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EVERQUEST SARS4MAC User Interface
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ORIGINAL AUTHOR RECOGNITION : This User Interface is based on the SARS4 EQPC interface officially released by Sarsippius himself. The original is still hosted at http://members.cox.net/sarsworld/news.html but has not been updated since 2004. I have attempted to contact Sarsippius to notify him of my intent to modify this UI but to date have received no reply.

INTENDED USERS : EQMac players on the Al'Kabor server only.

INTENDED HARDWARE : Any PPC or Intel Mac, MINIMUM screen resolution of 1280 x 1024.

VARIANTS : This UI is available in a base version called sars4mac and two variants called sars4mac_caster and sars4mac_melee.

MAIN FEATURES : Stylish, clean and functional appearance, Sars4 signature hot-button window with ten customisable hotkeys, pri/sec/range/ammo slots on all bag/trade/merchant windows, t.king spellbook graphic, zone locs and zone connection maps on the help window (users of Macs with low memory should see the "helpwindow_nomaps" optional component).


DISCLAIMER : I do not have the time to personally customise this UI to each and every person's taste so I include this README file to answer some of the more basic questions about the customisable portion of this UI. This UI was created specifically for a MINIMUM resolution of 1280 x 1024 and has been tested at resolutions up to 1920 x 1280 (widescreen). If you play in a different resolution the windows will be out of place and need moving to fit your screen. Since most of the windows use custom graphics, they are not resizable and will take up too much space at resolutions lower than 1280 x 1024. This is NOT a minimalist UI. It is also assumed that you will set up your own chat windows along with filters and hitsmode settings to suit your own preferences.


BACKGROUND : While the popular EQPC version of SARS is still being maintained by (I believe) Duesama, the source for this conversion was based on the SARS v4.0 release roughly around the time of the Gates of Discord expansion which suits us Mac users fine since the EQMac Al'Kabor server is permanently locked at Planes of Power. I have wound back the UI to the PoP era and strenuously attempted to remove every redundant code and graphics resource from the package to maximise the efficiency and reliability of this release. There are a few small differences between the EQPC release of SARS4 and my version which are to do with errors present in the EQMac User Interface.


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CONTENTS

1.) INSTALLING THE UI
2.) CUSTOMISING THE UI
3.) BASIC FAQ
4.) KNOWN ISSUES
5.) OPTIONAL COMPONENTS
6.) CASTER AND MELEE VARIANTS
7.) CONTACT INFORMATION


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1.) INSTALLING THE UI

First, unzip the "sars4mac" folder directly into the "EverquestLP/game/uifiles" directory. If you have already unzipped this file somewhere else, simply right click on the "sars4mac" folder and select the "COPY" menu option, and then locate the "EverquestLP/game/uifiles" folder, right click it and select the menu option "PASTE." If you have done this correctly, you will see both "default" and "sars4mac" folders when you open the "uifiles" folder. This UI will not work unless the files are in the correct place in the correct folder. If you have any problems loading the UI, simply go back and double check the location of the folder and files inside.

Once the files are in the correct place, open the "sars4mac" folder and locate the file called UI_Playername_52.ini. This file contains all of the window positions and settings to get you started (once you are in EQ, you can fine tune the window positions to your liking). Make a COPY of this file and RENAME the COPY typing in your character name in place of the Playername (e.g UI_Sarsippius_52.ini). Now you need to MOVE this file into the "EverquestLP/game" directory.

Once you are in the game, simply type "/Loadskin sars4mac 1" to initialise the UI. The "1" is EXTREMELY important as it tells the game to load the current window locations from the personalised UI_Playername_52.ini file.

SPECIAL NOTE: The first time you load the UI with the UI_Playername_52.ini custom file, you MUST use "/Loadskin sars4mac 1". If you use "/Loadskin sars4mac" the very first time without the "1", it will initialise the UI with your current default window positions and rewrite the positions on the UI_Playername_52.ini file that was included. While that doesn't hurt anything, it does make it kind of useless to include and causes a lot of extra moving for you.


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2.) CUSTOMISING THE UI

The layout of the Hotbox Window is the signature feature of the SARS4 User Interface. It allows for everything to be in one place without taking up too much screen room. One nice benefit of the hotbox window is the TEN customisable QuickClicks(tm) buttons. You can put any equipped items on them as well as items in the main inventory slots such as bags.

By default, they are mapped to Primary and Secondary weapon slots and the eight main inventory slots in order but they could just as easily be set to hold a bridle, clickable rings/bracers or spare weapons. Here is how to set this up for YOUR gear!

First off, decide what items you want to have quick access to. Get a piece of paper and write down the 10 items that you want easy access to. When you have done this, refer to the QuickClick diagram below to assign a numbered location to where you want these items to appear on your Hotbox window.

*QuickClick Diagram*

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| 1 | 2 |
---------
| 3 | 4 |
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| 5 | 6 |
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| 7 | 8 |
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| 9 | 10|
---------

Now that you have assigned each of your item selections to a spot in the Hotbox Window, You need to refer to the next table and find the Background Image and EQType ID Number that correspond to your selections.

*Inventory ID Table*

<Item Slot> <Background> <EQType>
*********************************************************************
Left Ear Slot------------------A_InvEar------------------------1
Head Slot----------------------A_InvHead-----------------------2
Face Slot----------------------A_InvFace-----------------------3
Right Ear Slot-----------------A_InvEar------------------------4
Neck Slot----------------------A_InvNeck-----------------------5
Shoulder Slot------------------A_InvShoulders------------------6
Arms Slot----------------------A_InvArms-----------------------7
Back Slot----------------------A_InvAboutBody------------------8
Left Wrist Slot----------------A_InvWrist----------------------9
Right Wrist Slot---------------A_InvWrist----------------------10
Range Slot---------------------A_InvRange----------------------11
Hands Slot---------------------A_InvHands----------------------12
Primary Slot-------------------A_InvPrimary--------------------13
Secondary Slot-----------------A_InvSecondary------------------14
Left Finger Slot---------------A_InvRing-----------------------15
Right Finger Slot--------------A_InvRing-----------------------16
Chest Slot---------------------A_InvChest----------------------17
Legs Slot----------------------A_InvLegs-----------------------18
Feet Slot----------------------A_InvFeet-----------------------19
Waist Slot---------------------A_InvWaist----------------------20
Ammo Slot----------------------A_InvAmmo-----------------------21
Main Inventory Slot 1----------A_RecessedBox-------------------22
Main Inventory Slot 2----------A_RecessedBox-------------------23
Main Inventory Slot 3----------A_RecessedBox-------------------24
Main Inventory Slot 4----------A_RecessedBox-------------------25
Main Inventory Slot 5----------A_RecessedBox-------------------26
Main Inventory Slot 6----------A_RecessedBox-------------------27
Main Inventory Slot 7----------A_RecessedBox-------------------28
Main Inventory Slot 8----------A_RecessedBox-------------------29
**********************************************************************

Now you should have the customised item list you wrote down, with an assigned QuickClick numbered location along with a background image name and an EQType ID number on a piece of paper in front of you. Its time to open up the "sars4mac" folder and locate the file called EQUI_HotButtonWnd.xml. This file opens up with any standard text editor such as TextEdit, Pages, Open Office and so on. The ten customisable Slots are at the very top of the file and flagged to be extremely easy to locate and read. The two lines of XML code in between the two flags that say "****THIS IS WHAT YOU EDIT****" are where you change the existing <Background> and <EQType> info to the list you have in front of you.


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3.) BASIC FAQ

3.1.) Buff Bar not visible

This issue seems to come from a problem with the starting location of the buff window. There are two main causes for this problem…

You are not using 1280x1024 resolution and the starting window positions for the buff window lie outside of the viewable area on your monitor. SOLUTION: Either edit the starting x coordinate under the location for the buff window in the UI_Playername_52.ini file or just delete the entire UI_Playername_52.ini file from the "EverquestLP/game" directory and align all of the windows from scratch yourself.

You didn't use the "/Loadskin sars4mac 1" command to initialise the UI, where the "1" tells the game to load the window positions from the UI_Playername_52.ini file. Without the "1" you will have loaded the default window positions, putting the buffbar off the viewable screen and overwriting all of the information contained in the UI_Playername_52.ini file. Re-install the UI_Playername_52.ini file and try again or simply delete the UI_Playername_52.ini file and realign all the window positions manually.

3.2.) Dragging Windows and Title Bars.

Every window has the option to add a title bar up top. Title bars make moving windows much easier and include the option to minimise and close a window. As convenient as that sounds, the added size increase to the window made it less desirable to most of the people who used Sars4 so they were removed for that reason. All windows should have a small invisible border around the edges with which you can drag them.

NOTE - CHAT WINDOWS : Any window that is resizable and does not have a title bar is not moveable by conventional methods. The chat windows can only be moved by resizing them. To do this, put your cursor on the leading edge towards the direction you wish the window to move and extend the window until you are satisfied then put your cursor on the opposite edge of the window and shrink the window back to the size that you desire.

With a little practice this becomes second nature, but if you wish to reinstall the title bar for easy dragging on this or any window, simply open that window's xml file in a text editor and scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page. Somewhere near the bottom of the very last cluster of code and above all of the <Pieces> entries is a line that says <Titlebar>false</Titlebar>. Change that to <Titlebar>true</Titlebar>, save the file, and then restart EQ. If the window is not resizable, you may notice some clipping at the bottom. To correct this you will need to locate the <Size> portion of the same cluster of text at the bottom of the page for that window and add 21 to the <CY>value</CY>.

3.3.) Flashing Red Box

This is the border of the Player Info window. Sony did not give UI coders the power to move that flashing red box off of the Player Info window so all we can do is change its dimensions or get rid of it altogether. In an attempt to make better use of this flashing box, I have created a small "fake button" which matches the style of the rest of the UI and has the word "Combat" stamped on it. This graphic is used as the background for the Player Info window. It works well if you leave the Fade Opacity to 50%. It is still visible enough against a wide variety of backgrounds but is not too "in your face" all the time. If you decide you do not like the flashing red box at all and want to completely get rid of it, I have included a version of the Player Info window without it.


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4.) KNOWN ISSUES

There are several issues that I encountered when coding the sars4mac UI and while I have tried my best to get round them, some we will just have to live with as they are the result of errors in the EQMac UI code.

4.1.) Target/Group Window Health Percentages - Floating Zeros.

By default the Target window and the Group window shows the health percentage of the current target or visible group members as well as their hitpoint gauge. Because of a bug in the EQMac UI, when there is no target or some empty group slots, despite the gauge correctly vanishing, the health percentage is still displayed. In effect there is an orphan "floating zero" left on the screen. There is no way to get rid of it except to turn off the display of the target health percentage altogether. Since the percentage value is very useful to certain classes, I have included a variant of both the Target window and the Group window with and without this percentage. Simply choose which version you would like to use.


4.2.) Sars4mac for EQMac has only 10 custom hotbuttons but Sars4 for EQPC has 20.

I found another issue where nested windows did not obey the "fade opacity" of the parent window. If you set the "fade opacity" of the hot-button window to 100%, you would expect the window to be fully visible at all times even if the mouse was not over it. If a window has a nested sub-window (such as an array of tabs), the tabs themselves will ignore the selected "fade opacity" and just use the default (50%) opacity. This meant that having two tabs of ten hotbuttons resulted in the hotbuttons being permanently faded out. I decided this was not what I wanted so stripped out the tabs and settled with just ten hotbuttons. There is no current workaround for this issue.

4.3.) Background to spells in the Spellbook looks funny.

Again, there is another issue with the UI that even the EQPC side still has a problem with. Both the Buffs Window and the Spellbook window share a single graphic for the background to their icons. The graphic called "BlueButtonBackground" is hard-coded in both of these screens and ignores any texture the UI designer has selected. Sars4mac uses a custom texture for the background of the Buff Bar. As a result of this texture being redefined for use on that window, you will notice the same texture stretched behind scribed spells in your spellbook when the "fade opacity" is not set to 100%. Setting the Spell Book "fade opacity" to 100% will get rid of the visible sign of this issue.

NOTE : any attempt to replace the Sars Buff Bar with another bar from EQInterface is not likely to resolve this issue.


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5. OPTIONAL COMPONENTS

You will notice a directory inside sars4mac called "optional files". In there I have placed all current variations to the UI for your convenience. Here is the list…

group_horizontal - horizontal group window with health percentages (default)
group_horizontal_nopercent - horizontal group window WITHOUT health percentages

group_vertical - vertical group window with health percentages (default)
group_vertical_nopercent - vertical group window WITHOUT health percentages

helpwindow_withmaps - help window with extra tabs for Zone Connection maps (default)
helpwindow_nomaps - help window WITHOUT the maps for Macs with low memory

hotbuttonwnd_silver - hot-button window with the bright silver background (default)
hotbuttonwnd_nosilver - hot-button window with a dull background

mousecursor_sars - texture file for high-visibility mouse cursor (default)
mousecursor_eqmac - texture file for original EQMac mouse cursor

playerwindow_flashbox - player window with the flashing red box and "combat" button (default)
playerwindow_noflashbox - player window WITHOUT the flashing red box and "combat" button

targetwindow - target window with target health percentage (default)
targetwindow_nopercent - target window WITHOUT target health percentage

Simply copy the individual files of any optional component into the main "sars4mac" folder, overwriting the old file of the same name. I have included the "default" versions too so you can easily change back again if you prefer without having to re-download the whole package.


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6.) CASTER AND MELEE VARIANTS

One thing Sarsippius changed between version 3 and version 4 of the Sars UI was to introduce separate versions for pure casters and melee classes. By default, sars4mac matches his "hybrid" version where all three of the health, mana and energy bars are visible and the Spellbook button on the Selector window is always present even if the character has no spells. For pure casters, the energy bar is less useful so can be shrunk and moved to a spare space lower down on the Hotbutton window. For pure melee classes, mana does not exist so that bar is useless and can be removed along with the Spellbook button on the Selector window.

6.1.) USING THE CASTER VARIANT

If you are a pure caster and would like to use the caster variant, simply DUPLICATE the whole "sars4mac" folder in "uifiles" and RENAME the duplicate to "sars4mac_caster". Look in "sars4mac_caster/optional files" and locate the "variant_caster" folder. There will be two UI files in there. COPY the two files EQUI_HotButtonWnd.xml and sars_hotbuttonwndbg.tga into the "sars4mac_caster" folder, overwriting the old file of the same name.

To activate the pure caster variant for any specific character, log in and type "/loadksin sars4mac_caster 1"

NO_SILVER OPTIONAL FILE - you will see I have included a caster-specific "optional files" folder for you. It contains the silver (default) and no_silver versions of the Hotbutton window for pure casters. Simply COPY the version you want into the "sars4mac_caster" folder and you are all set.

6.2.) USING THE MELEE VARIANT

If you are a melee character and would like to use the melee variant, simply DUPLICATE the whole "sars4mac" folder in "uifiles" and RENAME the duplicate to "sars4mac_melee". Look in "sars4mac_melee/optional files" and locate the "variant_melee" folder. There will be two UI files in there. COPY the two files EQUI_HotButtonWnd.xml and EQUI_SelectorWnd.tga into the "sars4mac_melee" folder, overwriting the old file of the same name.

To activate the melee variant for any specific character, log in and type "/loadksin sars4mac_melee 1"

I have included a "variant_hybrid" folder just in case you accidentally overwrite something. This is the version with all three gauges visible and full-size.


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7.) CONTACT INFORMATION

At this time I intend for any queries, bug reports and feature requests to be handled through the normal Forums and Private Message system on EQInterface. If at any future date I cannot support the UI I will make sure to ask for a new owner to come forward and will lodge the custom texture resources in a public location.

DISCLAIMER : I do not have the time to personally customise this UI