WoW:Cosmos (AddOn)/Cosmos FAQ

This page is only for historical purposes.

This page is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions relating to Cosmos.

Cosmos FAQ

General Questions

What is Cosmos?

Cosmos is a collection of User Interface modifications for World of Warcraft. Please see What is Cosmos for more information.

Why use Cosmos?

There are thousands of AddOns out there and a large handful of compilations that aim to do some of the things Cosmos does. What sets Cosmos apart is integration. Cosmos uses a one-of-a-kind configuration system called Khaos to help its users configure the entire compilation. Cosmos also makes use of a unique Patcher application that downloads, installs updates and manages your WoW addons. On top of that, the Cosmos Team is one of the most forward thinking developing groups. We like to stay ahead of the pack with unique features and integrative, intuitive design. Cosmos will change the way you play WoW.

What platforms does Cosmos run on?

The Cosmos addons should work on any computer that can run WoW.
The Cosmos Patcher works on systems running Windows XP and Macintosh >10.3. There have been some reports that the patcher does not always work on Win XP 64-bit. If you are unable to use the Patcher for whatever reason you can still use the manual installation method. Make sure to tell us if you are having problems with the Patcher on the Cosmos Patcher Forum.

What is the Patcher?

An application takes care of downloading, updating and installing your Cosmos AddOns.
It also lets you decide individually which updated files to install via the Installation Window.
The patcher is a convenience tool, not a necessity. All files are available manually in the event you can not or do not want to use the patcher.

Where do I start? (Installation)

Automatic Installation:

Go to the Cosmos UI Homepage and click the Download Now button on the top right. This will automatically detect your operating system and download the appropriate Patcher Application (Windows or Mac). The patcher files are also listed on the Download Page.
Unzip/Extract the Cosmos exe/app and place it in your root WoW folder.
Follow the instructions from the Cosmos Patcher Quick Start Guide.
Once the Cosmos addons have been installed you can run the game normally or through the Cosmos Patcher. Using the patcher you can set it to automatically check for updates when you open the program and then auto-run WoW or the WoW Launcher after updating.

Manual Installation:

Go to the Download Page and select from the zipped distributions to download and unzip/extract.
Using Only Cosmos:
- Simply copy the Interface folder of the unzipped files you downloaded and put it in your root WoW folder.
- It is safe to replace the current Interface folder if you have not installed any addons before or are updating a Cosmos-only installation. The blizzard addon placeholders within will be auto-generated the next time you run WoW.
Using Cosmos with other Addons:
- View the Zip File Path.
- Open the Interface\AddOns\ folder of the unzipped files you downloaded. Select all of the folders within and copy them to the Interface\AddOns\ folder within your root WoW folder.
- If you were using any of the standalone versions of addons within Cosmos is is recommended that you replace them with the files found in Cosmos. For the most part all of these addons are updated first in Cosmos and might load faster due to the utilization of shared libraries.

I've installed Cosmos, what now?

You need to configure the options. See the Cosmos Beginners Guide for detailed instructions.

Where's the Documentation?

You're looking at it (some of it). The documentation is maintained via this Wiki site. The main page is Cosmos, from where you should be able to find the necessary links to the area you're interested in. For more generic information on the UI, you might want to start from the Interface Customization page.

How do I Keep Cosmos Up To Date?

Automatic Updating:

Launch your Cosmos patcher application and click the "Update Cosmos" button.
Wait for it to complete and click through the update notes (or auto-skip them by enabling the Patcher option).
Click the "Run WoW" button (or quit the Cosmos Patcher and run WoW manually, or auto-open WoW after updating by enabling the Patcher option).
The Cosmos Patcher will quit before WoW is run so it will not be against Blizzard's Terms of Use that prohibit 3rd party programs running concurrently with WoW.

Manual Updating:

Repeat the steps as listed above for Manual Installation.
Make sure to manually delete any addons or files that may have been renamed or removed since the last time you updated since this is normally handled automatically by the Cosmos Patcher application.

Put What Where?

Addons:

If you have run WoW recently you probably have a folder with the path World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns. In this folder will go all of the addon folders that make up the Cosmos installation.

WoW:

The World of Warcraft folder is the root folder within which your WoW.exe (Windows) or World of Warcraft.app (Mac) resides. The default installation location of WoW on Windows is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft, and on Mac it is \Applications\World of Warcraft.

Cosmos Patcher:

The Cosmos.exe (Cosmos.app on Mac) can technically go anywhere on your computer but we recommend you put it inside your WoW root folder as mentioned above. If you like, you can then create a shortcut/alias and place it on your desktop and/or in your Start Menu/Dock.

Which Version/Distribution Should I Use?

Complete - Most recent changes, hourly builds. Contains all Cosmos AddOns.
Beginner - Most general UI modifications from Cosmos.
Core - Just the main libraries.
Devtools - All of Cosmos' libraries as well as a few nice tools for development.
ThottbotOnly - Thottbot and its dependancies.

What Are these Text Files For?

The zip downloads come with the following two text files. These are not required for running Cosmos but it is recommended you read the readme.

The "Cosmos_Readme.txt" contains information on Installation and Uninstallation as well as how to utilize the .nopatch system used by the Patcher application to identify and protect non-Cosmos addons. For more information on protection read the Patcher Questions bellow.
The Cosmos.txt file contains a summary of the last few Cosmos update logs. This list can also be seen on the Cosmos Logs Page.

If you are using the Patcher you might also see two more files:

The "Cosmos Changelog.txt" contains a list of file changes made by the Patcher Application.
The "Cosmos Run Log.txt" contains any errors you might have encountered while running the Patcher if you had Logging enabled. These can be useful for reporting bugs or problems with the Patcher to our programmer on the Cosmos Patcher Forum.

Is Cosmos legal?

Yes. Cosmos' authors work within Blizzard's official policies.

It's patch day and Cosmos is broken, when is it going to be fixed?

We aim to have a usable version of Cosmos that is updated on or before patch day. The Cosmos team knows when patches are coming and usually has Cosmos all fixed up before or shortly after the patch hits. Inevitably there will be occasional bugs, please be patient as it does take time and we are all donating our time.

In the day or days following a patch, the latest version of Cosmos might be out of date. To fix this, go to your Character Selection Screen and click the 'Addons' button at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. In the top right of the pane that comes up, check 'Load out of date addons'. Know, however, that the Cosmos Team leaves untested addons as outdated and it may be better just to wait for us to verify them.

What is Khaos?

Starting with the second major release of Cosmos, the task of configuring the Cosmos package was passed onto an AddOn called Khaos. Cosmos is the entire project/compilation and Khaos is the in-game system for configuring Cosmos.

Where do I download older versions of Cosmos?

It's always best to use a current version of Cosmos as most older versions might not even work. If you must, you can find older copies at Sarf's Repository. The Cosmos team does not necessarily support any of the code located there.

How do I uninstall Cosmos?

From a Cosmos-only installation:

Just delete your whole Interface folder from your root WoW folder.

If you have other non-Cosmos mods installed:

Use the Cosmos Patcher and click the 'Uninstall Cosmos button. This will move all your Cosmos addons to the trash/recycle bin.
To manually uninstall open the World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns folder and delete all the unwanted AddOns, leaving behind the mods you want to keep.
Be wary of deleting Addons which are dependencies for other AddOns.

I uninstalled, but I'm still seeing certain Cosmos-related behaviors. What now?

WoW also alters files under the WTF directory depending on settings you have used with Cosmos. Most notably, you might have added some new key bindings or moved some windows about to help accommodate Cosmos. To restore your default UI, delete the WTF sub-directories for the relevant accounts/characters. Beware that you'll lose all your customised macros, chat-layouts, chat channel settings etc, so you may wish to backup first. Make sure WoW is closed when deleting or editing your WTF.

For just resetting window locations delete your World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\<username>\<charname>\layout-cache.txt.
For just resetting chat settings delete your World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\<username>\<charname>\chat-cache.txt.

I uninstalled, but I can now see the Sky Channel. Why?

Chat channels you were in the last time you played are stored by WoW. Try typing /leave Sky. If that fails, you can either reset your chat settings by deleting World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\<username>\<charname>\chat-cache.txt or you can edit it in a text editor and remove all the lines that have 'Sky' on them. Make sure WoW is closed when deleting or editing your WTF.

Patcher Questions

How do I keep the Patcher from deleting all my other AddOns when I have the "Keep Interface Directory Clean" option checked?

The method the Cosmos Patcher uses to keep your Interface directory as up to date as possible is the 'nopatch' system. Here's a quick step-through:

Go to your \World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns directory
Create a new text file in this directory (Make sure you have 'Show Hidden Files' checked in Windows Explorer's File Options)
Rename the new text file in the format of <AddOn Name>.nopatch
- For example, if you wanted protect CT_RaidAssist from being removed automatically, you would have a file called 'CT_RaidAssist.nopatch' in your \World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns directory.

How do I stop the Patcher from running WoW when it finishes?

Hit 'k' on your keyboard while it's processing.

Where can I get help or leave suggestions about the Patcher?

Help us make our Patcher better by going to Patcher Discussion Forum and submitting a report.

Where can I get more info on the Patcher?

Check out the Cosmos Patcher site for more detailed information.

General AddOn Questions

What's an AddOn?

See the AddOns page.

What AddOns are available?

Cosmos itself consists of a collection of smaller Addons. See the list of Cosmos Addons and the Community AddOns List to see what's available. Note that Addons in the latter list are not necessarily anything to do with Cosmos, and might not necessarily be compatible.

Can I use other AddOns with Cosmos?

It depends....for the most part smaller AddOns will work fine, larger all-encompassing AddOns are less likely to work. Some users have merged aspects of CT_Mod and Gypsy into Cosmos, taking their favourite parts from each. In general though, you will need to do some tweaking to get the big UI packages to work together, otherwise you're likely to get problems such as overlapping UI sections. As a general rule, if the AddOn is providing something Cosmos doesn't, and doesn't use the same screen area as a Cosmos utility you've activated, then they're likely to work ok together.

What are the core Cosmos Addons?

The main dependencies/libraries are Sea (AddOn), Chronos, Satellite, Telepathy, Earth (AddOn), Khaos, and MCom. There are more libraries but these are all used by multiple Cosmos addons and thus are shared, using less resources than if the code was in each individual addon that needed it.

Will Cosmos affect my FPS (Frames per Second)?

Yes, to some degree. Cosmos causes the client to call additional functions at certain times. Inevitably this will result in minor slowdown, but it shouldn't be very much. If you're experiencing significant slowdown, something more serious is wrong. Please post on the Cosmos Forums detailing which AddOns you have installed, and which are active. In particular, you may wish to try temporarily disabling all of Thottbot except the personal profile collection or PartyQuests. If you're still having FPS issues and you're sure its Cosmos related, the DPS and Combat related mods would be next in line. At this point though, you should probably check your graphics settings and try turning down the terrain distance.

Troubleshooting and User Interface Questions

How do I get the game out of Windowed Mode?

Hit 'Esc' on your keyboard, click 'Video Options' and uncheck 'Windows Mode'.

WoW just told me my user interface is using up too much memory. How do I fix this?

At the screen where you select your characters hit the Addons button at the bottom left corner of the screen. At the top there will be a field you can enter a higher memory amount in. Setting this value to 0 will make the game use as much memory as it needs.

How do I move the tooltip back to the bottom right?

Open Khaos, choose Gymnast Tooltips in the center navigation and click the "Reset the Game Tooltip" button.

How do I move the buttons above the right side of my main menu bar?

Those bar(s) are PopBar. It has more keys than any other and two rows (One which defaults to Auto-Hide). To drag it click and drag the small 'P' button on the bottom left hand corner of the buttons.

How do I reset the PopBar location?

Open Khaos, choose PopBar in the center navigation, then scoll the main window to the bottom and click the "Reset" button next to "Default PopBar Position"

The Second Bar, Pet Bar, etc. is blocking the view on the chat. How can I move the chat?

Right-click on the chat window's tab and select "Unlock Window". Then drag it where you like. You may also want to lock it after you finnish.

I use MobileFrames and one or more of my windows is off the screen and I can't get it back. How do fix this?

You can open Khaos, go to MobileFrames and click the Reset All button or look below that for each frame's individual Reset button. You may also type /mflist to get a list of currently mobile frames and use /mfreset [framename] to reset individual frames.

How do I get Archaeologist to show my target's HP?

If you've never attacked that creature, MobInfo2 can't show you an HP value. The target HP feature is only an estimation. MobInfo2 guesses your target's HP after you've hit it and remembers that information. It will show a more accurate value as you kill more of that creature.
Also make sure Archaeologist and MobInfo2 are both running and that the option for Archaeologist in Khaos is set to show your target's real HP when available.

I keep getting disconnected, why?

There are a plethora of explanations. One common reason is too much outgoing chat messages. You might try leaving the Sky channel and disabling it's auto-join or installing ChatTraffic. If it helps at all, the outgoing max currently seems to be about 1000 characters of text per second. If this does not solve your problem please report it on the Cosmos Forums.

Can I talk to players from the opposite faction?

No. It's illegal and nearly impossible.

I'm getting health bars appearing above NPCs all of a sudden - how do I turn this off?

This is a default Blizzard option, but many people seem to think its a Cosmos issue. You probably hit "V" by mistake. Press it again to toggle on/off. (Check keybindings in case you re-mapped it somewhere else if this doesn't work)

Which addon provides the "alt-click to invite a player to group" function?

The addon is called AltInvite. You can find it by clicking the Addons button in the character select screen. Check to enable this addon, uncheck to disable it.

I've tried everything but my chat channels are still not working. How can I fix them?

Marsman has written a good guide located at Cosmos FAQ/Fixing chat channels.

Also check out Chat Channel Troubleshooting.

How can I hide the chat notices about changing General, Trade or other major channels?

If you are using Sky you can type /script SkyChannelManager.hideJoinLeaveAlerts( "<channel name>" ); into chat, replacing <channel name> with any of the following: 'General - Ironforge', 'Trade - City'. Sky, SkyParty, SkyRaid, SkyZone, SkyGuild are also valid options. For any other channels, type /chatlist to get names of all the chat channels you are currently in.

How do I get ThottBot to work?

Thottbot requires the following AddOns:

Earth
Chronos
Khaos
Sea
Thottbot

Can I show collected ThottBot data in-game?

Not currently. The only available methods would be huge memory drains. The closest thing we have is the data you can tell MobInfo2 to collect about item drops.

How do you change per-character add-on settings?

A pop-up window comes up when you first use Cosmos asking if you would like the current configuration as the default setting for this character.

To get to this popup again open Khaos, make sure the User Skill drop down is Advanced or higher, and find the profile you want as your default, right-click it and select "Change Default". Then select that profile from the dropdown menu of the popup and check the default checkbox.

Can I simply delete unwanted AddOns from my AddOns folder?

While you can, simply deleting AddOns that are part of Cosmos could lead to other parts of Cosmos ceasing to function. Use discretion when doing so. If you are using the Patcher it will also replace them when updating. You can use the Patcher, however, to Never Update certain addons or install them in the Interface\Disabled Addons folder.

How do I get Timex to work with Chronos?

Timex is not a Cosmos addon and is not supported by Cosmos staff. Timex aggressively replaces Chronos. The latest version should work with the latest version of Chronos but sometimes they get out of sync. This can be fixed by updating the masking code in Timex's replacements. Open Timex\Core\TimexCoreSupport.lua and replace

scheduleByName = function(...) local n, t, f = arg[1], arg[2], arg[3] tremove(arg, 1) tremove(arg, 2) tremove(arg, 3) Timex:AddNamedSchedule(n, t, nil, nil, f, unpack(arg)) end,

with

scheduleByName = function(...) local n, t, f = arg[1], arg[2], arg[3] tremove(arg, 1) tremove(arg, 1) tremove(arg, 1) Timex:AddNamedSchedule(n, t, nil, nil, f, unpack(arg)) end,

Programming Questions

I want to write AddOns. Where do I start?

AddOns are written in LUA and XML. WoWWiki has a fairly complete API listing. The WoW Interface Customization Board is a great resource as well.

It also helps to have a good code editor.

For Windows:

SciTE

For the Macintosh:

Howdo I get my addon included in Cosmos?

First of all you must understand our goals and standards.

Check out our Cosmos Coding Standard and Cosmos Developers Guide.
Know that with few exceptions all Cosmos addons have the following:
- An active developer that maintains their addons directly in the Cosmos SVN (Subversion) repository and keeps them working and improving upon them.
- Either Khaos GUI registration for one-stop options or their own GUI options with a button to open them on the Earth Feature Frame.
- If there is no Khaos GUI then addon must be able to save user profiles at least by character if not by choosing an options profile (the beauty of Khaos is that it handles all this).
Email your request to the Team Lead with details on where to download the most recent version and why you belive your addon should be in Cosmos.

How can I help out the Cosmos Team if I'm not a programmer?

We are always looking for help and we don't tend to turn much of it down.

One of the things that always needs updating is the wiki here. Each addon should have its own page and they are constantly out of date. Anything that you can do to keep these pages up to date and easily understandable would be most appreciated.
Another thing that always needs doing is answering people's questions. This can be done on the Cosmos Forums and also on our IRC channel.
If you help out frequently with these and would like to have your name attached to the project contact the Team Lead with your request.

Miscellaneous WoW Questions

Can I play my MP3s from inside WoW?

The short answer is no. There have been a few attempts at getting music players inside the game but none of them have been truly successful.

edit: I don't know how you went about it but I have been able to play them fully, without any problems.

edit: It is possible with the AddOn "myMusic". It's an in-game mp3 player that works like Winamp. It does not have many features, but I have no problems with listening to the playlist I configured. Not sure if it's workable within Cosmos, but I will find out. ;-)

edit: I have never tried myMusic, but I play them in whatever media player I have on my computer at the time. Start up the game, turn off the in game music, works like a charm. Just setup all your mp3s to play in a random order (or make playlists) and you are basically doing the same thing.

edit: As of patch 1.12, Macintosh users can natively control iTunes through keybindings.[1]

edit: Music Commander is a very excellent music player that works completely in game and works with 2.2 (and 2.3?). It automatically replaces the wow music while it's running.

Can I browse the web or chat with friends through WoW?

Not legally.

- But, you can use a client called Xfire. It will display a chat client on top of WoW for you to use.