EQMac.com

The complete SARS4MAC UI is now ready for you all to view and download.

While I am waiting for EQInterface to recover from the shock that someone actually wanted to upload a file to the EQMac folder for the first time in years, I have created a temporary site to hold screenshots of the UI and links to both the .ZIP and .SITX downloads.

NOTE : the site is hosted in the UK, so apologies to our US friends if the files are slow to download. The .ZIP is around 3.7Mb and the .SITX is 2.5Mb.

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SARS4MAC SITE : http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/sars4mac/index.html

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Please use this thread to post ISSUES, COMMENTS and FEATURE REQUESTS relevant to the Sars4mac UI.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

ISSUE : pet, target, group and buffs windows are tricky to move with the mouse.

The likely cause of this is small margins round the windows. I will have a look at this shortly.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

I'm literally counting the minutes till i can get home and download this UI, thanks so much for making it Mak!

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By your request, I am posting this suggestion here. Could you make a version of the effects window with no squares and numbers?

Just some thoughts after listening to the conversations this evening...

1. if you are confused about how to install or which variants to use, check the readme included in the package (or on the website where you downloaded the file). Still stuck? Post a question here or ask if anyone has managed to solve your query/problem already.

2. The ZIP and the SITX archives contain the same UI files - just choose the version which is most convenient for you to unpack. Newer Macs will probably want the ZIP and older macs may want the SITX.

3. Uninstall instructions... log in, type "/loadskin default", log out and delete the "sars4mac" directory. You will have to reposition your windows again.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

SUGGESTION : for users of "older" macs who really need every inch of screen space, the spells bar and buffs bars can be a little wide.

To get best width from the Viewport command and avoiding overlapping windows, these bars could be shrunk by the order of 15-20 pixels each. I enlarged them because spells with long names broke onto three lines. The buff bar *can* be flipped so it could go on the left above the spells bar but it is major effort to do so. I am unsure if a horizontal version could be done at a reasonable width.

Opinions on making them narrower? The buff names really need to stay so you can see what debuff is on you.

EDIT : How about an optional "no buff or spell names" version? Just the tiny icons all in a row? That would allow you to get a *really* wide Viewport... you could mouseover to see what the buff/debuff is called just like you are used to.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

I pretty much like it the way it is except for a color change and/or texture change in a couple of places. I seem to have about the same lag (definitely not worst) in my testing as I currently have so I don't see any problems there. I probably need to figure out a better layout of how my windows are set up because the way I had them with Sars3 doesn't seem to work the same with Sars4. I'll do more testing as time passes with different characters to see what works best and if I find problems.

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Daro - 65 Monk ** 4/30/2011
Lots of other characters

I've done this in just about every UI that I've fiddled with.

People are fairly particular about what they like and dislike though, especially buff bars: Vertical, Horizontal, Horizontal left to right, Spell names, no Spell names, ..... pick what you like, if people want changes make them if you have time, if not you've at least given them another option.

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Daro - tell me which textures you are wanting to change and I'll see if I have the Photoshop source for that window. Some, like the compass and hotbutton window I redid from scratch so at east have photoshop files of the window cut into pieces and layered. Others I just edited the textures directly (don't forget to check their alpha channel).

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

I agree - there are a million things people could tweak to get the UI just how they want it. I think it would be sensible for me to take the attitude of "this is Sars4mac - if you like it, use it. If you don't, either use the default or tweak it yourself. With backups and incremental changes it isn't that difficult."

If I try to do every possible variation myself, I'll go prematurely grey and have to release lots and lots of variations files. I can give an outline of how the code is structured if folks want to make significant changes to a window for their own use.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

One thing that has become clear to me in the first night of people using the UI is the great fact that EQMac is being played on a wide variety of Macs, both modern and venerable. This raises the issue that for some, every on-screen pixel counts and for many, UI-related lag is a serious problem.

In the long term (and I mean the LONG term) I think it would be beneficial for me to work on a "minimalist" UI - no transparency, thin borders, no fancy graphics, small buttons, little text. There are a lot of examples in the EQInterface EQPC repository to draw from. When the dust settles with SARS4MAC, I will have a look at that issue and maybe start a discussion thread about MINIUI.

Thanks for trying the UI out folks and thanks as well to those with "older" macs who tried and struggled with it. My apologies if it just didn't fit or was too laggy to raid with - SARS4MAC was never designed as a compact UI to run within our EQMac UI constraints.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

SCHEDULED DOWNTIME for SARS4MAC

I have been notified by my webhost that there is some scheduled maintenance due on my server which holds the sars4mac package. Here are the details just in case you try to access the site and don't see anything... (times are GMT)

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

HOW TO : Get rid of the squares and numbers which are visible when the Buff Bar is not full of buffs...

1. First take a backup of the EQUI_BuffWindow.xml file in the sars4mac folder.

2. Open EQUI_BuffWindow.xml in a text editor.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the section which begins with



4. Delete the following block of text from that section...


5. Save the EQUI_BuffWindow.xml files (remember to save as plain text).

That's it.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4

My change will be a very simple change and will just have to put a new texture, mostly likely in the chat background windows so I think that just involves one file.

What I attempt to do is to make sure with a very quick glance of the screen which instance of EQ I'm on. In the heat of a battle I find that sometimes I get confused and hit keys trying to get the cleric to cast a healing spell but nothing happens since I'm on the warrior. I solve this by changing the look of the UI. I found that changing color is the easiest method and achieves the results of me quickly spotting what character is active.

For example: If I am playing a Warrior, Enchanter, Cleric. I would set main colors on the screen so Black would be theme for warrior, Blue would be theme for Enchanter and Green would be theme for Cleric. Therefore I know immediately which character is currently active without having to look at the character's name. It keeps me from attempting to cast a heal with the warrior.

I've tried running different UI's but over time I have found that color change is the most effective for me and sometimes you find an UI that just works well and therefore why use others. I've always like my modified SARS3 so that has been my UI but this SARS4 seems better for me so far, so I'm pretty sure I'm replacing my SARS3 with SARS4MAC

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Daro - 65 Monk ** 4/30/2011
Lots of other characters

The chat windows use sars_background.tga and scrollbar_gutter.tga - the first one has a very faint stripe to it, 0% saturation and 5% saturation on alternate pixels.

The borders of the windows are defined in EQUI_Animations.xml and look for their textures in window_pieces01.tga in the sars4mac directory at around the X=190 Y=165 coordinate.

If you wanted to tint the main Hotbutton window, I have that in Photoshop format with the majority of pieces in layers. In Photoshop-speak, I would apply a Solid Colour adjustment layer with the blend mode set to Colour and fiddle with the opacity until I got the effect I wanted. Don't forget that the sars4mac_caster variant uses a different texture than the hybrid and melee versions.

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iMac (mid-2007), c2d 2.8GHz, 4Gb ram, ATI HD2600Pro 256Mb, 10.6.4, Wacom Intuos4