UI Changes in Rise of Azshara

In the Rise of Azshara content update, we’ve developed several user interface changes that we’d like to call your attention to.

Accessibility Features
First, we’ve added several slash commands intended to provide more options for vision-impaired players. Some of these commands will allow the player to enter and leave voice channels without having to physically click the voice button in the channels list:

  • Enter voice channel for your guild: /voice guild
  • Enter voice channel for the officer channel for your guild: /voice officer
  • Enter general channel for the given community: /voice
  • Enter a particular channel for the given community: /voice
  • Leave the current voice channel: /voice leave

We’ve also added some other new commands are intended to facilitate creating and joining communities and Battlenet clubs:

  • Open the Add Community Dialog with the invitation link edit box selected. Just paste in the link and hit : /community join
  • Open the create wow character community dialog with the Name edit box selected. Type in a name, then , then enter a short name, and hit to finalize the creation: /community create wow
  • Open the create Battlenet club dialog with the Name edit box selected. Type in a name, then optionally hit and enter a short name, and hit to finalize the creation: /community create battlenet

Frame Anchoring
We added new restricted frames system that affects frame anchoring:

  • Frames that are anchored to a restricted frame can only have their other anchors set to frames within that same anchor hierarchy
  • Added new API in the Line API: Line:ClearAllPoints();
    • This will clear the anchors on a line and must be called to clear the restricted flag off of the frame.
  • New restricted frames include:
    • Nameplates

The following APIs are now blocked from being called on restricted frames:

  • GetCenter()
  • GetLeft()
  • GetRight()
  • GetTop()
  • GetBottom()
  • GetRect()
  • GetScaledRect()
  • GetBoundsRect()

Tooltip Add Texture
We added the ability to have multiple customizable textures per line.
Usage:

Tooltip:AddTexture(fileDataID/”filename” [,minx, maxx, miny, maxy])

will be deprecated soon
or

Tooltip:AddTexture(fileDataID/”filename” [,TooltipTextureInfo])

new way

TooltipTextureInfo is a table that describes how to apply the texture:

{
width = 12, – can be 0 to use actual texture width
height = 12, – can be 0 to use actual texture size
anchor = Enum.TooltipTextureAnchor.Left,
region = Enum.TooltipTextureRelativeRegion.LeftLine,
verticalOffset = 0,
margin = { left = 8, right = 8, top = 0, bottom = 0 }, – empty space around the texture, can be negative
texCoords = { left = 0, right = 1, top = 0, bottom = 1 },
vertexColor = { r = 1, g = 1, b = 1, a = 1 },
}

The values above are the internal defaults. The table may be partially filled out and any unspecified settings will be used at their default values.

Added optional left and top padding.
Usage:

Tooltip:SetPadding(right, bottom, [left, top])

Report System
In this content update, we’re going to put a restriction on a couple of functions. The C_ReportSystem.InitiateReportPlayer and C_ReportSystem.SendReportPlayer functions are no longer allowed to be called by addons. Addons can now open the normal ‘Player Reporting’ dialog by calling the new function C_ReportSystem.OpenReportPlayerDialog. The player will be required to interact with that dialog to actually send the report.

Texture Access
One more notable change: Accessing textures outside of the …/Interface directory no longer support paths, and now requires a file data ID. In order to support this change, we’re going through our Set Texture functions to make sure file data IDs are supported everywhere.

Please feel free to give us your feedback or questions on any of the above here in this thread.

Thank you!

3 Likes
  1. Will there be a way to replace sound files in patch 8.2.0? On the PTR it’s not possible to override or mute sound files by placing it in the Sound folder.

Simca suggested to have a file named after the FileDataID for the sound instead of the file path.

Sound\Spells\Spell_HU_Blunderbuss_Reload_01.ogg
Sound\925279.ogg
  1. Does GetUnscaledRect() even exist? I can’t find it on the nameplates.
7 Likes

It does not. Sorry.

I’ve updated the OP to remove GetUnscaledRect() and I’ve added GetScaledRect() and GetBoundsRect().

So next week my Vanilla WoW gun sound overrides are going to stop working and guns will go back to sounding like toys? To say I’m annoyed by that news is a gross understatement.

13 Likes

Oh god. If I can’t mute the clicky clicky / fizzle sound that gets made when I cast spells I will quit WoW immediately. >_>

5 Likes

There’s always ctrl-s

1 Like

Kaivax,

Don’t you think you could have given add-on authors a bit for time to work on these changes, instead of announcing it 4 days before the patch? You guys are just mean lately.

10 Likes

It’s hard to understate this.

An unmutable fizzle sound, without hyperbole, would make me stop playing WoW.

5 Likes

I’m curious. What would an unmutable fizzle sound with hyperbole make you do?

2 Likes

Blizzard… seriously wtf is with you guys lately? You guys couldn’t have given more than a 4 day notice or heads up? You guys are killing your own player base and having people move on to other things.

Sometimes I feel like this is what you want all along, its just so disappointing.

7 Likes

To be fair, they did communicate those changes in advance to addon authors on the #wowuidev IRC channel. Like, the FileDataID changes and reporting restriction were first mentioned around the 24th of April

3 Likes

Hhhmmm, let me see now…

And WorldFrame.

local frame = CreateFrame("Frame")
frame:ClearAllPoints()
frame:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", WorldFrame)
frame:SetPoint("BOTTOMRIGHT", UIParent)
1 Like

Going back to the peashooter sound is going to be very disappointing.

4 Likes

Never head of that IRC channel. I have heard of the World of Warcraft forums, however (i.e. HERE)

4 Likes

Have no developers responded to the question about muting/changing sounds with 8.2? Perhaps in IRC? If not, I think that’s more disappointing than it being broken in the first place.

Sound is an important part of a game. If we can adjust how the GUI looks and feels, we should be able to adjust how it sounds as well.

5 Likes

Is there any chance we could get an option in our UI settings for turning off the item broadcasts in you party? It’s very annoying to have to wait for all the items people looted to disappear on your screen before continuing. Also, it takes longer if you happen to mouse over it accidentally. It’s very minor, but would appreciate it.

I’m not a programmer, does this break some/all of MoveAnything’s functionality?

Can’t you just right click the popup to dismiss it?
Maybe I have an addon doing that for me.