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Updated:09-04-10 05:15 AM
Created:10-23-09 10:24 PM
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VirtualPlates  Popular! (More than 5000 hits)

Version: 3.3.5.3
by: Saiket [More]

Nameplates are hard to look at. They fill your screen and make an absolute mess when you're fighting lots of mobs. _VirtualPlates gives them depth, so they fit into the game world instead of covering it.

Note: _VirtualPlates no longer works since the Cataclysm pre-release 4.0.1 patch.
Details

This has little configuration, and should work with most other nameplate skinning mods such as Aloft, TidyPlates, and caelNameplates. You might prefer to turn on Allow Overlapping Unit Nameplates in Interface Options > Names > Unit Nameplates so nameplates won't bump into each other. The sample screenshots were taken with this new feature enabled.

Options

_VirtualPlates' options can be found in the Interface Options > _VirtualPlates menu.
  • Nameplate Scale Limits:
    • Minimum Scale: Limits how small nameplates can shrink to. Values can range from 0 (meaning disabled) to 1 (meaning plates won't get smaller than their default size). For example, a value of 0.5 would keep plates from shrinking beyond half their original size.
    • Limit maximum scale: When enabled, this prevents nameplates from getting too big when they get close to your camera.
    • Maximum Scale: Similar to the “Minimum Scale” slider, but this value controls how many times larger than the default size a nameplate can grow to.
  • Scale Factor: When nameplates are this many yards from the screen, they'll be normal sized. Larger distances mean larger nameplates.

  • 3.3.5.3:
    • Final release. _VirtualPlates will no longer work after the Cataclysm expansion.
    • Added deDE localization by muhmiauwau from CurseForge.
  • 3.3.5.2:
  • 3.3.5.1: Removed options to adjust scale factors based on camera zoom, since camera info is no longer available to addons.
  • 3.3.0.1:
    • Hack workaround for blacklisted nameplate depths.
    • No longer forces overlapping nameplates feature on.
    • OnUpdate script handlers on plate Visuals now get assigned to the plates directly to preserve their execution order.
  • 3.2.2.5:
    • Fixed issue where addons could get a hold of raw nameplates before _VirtualPlates replaced them.
    • Reworked handling of frame levels. _VirtualPlates shouldn't interfere with the relative frame levels of children any more.
  • 3.2.2.4: Added a Maximum Scale option.
  • 3.2.2.3: Now loads LibCamera-1.0 properly.
  • 3.2.2.2:
    • Added a configuration pane with various options.
    • ScaleFactor can now optionally scale with camera distance.
    • Added a minimum scale option to prevent plates from getting too small at long range.
  • 3.2.2.1: Initial commit.
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Unread 01-20-12, 01:59 PM  
vithos
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Originally Posted by spiralofhope
While using the traditional name plates for the first time in a while, I noticed last night that blizzard is resizing their name plates based on distance.

It's not nearly as awesome as virtual plates and a good mod, but it's alright.
This doesn't appear to be true.
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Unread 07-28-11, 11:31 AM  
spiralofhope
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While using the traditional name plates for the first time in a while, I noticed last night that blizzard is resizing their name plates based on distance.

It's not nearly as awesome as virtual plates and a good mod, but it's alright.
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Unread 01-04-11, 03:01 PM  
Saiket
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Re: LibRangeCheck-2.0

Originally posted by Milmoor
The LibRangeCheck-2.0 library might be able to help. RangeDisplay uses it to get an approximate distance. Not perfect, but about perfect is good enough for me . Not sure if this will work on more than just target, mouseover and focus though.
Unless there's another way to make nameplates appear to fit into the 3D game world, I don't think "Virtual" plates is worth resurrecting, if only because the name wouldn't fit anymore. One lesson I learned while writing this mod is that if the illusion is just a little off, it won't be convincing and worse, it can be confusing to look at. If it were just a couple plates jumping from 10yd to 20yd to 40yd size, I doubt anyone could be convinced.

LibRangeCheck would only work for a few UnitIDs (target, mouseover, etc.) like you suspected, so the overall effect in fights would be one or two nameplates growing and shrinking amongst a bunch of others. Most nameplate mods already use the size of plates to convey threat information though, so the two would step on each other's toes. Because of that, I think the nameplate mods themselves should be the ones to implement LibRangeCheck in ways that visually make sense for them.
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Unread 11-24-10, 11:36 PM  
tapdov
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Re: LibRangeCheck-2.0

Originally posted by Milmoor
The LibRangeCheck-2.0 library might be able to help. RangeDisplay uses it to get an approximate distance. Not perfect, but about perfect is good enough for me . Not sure if this will work on more than just target, mouseover and focus though.
Unfortunately, there's a good chance the author won't be reading this page anymore, since it was switched to outdated.
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Unread 11-14-10, 05:57 AM  
Milmoor
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LibRangeCheck-2.0

The LibRangeCheck-2.0 library might be able to help. RangeDisplay uses it to get an approximate distance. Not perfect, but about perfect is good enough for me . Not sure if this will work on more than just target, mouseover and focus though.
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Unread 11-08-10, 11:54 PM  
Saiket
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Originally posted by wings4tw
Do you think blizzard purposely did what ever they did so that your addon could not be possible?
It's unlikely that Blizzard accidentally broke _VirtualPlates. The patch specifically removed depth information from nameplates, yet not from anything else. Additionally, this is the second time Blizzard has tried to break _VirtualPlates. I worked around the first attempt, but this time there is no workaround.

Originally posted by wings4tw
Also, I noticed that the Allow Overlapping Nameplates option is no longer there. (
The checkbox is gone, but I think you can still allow overlapping with this slash command:
Code:
/console spreadnameplates 0
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Unread 11-08-10, 10:28 PM  
wings4tw
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Do you think blizzard purposely did what ever they did so that your addon could not be possible?

Also, I noticed that the Allow Overlapping Nameplates option is no longer there. (
Last edited by wings4tw : 11-08-10 at 10:30 PM.
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Unread 10-23-10, 11:55 AM  
Thorgall
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What is pretty BAD is that I play the game in 3D and all the plates are on the forefront now, like the UI is (menu, bars, etc...), so there is no way to still play in 3D with name plates enabled.

They enjoy fucking up things, there is no doubt about that.
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Unread 10-18-10, 07:05 PM  
Jumpee
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It's a shame that your mod is no longer possible as I found it very helpful. Thanks for having written it.
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Unread 10-09-10, 09:03 PM  
Saiket
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Originally posted by OttoDeFe
Saiket,
I was wondering if it would be possible to just scale all the nameplates to about 50% or so - the default nameplates are just too big and if we can't have -VirtualPlates, is scaling them all equally at least possible?
That would still be possible, but Blizzard seems to be toying with adding a setting like that on the beta. They've removed it on the current beta, but I'm waiting to see if they put it back in. Hopefully we won't need a mod to scale nameplates down in Cata.
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Unread 10-09-10, 09:36 AM  
OttoDeFe
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Saiket,
I was wondering if it would be possible to just scale all the nameplates to about 50% or so - the default nameplates are just too big and if we can't have -VirtualPlates, is scaling them all equally at least possible?
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Unread 09-04-10, 11:23 PM  
spiralofhope
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Sorry to hear about the API change breaking your addon. I guess Blizzard thought that addons learning mob distance in this manner would make some raid encounters too easy.

I wish they could just turn it off for those encounters though, and not just take the feature out.

It's been a great pleasure using this Addon. I guess I won't get into tanking since I can't properly interact with the play field. Regular-sized name plates are awful, and just scaling everything down isn't a solution for me. I'll probably be turning name plates entirely off come Cataclysm. =/
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Unread 09-04-10, 01:19 PM  
ComputerNerd
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Sorry to hear that it won't work anymore come cataclysm.
This is a really novel idea that you did a great job in implementing.
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Unread 09-04-10, 06:07 AM  
Fl7x
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Thumbs down Re: Broken in Cataclysm

That's F***ng lame!!

I almost can't play with the standard Blizz nameplates... They are too big. I hope they implement something like that awesome addon, or at least allow the modders to work with plates.

I'm Beta-Tester... So I'll try that Blizz take that into consideration.

Great work Saiket. For me that's a MUST A HAVE Addon..


Originally posted by Saiket
Come Cataclysm, _VirtualPlates won't work anymore, so version 3.3.5.3 will be the last release until then. Blizzard removed the ability of addons to read how far away nameplates are, so they can no longer be scaled.

You can keep using the mod until Cataclysm though; It's not broken yet!
Last edited by Fl7x : 09-04-10 at 06:09 AM.
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Unread 09-04-10, 05:22 AM  
Saiket
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Broken in Cataclysm

Come Cataclysm, _VirtualPlates won't work anymore, so version 3.3.5.3 will be the last release until then. Blizzard removed the ability of addons to read how far away nameplates are, so they can no longer be scaled.

You can keep using the mod until Cataclysm though; It's not broken yet!
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