Texture - ennvina/spellactivationoverlay GitHub Wiki

A texture is an image drawn to User Interface elements.

Source

There are two types of textures: those embedded natively in game files, and those provided alongside addons. Prior to Cataclysm, there was no overlay textures embedded in game files.

Spell Activation Overlay textures designed by Blizzard Entertainment can be browsed from websites such as wow.tools.

In-game textures

The global function SAO_DB_LookForAllTextures checks all known spell activation overlay textures and determines whether or not the texture is embedded in native game files. It can be run with the following command:

/run SAO_DB_LookForAllTextures()

Results are stored in the addon database file in the WTF folder, written when the player logs out or when reloading the User Interface. The file will then includes section like this:

SpellActivationOverlayDB = {
    ["dev"] = {
        ["existing"] = {
            ["id"] = {
                [603339] = false,
                [1028091] = false,
                [1028092] = false,
                [962497] = false,
                [450913] = true,
                [450914] = true,
                [2851788] = false,
                [449486] = true,
                [450915] = true,
                [449487] = true,
                [450916] = true,
                -- And many more
        },
    },
}

The [number] = boolean syntax can be read as "the texture with FileDataID of number is embedded / not embedded in native game files".

Based on this test, it seems that Cataclysm includes all textures up until at least FileDataID 511469. As such, textures up until this number are excluded when packaging the Cataclysm flavor, significantly reducing archive size.