Basically, enemies in WoW decide who to attack by deciding who is the most threatening based on the abilities you use. What Omen does is provide accurate values of your group's relative threat level on individual enemies, so that you can see when you're in danger of pulling aggro (or, if you're next on the snack list if your tank bites it). This info is usually only critical in raids, where only tanks can survive aggro, but it's useful for any multi-player situation.
FAQ
How is Omen3 different from Omen2?
Omen3 relies completely on the Blizzard threat API and threat events. It does not attempt to calculate or extrapolate threat unlike Omen2.
Omen2 used what we called the Threat-2.0 library. This library was responsible for monitoring the combat log, spellcasting, buffs, debuffs, stances, talents and gear modifiers for calculating each individuals threat. Threat was calculated based on what was known or approximated from observed behaviors. Many abilities such as knockbacks were just assumed (to be a 50% threat reduction) as they were mostly impossible to confirm.
The Threat-2.0 library also included addon communication to broadcast your threat to the rest of the raid as long as they were also using Threat-2.0. This data was then used to provide a raid wide display of threat information.
Since patch 3.0.2, Omen no longer does any of these things and the need for a threat library is no longer necessary. Omen3 uses Blizzard's new in-built threat monitor to obtain exact values of every members threat. This means Omen3 has no need for synchronisation of data, combat log parsing or guessing, resulting in a significant increase in performance with regards to network traffic, CPU time and memory used. The implementation of boss modules for specific threat events (such as Nightbane wiping threat on landing) are also no longer necessary.
Further benefits of this new implementation include the addition of NPC threat on a mob (eg, Human Kalecgos). However, there are some drawbacks; frequency of updates are much slower, threat details cannot be obtained unless somebody in your party/raid are targetting the mob and it is also not possible to obtain threat from a mob you are not in direct combat with.
How do I get rid of the 2 vertical gray lines down the middle?
Lock your Omen. Locking Omen will prevent it from being moved or resized, as well as prevent the columns from being resized. If you haven't realized it, the 2 vertical gray lines are column resizing handles.
How do I make Omen3 look like Omen2?
Change both the Background Texture and Border Texture to Blizzard Tooltip, change the Background Color to black (by dragging the luminance bar to the bottom), and the Border Color to blue.
Why does no threat data show on a mob when I target it even though it is in combat?
The Blizzard threat API does not return threat data on any mob you are not in direct combat with. We suspect this is an effort on Blizzard's part to save network traffic.
Is there ANY way around this Blizzard limitation? Not being able to see my pet's threat before I attack has set me back to guessing.
There is no way around this limitation short of us doing the guessing for you (which is exactly how Omen2 did it).
The goal of Omen3 is to provide accurate threat data, we no longer intend to guess for you and in the process lower your FPS. Have some confidence in your pet/tank, or just wait 2 seconds before attacking and use a low damage spell such as Ice Lance so that you can get initial threat readings.
Can we get AoE mode back?
Again, this is not really possible without guessing threat values. Blizzard's threat API only allows us to query for threat data on units that somebody in the raid is targeting. This means that if there are 20 mobs and only 6 of them are targeted by the raid, there is no way to obtain accurate threat data on the other 14.
This is also extremely complicated to guess particularly for healing and buffing (threat gets divided by the number of mobs you are in combat with) because mobs that are under crowd control effects (sheep, banish, sap, etc) do not have their threat table modified and addons cannot reliably tell how many mobs you are in combat with. Omen2's guess was almost always wrong.
The tooltips on unit mouseover shows a threat % that does not match the threat % reported by Omen3. Why?
Blizzard's threat percentage is scaled to between 0% and 100%, so that you will always pull aggro at 100%. Omen reports the raw unscaled values which has pulling aggro percentages at 110% while in melee range and 130% otherwise.
By universal agreement, the primary target of a mob is called the tank and is defined to be at 100% threat.
Does Omen3 sync or parse the combat log?
No. Omen3 does not attempt to sync or parse the combat log. Currently there are no intentions to do so.
The threat updates are slow...
Omen3 updates the threat values you see as often as Blizzard updates the threat values to us.
In fact, Blizzard updates them about once per second, which is much faster than what Omen2 used to sync updates. In Omen2, you only transmitted your threat to the rest of the raid once every 3 seconds (or 1.5s if you were a tank).
Fix GetShapeShiftFormInfo() error that occurs for DKs when they aren't in any presence. This occurs when they respec between their primary/secondary specs and the game drops them out of all presences and subsequently enter combat presence-less.
Add Fade/MI Color to the options. This color is used on players under the effects of MI/Fade.
Add 410065408 threat to all players with negative threat for display purposes. English translation: You can now see the "un-Faded/un-MIed threat" of players under the effects of Fade and Mirror Image.
Changes from version v3.0.4 to v3.0.5
Implement an update event throttle, reducing CPU usage significantly without any loss of updates.
Clear the guidNameLookup table on zoning to recover some memory.
Fix Omen getting stuck to the mouse if autocollapse is on and you moved Omen while you are in combat and exited combat during the move.
Set a player's threat to 0 (for display purposes) if the player's threat is less than 0. This occurs on Fade and Mirror Image, which gives the caster a temporary threat reduction of 410057408 (or 4.1m threat in Omen's terms). Previously Omen ignored players with negative threat.
Omen will now remember its visible state when you log out (applicable only if auto-show/hide is off).
Changes from version v3.0.3 to v3.0.4
Update ruRU, koKR and zhTW localizations
Fix "Passed X% of Y's threat" message where it would report your name instead of the tank's name if you passed your tank's aggro AND pulled aggro at the same time
Changes from version v3.0.2 to v3.0.3
Update various localizations. esMX will now see the same translations as esES
Add LSM callbacks so that the user can use custom media or media registered by other addons correctly
Allow the user to have different background settings for the Title Bar than from the main Omen window
Changes from version v3.0.1 to v3.0.2
Update various localizations
Fix error that occurs on changing Clamp To Screen option
Add option to change the Pet Color and changed the default Pet Color to violet
Omen will no longer create its internal minimap button if FuBar or Broker2FuBar are loaded
Fix bugs with "Hide Omen on 0 bars" option that caused Omen to keep appearing when unwanted
Changes from version v3.0.0 to v3.0.1
Fix error that occurs on changing profiles: Omen-3.0.0\Omen.lua:592: attempt to index global 'bar' (a nil value)
Changes from version RC3 to 3.0.0
Updated various localizations
Add Show threat values and % options
Add Aoogah! sound from Omen2
Fix Omen's alpha setting not applying on login
Add option not to use class colors
Fix bug which caused ghost bars to show when some classes are not selected to be shown
Add Tank Bar color option
Add "Always Show Self" option
Add Show/Hide Title Bar option
Add Use Focus Target and Test Mode checkboxes into the configuration panel
Add Show Aggro Bar option
Make Test Mode much more useful by showing bars of every possible class and the player
Fix minor issue where the TPS numbers are 1 pixel higher than the rest of the text on the threat bars
Hard embed LibDataBroker-1.1 and use it
Add LibDBIcon-1.0 external
Add minimap button option, default shown
Fix Omen's FuBar plugin issue for right clicks to open the configuration panel interfering with library upgrading paths
Rewrite Auto Show/Hide options to be more intuitive. Add option not to use Auto Show/Hide
Add an internal flag so that if the user manually toggles Omen's visibility, it stays shown/hidden until he next zones, join/leave a party/raid, or change any Auto Show/Hide settings
Add option to ignore player pets to display threat info on (Default: On). Yes, player pets have aggro tables too!
Add Frame Strata and Clamp To Screen options
Apply a whole list of configuration settings that were forgotten on changing profiles
Updated the FAQ
Changes from version RC2 to RC3
Renamed localization\deDE.lua to Localization\deDE.lua so that the auto-generated zip file will contain the folder "Localization" rather than "localization", which means Omen will now work on non-Windows operating systems
Changes from version RC1 to RC2
Add keybind to toggle using the focus target
Fix missing localization entry for "Passed %s%% of %s's threat!"
Add option to color your own threat bar to a color of your choice
Fix "VGrip1Ratio" error that occurs when completing a drag and Omen incorrectly attempts to hide itself.
Optional Files - Omen Threat Meter
Sorry, there are currently no optional files available.
That's not entirely true, and it's certainly not a bug. The issue Flynt describes only occurs under Windows Vista (not XP) and is actually a security feature that prevents non-Administrators from modifying data in the Program Files directory. When a program run by a non-Administrator tries to save data inside Program Files, Windows Vista redirects the changed files to a "virtual store" directory in the user's profile instead. When the program later tries to access data that it saved, Windows Vista sends it the changed files from the user's profile instead. This doesn't always work well with WoW because WoW was written before Windows Vista was released, and no previous version of Windows behaved this way. Blizzard, for whatever reason, has not released any updates to make WoW interact with Windows Vista in the way Microsoft wants programs to interact with it (i.e. just store data in the user's profile directly instead of Program Files).
As a user, the best (and simplest) solution is to simply move WoW out of the Program Files directory. Open up My Computer, navigate to the C:\ drive, Program Files directory, and right-click on the World of Warcraft directory. Select the "Cut" entry, then navigate back up a level to the C:\ drive. Right-click somewhere and select "New > Folder" and name the new folder "Games" (this isn't strictly necessary but will help keep things organized in the long run). Open the folder, right click, and select "Paste". Next time you run WoW, Windows should be able to figure out where you moved it to, and update your shortcuts accordingly. This may take a few minutes, so don't panic.
However, if you're not using Windows Vista, then this obviously isn't your problem.
I actually just joined to hopefully answer this question.
There is a certain bug, I guess that's what it would be called, with most Windows XP and Vista operating systems that do not save settings if you're running WoW on a regular account. If you do not have an administrator's account, then this will continue to happen until you can gain access and save those settings on that profile.
That's as much as I can help on this subject.
Quote:
Originally posted by heirothic hey guys.
a couple of people have tried to fix this problem with no success.
im not sure if its the addon problem or a computer problem.
i downloaded omen3 the usual way.
i activate it in the addons tab but wen i log in its turned off.
i log out and go back into the addons tab and its turned off, i turn the addon back on but yet again wen i log in the addon switches of.
i went on my mates account (same computer) and the addon worked so its just my account.
so if anybody knows of a setting i could have switched on accidently or any other information that would be great,
a couple of people have tried to fix this problem with no success.
im not sure if its the addon problem or a computer problem.
i downloaded omen3 the usual way.
i activate it in the addons tab but wen i log in its turned off.
i log out and go back into the addons tab and its turned off, i turn the addon back on but yet again wen i log in the addon switches of.
i went on my mates account (same computer) and the addon worked so its just my account.
so if anybody knows of a setting i could have switched on accidently or any other information that would be great,
Originally posted by Xinhuan Because Ctrl-M and Ctrl-S doesn't mute the game. It just turns off Music and Sound Effects around your character respectively, which has nothing to do with sounds generated from the UI/Addons.
To really turn off sound, you need to ESC -> Sound & Voice -> Sound tab -> Turn off "Enable Sound" checkbox.
No other addon generates sounds after Ctrl+S/M, so something must be different.
Originally posted by grimman Why, when I mute the game, does the warning sound still play?
Because Ctrl-M and Ctrl-S doesn't mute the game. It just turns off Music and Sound Effects around your character respectively, which has nothing to do with sounds generated from the UI/Addons.
To really turn off sound, you need to ESC -> Sound & Voice -> Sound tab -> Turn off "Enable Sound" checkbox.
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Author/Maintainer of Postal, Omen3, GemHelper, BankItems, WoWEquip, GatherMate, Routes and Cartographer_Routes
Originally posted by Ambrya This is true. I know it's not supposed to happen, but since the crash was occurring at the time when the game had finished loading and the addons were loading, I really do have to conclude it was the addon.
I was getting some "cannot access memory" error (I think) when I had Omen installed. Downgrading to 3.0.2 didn't seem to make a difference (I remembered after I posted that 3.0.3 was the first time I had installed Omen since I rebuilt my computer with a new mainboard, so I can't be sure which version has the issue.)
So yeah, probably just a weird circumstance with the combination of Omen and my new mainboard and whatever else that only affects me for some reason.
Ambrya <-- TomTom user
try defragmenting, its possible that some addon data is being stored on a bad chunk of your hard drive, which could cause a crash.
Originally posted by psycomonkee If possible could it also be made to always be at the highest strata, I would like if when in combat omen completely coved up the default world PvP window, right now the PvP window shows on top of omen, and i know altering bliz frames is a pain.
You can set Omen's strata in Omen's configuration already. Type /omen config and you should see it right in the panel that show up (in the root of the omen tree).
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Author/Maintainer of Postal, Omen3, GemHelper, BankItems, WoWEquip, GatherMate, Routes and Cartographer_Routes
Originally posted by Psychophan7 Can the threat window be made (optionally) so you can click "through" it in combat?
If possible could it also be made to always be at the highest strata, I would like if when in combat omen completely coved up the default world PvP window, right now the PvP window shows on top of omen, and i know altering bliz frames is a pain.
Originally posted by Fizbyn yes i saw that error message but i have don't use the nameplates at all so for some reason the addon thinks i am
I've give a more technical explanation then.
Blizzard has locked down the use of show/hide/moving/changing attributes/etc of secure frames since patch 2.0 with the coming of TBC. In WoW, when a secure frame is parented to something, that parent becomes implicitly protected as well. This is the case with nameplates, nameplates are secure and are parented to the WorldFrame (the frame containing your 3D world, yes this is resizable/movable).
The problem then, if it isn't nameplates, is that you have some other addon with secure frames parenting itself to WorldFrame, rather than parenting to UIParent (another frame which usually has the same size as WorldFrame. Pressing alt-Z will hide UIParent, which basically hides your UI, as almost all UI elements are parented to this frame, only a few aren't like the FPS indicator (ctrl-R)).
While in combat, secure frames and implicitly protected frames cannot be moved, etc as previously mentioned. You'll have to find out which addon is using WorldFrame when he shouldn't be, via disabling your addons one by one, or half by half.
That being said, with the new 3.0 changes to secure frame handling, I might have a workaround. I'll think about it.
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Author/Maintainer of Postal, Omen3, GemHelper, BankItems, WoWEquip, GatherMate, Routes and Cartographer_Routes
Originally posted by Fizbyn The screen shake for threat warning is not working it works when tested but when in combat the screen will not shake.
Screen shake will not work if you use nameplates at any time during your login session (the health bars that appear when you press V, alt-V or ctrl-v). This is a Blizzard limitation.
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Author/Maintainer of Postal, Omen3, GemHelper, BankItems, WoWEquip, GatherMate, Routes and Cartographer_Routes
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