Warning: Upgrading from Kong v0.8a or earlier while World of Warcraft is running could cause your current Kong settings to be erased!
New: Kong now supports Profiles!
What is Kong?
Kong UI Hider is a small addon that can automatically fade out elements of the user interface (Minimap, PlayerFrame, Recount, etc.) and then show them again when moused-over, entering combat, or any of several other user-specified conditions are met.
Using Kong to Hide the User Interface
In order to hide any part of the User interface (UI), you must tell Kong to hide it. To do this, first position the mouse over the component you want hidden, then type:
/kong hide
That's all there is to it! You will notice that component will now slowly fade out when the cursor is moved elsewhere. However, if you return the cursor to the component, it will quickly fade back into view.
Note: It is important that cursor is always over the frame that you want to configure when issuing /kong commands. Each hidden frame has its own individual settings, and Kong uses the cursor to know which frame to configure.
Basic Customization
By default, any frame that is hidden by Kong using /kong hide will be shown under the following three conditions:
- The cursor is moved over the component
- The player enters combat
- The player enters a vehicle
This behavior can be customized using additional /kong commands. For example, to prevent a frame from appearing in combat, one can again place the cursor over the target component and type:
/kong combat hide
Once this command is issued, the frame will remain hidden until one of the other conditions listed above occurs. Similarly,
/kong vehicle hide
will prevent the frame from appearing while the player is riding on a vehicle.
In the event that one wishes to restore default combat and vehicle functionality, this can be done using the following :
/kong combat show
/kong vehicle show
Displaying the UI While Out of Combat
You may want certain frames to only appear when out of combat. This functionality is disabled by default, but can be enabled using:
/kong combat hide
/kong nocombat show
Macro conditions
Advanced users may want to take advantage of Kong's support for macro conditions to customize the visibility of their UI. The command /kong macro set, when given a macro condition inside [square brackets], will cause a UI component to be shown or hidden based on the given condition. For example:
/kong macro set [exists]
will show a frame when you have a target selected. The command:
/kong macro set [group:raid]
will show the frame when you are in a raid.
If at any time you wish to remove the macro condition from a frame, /kong macro clear can be used.
For a complete list of all the possible conditions, see http://www.wowwiki.com/Making_a_macro#Conditionals.
Mouseover Groups
Sometimes it may make sense to show several different frames when any of them are moused-over. For this purpose, Kong provides the /kong group command. This command takes an action (either add or remove) and a user-specified group name. For example:
/kong group add group1
will add the frame under the cursor to a group named 'group1'. The command must then be repeated for any other frames that you want to add to the group.
To remove a frame from a group, /kong group remove, followed by the group name will remove the frame from the mouseover group:
/kong group remove group1
Transparency
For those who want to further customize the way Kong displays the UI when fading components in and out, Kong offers a few additional commands. One of which, /kong alpha, can be used to configure the transparency of a component when it is being shown or hidden. This command must be passed the fade-direction (in or out) and the alpha (a value between 0 and 1 where 0 is completely transparent and 1 is opaque). For example, the command:
/kong alpha out .5
/kong alpha in 1
instructs Kong to display the frame at half alpha when faded out and full alpha when faded in. Likewise,
/kong alpha out 0
/kong alpha in .5
tells Kong to only display the frame at half alpha when faded in and hide it completely otherwise.
Fade Speed
Kong also allows you to customize the speed at which frames fade in and out. The command /kong speed takes a fade direction (in or out) and a duration (in seconds) over which the fade duration should take place. For example:
/kong speed in 0
will cause the frame under the cursor to fade in instantly, rather than over the default duration of .2 seconds. Fade duration can also be increased:
/kong speed out 3
This will cause the UI component to fade out over the course of 3 seconds each time it is hidden.
Condition-Specific Settings
Kong also allows condition-specific customizations. For example, say that we want a frame to appear instantly when moused-over, but fade in slowly when displayed for other reasons:
/kong mouseover speed in 0
/kong speed in 1
Here, the command /kong speed essentially sets the default fade-in speed, while /kong mouseover speed overrides that default with a condition-specific fade speed. The same overrides could be done for other conditions. For example:
/kong vehicle alpha in .3
/kong alpha in 1
will show the UI component beneath the cursor at only 30% alpha when in a vehicle, but fade it in to 100% when any other condition applies.
Disabling Kong
Sometimes you may want to be able to see the entire UI all at once without entering combat, etc. In these cases you can disable Kong, which will cause all hidden frames to be immediately shown. This can either be done by configuring a key to disable Kong in the Keybinds menu, or by issuing the following command:
/kong disable
Once Kong is disabled, you can re-enable it using either /kong enable or /kong toggle.
Experiment
You may have to play around with Kong to really get a feel for it. If you need help remembering commands in game, simply typing /kong will bring up a list of commands with brief descriptions, and typing /kong followed by a command will often give more specific details on the command.
Version 0.9a
- Fixed a bug introduced in version 0.9 that could prevent a frame's configuration from being saved between game sessions.
Version 0.9
- Added "/kong profile" for managing Kong configurations and sharing them between characters.
- Added "/kong casting" to configure frames to appear while casting.
- Fixed a bug that could cause frames to disappear when faded in and out at the same time.
Version 0.8a
- Minimap icons will now be hidden along with the minimap itself.
- Minimap terrain should now always be visible when the minimap is at least 88% alpha. This is a workaround for a Blizzard minimap bug that causes the minimap contents to disappear when it is faded out in certain areas of the world.
-Fixed a bug that could cause frames to remain either hidden or shown after entering certain vehicles or being picked up in a boss fight (Chopper sidecar, Archavon, Kologarn, Lord Jaraxxus, etc.).
-Fixed a bug could cause frames to remain hidden after zoning in or out of an instance.
Version 0.8
- Added "/kong group" to configure frame grouping. This allows multiple frames to appear when a single frame is moused-over.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing "/kong nocombat" from working correctly.
Version 0.7
- Added "/kong macro" to configure frames to appear when a given macro condition is met.
- Added alpha commands for individual triggers (ie. "/kong combat alpha") to allow for different frame alphas under different conditions. Default frame alpha can still be set using "/kong alpha".
- Added speed commands for both frame defaults ("/kong speed") and individual triggers (ie. "/kong combat speed") to control the rate at which frames fade in or out.
- Added "/kong mouseover" to support customizations to the fade speed and alpha of frames when the mouse is moved over them.
- Added "/kong enable" and "/kong disable" commands and entries for these commands in the Key Bindings screen.
- Due to significant code structure changes, user settings from previous versions will be lost.
Version 0.6a
- Update for patch 3.1 compatibility.
Version 0.6
- Added an entry in the Key Bindings screen to allow quick toggling of UI fading on/off.
- Fixed a bug that would cause Kong to fade frames after reloading the UI even if Kong was disabled.
Version 0.5
- Added "/kong nocombat" to configue frames to appear when out of combat.
- Added "/kong vehicle" to configure frames to appear when in a vehicle.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a frame to fade out when it shouldn't.
- Fixed a bug that prevented "/kong combat" from working when not in combat.
Version 0.4
- Fixed a bug that would cause frames to be hidden at login when Kong was disabled.
- Fixed a bug that would cause frames to reappear after they had been removed from the screen (party frames out of party, etc).
- Fixed an "Interface action failed because of an AddOn" bug.
- Fixed a bug that caused registered frames to be permanently shown on screen when /kong combat was used in combat.
- Renamed to Kong UI Hider to (hopefully) make the addon more visible to those searching for its functionality.
Version 0.3
- Added the ability to control faded and shown alpha.
- Added the ability to toggle Kong on or off.
- Fixed a few nil index errors related to saving data between sessions, and added warnings to the default chat log when these issues occur.
Version 0.2
- Added the ability to configure frames to either appear in combat or stay hidden until mouseover.
Version 0.1
- Initial version.
Installation Guide
- Exit "World of Warcraft" completely
- Download the mod you want to install
- Make a folder on your desktop called "My Mods"
- Save the .zip/.rar files to this folder.
- If, when you try to download the file, it automatically "opens" it... you need to RIGHT click on the link and "save as..." or "Save Target As".
- Extract the file - commonly known as 'unzipping'
Do this ONE FILE AT A TIME!
- Windows
- Windows XP has a built in ZIP extractor. Double click on the file to open it, inside should be the file or folders needed. Copy these outside to the "My Mods" folder.
- WinRAR: Right click the file, select "Extract Here"
- WinZip: You MUST make sure the option to "Use Folder Names" is CHECKED or it will just extract the files and not make the proper folders how the Authors designed
- Mac Users
- StuffitExpander: Double click the archive to extract it to a folder in the current directory.
- Verify your WoW Installation Path
That is where you are running WoW from and THAT is where you need to install your mods.
- Move to the Addon folder
- Open your World of Warcraft folder. (default is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\)
- Go into the "Interface" folder.
- Go into the "AddOns" folder.
- In a new window, open the "My Mods" folder.
- The "My Mods" folder should have the "Addonname" folder in it.
- Move the "Addonname" folder into the "AddOns" folder
- Start World of Warcraft
- Make sure AddOns are installed
- Log in
- At the Character Select screen, look in lower left corner for the "addons" button.
- If button is there: make sure all the mods you installed are listed and make sure "load out of date addons" is checked.
- If the button is NOT there: means you did not install the addons properly. Look at the above screenshots. Try repeating the steps or getting someone who knows more about computers than you do to help.
Translations
When you download a mod, please be sure that the mod is compatible with your translation of wow. Some mods only work on the US versions, while some only work on some of the various European versions. These variations are called "Localizations".
TOC Numbers (Out of Date Mods)
When Blizzard patches WoW, they change the Interface number. This means that all mods will be "out of date" unless or until the author releases a new version for that interface. Some people go into the .toc files and update the numbers themselves, but this is STRONGLY advised against as it will cause problems locating possible incompatibilities addons. When you log into WoW after a patch, you DO NOT have to delete your interface directory. All you have to do is simply tell WoW to ignore the interface numbers and load all the mods anyway. All you have to do is, while at the "character select" screen, look in the lower left corner and click on the "addons" button. A window will pop up listing all your installed mods.
If you look in the upper left corner of that window there should be a box that says "Load Out of Date AddOns". You want to CHECK this box. Now simply go into WoW normally and all your mods should load. As of the 1.9 patch, you will have to do this after EVERY patch/update that Blizzard posts! If you encounter any problems with a mod after a patch, please be sure to let the author of the mod know so they can fix it.
See also: About "Out Of Date AddOns"
Mac Support
WoW addons are not platformed based. As such, they can be used on either Mac or PC. You can extract both .zip and .rar files on a Mac using StuffitExpander.
Directory Structure
World of Warcraft
|_ Interface
|_AddOns
|_*AddonName*
|_ *AddonName*.toc
|_ *AddonName*.xml
|_ *AddonName*.lua
|_ (possibly others as well)...
