Hotbars
DarqUI Hotbars feature spell recast "cooldown" timers for hotkey slots that contain spells with timers. Activate the timers by choosing "Frame and Titlebar" from the Window Settings for each hotbar. You can get to Window Settings (different from Hotbar Settings) by right-clicking on the frame edge of the desired hotbar.
Saving and loading hotkey setsThe EverQuest II user interface provides ten hotbars with twelve hotkey slots each, with additional hotbars for certain specialty classes. This may seem like an abundance of hotkeys at first glance. But due to the complexity of the game and the wide variety of activities available, even 120 slots can begin to feel a bit pinched.
A solution is provided in the interface, with the ability to save and load entire sets of hotkeys with simple commands. DarqUI takes advantage of the commands by standardizing and simplifying the process. While logged in to the game, open the Window Manager and navigate to the Hotbars configuration page. (There is a blue gem button on the right-side grab bar of any hotbar that displays a "spinner" control. Alternatively, you can open the Window Manager from the Start button on the Experience bar, and use the dropdown to select the Hotbars configuration page.)
Click Save Hotkeys to open a window displaying your character's name and server. There is also a Purpose field with a dropdown list containing several categories that will allow you to fine-tune the name of the hotkey definition file. Later, you will be able to load and switch between hotkey sets by choosing from this same list of categories.
You can type a different category name in to the Purpose field if you like, but make sure the term is only one word with no spaces and no punctuation. Click Save and a listing of your currently loaded hotkeys will be stored in the file, in the main EverQuest II game folder.
Now you can choose different spells, abilities, macro commands and other functions for the hotkeys to suit a different category of activity -- tradeskills, a different AA spec or Ascension class, etc. Use the Save Hotkeys feature to record your preferences in separate files. Switching between hotkey sets only takes a few moments and greatly extends the usefulness of your hotbars.
Display colorsChoose a text color for normal countdown times and a warning color when a spell is about to be castable again. If you don't want to be warned of recasts, set both values to the same color.
Warning timeChoose how many seconds to warn before the spell is castable again.
Font size breakpointsAs you enlarge your hotbar icons, the text size also increases for improved visibility. If you don't like the text size relative to your hotbar size, you can adjust these values to increase or decrease the font size while keeping the hotbars at the selected size.
For example if you prefer the hotbar icons at 30 pixels, your cooldown font will default to medium. If you would rather use a large font, bring the large icon size down to a value less than 30. When adjusting the values, make sure the small, medium and large values do not overlap.
Using the profile editor
With the DarqUI Unified Utility you can view and rearrange your hotbars, and copy hotbar layouts between your characters.
ImportantThe profile editor makes changes directly to the UI Settings file for your character. This file is frequently updated while your character is logged in, which will usually overwrite any changes you make with the utility before you can reload the new settings. So for best results you should log your character out, at least to the Character Select screen, while making changes with the utility.
The profile editor shows a scaled-down view of your game window in full-screen mode. You can view and make some types of changes to your hotbars:
MoveDrag the hotbars as a group to a different screen location without changing their alignment to each other. To move an individual hotbar out of the group, hold down [Shift] while dragging. To see how your hotbars coexist with your chat windows and containers, mouse over the ¤ icon in the upper right.
ArrangeUse the colored buttons to align your hotbars in an ordered grid. Mouse over the corresponding buttons to preview the various arrangements, and then click a button if you want to save the grid pattern. The alignment grid feature works best if all of the hotbars are the same width or height.
MatchUsing the Match controls you can duplicate the settings from one of your hotbars to all them at once. So for example, while logged in to the game you can set icon size and padding, spinner visibility, frame and titlebar, etc. for Hotbar #5. Then in the utility select Hotbar #5 and click Match to apply its settings to all hotbars at once. The only settings that do not get copied are screen location, key mapping (pairs a hotbar button set with a keyboard shortcut), and bank number. If you choose a hidden hotbar to clone settings, Hotbar #1 will remain visible.
An effective way to use the hotbar controls is to match all hotbar settings to the desired template hotbar, which will set all of them to a consistent size. Then use the Arrange controls to align the hotbars in a compact grid on screen. You can optionally check the Reverse order checkbox if you want your hotbars to start at the bottom of the grid instead of the top. Then finally adjust the position of the block of hotbars if necessary to avoid overlapping other UI components such as chat windows.
CopyInstead of using the load_uisettings command to copy another character's entire UI layout, you can use the utility to copy or "clone" only the hotbar settings without disturbing anything else. Choose another character from the dropdown to preview the layout. Click Replace to accept the new configuration. Click Õ to cancel and redisplay your own profile.
If you switch to another character and no hotbars appear in the preview, it usually means the character has never opened any new hotbars or made any changes to the default hotbar.
The contents of hotbars -- spell icons and macros -- are not duplicated when matching or copying between characters.
UndoWhile you are on this page you can always click Cancel at the top of the utility to revert the changes. Click Save or Autosave to commit changes immediately.