Changing the WoW mouse cursor

[Kothnok]

I've been frustrated during some of the intense combat in raids for some time because with everything going on, sometimes I lose track of the mouse cursor.  Being a healer that needs to do more than heal one target, this becomes a problem since I need to spend time locating the cursor again and then get back to clicking targets before I can resume healing.

After some research, I've found a way to do it and I've read over the WoW Terms of Service to make sure I wasn't violating anything.  The closest thing that applies to this mod is section 2e: "E. modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;".  As what I'm about to describe does not modify any of Blizzard's files and uses a mechanism provided by WoW itself, so I don't believe there will be any problems using it.

First, I went to Blizzard's WoW UI customization section and downloaded what they provided. You won't need to do this unless you plan on changing something other than the standard hand pointer.

I then downloaded a tool to convert Blizzard's BLP graphic format into PNG and back again, named BLPConverter. (note that the C++ source code is included so you can compile it yourself if you don't trust the binary).

After that, I just had to use a graphic application that could preserve the PNG format's alpha channel (MS Paint fails at this) so that parts of the square picture will be transparent in game to create a new cursor.  Blizzard's UI package provided the original point.blp so that I could tweak it's color.  I also created a couple of different arrow cursors for the fun of it.  I used GIMP on Ubuntu Linux to create my PNG files.

Now that I have created a few PNG format picture files, I used the BPLConverter to change them into valid BLP files.  All that's needed now is to put them in the proper place for WoW to use them instead of the built-in cursor.  Blizzard has kindly made it quite simple.  Saving the file as <WoWfolder>\Interface\Cursor\point.blp will cause WoW to use your new cursor.  That's it.  Reverting to the built-in cursor is as simple as deleting point.blp file.  Please note that the Cursor folder sits next to your Addons folder and not inside it.

I'm providing the 3 pointers I cooked up in zip files so that all you need to do is unzip them in your <WoWfolder>\Interface folder (NOT the Addon folder) if you'd like to try them out.  You will see the new cursor in use right at the login screen, so there's no need to log into the game to see if it worked or not.  I'm also providing the original WoW point.blp named "point_orig.blp" so you don't need to download Blizzard's large UI package just to fiddle around with making a new cursor for yourself.

[Gutboy]

Interesting. I also have this problem, especially during giant AoE explosion scenes like Hyjal trash, but didn't know there was anything to be done about it. Will give it a try when I have some time. Thx Koth! 

GB

[Kothnok]

I've spent some more time on making a cursor that should stand out no matter what the background is.

Here's what it looks like (reminiscent of warcraft 3):
[attach=2]

The first attachment is the zip file containing the cursor.  Just unzip it into your <WoWfolder>\Interface.

Enjoy!