Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:42 pm
My current Video Feeds and WoW UI
This is a work in progress, but shows some cool uses for ISBoxer's Video Feeds.
In the upper left I've got a block from the Fortress data broker addon. I didn't pretty that up yet really. The Follow data broker didn't exist, so I had to make that. I'm going to add the Follow broker to ISBoxer Addon so everyone who uses ISBoxer can just automatically have it available if they use a LibDataBroker-based view Addon (such as Fortress). All it does is show you who you're following, with the up arrow icon for following and the cancel icon for not following anyone (both statuses visible in the lower right). Most of the point of this block in the upper left is to provide it for video feeds, which could then be scaled larger or smaller for my views in the bottom right, but I left it the same size in the example. I'm also considering separating the Follow indicator or showing all of the Fortress feeds together in the upper left, for a better status-at-a-glance.
Bottom-middle-left is ComboPointsRedux with a kgPanels frame behind it. I am considering replacing this with another data broker, but I also can't find an equivalent data broker OR a combo points addon that does this how I want it... I may just build another data broker. Any suggestions?
Bottom middle is my Vuhdo party frame with 2 Click Bar buttons on top of it, used for click healing. This is similar to the functionality from a Repeater Region, but tailored more specifically to this purpose. The left half and right half cast different spells, for example a mouse4 on the left half will do a round robin Lay on Hands but on the right half my healer will Holy Shock.
Then to the left of my Shadowed Unit Frames party frame I've got minimap Video Feeds where you might usually put a unit portrait. In the bottom right I've got a large feed of my healer window, and smaller feeds of my 3 DPS windows. Overlaid or next to each I've got a view of the ComboPointsRedux and Fortress areas. This makes for super easy tracking of each of my characters.
With ISBoxer Video Feeds suddenly...
* I can play in the full resolution of my screen instead of a cut version for the window layouts, and I can size the views however I want.
* I can group important information from each character in various places, scaled up or down and seemingly integrated with my in-game UI
* I can use standard WoW Addons and piece together my multiboxing UI ad hoc, in the game, clicking and dragging to mash up views of whatever I want from each window. No reliance on special Addon communication that sends data for my other characters through the game servers (like Jamba and others, although I do still use Jamba for several features), this happens all on my PC and it's fast.
* now I see my minimaps in place of, say, party frame portraits.
* If I need mining or herbing minimaps next to my main one I can add them from my other windows
... and I still have more screen space available to see the game than I did before.
What I don't have yet is anything behind the video feeds to interact with, but Click Bar buttons can go behind each of the full screen feeds to bring up a given window for example.
I think in the coming months we're going to be seeing a dramatic change in multiboxing UIs in many games. WoW's data broker addons are practically made to order for this. This is awesome.
