PlateSmith changelog

Each release lists what players will notice. CurseForge shows this file as the release notes.

1.0.3

Fixed

• Without QuestieDB installed, the optional PlateSmith QuestieDB companion no longer reports "failure to load: missing"; it now stays quietly off until QuestieDB is there.

New

• When another nameplate addon is running, PlateSmith says so once per session in a small window (never in combat or during a loading screen). It explains that PlateSmith is running as a light overlay (quest markers and threat) on that addon's plates, and offers Keep overlay, Disable <addon> and reload (asks first), and Don't show again for that set of addons. With two or more nameplate addons running it warns that they overlap each other.
• PlateSmith now also recognises NeatPlates, Platynator, nPlates, and ElvUI or Tukui while their nameplates are on, and draws only its overlay on their plates in mode auto.
• /ps diagnose flags two or more nameplate addons running at once as a problem, and notes when PlateSmith is running as an overlay on another addon's plates. It also lists PlateSmith's modules and the add-ons they rely on, so it says why QuestieDB markers are off (disabled or not installed).
• Your target's plate now draws on top where plates overlap, so its name and bars are never hidden under a neighbour's.
• Blueprint Studio's Settings pages are laid out like the rest of PlateSmith's settings: folding sections in two columns when Studio is wide enough (one when it is narrow), each row a label, its control and its help underneath. Section folds are remembered.
• Behaviour & display is grouped into Plates, Names, Target, Text, Quests and Show on plates. The font field is as wide as the column and shows a long font name in full on hover.
• Show on plates (quest markers, tagged indicator, threat details, elite and rare marks) and the tree's eyes stay in step: unticking one shows its part's eye off, and showing the part by its eye ticks it again. While a switch is off, that part's inspector says so, with a Turn on link, and its controls are dimmed until it is back on.
• Aura defaults, Relationships, Studio and Help use the same sections; Help's text wraps to its column.

1.0.2

Changed

• The AddOns list shows PlateSmith as "PlateSmith Nameplates", in the Unit Frames category.
• /ps diagnose matches the Settings pages: proper tabs, the title and history buttons on one line, and even spacing. Details now shows the report in folding sections (Context, Profile, Performance, Target, Auras, Threat, Threat windows, Quest, Restrictions, Other) as name and value rows, with problem values in red at the top of their section and counted on a folded section's header. Ticker entries and events show as small tables sorted by cost. The fold state is saved.
• Resizing a threat window now moves the windows stacked below it (and below its row) down or up with its bottom edge, and the windows snapped to its right (and its column's right) with its right edge, so they stay attached. They stop at the screen edge. Hold Shift as you start to resize one window alone, without moving the others.
• A threat window's title has a tooltip: drag to move it with the windows snapped to it, Shift to move it alone (it still snaps), right-click for its menu.
• Blueprint Studio's + Add rule and + stop buttons, when unavailable, now look disabled like Studio's other buttons instead of being dimmed twice.

Fixed

• The threat window resize grip no longer shows its tooltip while you resize (or just after); it shows only when you hover over the grip.

Performance

• Threat tracking does less work in groups and raids: a group change is handled once instead of once per event, changing target re-reads only the old and new target, and stance or aura changes no longer re-check your role when it is fixed (Always, Never, or assigned by the group).
• With the threat setting off and no threat window shown, threat tracking now sleeps and catches up when it is needed again. Out of combat with nothing changing it checks four times less often.
• Threat windows redraw only when something they show changed.
• Save and Revert bars that are not on screen no longer update on every edit, and the unsaved-changes check runs once per update instead of once per bar.
• The QuestieDB companion rebuilds its quest markers only when your quests or objectives actually changed, and remembers each plate's creature so it is not worked out again on every check.
• Protected-value checks, which run for nearly everything PlateSmith reads, are cheaper.
• In raids and groups, health, power, cast, name and aura updates for group members and other units without a nameplate are ignored straight away instead of reaching the plates.
• Nameplates redraw only what an update changes: a health change redraws only the parts that show health (text, bars, templates and rules that use it), and nothing at all on plates that show none. In instances where health is protected, the regular health check no longer redraws every plate.
• A delayed or pushed-back cast only moves its cast bar; a hidden power bar no longer reads power; a mob changing target redraws its plate only when you show its target's name or use it.
• Threat text on plates is rewritten only when the threat reading changes.
• Aura rows check your target only on your target's plate; an aura read the game refuses in combat is not retried on every update (it is tried again after combat); Blizzard's aura fallback is only moved or rescaled when it needs to be.
• Withheld raid markers: a group member's retarget checks only that member's target, and focus and mouseover changes look up markers at most four times a second.
• The target halo and spotlight animation runs only while one is showing; the native-plate backstop runs every 2 seconds; whether you are in a dungeon or raid is checked once per zone.

1.0.1

Changed

• The threat window resize grip has a tooltip explaining snapping and Shift.
• /ps diagnose opens on a short summary; Copy full report gives one PS1 code line. For a bug report, paste the summary and that line. The full readable report is still under Show full report, and every flagged value under Details.

Fixed

• Switching profiles in Blueprint Studio no longer shows an error.
• A profile's fonts now apply when you switch to it: plate names no longer keep the look of the profile or preset you used before (such as Bold's Morpheus or Classic's thin text).
• Blueprint Studio now follows a profile switch made anywhere (Settings, a slash command, New from preset), so its preview always shows the profile your plates use.
• Threat windows snapped side by side now line up at the top and share one height, and a window snapped above or below another takes its width. Resizing one from its corner resizes the others in its row (height) or column (width), and its edges now snap to neighbours and the screen edge while you drag, with the highlight showing. Hold Shift to resize one window freely.
• /ps diagnose: every tab's scroll bar now follows the text (its thumb shows how much is visible and can be dragged), hides when the text fits, and the view ends at the last line instead of scrolling on into empty space.
• /ps diagnose summary: only errors from this session are listed as problems (older ones stay in History with their build and time, and each History row has its own dismiss button); error text drops the addon path and is cut cleanly; Studio is named only when it edits another profile; and the top event reads like "plate added ×12, 170.8 ms total (peak 25.4 ms)". Clear history now sits next to Keep history.

1.0.0

PlateSmith's first full release. Design your own nameplates in Blueprint Studio, see who has threat at a glance, and share your setup with a single code. Everything from the alpha builds is here, rebuilt and reviewed for release.

Blueprint Studio

Type /ps to open it. Pick a plate type (Enemies, Players or Friendly NPCs), click a part, and change it. Changes show on the preview straight away and reach your plates when you press Save.

• Every part is yours to place. Drag parts on the preview (they snap to the plate and to each other; hold Shift to place freely), nudge them with the arrows, resize them with the handles, and rearrange them in the tree. Rename, duplicate, reset, delete or add back any part.
• Anchor to and Pin. A part moves with the part it is anchored to. Pin it to an edge and it follows that part's size: the level stays beside the name however long the name is. Turn a part off and whatever is pinned to it takes its place.
• Stacks. Parts in a stack close up when one has nothing to show, so an idle cast bar leaves no gap.
• Custom parts. Up to 24 per plate type: health, power and threat numbers, your own text with tokens and conditions ({health} / {health.max}, [if health.percent < 35]LOW[end]), or a bar, box or icon.
• Style any text or bar: font, outline, shadow, a box behind text, bar texture, background and border. Save a look as a preset and use it on other parts.
• Rules change a part when something is true: set its colour, blend it by health, fade it or hide it. Ready-made presets cover health colours, execute range, grey when tagged, and threat colours for tanks and for DPS and healers.
• Test values let you preview a rule or custom text as it would look on a low-health, elite, casting or tanked mob.
• Preset profiles get you started: PlateSmith, Classic, Sleek, Bold, Tank, Healer, Minimal and Dungeon, each with a look of its own. Each makes a new profile you can edit, and never changes the ones you have.
• A clear inspector for every part, with sections you can fold away, and Colour-blind friendly and High contrast options.

Nameplates

• New default layouts for every plate type, based on Blizzard's plates and the most popular nameplate addons, and tested so nothing overlaps.
• Cast bar with the spell's icon, its name and the time left, counting down for channels too.
• Aura rows you can shape: how many icons, per line, size, spacing and direction, with a cooldown swipe and optional time left.
• Friendly plates as names only or a full plate, each with its own layout. Dungeons have their own positions too.
• Target of target name, quest icons (PlateSmith's or Questie's, never both), a loot bag on mobs that drop a quest item (with the QuestieDB companion), elite and rare marks as icons, words or letters, raid marks and TAGGED.
• The power bar only shows on units that have power.
• The target is highlighted with a fitted outline and chevrons.

Threat

• Threat on your plates: your threat %, the gap to the next player (+125 means you are safely ahead), and raw threat, coloured by state: you hold it, you are losing it, you are about to pull it, or someone else has it. Works on every mob you are fighting, not only your target.
• Threat windows: up to five meter-style windows, each a Threat meter (your group's threat on your target) or a Tank list (every enemy and who holds it). Eight themes. They snap together, move as a group, and resize; a highlight shows where one will join.
• Follow Blizzard's damage meter: drag a window onto any side of it (or pick a side in the menu) and it stays attached. Windows line up one after another, and stay put when the meter is hidden.
• Sample data for the threat windows (Settings, the window menu, or /ps console sample): a made-up group and enemy list in your theme, for screenshots out of combat. Turns off in combat.
• Click a row to spotlight that mob's plate: a glow round its health bar, an arrow over its name, chevrons or a box, and the other plates dim.
• Your tank role per character: Adaptive (group role, then bear form, stances and similar, then your spec), Always or Never.

Profiles and sharing

• Named profiles, one per character, with Save and Revert. Create, duplicate, rename and delete them from Studio or Settings.
• Blueprints: export a whole profile as a !PSB3! share code and import someone else's. Import checks everything first and lets you choose which parts to replace. Alpha !PSB2! codes still import.

Settings

• Settings > AddOns > PlateSmith holds Threat (your role, colours, threat windows and the spotlight, in sections you can fold) and Profiles. Everything else lives in Studio.
• /ps opens Studio, /ps config opens Settings, /ps console shows or hides the threat windows, and /ps diagnose opens a report you can copy into a bug report.

Performance

• Each plate redraws at most once a frame, and health, power, auras and threat only update the parts that use them. Busy pulls cost a fraction of what the alpha did.
• Cities and crowds stay smooth: friendly plates update only when something about the player changes (name, level, faction, PvP flag, group, guild or friends), aura rows read a unit's auras at most once a frame and nothing while a row is hidden, and a burst of new plates (logging in, zoning, a crowd coming round a corner) is spread over a few frames.
• Aura countdowns are drawn by the game's own cooldown frames, so they cost nothing to run.
• /ps diagnose shows each timer's cost over the last 30 seconds and the five costliest game events, for bug reports.

Coming from the alpha

• Names-only friendly layouts now start with the aura rows hidden, like the game's own. Turn them on in Blueprint Studio if you want them.
• Your saved profiles carry over. Your layouts stay as you left them; to try the new defaults, make a new profile or pick a preset profile.
• Colour by health is now a rule. Existing health colours are converted automatically.
• When several rules hold, the last one in the list wins (it used to be the first).
• The small lead bar under the threat text is gone; the threat text is coloured instead.
• The /ps targetprobe test command is gone.

Known limits

• The game hides some values in combat and in instances (some health, threat, aura and cast details). PlateSmith never guesses: a hidden value simply isn't shown, and a rule that depends on it doesn't apply.
• While the game hides aura details, the debuff row is drawn by the game's own aura frame, which PlateSmith can only place, not restyle.
• Clicking a threat window row spotlights a plate but can't target the mob: the game doesn't let addons do that.
• Aura rows show everyone's or only your auras; they can't filter by spell or by dispel type.
• English only for now.

Optional

• Questie (quest icons), the PlateSmith QuestieDB companion (quest item drops), and LibSharedMedia (extra fonts and textures).

0.1.0-alpha.2 (2026-09-25)

• Internal restructure: the addon's files are split into Core, Nameplates, Studio, Diagnostics and Threat folders. No changes players will notice.