MoP Classic 5.5.4 (68016) compatibility fixes

[HydraxSkarrag]

What

WoW MoP Classic 5.5.4 (build 68016) backported several retail API/UI changes that break Shadowed Unit Frames on the classic line. This adds minimal guards/fallbacks so it runs cleanly on 5.5.4.

This targets the classic branch — the line that actually supports MoP Classic. It supersedes #69, which mistakenly targeted master (retail); see that PR for the full testing history.

Fixes

• DebuffTypeColor: rebuilt from the new DEBUFF_TYPE_*_COLOR globals when the old table is absent, keeping correct per-type debuff border colours instead of hardcoding values.
• hideBlizzardFrames / basicHideBlizzardFrames: guard nil frames (some class-resource frames don't exist in this build).
• HideBlizzardFrames: bail if self.db isn't ready yet; use PlayerCastingBarFrame or CastingBarFrame for the cast bar.
• auras: guard frame.auras.buffs / .debuffs before indexing.
• incheal / layout / runes: guard widget:GetStatusBarTexture() (nil before a texture is set) and skip empty statusbar texture paths.
• basecombopoints: guard frame[key].points before iterating.

Download (testers without git)

The raw GitHub source ZIP does not include the bundled libraries (libs/ are externals), which causes a wave of Lua errors on load. Use this pre-packaged build instead — it includes libs/ and both addon folders:

➡️ ShadowedUnitFrames-mop554-classic.zip

Extract into World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns/ (contains ShadowedUnitFrames/ and ShadowedUF_Options/), overwrite if prompted.

Testing

Running on a live MoP Classic 5.5.4 install — raiding on a Warlock with no issues, and verified smooth on a Feral Druid and Elemental Shaman as well.

[HydraxSkarrag]

@jbkellen thanks — and to answer your "retail feature or classic issue" question directly: it's a feature gap in the classic line, not a regression from these fixes.

The retail (master) build you tested before has full vehicle support — it swaps the player frame to the vehicle (UnitHasVehicleUI → frame.unit = vehicleUnit), shows the vehicle cast bar, and even has a "Disable vehicle swap" option. The upstream classic line never implemented any of that (it was built for Vanilla/TBC/WotLK, where vehicle UI works differently), so on classic the player frame stays player and the vehicle/its cast bar don't show. None of the #70 changes touch this — the capability simply isn't in the classic codebase.

The good news: since the retail vehicle code clearly worked on your live 5.5.4 client, the vehicle APIs exist on MoP Classic, so this should be portable to the classic branch. I'll look into bringing the vehicle-swap (player→vehicle frame + vehicle cast bar) over.

To make sure I reproduce and test the right thing:

• Which vehicle were you in for the screenshots (a quest/world vehicle, a dungeon/raid vehicle, a turret…)?
• Is it specifically the player-frame-swap + the vehicle cast bar you're after, or also things like vehicle power/seat indicators?

I'll follow up here once I've ported it. Note it touches secure (combat-protected) frame handling, so it'll need in-combat testing before it's solid.

[jbkellen]

To make sure I reproduce and test the right thing:

• Which vehicle were you in for the screenshots (a quest/world vehicle, a dungeon/raid vehicle, a turret…)?
• Is it specifically the player-frame-swap + the vehicle cast bar you're after, or also things like vehicle power/seat indicators?

I'll follow up here once I've ported it. Note it touches secure (combat-protected) frame handling, so it'll need in-combat testing before it's solid.

I was at the Tiller's farm getting into one the wild crops. It casts a "Vine Slam" ability which shows on the cast bar inside the player frame after it switches. One thing that wasn't shown on my screenshots is that the Buff frame at the top right of the screen (next to the minimap) also switches and shows the vehicle's buffs.

[HydraxSkarrag]

Thanks for running those checks @jbkellen — confirmed it's a separate-unit vehicle (UnitHasVehicleUI("player") = true, with a distinct vehicle unit), so the retail build swaps the frame to it and the classic line doesn't. Your observation is correct.

After looking into it: I'm going to leave this out of scope for this PR. Classic-line SUF never implemented vehicle-frame swapping — it's a retail-only feature, not a regression — and this PR is deliberately limited to MoP 5.5.4 compatibility fixes (restoring what broke), not porting retail features into the classic codebase. Vehicle swapping also touches secure/combat-protected frame code, which is a much bigger change than fits a compat fix.

If full vehicle-frame support matters to you, the retail/master build has it (at the cost of the other retail-on-classic issues), or it'd be worth raising as a separate feature request upstream. Really appreciate the thorough testing here either way 🙏

[jbkellen]

No worries. I wouldn't have noticed it at all if it hadn't been for the build posted in #69

[blamekooves]

Hello!

I've been running this branch for about a week now and it seems to work fine on my end save for one error that I get every time I log in.

By chance would you have any idea what causes this:

1x LUA_WARNING: ShadowedUnitFrames/ShadowedUnitFrames.toc:29 Error loading ShadowedUnitFrames/libs/LibDualSpec-1.0/LibDualSpec-1.0.lua

Cheers!

[HydraxSkarrag]

Hey, glad it's been running well!

That specific error is the giveaway that you're on an older, retail-based build (the closed #69 line) rather than this classic PR. That LibDualSpec-1.0 reference at line 29 of the .toc only exists in the retail/master version — and when you download the raw source archive, the packaging externals (LibDualSpec etc.) aren't bundled, so the file is missing and you get that load warning.

The classic branch here doesn't use LibDualSpec at all, so the fix is just to grab the packaged release ZIP linked in the PR description (libs bundled, both addon folders). Fresh-install over the old one and that warning is gone. 👍

Download: https://github.com/HydraxSkarrag/ShadowedUnitFrames/releases/download/mop554-classic-test/ShadowedUnitFrames-mop554-classic.zip

[blamekooves]

Hey, glad it's been running well!

That specific error is the giveaway that you're on an older, retail-based build (the closed #69 line) rather than this classic PR. That LibDualSpec-1.0 reference at line 29 of the .toc only exists in the retail/master version — and when you download the raw source archive, the packaging externals (LibDualSpec etc.) aren't bundled, so the file is missing and you get that load warning.

The classic branch here doesn't use LibDualSpec at all, so the fix is just to grab the packaged release ZIP linked in the PR description (libs bundled, both addon folders). Fresh-install over the old one and that warning is gone. 👍

Download: https://github.com/HydraxSkarrag/ShadowedUnitFrames/releases/download/mop554-classic-test/ShadowedUnitFrames-mop554-classic.zip

Ah okay that makes total sense! Thank you for the clarification. I'll swap out my installed version for the correct game version/branch.

Otherwise it's been working fantastic, much appreciation for taking on fixing the add-on.

Cheers! <3

[tollivbrand]

Hello guys, hey @HydraxSkarrag I am trying to install the addon after clear wow installation, it couldn't load in the game after I pasted both folders. Should I do another step? Thank you.

[HydraxSkarrag]

@tollivbrand Thanks for the report — you found a real bug, and it's now fixed.

What was happening: MoP Classic 5.5.4 bumped the client interface version to 50504, but the TOCs still declared only 50503. So the game flagged the addon as out of date and refused to load it. On a fresh WoW install the version check is enabled by default, which is why you hit it — anyone whose Load out of date AddOns box happened to be ticked (like us) never noticed.

Fixed in the latest commit: both TOCs now declare 11508,20505,50503,50504, so it loads normally on 5.5.4 (5.5.3 clients keep working too).

Please re-download the packaged ZIP and reinstall:
https://github.com/HydraxSkarrag/ShadowedUnitFrames/releases/download/mop554-classic-test/ShadowedUnitFrames-mop554-classic.zip

Extract so you end up with these two folders directly under World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns/:

• ShadowedUnitFrames
• ShadowedUF_Options

(Make sure there's no extra wrapper folder in between — i.e. AddOns/ShadowedUnitFrames/ShadowedUnitFrames.toc, not AddOns/something/ShadowedUnitFrames/....)

If for any reason it still doesn't show up, ticking Load out of date AddOns on the character-select AddOns screen works as a fallback — but with this fix it shouldn't be needed anymore. Let me know how it goes!

[tollivbrand]

@tollivbrand Thanks for the report — you found a real bug, and it's now fixed.

What was happening: MoP Classic 5.5.4 bumped the client interface version to 50504, but the TOCs still declared only 50503. So the game flagged the addon as out of date and refused to load it. On a fresh WoW install the version check is enabled by default, which is why you hit it — anyone whose Load out of date AddOns box happened to be ticked (like us) never noticed.

Fixed in the latest commit: both TOCs now declare 11508,20505,50503,50504, so it loads normally on 5.5.4 (5.5.3 clients keep working too).

Please re-download the packaged ZIP and reinstall: https://github.com/HydraxSkarrag/ShadowedUnitFrames/releases/download/mop554-classic-test/ShadowedUnitFrames-mop554-classic.zip

Extract so you end up with these two folders directly under World of Warcraft/_classic_/Interface/AddOns/:

• ShadowedUnitFrames
• ShadowedUF_Options

(Make sure there's no extra wrapper folder in between — i.e. AddOns/ShadowedUnitFrames/ShadowedUnitFrames.toc, not AddOns/something/ShadowedUnitFrames/....)

If for any reason it still doesn't show up, ticking Load out of date AddOns on the character-select AddOns screen works as a fallback — but with this fix it shouldn't be needed anymore. Let me know how it goes!

Thank you @HydraxSkarrag, really appreciate it. It is working really good right now.

Cheers!