AddOn Studio 2015 for World of Warcraft
AddOn Studio 2015 for World of Warcraft is a fully-featured development environment for creating and developing AddOns for World of Warcraft. AddOn Studio features a professional Lua editor with full code-completion and other modern facilities, an integrated visual WoW UI designer, SVN and Git code repository support, project based AddOn file management and deployment, and much more.
To get started follow the steps below. Feel free to visit the following pages for more information and help. Twitter: @AddonStudioWoW. Documentation: Getting Started. History: Release History. WoW API: UI Customization. Support: Issue Tracker and Forums. Discord: ASfW Donations: PayPal.
AddOn Studio 2015
What you need:
- Visual Studio 2015 Community, using one of these install links:
- Free Visual Studio Community installer (3.4 MB):
Microsoft.com - Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3
The exact installer stub from the download site. Just click run.
-- or -- - Free Visual Studio Community 2015 download site:
Microsoft.com - Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3
Requires login. Click download on 'Visual Studio Community', then run.
-- or -- - Free Visual Studio versions download site:
Microsoft.com - Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3
Browse to 'Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3', then download. Requires login.
- [7z] (History)
- Read the getting started section below
Optional:
- Blizzard Interface ToolKit:
World of Warcraft Interface AddOn Kit
Older versions:
- [7z]
Other editions:
- AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW - smaller install, older platforms, classic look. same wow features
Beta:
- [7z]
Recent Features
New Features for 210131 beta:
- Patch 9.0.2 and Shadowlands
- New frames now include 9.0 backdrop code.
- Themes
- Theme support extended to many new places including, backdrop designer, and the font and texture selectors. Many fixes for long standing issues with tree views and other IDE elements.
- Other
- Many general fixes and updates, including fixes for gradient rendering, backdrop rending and others.
- See the full list of changes for 210131.0 beta in release history
New Features for 191009:
- Patch 8.2 and the Rise of Azshara Battle for Azeroth
- May wish to check the AddOn Studio option for 'Tools > Options > AddOn Studio > World of Warcraft > WoW install location'. This option currently defaults to first installed game version, which for many will be the '_retail_' folder, and for some may be the '_classic_' folder. After changing the option, AddOn Studio must be restarted to take effect. Likewise changing this option to the '_ptr_' folder will target the PTR. For most the default will be '_retail_' and will just work. Will look into settings to make this easier, possibly per project. For targeting Classic, see below.
- World of Warcraft Classic
- New support for World of Warcraft Classic was added for AddOn Studio 2010 and 2015, which can be used now in the current beta. The WoW install base option in AddOn Studio may need to set to '_classic_' in 'Tools > Options > AddOn Studio > World of Warcraft > Alternate install location' for most users. This option currently defaults to first installed game version, which for many will be '_retail_'. After changing the option, AddOn Studio must be restarted to take effect.
- New Themes
- All of following are already included in 4.0.190922.0 or newer:
- Dark Theme DarkAS
- Blue Theme BlueAS
- 'Solarized' Code Coloration
- Update: After getting used to the colorization in the MediaWiki built-in Wiki Lua scripting editor for the last week or so, which is a variant of the popular color scheme "Solarized" by Ethan Schoonover, I decided make similar work-a-like color theme in AddOn Studio as I was editing back and forth a lot, and to see how it would look. And I wanted to share for others to possibly enjoy a similar rendition of "Solarized" in AddOn Studio. The AS version has more contrast and hue separation to work in larger range of lighting conditions and screen brightness levels and types, and to be closer to other VS color themes. These will also work in the AddOn Studio 2015 for WildStar beta.
- Eclipse Dark Theme
- Solarized' Dark Theme
- In memoriam of yesterday's full solar eclipse, is the new "Eclipse" Dark AS theme above, which mutes all of the overly bright IDE colors present in the normal VS 'Dark' theme. For some may make it much easier to focus on the code. The normal Visual Studio 'Dark' theme has many florescent style bright elements which are significantly brighter than the actual text edit window. This theme brings the brightness of all non-editor elements to 'at or below' the brightness of the editor window itself. A pre-built 'Eclipse (Solar)' with the "Solar" editor color scheme released the day before, is added for convenience. The can also now be imported on top of any theme, rather than just on 'Dark AS' as it was yesterday.
- Themes Usage:
Can be selected in 'Tools > Options > General'.
Getting Started
Installation:
- Download and install the Visual Studio Community 2015 above
(defaults are fine, can skip 'Launch' after install) - Download AddOn Studio 2015 for World of Warcraft
- Copy the folder 'AddOn Studio for WoW 2015' in the zip file to any location you like, such as: 'c:\Program Files', or 'd:\apps', or your Desktop
- Run the WowAddonStudio.exe, or create a short-cut and run that instead.
Basic usage:
- Create a new Project
- Add existing files or create new ones
- Deploy to WoW by clicking 'Build'
- Run WoW or use '/reload' to use your AddOn...
Support:
- AddOn Studio Documentation and Quick Start Guide
- ASfW on Discord, Issue Tracker and Forums, and Release History
- AddOn Studio 2015 for WoW Demo media
- If you are having trouble, try running the reset.cmd in the install folder.
Updating:
- Rename or delete the installed 'AddOn Studio for WoW 2015' folder.
- Follow the Installation steps above, skipping the Visual Studio 2015 install portion.
Product History
- See AddOn Studio for WoW for a list of all editions, and release history for detailed changes in each release.
This 'AddOn Studio 2015 for World of Warcraft' is a continuation of the previous AddOn Studio 2010 for World of Warcraft edition, but built on Visual Studio 2015. The 'AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW' edition will continue to be updated in parallel. This version and the 2010 version will be supported together in perpetuity, to give users a choice of which IDE's style, platform support, and functionality they are more comfortable with.
- Today's Reality
The general concepts of game and AddOn development especially for WoW, are far more well understood and by a larger audience today, than they were during the time of the original World of Warcraft. And since the introduction of AddOn Studio for WoW many games have come, and some gone, using Lua and similar game customization methods as WoW. With this the general expectations of quality in consumer level development tools has risen as well.
AddOn Studio 2015 improves on the 2010 edition, with an even more advanced and complete set of features, and is a powerful general IDE for WoW AddOn development using a free Visual Studio back-end (much like the free Community versions of Visual Studio for C#, C++ and Web), with support for graphical Frame XML development. There are quite a few additional Visual Studio integration features, all of which together contribute toward making WoW AddOn development tools real first class citizens, in a world where that almost never happens.
- What Changed
New features and changes for the AddOn Studio 2015 edition on initial release:
- New Visual Studio 2015 IDE general set of features.
- See AddOn Studio for WoW History for current specifics, will update more here later.
- See AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW: What Changed for previous changes
- What Works
Short list covering major historical issues addressed in AddOn Studio 2015 for WoW.
Updated Support:
- Includes support for current versions of WoW, originally released with support for Warlords of Draenor - Allowed Includes 70000 version and later features, as well as continuing support for WoW Legion, WoD, and earlier game content files, and Blizzard interface 'toolkits'. Support for new WoW releases is ongoing. Fixes include more complete CASC support the proper handling of WoW data files.
- SCC Integration for GIT - the new version includes an optional, integrated, and functional version of GIT, with full support for all context menus. This is in addition to the previous SVN support. This allows using Curse Forge or other Git support for remote code repositories. There is tested support for sites like the Curse Forge sponsored WowAce and Curse Forge.
- Windows 10 - using newer set of tools and compilers support was updated for a smoother experience on the new OS, and should still be backward compatible as far back as Visual Studio 2015 support goes back to Vista and above, but not Windows XP, Windows 2000, NT 4.0, or Windows 95. Windows Vista requires Vista SP1. AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW still has support for Windows XP.
- Includes all of the AddOn Studio for WoW specific features from AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW as well...
- See AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW: What Works for previous enhancements
Contact
- celess22@gmail.com
See also
- AddOn Studio for WoW - Major version and edition history
- AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW - AddOn Studio alternate edition, based on Visual Studio 2010
- AddOn Studio for WoW Documentation - getting started, details for installation and setup
- AddOn Studio for WoW History - effective release history with changes and notes
- AddOn Studio 2015 for WoW Demo
- WoWBench - WoWBench WoW Lua run-time simulation, including events, frames
- Viewing Blizzard's WoW user interface code
- Extracting WoW user interface files
External links
- Prerequisites
- Product
- Support
- News