BigWigs - Encounter Music

 

 

BigWigs Encounter Music

`BigWigs_EncounterMusic` is a BigWigs plugin that automatically plays a selected music track when a boss encounter starts.

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About The Project

The addon is designed to stay lightweight, configurable, and extensible:

• It integrates into the BigWigs options UI.
• It lets you choose a single global encounter track.
• It can stop the music automatically when the fight ends.
• It exposes a shared track registry so external music pack addons can register additional tracks.

DMCA/Content notice: the bundled example track is “no copyright music” / royalty-free, provided only as a sample. If you ship custom packs, ensure you have rights to the audio you include.

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Features

• Automatic music playback on BigWigs boss engage
• Preview and stop buttons in the BigWigs options panel
• Global track selector
• Optional stop-on-encounter-end behavior
• Support for external music packs through BigWigsEncounterMusicAPI
• Built-in localization structure via Locales.lua

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Requirements

• BigWigs

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Installation

Install the addon into your WoW AddOns folder:

World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns/BigWigs_EncounterMusic

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How to configure

In game:

• Open the BigWigs options
• Go to the Encounter Music plugin panel
• Select the track you want to use
• Optionally enable or disable automatic stop at the end of the encounter
• Use Preview track to test the selected music
• Use Stop track to stop playback manually

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How it works

When BigWigs fires a boss engage event, the plugin:

• Reads the selected global track from the plugin profile
• Resolves the track from the shared registry
• Starts playback with PlayMusic() when possible
• Falls back to plugin:PlaySoundFile() when needed

When the encounter ends, the plugin stops the currently active track if stopOnEnd is enabled.

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Architecture

Core addon

BigWigs_EncounterMusic contains:

• Core.lua
  • BigWigs plugin lifecycle
  • option panel definition
  • playback and stop logic
  • encounter event handling
• Registry.lua
  • global track registry
  • registration and sorting helpers
  • API exposed through _G.BigWigsEncounterMusicAPI
• Locales.lua
  • base English strings
  • locale overrides

External music packs

Additional packs can register tracks without modifying the core addon.

The current example is:

• BigWigs_EncounterMusic_EpicMusicPack

This companion addon registers tracks into the shared registry during load.

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Shared API

The core addon exposes a global registry object:

_G.BigWigsEncounterMusicAPI

Available functions:

• RegisterTrack(id, data)
• GetTrack(id)
• GetTrackIds()
• GetTrackValues()

A registered track looks like this:

api.RegisterTrack("my_track_id", {
    name = "My Track Name",
    path = "Interface\\AddOns\\MyAddon\\Music\\MyTrack.mp3",
    source = "MyAddon",
    channel = "Music",
})

Track fields

• id
  • unique string identifier
• name
  • display name shown in the selector
• path
  • full in-game file path
• source
  • addon or pack name
• channel
  • audio channel, usually Music

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Creating a custom music pack

To create your own pack:

• Create a new addon folder
• Add a .toc file with a dependency on BigWigs_EncounterMusic
• Load a Lua file that calls BigWigsEncounterMusicAPI.RegisterTrack(...)
• Store your audio files inside your addon folder

Example layout:

BigWigs_EncounterMusic_MyPack/
  BigWigs_EncounterMusic_MyPack.toc
  Tracks.lua
  Music/
    BossTheme.mp3

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Current behavior

• The plugin uses one global selected track for all encounters
• There is no boss-specific music mapping
• If the selected track is missing, the profile is normalized to a valid fallback
• If no track is selected, the plugin does nothing on engage

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Localization

Localization is defined in Locales.lua using the same simple pattern used by other BigWigs companion addons:

• English strings are the base
• Other locales override only the strings they need

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Notes for development

• The addon is loaded on demand by BigWigs
• The plugin is created with BigWigs:NewPlugin("EncounterMusic")
• Do not manually call plugin:Initialize()
• Music packs should register tracks through the shared registry, not by editing the core addon

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Troubleshooting

The panel does not appear

Check that:

• BigWigs is enabled
• the addon folder name is exactly BigWigs_EncounterMusic
• the plugin loaded without Lua errors

No music plays

Check that:

• a track is selected in the options
• the registered file path is correct
• the audio file exists in the expected addon folder
• your in-game audio settings allow music playback

The music pack tracks do not appear

Check that:

• the music pack addon is enabled
• its file paths point to the correct Music folder

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Project structure

BigWigs_EncounterMusic/
  BigWigs_EncounterMusic.toc
  Core.lua
  Registry.lua
  Locales.lua
  README.md

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