Preview of the new minimap mod SexyMap
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 31st 2008 at 5:00PM
The mod I'm about to talk about isn't some essential combat mod. It doesn't vastly change how you play the game. It won't help you in the arena or in raid dungeons, or even RP. What will it do? It will make your minimap look totally sweet.From one of the original authors of Omen and the maker of Chatter (among other things) comes the simply (and appropriately) named SexyMap. Using spell effects already in the game files (I believe the default uses Hand of Freedom as the outside ring and Hand of Salvation on the inside), SexyMap makes your map look... sexy. It's difficult to see just how awesome it is from pictures, but I don't have video handy, unfortunately. What you can't see there is the two rings are animated, one moving clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.
It's extremely customizable as well. There are a few different preset borders, with the default being by far the coolest, and with each of them you can alter the colors via the built-in addon menu to fit whatever you'd like. Do you have a green-themed UI? Make it green. Do you want it to match your class? Go ahead. Zach Yonzon, one of our local Paladins, decided to turn his yellow to make it more Paladin-esque. Holy maps!
For comedy, here's the default borders but in pink.
As I mentioned, there are a few other preset borders, but they're not quite as cool looking, in my opinion. All of them are just as customizable though, and if you know what you're doing when it comes to digging through the game textures and the like, you can create some new borders yourself. I'm no good at that, so I'll just show you another preset!
That, too, can be turned whatever color you want. Blue or pink or green or whatever. One thing you probably notice in these screenshots is that all of the 'extra' stuff from the minimap is gone. The time is gone, the calendar is gone, the location bar is gone, all of it. It's not gone, it's faded, which you can turn on or off in the addon settings. When you hover over the map, all of it comes back.
So things can fade away when you don't need them. If you want them to do so. If you don't, just turn that feature off. If you leave it on, now and then you might run into other addon buttons that won't fade away, and I don't think there's much that you can do about it. SexyMap will try to fade those out, but if the other addons won't let it do that, then that's just how it goes, unfortunately. The problem isn't terribly widespread that I've seen, it's only been a select few so far.
Beyond that, this mod lets you do the usual minimap things: Move it around, suppress certain elements, and move nearby elements such as the default quest and achievements trackers so you can put them in more convenient places if you'd rather have your map where they are.
Beyond that, this mod lets you do the usual minimap things: Move it around, suppress certain elements, and move nearby elements such as the default quest and achievements trackers so you can put them in more convenient places if you'd rather have your map where they are.
I think that's all there is to say about SexyMap, and really all that needs to be said. It's a fairly simple and straightforward mod if you just want your map to look pretty. It gets a little more complicated the more you want to customize it. Changing colors is easy, pulling new textures out to make a complete new border is more complicated.
Easiest way to get this addon is via Curse, and it's a fairly new mod so if you run into any bugs or errors, make sure you report it!
If you want to look at the other preset borders before you download the mod, I've put together a little gallery displaying each. I slapped it right in the middle of my screen using the most basic, default UI possible so you can get some idea of how much screen space it will use up in your UI. Enjoy!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Aronoth Oct 31st 2008 5:05PM
Awesome! /first?
Cy Oct 31st 2008 5:41PM
First to fail, sure. This ain't the forums....
PimpyMicPimp Oct 31st 2008 5:15PM
Looks very pretty...
Guyledouche Oct 31st 2008 5:15PM
/sexy
Dotixi Oct 31st 2008 5:16PM
I have to disagree with you Alex, I think the sun one is the coolest. I actually found this addon last weekend while just looking around for newly updated addons on Curse.
Ryan11 Nov 3rd 2008 2:14PM
You should try _Cursor from wowinterface. You add similar spell effects to your cursor... just one of those nice finishing touches on your UI.
Retron Oct 31st 2008 5:21PM
If Jessica Alba were a minimap...
G Oct 31st 2008 6:43PM
MilfMap?
rawrawrawr Oct 31st 2008 5:25PM
I downloaded this addon about an hour before this was written, and i do agree it is "teh sex".
Todd Oct 31st 2008 5:29PM
I wonder if this mod plays nice with SimpleMinimap.
deviationer Oct 31st 2008 5:30PM
meh I'll stick with SimpleMiniMap
Barnister Oct 31st 2008 5:32PM
Another mod to be categorized as "waste of resources"...(for me at least)
Cy Oct 31st 2008 5:43PM
My thoughts exactly, but if you've got the extra clock cycles laying around for it, it does look pretty cool.
Ed (Sindarin, Hydraxis US) Oct 31st 2008 6:48PM
I'm not sure that it would take up a lot more resources - after all, it's only displaying an animation for a spell - in a battleground you see dozens of spells flying around, and dozens of 3D character models to animate - so it shouldn't be as much as a resource hog as it might first appear.
SirCasey Oct 31st 2008 5:33PM
I do like SimpleMiniMap but I might give this a try for funsies... I just love having a square map that's scalable for tiny when in raids and huge while farming...
Dave Oct 31st 2008 5:45PM
I for one, prefer a less-cluttered interface and that thing looks like it takes up way too much real estate on my screen. I'm fond of all the nice border-less maps that put your minimap buttons in a row rather than cluttered on the sides.
I'm really digging the Carbonite map lately with the quest overlays and everything. No need for just having a fancy border around the map if the functionality isn't actually improved at the same time.
Buffalufagus Oct 31st 2008 6:40PM
"The time is gone, the calendar is gone, the location bar is gone, all of it. It's not gone, it's faded, which you can turn on or off in the addon settings. When you hover over the map, all of it comes back."
Is there another minimap mod that provides this feature? I haven't really used any minimap mods besides simple minimap which never seemed to do that. It does look pretty, but there is indeed some functionality too.
Dave Oct 31st 2008 7:52PM
right, I want gone, gone. Not faded, but out of the picture, fits seamlessly in a square with my UI. I've got %90 of the necessary visual elements in the bottom 1/3 of my screen in a box to keep it all at a single eye level to reduce eyestrain when playing. Everything is either in direct vision or peripheral vision and not off in some corner of the screen where you have to actively look to see.
Seriously, check out Carbonite. It's really good. It doesn't do fancy glowy borders, but it offers useful functionality.
insomnifox Oct 31st 2008 7:56PM
You have three options for displaying the buttons (selectable per button), show: always, fade, never. Always has them always up (no surprise there). Fade brings them up on a mouse-over of the map. Never is pretty much the exact opposite of Always.
Narune Oct 31st 2008 6:54PM
I've always used SimpleMinimap before, but to be honest, even if you don't use the skinning in this it's still much more customizable and does everything SimpleMinimap does with a more robust configuration ui.
If anyone has a list, or knows how to find the other in-game aura/spell textures please post them. I for one would love to get a hold of it to play around and with more borders.