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It seems to me like we've covered this before, but I can't find it, so it must have been a while. The standard camera distance in World of Warcraft isn't bad, especially if your computer is right at the system requirements-- you can usually see most of what's happening and yet it's close enough to keep you focused on your character.
But if you've got a really nice PC and, like me, want to see a little farther than normal (or as in the picture above, a lot farther than normal), there are a few easy ways to increase your camera distance, as Dr. Laxative found over on LJ.
ImprovedCamera is probably the easiest-- it's an addon that will give you a slider to increase camera distance up to the max allowed range. You can also see, in the description on that site, that there are ways to edit your WoW files and increase the max range even farther. By editing the "SET cameraDistanceD" number in your config.wtf file, you can change one of the preset lengths for the camera, and then cycle through them with Home and End. You don't even really need an addon to tweak your settings-- type "/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)" (or whatever distance you want) into the chat console, and then you should be able to scroll out to the max distance that you just set.
If your computer's not that great, doing this stuff will definitely introduce slowdown and pop-in to your graphics, so run these commands with care. But if you've got the gear for it, you can see Azeroth at a whole new distance.
It's a good read-- Antiarc seems like a smart guy who not only knows the ins and outs of the UI system, but knows how to bring them to our screens elegantly and simply. He's also really positive, which is great-- even though Blizzard said at BlizzCon that they're thinking about building a threatmeter into the UI, Antiarc doesn't see it as a "threat" (pun intended)-- instead, he's excited that Blizzard is acknowledging how useful threatmeters are, and that hopefully Blizzard will include API hooks into anything they release.
Very good read, whether you're just an Omen user, or someone actively developing addons for WoW.
The patch hit on Tuesday morning, and Tuesday afternoon, I began my usual cycle of addon laziness-- instead of actually updating my addons, I just checked "load out-of-date addons" setting myself up for trouble down the road, I'm sure.
But while I'll be having addon problems for a while (at least until the next patch-- I'll probably finally fix everything right before 2.3 breaks them all again), you don't need to. Kaydeethree has put together a terrific guide to fixing your addons after 2.2, with links to addons that have updated, addons that haven't updated, and a few great tips on how to update your macros as well.
It seems like KD3 is keeping an eye on addons as they update as well, so the thread will probably be updated accordingly. If, unlike me, you're motivated enough to keep your addons as up to date as possible (so that they all, y'know, actually work instead of throwing error messages at you every few seconds), then KD3's guide should help.
Blizzard has added two new updates to the WoW Armory. One of them is the Search Engine plugin we talked about earlier, though it isn't just for Firefox -- it also includes IE 7 and Opera. They have a very simple installation for adding the Armory search plugin to your browser.
They have also added an Arena calculator which is actually three calculators in one. Choose one of the calculators to determine:
The number of arena points earned in a week
The average rating to get a desired arena reward
How long it will take to get that reward
If you have pinned your profile, the calculator will automatically fill up with your current arena statistics, as long as you aren't using the Opera or Safari browsers.
The Arena Calculator seems to be a good way to get the Season 2 gear before the Season 3 starts with its new rating restrictions for gear.
Yes folks, 2.2 has gone live and most of you who are reading this have already been greeted by the lightning-fast login screen that was a result of of the new patch disabling all your add-ons.
Fear not, you can "Enable Out-Of-Date Addons" and most of them will return to life. Some however, most notably those that affect unit frames, may not behave as you would like them to. As a result, a lot of you are hitting the add-on sites right now. The add-on site I visit regularly hasn't moved this slow since 2.0 went live. The hamsters powering the servers of these sites are near collapse, as pictured. Here are a few notes and tips to get you through the next 48 hours and back in the game.
At the time of this writing, voice chat isn't enabled yet on the launch servers. Don't ask in General. Don't shout from the rooftops. It's not online yet. It probably will be soon.
Be kind to the server rodents. There are lots of good add-on sites on the internet, and if we can distribute the traffic a little bit, it will make the experience less arduous for everybody. Curse seems to be getting hit pretty hard at the moment. If it's not responding or too slow, don't forget WoW Interface, or ui.IncGamers.com.
If all else fails you might luck-out with Google or by looking in the readme.txt of the add-on in question to find the author's personal site.
There's always strength in numbers. Many hands make light work. All those folks you've bragged your addons to are likely looking for the update too. Share information.
CM Drysc announced on the WoW General Forum that they are developing a Firefox add-on for searching the Armory.
For those of you who are not familiar with Mozilla's Firefox, it is a browser that can be used on Macs or PCs (even Linux) and has a great dropdown search function for quick lookups on certain sites. Wowhead has one as does WoWwiki and so do we here at WoW Insider (link goes to add-on). You can go to the Firefox Search Engine page to install any of these add-ons onto your version of Firefox.
Drysc says to check in at the Armory over the next couple of days for the announcement that the search engine has been completed.
When I was a guild leader, one of the most frequent questions that was asked in our guild chat channel was "Where should I go at level <fill in the blank>." Although I'm not going to write a full-fledged Addon Spotlight column today, I want to take a brief moment to point new players toward resources that will make your progression through the PvE world a little easier. And if you're a seasoned player re-rolling a new character maybe these little gems will help you take a less familiar path and explore some content you might not have seen before.
First off, I want you to grab an add-on and a module for that add-on. If you've seen Titan, Fubar is very similar in function. Fubar is simply an add-on that other "information" modules plug into. So for the purposes of this exercise, please grab Fubar and the LocationFu module. They both install as normal add-ons and if you need help installing add-ons then check out this article. Despite what some silly people will tell you, using the majority add-ons will not get your account suspended. I'm sure there are some floating around the seedy underbelly of the internet that try to exploit the game that are illegal, but for the most part add-ons are perfectly legal in the game.
Whenever I ask people what the best way to make money in game is, chances are the word "Auctioneer" will be somewhere in the reply. Recently we received a head's up from Tagor that this fabulous addon is getting a revamp, but it isn't available to download just yet. They call it AuctioneerAdvanced, and soon it will be available to organize all your auctioning needs.
They've added a ton of new features to this already powerful tool, the chief amongst them being a smart scan ability that will enable you to walk away from the Auction House when you are in the middle of a scan. No longer will we have to stand for 20 minutes at a time doing nothing but letting the addon do its thing, only to have it cancelled in the middle and have to start all over. You can now pause and resume Auctioneer, to run to the mailbox, buy reagents, have a dance contest on the AH bridge, whatever.
Also of note is the retooling of the memory usage on this mod. Evidently it will no longer take up a huge chunk of your memory as it goes, which is definitely good news. I'm also pretty excited about the incremental scanning feature that will scan items even when I am not standing in the AH. I dunno about you, but spending that half an hour once a week standing around like a dope in the AH was really cramping my style.
Currently AuctioneerAdvanced is available as a preview only, and if this doesn't strike you as odd, it should. I can't for the life of me remember when an addon received demo time like this. If you are interested in demoing the mod, it can be downloaded here. In any case, it looks like this mod will definitely be worth the wait.
Recently we spotlighted a gorgeous UI mod that emphasized form over function. Now, we'd like to turn your attention to another...unusual UI that may tickle your inner 5 year old: a Hello Kitty Island Adventure UI.
Inspired by the South Park WoW episode, player Shalandryl of the Silvermoon server has created this UI mod for all to enjoy. So get your pretty pink ponies ready for a tea party with Illidan, Hello Kitty is in da house.
You've seen a great PvP video or a funny screenshot and think to yourself: what AddOn did they use? First, I recommend doing a quick check of all the AddOn articles we've done here at WoW Insider. If you don't find it there, head over to this new thread on the WoW European forums.
Players describe or post screenshot links of AddOns they are trying to identify. Then other players name it and post links on where to find it. There are many individual threads asking about UIs and AddOns in the official Interface forums, but this one thread puts those questions and answers in one spot.
The thread has just started, but it's an excellent resource for those of us without the time to spend a couple of hours browsing WoW Interface.
A note for our non-European readers: you can't post on the European forums without a European WoW account. So it's read only for you.
Courtesy of the excellent Daily Blue feature of World of Raids comes this tidbit about possible changes to the user interface for Wrath of the Lich King, posted originally on the European forums, where a lot of the good blue responses seem to reside.
Blizzard poster Salthem cautions, as is often the case, that it's too soon to expect much in the way of details but that there's not likely to be a radical change in the UI. "I doubt we'll see a dramatic completely new User Interface, generally we prefer to implement more gradual changes or options to the existing interface." While this sounds like a safe and generally correct way to go, it does leave us with some wiggle room for speculation. What gradual changes should they be working on for WoTLK? I'm personally pretty content with the UI as it stands, I don't fiddle much with it or use a lot of addons, but I'm sure more advanced modders have ideas. A built-in threat meter would be kind of cool, or the long-promised shaman totem UI.
This week we feature the UI of Nikkita, level 70 Gnome Warrior from the guild <Vagrant> on the US PvP server, Dunemaul. I must confess -- while there are parts of Nikkita's UI I would never use, I was especially glad to get this one. I've always said if I was going to jump to the Alliance side, it was going to be to play a Gnome Warrior. Something about the idea of a wee bite-sized Gnome tanking a boss as ridiculously enormous as Rags just makes me giggle. Apparently the fellow at the helm of Nikkita agreed that it was a fun idea!
Nikkita sent two screen shots just chock-full of UI for us. The above shot is him on the flying mount, checking out bags, quest items and quests before touching down. (I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for forgetting shards in the bank after raiding the night before... gah!) The second screen shot of Nikkita in all his raiding glory can be found after the jump as well as a really great listing of all the mods involved in this week's Reader UI!
I want to apologize to the other writers for dominating the Add-on Spotlight feature for a few weeks. I think it's an obvious I'm an add-on superfreak. I'm constantly upgrading add-ons, trying add-ons, ditching add-ons, and replacing add-ons. This feature, therefore, is something I really enjoy.
I want to talk to you today about "the little add-on that could." This little piece of programming brilliance has been around forever and over the course of time some of it's features have even been worked into the default World of Warcraft user interface. Auction Filter Plus won't die though. The author just keeps honing and refining it for all of us to enjoy.
What does it do? It allows you to manipulate auction search results in ways that the default auction interface does not. How many times have you been to the auction house looking for silk cloth for example, typed "silk cloth" in the search field and had results that included "bolts of silk cloth" as well? One of the things AFP does is allow you to do "exact" name searches which allows you to find precisely what you're looking for without a lot of "bogus" (as my guild leader would say) search results.
Suppose you need a lot of that silk cloth, fast. Your wallet is heavy, you're not worried about the price, and you just need a ton of silk and you don't want to mess around with the vendors who are selling it one-piece-at-a-time. AFP also allows you to specify what stack sizes you want to search. So in this example, you could click the "Stacks of 20" box and it would only show results that were stacks of twenty.
The most obvious and beautiful feature of AFP though, is shown to the player on a budget who is shopping for stackable items. I used to only buy big stacks, because I assumed people who were selling the items in bulk were offering better prices. I've found since installing AFP that this isn't always true. Once you have your search results in the auction window, you can click "Show Best Deals" which will then categorize auction offers based on the cost-per-item. Sometimes the lowest buyout is not always the best deal!
You can also hide items that don't have a buyout, or (if you're a gear freak like me) hide items you can't afford. There are other features, but the best way to find out about them is to download the add-on, or check out the write-up on one of the add-on sites. In my books, this little gem will always be a "must have" in my add-on arsenal.
I wasn't going to write about this "so soon" after discussing Trackmenu, but after The Blog King presented appetizer and entree courses on hunter management, I thought this add-on would make the perfect dessert helping. The cheesecake, if you will. (Cherry cheesecake, of course.)
Our friend Gazmik Fizzwidget is a goblin of many talents, and unlike most goblins, his inventions do not tend to blow up. As I said, I spoke about Trackmenu not too long ago, but he has also created an excellent add-on to aid in the sometimes arduous task of keeping your pet fed. Keeping your pet fed is important because, after all, if it's happiness drops too low for an extended period of time, the pet will desert you. Hunters who have invested an extended amount of time and money into their pets will tell you that losing your pet is a bad thing. Re-training from scratch is not a pleasant experience, especially if you acquired a rare pet at a low level that you're particularly fond of.
So what exactly are you to do to keep your pet happy? With the default user interface, you are forced to continually monitor that tiny little tri-colour box beside your pet's unit frame (that I swear looks like a coffee cup) and click the feed icon, and then click the food. It's time consuming, repetitive, and tedious.
Our friend Gazmik has written another gem called Feed-O-Matic that makes feeding your pet so gleefully simple it's the next best thing to total automation! Installation is simple and typical of most add-ons. Probably the most difficult thing is choosing a key to bind to the pet feeding process in the Feed-O-Matic configuration window. Once you have defined your key, Feed-O-Matic will intelligently monitor the contents of your inventory and only feed your pet the food that your pet likes, each time you press the feeding key. It will choose foods in the order of your pet's preference. So if one food will give a higher happiness yield, it will use that up first before moving to the next type. It will also optionally ignore food items that are cooking or quest items. It can also be set to consume "shorter" stacks first to maximize your bag space, although this is less of an issue since the recent changes to the stacking mechanism. Lastly, (and this is perhaps my favourite feature) it can even be set to make your pet growl audibly when it's hungry so you don't have to watch the happiness monitor at all!
I don't know Gazmik personally, and I wouldn't normally review two add-ons from the same person in such rapid succession, but it just seemed like a perfect topical flow today. Remember: He's got what you need!
Do you suffer from buttonitus? (I'm amused that word didn't trip a spell-check alert.) Symptoms of this dreaded disease include having more spells and abilities than you have buttons, exploring assorted action bar add-ons that allow you to have more buttons than the default UI, and overall general frustration. Although this plague is not limited to a single class in World of Warcraft, hunters in particular have it worse than most.
In addition to the usual combat abilities, the shots, the traps, and whatever other profession-based buttons a hunter may have setup they have an added burden: tracking skills. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that nobody can track as many different kinds of things as hunters, especially if the hunter is a miner or herbalist as well, or even a dwarf.
So, listen to me hunters (and others). Look at your action bars and all the tracking skills you have hot-keyed there. Now describe to me in a hundred words or less (in the comments section if you wish) the happy dance you will launch into if you could reclaim each and every one of those buttons and use them for something else. Allow me to introduce you to Fizzwidget's Trackmenu.
Installation of the add-on could not be simpler. Simply open it in your archiver of choice and extract the folder into your \Addons folder as per usual. Then launch World of Warcraft and look where the tracking indicator used to be on your mini-map. In it's place is the Trackmenu button. Click this button, and a list of all your tracking skills will drop down allowing you to make a selection. Unless there are some you want to hot-key you can now safely remove all your tracking abilities from action bars.
Enjoy one of my absolute favourite add-ons. You can look forward to further reviews of other Fizzwidget products in the future. He's got what you need!
Curse has 
The 
When I was a guild leader, one of the most frequent questions that was asked in our guild chat channel was "Where should I go at level <fill in the blank>." Although I'm not going to write a full-fledged 
I wasn't going to write about this "so soon" after discussing 
Do you suffer from buttonitus? (I'm amused that word didn't trip a spell-check alert.) Symptoms of this dreaded disease include having more spells and abilities than you have buttons, exploring assorted action bar add-ons that allow you to have more buttons than the default UI, and overall general frustration. Although this plague is not limited to a single class in World of Warcraft, 
