AVR
Note: AVR will be broken in patch 3.3.5. See this
AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) allows you to draw and add lines, circles and other markings on the 3D world itself. All markings may also be shared with others. Suitable for example to mark locations when explaining raid tactics. These marks can even be left visible for the fight itself.
Other things you can do with AVR:
- Draw range circles around you or someone else at any range
- Clearly mark players close to you
- Mark any location relative to player position and rotation, for example mage blink landing spot
- Measure distances
- Boss encounter warnings (using a separate addon)
Boss encounters
AVR does not contain a built in boss encounters module anymore. They are now done by a separate addon. At the moment there are two options.
- AVR Encounters adds AVR warnings for various boss abilities. It does not require any other boss encounter addon to work. It is not a replacement for traditional boss encounter addons as it does not do ability timers, sound warnings etc. It can be used with any traditional boss encounter addon such as BigWigs, DBM or DXE.
- Raid Watch 2 is a full boss encounter addon much like BigWigs, DBM or DXE. It has built-in support for AVR and also does timer bars and other kinds of warnings.
Whichever you choose to use, you will also need to install AVR.
Important note: If you have installed a previous version of AVR which contained the AVR BigWigs module then you should delete that. Simply delete your Interface\Addons\AVR_BigWigs_Citadel folder.
Limitations and known issues
There are some fundamental limitations caused by what information is available to addons. These are mostly related to the exact position of camera and lack of unit Z coordinates. In particular you should note following:
- Drawing works best on a flat surface (note that for example Dalaran has very uneven roads).
- Camera getting stuck in a wall or ceiling will cause any markings to go out of sync with rest of the world.
- Any kind of stairs/slopes and such cause troubles.
- Jumping and other kinds of vertical movement causes the drawings to move with you.
- Everything is drawn over the 3d world. This means that things that should be behind walls or units will appear in front of them.
- Camera auto follow causes some problems. See also this
Some other known issues are:
- All vehicles (like the ones at the start of Ulduar) are a bit problematic.
- Lifts, moving platforms and in particular Gunships in Icercown Citadel raid have some problems.
- Player map coordinates are unavailable in Icecrown Citadel raid on Lich King platform after the edges have collapsed. This means that any markings tied to zone coordinates or other players than yourself are unusable there. (Lana'Thel's room was fixed in 3.3.3 though the ramps leading there are still a bit odd.)
- Player map coordinates are also not available in arenas or instances released before Wrath of the Lich King and so most things don't work in either of those.
How to use
See How to use.
Frequently asked questions
See FAQ.
Its no secret when humans focus stare at something we get tunnel vision.
examples:
example1 ( avr none) Healer1 is healing festergut, mage1 calls out in vent he has puke at same time while running back from dropping spore dk1 got puked too, dk1 calls out in vent, healer1 focus stares at grid and looking though grid to find mage1 and also find dk1. healer1 begins to heal
example2 (avr addon on) Healer1 is healing festergut, he sees circle appear below mage1 and dk1, healer1 begins to heal.
you can even change example one to dbm announce and it would still be same thing.
I'm sad to see this addon go :(
It was tons of fun to draw in Dalaran when I was bored and avre was fantastic for ICC encounters.
People who say that it made the game "too easy" should probably actually do some of the ICC hardmodes before they talk.
avr on h putricide is fantastic, Thanks for all the work you've done with this and good luck with future stuff!
thx for the addon its great!
The addon was banned due to it's ability to draw over the game world. This would allow for a rash of addons that could use AVR irresponsibly, and therefore they had to break it.
It's the same rationality to make the ability to use custom models in FPS impossible, because if you could put 50 yard spikes coming out of a character model in an FPS then you'd always know where they are. Addons that used AVR hadn't gotten there yet, but I think if blizzard decided at one point they would.
Realistically, I would like to see AVR reimagine itself as a mini-map whiteboard addon, translating the current API calls to the minimap. The minimap, alpha-faded and covering most of my screen, would make a very good tactical HUD for WoW. The minimap could be greatly faded while in this fullscreen mode, with AVR's lines shown more clearly. The minimap would be sent to the bottom layer, behind my addon windows, except when editing AVR scenes, in which case it would come to the front.
Any thoughts?
Partly replying to Linaeri's post under as well. "More drastic steps" probably means disabling more of the wow API instead of suspending accounts. So if Blizzard were to decide that doing what AVRE did in 2D, or what HudMap semes to be aiming at, isn't allowed and someone makes such a mod then they might make map coordinates unavailable for addons. This would then break a few other things like accurate range checks and arrows pointing to things.
Sadly you can't even try and work around fixing it or making a similar addon after 3.3.5 as they have threatened to "take further, more drastic steps", I'm guessing that means account suspensions.
AVRE and AVR are from two different authors..
It does suck, but just like the ability to downrank and autoselect spells back in classic WoW the ability of the addon just makes fight mechanics too easy and requires virtually no skill.
It was fun while it lasted and I appreciate all the work the devs put into it. Its really too bad that they don't at least allow something like this out of combat. For planning purposes it would still be really nice to give visual spots on the floor so people can see where you're talking about when you're explaining the fights.
If even the ability to draw on the minimap like Guild Wars had, but I understand why they are doing this.
You got too excited with your AVRE!
Now I have to use marker pen on my monitor to draw penises :(
Looked into the source .. it's astonishing how there's so damn much math involved in those circles on the floor ..
Yes so they're breaking the camera coordinates which I knew from the start would be the easiest way to break it without affecting much other addons. As AVR will be useless soon I won't be adding any new features.
Some of the raid boss warnings could be done almost as well with a simple overhead view (in fact there seems to be an experimental mod for this already http://www.wowace.com/addons/hudmap/ ). Will be fun to see how "If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps." applies to that as breaking it would pretty much require removing map coordinates in instances, at least during combat.
Was about to post that. It's just sad.
http:forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25002150557
Blue post confirming they're breaking AVR in 3.3.5.