[howto] Finding the correct (frame)width or spacing for .Aura

[ravagernl]

Trying to optimize how the Aura's look on my target frame, I decided to find out what the perfect spacing setting for it is, to justify icons per row the same way a word processor justifies text. I like to have my icons at a size of 32, to minimize blurriness.

So, with a frame width of 240, and an icon width of 32, I'd calculate like this:
I first calculate how many icons are possible. 7 in total it is. Then, I calculate how much room we have left: framewidth - (iconsize * totalicons) = 240 - (32 * 7) = 16.

Now obviously, you don't want extra pixels to the right, like this:

[_]_[_]_[_]_

But like this:
[_]_[_]_[_]

So the number of points where space needs to be inserted is totalicons - 1. So the spacing would be 16 / (7 - 1) = 2.66.

This brings us to the following code:

local framewidth = 240
local iconsize = 32
local totalicons = floor (framewidth / iconsize)
local spacing = ( framewidth - (iconsize * totalicons) ) / (totalicons - 1)

On the other hand, I want my icons to look clean, and with a spacing of 2.66, that will still cause my icons to be blurry.

Now we can just reverse the formula.

(totalicons * iconsize) + ( (totalicons - 1) * spacing ) = framewidth
(7 * 32) + ( (7 - 1) * 2 ) = 236
(7 * 32) + ( (7 - 1) * 3 ) = 242

So, I can either pick 236 (and set spacing to 2), or 242(and set spacing to 3) as my frame width.

[Taroven]

Even easier than that.

local function CalcAuras(framewidth,aurasize)
	local numauras = framewidth/aurasize
	local padding = (framewidth-(aurasize*numauras))/numauras
	
	if padding < 1 then
		while padding < 1 do
			numauras = numauras-1
			padding = (framewidth-(aurasize*(numauras-1)))/numauras
		end
	end
	return numauras,padding
end

local numauras,padding = CalcAuras(framewidth,aurasize)

This is adapted from the equation x=(a-(b*(c-1)))/c, which has a surprising amount of uses. I use a variant to resize my raidframes to fit a specific padding ( local raidsize = (width-(raidpadding*4))/5 ) as well.

Edit: I realize that this is about the same effect using almost exactly the same math - The advantage is that you simply pick an aura size and it does the rest for you based on the dimensions of the frame, and you don't have to muck with the math each time you're working with a differently-sized frame.

Excellent howto.

[Dawn]

I think it's even a little more about pixel perfectness instead of just icon size/aura number per row. Isn't it? Good tutorial, nonetheless.

[ravagernl]

Originally Posted by Dawn I think it's even a little more about pixel perfectness instead of just icon size/aura number per row. Isn't it? Good tutorial, nonetheless.

Indeed Maybe I should change the title