awesome_wotlk - NoM0Re/WeakAuras-WotLK GitHub Wiki

What is awesome_wotlk?

awesome_wotlk is a patch that adds modern retail-style nameplate API behavior to World of Warcraft WotLK 3.3.5. It significantly improves stability and the handling of nameplates, making it easier to retrieve information and display elements on nameplates compared to older methods.

What does awesome_wotlk do?

  • Adds improved nameplate sorting

  • Uses modern WoW Retail API functions such as:

    • C_NamePlate.GetNamePlates
    • C_NamePlate.GetNamePlateForUnit

  • Listens to new events:

    • NAME_PLATE_CREATED
    • NAME_PLATE_UNIT_ADDED
    • NAME_PLATE_UNIT_REMOVED

  • Introduces new CVars like nameplateDistance to better control nameplate visibility and distance

How are nameplates handled without awesome_wotlk?

Without this patch, addons rely on very inefficient methods to find nameplates. They iterate through all existing frames every 0.5 seconds to locate nameplates, which is extremely inefficient. Additionally, you only get the nameplate frame object itself, but cannot use nameplate units with other WoW API functions like UnitName("nameplate1").

WeakAuras Integration

When this patch is enabled, WeakAuras adds the improved nameplate system and adds a lot of additional functionality.

That’s not all it can do:

For more details, see: awesome_wotlk Details

Download & Installation

  1. Download the latest release here: https://github.com/FrostAtom/awesome_wotlk/releases

  2. Extract the ZIP archive using 7zip (required).

  3. Place the extracted files inside your WoW directory.

  4. It is highly recommended to replace the .dll file with an improved version by CH33T4: Download CH33T4’s AwesomeWotlkLib.dll

  5. Run AwesomeWotlkPatch.exe and verify if the patch was applied successfully.

Important Notes / Troubleshooting

  • The WoW executable must be named one of the following (not case insensitive):

    • wow.exe
    • WowCircle.exe
    • run.exe

  • Some private servers block executable modifications, which prevents the patch from working. This is a server limitation.