simply been too lazy to use anything other than Bagnon, but I'm looking forward to fiddling around with this, as the markup language seems pretty straightforward.
Koohkies Jul 19th 2008 11:31PM
I personally prefer Baggins, myself =P
Hazerduz Jul 20th 2008 12:01AM
I use Baggins as well after having used Ark for quite some time. I finally stopped when it became my biggest memory hog of addons over Ace, Altoholic, and Proffesions book. It was using something like 6 megs of memory
ZekeGrimsblade Jul 20th 2008 12:04AM
I use Baggins, and it's got a way to organize things, but I don't really know how to use it. I also know at least one item has been lost by it. However, I like it as it comes pre sorted.
SkwidSpawn Jul 20th 2008 12:51AM
I used baggins and quit using it for various reasons. Mostly it kept throwing errors at me, had confilcts with other Ace addons, and was an amazing memory hog after trying to assign items to specific sections.
Eventually I just threw my hands in the air, downloaded TBag and dealt with it.
Addons are supposed to make the game easier, I shouldn't have to spend hours trying to set them up like Baggins or ArkInventory.
nornagon Jul 21st 2008 7:18AM
I have been using Baggins for almost a year now. It works almost flawlessly for me. It was one of the first addons I ever installed -- beginners' luck, I guess :)
Wolftech Jul 19th 2008 11:54PM
And you left off the best one, IMHO...
...One Bag.
-100 points for lack of research.
ewichern Jul 20th 2008 12:21AM
I second this. Onebag+MrPlow is a great solution to inventory management for people who like a simple approach.
Sakerin Jul 20th 2008 3:12AM
OneBag/Ring/Bank/View + 5 minutes of organization = bliss
Mahavok Jul 20th 2008 12:14AM
Tbag is by far the better addon. I have been using it for about two years.
ewichern Jul 20th 2008 12:17AM
My only comment is I'm disappointed you didn't go into the resource usage of any of these bag mods. Inventory management can actually be one of the biggest memory hogs in your addon folder and there's certainly some disparity between the various mods. I've swapped between ArkInventory and Baggins several times since TBC came out, but ultimately I find that I keep going back to Baggins because my bags are more "responsive" and it's much lighter on system resources.
ArkInventory is powerful, no doubt, but I always found that it ate up more than its share of resources... and yes I'm aware that the way Ace addons install by default, the first Ace addon loaded loads all the libraries. I've tested both with external dependencies to compensate, and so that I can see more accurate cpu/memory usage without the libs inflating resource usage for ArkInventory. At any rate, I feel like the performance aspect of inventory mods is sometimes just as important as the feature set, so it was unfortunate to see that you'd neglected that issue. Otherwise both articles gave a good overview of the features of various bag mods.
pudds Jul 20th 2008 12:45AM
Bagnon.
Jack Jul 20th 2008 12:59AM
I'll second that. I get to organize it myself just by moving things around, and it has a really convenient search feature if I can't find something.
wolfy Jul 20th 2008 2:58AM
i'll third that!
Bagnon is simplicity in itself and has never caused me errors. In performance it doesnt even list in my top 10 number 1 reading in at 1.3mb... so can't grumble there either.
Thing with addons that people forget, not only do you want a good usable addon it MUST NOT be a memory hog either.
Bagnon ftw
Mike Jul 20th 2008 1:04AM
ArkInventory FTW personally I've tried them all and for my playing style I cant find a better all in one than ark. Its ease of use coupled with its in depth rules make it insurmountable IMO.
MKitn Jul 20th 2008 2:31AM
I must be one of the few users who use Baudbag. It's simple and not very flashy. Changes the texture of the window to a nice clean transparent interface and simply adds the bags I tell it to to open up in their joined window. No auto sorting, but I'm a neat freak that likes to sort my own stuff anyways, so apart from that, it does just what I need to without the hassle.
Mir Jul 20th 2008 6:30AM
I use Baudbag as well, I like things simple and Baudbag does what I want it to.
Adox Aug 4th 2008 3:44PM
I have been using BaudBag for a few months and it's great. It doesn't work with my bank which is my only complaint. However I have not been able to find an updated version after patch 2.3. Have you found one?
Shefki Jul 20th 2008 2:34AM
You mention that TBag seems to be inspired by Ark. Both addons are inspired by EngBags (which is no longer being maintained). Ark is written from scratch using Ace Libraries. TBag is a modified version of EngBags adding a number of features.
While I can't speak for every addon I can say that I've done my best to minimize the memory usage of TBag. However, features always come with a cost. The costliest feature for bag addons is allowing you to view other characters inventory, your bank when you're not at the bank, etc... This is a costly feature because all that information needs to be stored.
A lot of this is due to the way the addon system is designed in WoW. WoW allows us to store data on a per character basis or data available no matter what character we are on. The per character data is loaded only when you are on a given character. In order to allow viewing of inventory items no matter what character you are on requires we write all the item information to that global data file.
All of this information is loaded into memory and is in memory the entire time the game is running. It'd be nice if we could load only what we wanted from disk when we needed it but this isn't possible with the design of addons.
I've done a large amount of work trying to optimize TBag and will continue to do so. Feedback on performance and memory is welcome. But there is a limit to what can be done given the design of the WoW addon system.
sunstone Jul 20th 2008 12:59PM
Thank you Shefki for your valuable input on memory usage.
I use Altaholic for a search of an item, so I don't need the
- check the bank of a character feature.
- check other characters possessions.
Is it possible to disable that in TBAG ?
btw: this addon works like a charm, no setup, just bliss from second 1.