1. #1
    Deleted

    Idea: program to swap two UI packs

    Hey everyone!

    I have been having this crazy idea that it could be wonderful if it was possible to switch between two complete UI's.
    Let’s say you raid as warlock and there for want a very class specific UI that doesn't suit the rest of the chars you are playing.
    The general idea is that you launch this tool and select what UI you want active and it then renames your WTF and interface folders.

    This type of program is most likely already in existence and I simply haven't found it yet!
    I'm still under education to becoming a programmer so it will take me a while to make but I wouldn't mind sharing it when it's finished if it has interest something people would like.

    [UPDATE]
    I have finished the first version of the program it's written in java so it can be used on both mac and windows, even linux if some of you play from that. I can make the code public if people are worried about virus etc.

    Best regards

    Zyano
    Last edited by mmoc5bb6f68f15; 2013-01-04 at 07:46 AM.

  2. #2
    I think Reflux can do that?

    It doesn't work your way, but it changes the profile on all addons to a specific one. Since all/most addons have profiles nowadays, the entire UI is changed.
    Havn't used the addon myself in a year, but should still be functional.
    Quote Originally Posted by Emothianes View Post
    Omg dude vanilla was so awesome because I was awesome and other people weren't awesome and it made me happy to be special because it was so awesome and I was happy.
    Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!

  3. #3
    Deleted
    True Reflux could do the same, the main reason for making an external program was to avoid having so many addons loaded at the same time.

  4. #4
    A simple .bat would suffice using the ren command.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    I am aware that it can be done that way, but it's nowhere near as easy to work with if you need to change things and around and handle multiple interfaces.
    If you have the experience with .bat then sure you could make that work very well, but if you aren't that experienced with "coding" then it could become a problem.

    As I said then first post I am aware that there is other ways of doing it, this was only out of interest if anyone else could use such software.

  6. #6
    And I've been switching my Interface/WTF files between my Hunter and everything else this entire time.. I've gotten switching the files down to under 6 seconds too, but I still have to exit and reenter the game.

  7. #7
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeremypwnz View Post
    And I've been switching my Interface/WTF files between my Hunter and everything else this entire time.. I've gotten switching the files down to under 6 seconds too, but I still have to exit and reenter the game.
    You'd still have to exit and re-enter so the WTF folder gets reloaded.

    OP: Make sure you only swap WTF\Account. You don't want to swap Config.wtf.
    Alternatively, make it a toggle (default off) if people want different resolutions for different UIs or whatever.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    That’s a very good point you have there. I never really considered that since I always remade the settings when I was creating a new UI.
    Thinks for the input so fare

  9. #9
    I worked more-or-less this way. My solution was to just use symbolic links and have two separate "copies" of warcraft that shared all the files/folders except for /wtf and /interface.

    When I wanted to start up with some particular character I'd just click the icon for that toon. Symlinks are trivial to do on mac os x (ln -s /to /from) but require a little more effort on Windows. Look in the computer forum for the 'how to move your warcraft folder off your ssd' tutorial and you'll get some information about the basic process.

    Another approach would be to have one copy of warcraft and a batch file or script (depending on platform) that changed symlinks for /wtf and /interface -- one for each toon. That method is slightly more dangerous if you have a tendency to log in as multiple toons/characters (writing out the WTF files will trample eachother ) so I don't recommend it. The other method handles "multiboxing" nicely.

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Elaborate on "more effort" on windows, evn? mklink /D <link> <target>.

  11. #11
    Code:
    Elaborate on "more effort" on windows, evn? mklink /D <link> <target>.
    Well on a unix-like system I'd do something like
    Code:
    cd new_wow_path_goes_here
    ln -s /Applications/WoW/* -t .
    That'll make the ~25 symlinks to the files/folders in the original warcraft directory in the new location. After that I can just replace the interface/wtf/fonts/etc folders in my new warcraft folder with whatever is unique to that installation. If I was concerned about being able to delete the original warcraft location or having full playable backups of each install I'd use hardlinks, but whatever.

    On Windows I tried to do a similar setup. First I mklinked all the directories, then the files without the /d option. I'm sure there's probably some powershell equivalent to my 1-liner to make symlinks but I don't know much about Microsoft's new command line environment so I just made links one at a time to the 2 dozen files and folders that matter.

    Then I replaced interface/wtf with regular directories so that they would have their own UI. Double click on wow.exe and I get "the specified path doesn't exist" as an error. See example (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, updated, logged in as an administrative user). Symlinking folders on windows works as you'd expect. Symlinking files doesn't seem to.

    I've read that explorer won't launch relative links but you can probably see in the terminal window that I created them with absolute paths so that doesn't explain why explorer is refusing to launch it. You can also see the absolute path to the target in the properties window and that the target file exists in the explorer window on the right. Strangely, the link will work if you try to run the executable from the command line (ie: in cmd.exe e:\w2\wow.exe works as advertised) so the links are sound, you can also see the icons are resolved correctly for the executable files. I recall needing some some third party software to make it work the way it does on a Mac where double-clicking the symlink is identical to double-clicking a copy of the executable - but I lost interest and can't remember details. Either way - it wasn't as simple as "type these 32 characters into terminal and you're done".

    If you know something I'm missing then I'm willing to listen.
    Last edited by a21fa7c67f26f6d49a20c2c51; 2013-01-05 at 09:56 AM. Reason: fixed quote

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