Frequently Asked Questions for LunarSphere

This section serves one purpose and one purpose only: To provide quick answers to a lot of common questions people might have about LunarSphere, or have asked me in the past. I recommend everyone read this if they have questions because there is a high chance that your question will be answered. If, however, you can't find a quick answer here, you can drop by the LunarSphere forums and post your thoughts there and, if it becomes a common question that is a "frequently asked question," I'll add it here. Sounds good? Alright!

---

What exactly is LunarSphere?

LunarSphere is the evolution of the sphere-type addons that have been around for the past couple years. You get a sphere (circle area) that has 10 buttons that circle around it. These buttons are like action bar buttons and you can assign them any action you want. These buttons can also be turned into menu buttons which, when clicked, open up a row of buttons that you can use. The sphere can show you various status updates, such as your health, mana, energy, rage, experience, reputation, item counts, and more. More information can be found in the "About LunarSphere" page 

What can LunarSphere do?

Lots of stuff. It can be an action bar replacement, a reagent purchasing addon replacement, an RP speech addon, a tooltip addon, a junk-selling addon, and a few other types of addons, all rolled into one. For a full list of features, you can check out the "LunarSphere Features" page as well. While going through the beta testing stage, many testers got rid of their previous action bar addons and used LunarSphere for their bars, saving them memory usage as well as CPU clock cycles, resulting in an increase of their framerates.

Ugh, LunarSphere does a BUNCH of stuff. What if I don't want all the extra features?

LunarSphere has a settings tab in the LunarSphere Settings window called "Memory" that takes care of various features of LunarSphere. If you don't care about hiding parts of the default UI, or using the speech feature, or the reagent purchase feature, or anything else in that section ... just turn it off. Select all the features you want turned on or off and, once finished, save your changes (which will force a UI reload) and those extra features won't take up any extra memory. It is kind of like Load On-Demand addons, but slightly different. Only use what you will use, no reason to have everything running at once. Of course, it has been said that LunarSphere can replace 5-8 addons at once, having your memory usage go from up to 3 megs down to 750k with just LunarSphere, and LunarSphere will handle everything the other addons did and perform better, CPU wise.

What does LunarSphere look like?

I have a few screenshots of LunarSphere in various situations, which can be found in the Screenshots Section of LunarSphere, over on the navigation menu. The logo for this website also shows parts of LunarSphere (the green glow and wire mesh is just a render, the rest is pretty accurate).

Does LunarSphere cost money?

No! LunarSphere is a free addon for World of Warcraft. If you like LunarSphere, or any of my addons for that matter, I won't stop you from donating though. I could use some extra milk and cookies (hint hint).

So, how do I set this addon up?

LunarSphere, the first time you run it on a character, will ask you if you want to load a pre-made button template for your class or if you want to start from scratch. An experienced LunarSphere user might opt for the "from scratch" method and go from there, but beginners are urged to use a template and experiment from there. The most important thing you need to know is that LunarSphere has two modes. Ready mode, and Button Edit mode. Ready mode is when all the buttons do what they are supposed to do (if button A is supposed to cast Fireball when clicked, it will do so), whereas Button Edit mode lets you modify every little thing about LunarSphere's button setup. When Button Edit mode is turned on, you can click a button to view its more detailed Settings window and mess around from there. There are a LOT of options, and it will see a little troublesome at first, but when you get the hang of it, you'd be surprised what you could use LunarSphere for. I recommend looking at the User Manual for LunarSphere and learning about all the small details it can take care of.

How do I import art? Import templates? Export stuff? OMG, how do I do more stuff?

I would recommend checking the User Manual for LunarSphere as well. I have this information in there to help you out, hehe.

I checked the manual and I can't figure something out. What now?

Check the "Help Support" sub-board of the LunarSphere board in the LunarAddons forum and make a post. Either I'll respond or a (typically) kind soul will help you out, whomever finds it first.

Can I upload my own templates, sphere textures, button art, etc., to the website?

Yes! In fact, I want people to! In order to upload stuff, you'll need to create an account on this website (it's free, don't worry) and then go to the Downloads page and upload stuff. I don't let anything and everything into my database, so I will inspect every file and make sure it's good. You can only upload .ZIP, .RAR, .TGA, .LUA, and .BLP files. Anything else will be denied by the uploader. Items in a ZIP or RAR file must be TGA, LUA, BLP, or TXT files. Nothing else, or it will be denied. Text files are pretty much used for descriptions of your files for other users to see, or for import text for users to type or paste while importing art files.

I posted comments about LunarSphere on another addon website. Why haven't you responded?

Honestly, it's because I don't check every addon website every day to see what people are saying. I do check, time to time, but I made it fairly clear on the description of LunarSphere on the website you downloaded it on that all comments and bug reports should be placed on the LunarAddons' forum system so I can see them daily, otherwise it might take a while to check all the websites and post responses everywhere. Just head over to the LunarSphere board and proceed from there.

I have an awesome (or lame?) idea for LunarSphere! What should I do?

Glad you asked! I welcome all feature suggestions, ideas, comments, and more about LunarSphere on the LunarAddons' forum, in the LunarSphere section. But please, use the Suggestions / Ideas forum and, before you post, do a search to see if the suggestion was already posted. I also have a sticky thread with all approved, pending decision, and denied requests to keep me slightly sane. There is also a section on the navigation bar of the LunarAddons website called "Upcoming Features" which lists every confirmed feature that I will be adding to LunarSphere, along with some details on when I might add them. Definately worth a look.

I found a bug in LunarSphere! What should I do?

I like bug reports, since they help to make LunarSphere more stable, so please let me know in the LunarSphere Bug Report subforum in the LunarSphere forum of the LunarAddons' forum (too many forums). There are some instructions on how to post a bug report, formats that help out, and other tips that can help you and help me.

Does LunarSphere use Ace? Will it ever?

Nope. LunarSphere is not an Ace addon, nor will it ever become "Ace'd" because, well, I prefer for the source code and everything to makes LunarSphere run to be coded by myself. If something goes wrong, I can usually sort out the issue and patch it up quickly since I'm familiar with every line of code that makes up LunarSphere. The Ace framework for addon creation is amazing, and I give massive props to everyone involved with the Ace library development. It just wasn't what I wanted when I started the project.

But don't Ace addons perform better than non-Ace addons?

Ace can make addons more memory and CPU efficient, and when an addon that wasn't coded with the Ace libraries gets switched to use Ace code and performs better, this is typically because the original code wasn't as efficient as the Ace code. Other times, both code will be just as efficient and you won't be able to tell the difference. I like to think that LunarSphere is fairly efficient for what it does, and adding Ace code will not make it run any better and will require even more libraries in order to function.

Well, I don't use non-Ace addons, so I won't use your addons.

Sorry you feel that way. Hopefully one of these days you'll try out one of my addons and maybe realize that not every great addon needs to be made with the Ace framework. Oh, and that wasn't a question, FYI.

Are these questions in any kind of order?

Not really, haha.

Can you help me to code an addon?

I won't make an addon for you, but if you are making one yourself and have a little bit of trouble, I don't mind looking over code and debugging it. I find it kinda fun, actually. If you want to do this, create a thread in the "Questions about LUA" board in the LunarAddons' forum.

Can you teach me LUA or how to program?

Um ... probably not. Teaching someone how to program is not an easy task, and I'm doing this all for free (unless people donate to my cookie fund, woot!). But, if you have questions about LUA programming, I'm sure someone could help you out in the "Questions about LUA" board as well. I have been tempted to include a tutorial or two that will help people get started with LUA programming, and I might decide to do so in the future. No idea when, though.

Hey! The addon [insert name here] is no longer maintained! Could you fix it and maintain it for everyone?

Probably not. It's a lot of work to maintain someone else's project, especially when one is focusing on their own projects. I might say yes to small addons that are obscure and helpful, but that Chuck Norris joke generator? Forget it.

Can I message your character on your server in WOW if I have questions?

Sure! Just remember that I have a life too and I might be busy, so don't get upset if I cut our conversation short and log off or enter a raid.

Can I annoy you in WOW and get on your nerves?

/ignore