ConsolePortLK-Enhanced

Play World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) 3.3.5a with a controller using ConsolePortLK Enhanced and WoWPadX.

An enhanced fork of leoaviana’s ConsolePortLK, based on release 1.5.0-rc2. It retains the original controller interface and adds improvements to cooldown displays, action-bar layouts, settings navigation, and saved layout preferences. ConsolePortLK itself backports Sebastian Lindfors’s ConsolePort 1.9.17.

This fork is maintained by SuttonX. Please report Enhanced-specific issues here rather than to the original ConsolePort project. Original authorship and the Artistic License 2.0 are preserved.

Version 1.0.0, based on development build v161. The main gameplay improvements were tested in game; the final Orthodox optional-button geometry adjustment has source validation but has not yet received an in-game test. See testing status.

Controller mapper required

ConsolePortLK Enhanced is intended to be used with WoWPadX, the SDL-based controller-to-keyboard/mouse mapper linked by the original ConsolePortLK project. WoW 3.3.5a does not provide the modern native controller input expected by newer addons.

Another mapper, such as Steam Input or GameNative’s keyboard/mouse mapping, may also work if it produces the same inputs and you calibrate the addon accordingly. These alternatives were not independently tested for this release. Run one mapper at a time to avoid duplicate input.

Tested configuration and compatibility

Development and in-game testing used an Xbox controller with LT and RT—the rear triggers—configured as the two modifiers. In the recommended mapping below, LT holds Left Shift and RT holds Left Ctrl.

The improvements use shared addon code and are expected to work with other supported controller presets and WoWPadX modifier selections as well. Other controller hardware and every modifier combination have not been individually tested. If something behaves differently, please report an issue and include your controller, selected controller preset, mapper and version, modifier assignments, action-bar layout, client version, and steps to reproduce it. Screenshots and Lua errors help with display or navigation problems.

Xbox mapping for another input mapper

NOT REQUIRED if you use WoWPadX. WoWPadX supplies the controller mappings for its selected profile; you do not need to enter the mappings below manually. Select your modifier profile in WoWPadX and complete ConsolePortLK’s normal calibration. This table is only a reference for configuring another input mapper, such as Steam Input or GameNative.

This table reproduces WoWPadX’s triggers-as-modifiers profile, matching the Xbox configuration used during development. It is a physical-input mapping, not a list of the in-game actions assigned to those inputs. Calibrate with /cp recalibrate after selecting this profile or changing mapper settings.

Use ordinary held inputs: pressing a trigger sends modifier-down, releasing it sends modifier-up. Holding both triggers must produce Shift + Ctrl simultaneously. Avoid toggle or turbo mode for movement, modifiers, and stick clicks. Map the right stick to relative mouse movement and give both sticks an appropriate dead zone.

Numpad multiply and add are distinct from typing Shift+8 or Shift+=. View / Back is the button commonly called SELECT; Menu / Start is START. The Share button is a separate screenshot/video capture button on newer Xbox controllers, not SELECT. Guide/Share availability depends on the controller and operating system. Many Elite configurations expose paddles as duplicates of existing buttons; the separate paddle outputs above apply only when the mapper can see independent paddle inputs. Standard Xbox controllers do not have paddles.

Optional 16-way movement: WoWPadX additionally sends H for the horizontal-dominant intermediate diagonal sectors and V for the vertical-dominant sectors. These are supplementary sector outputs, not replacements for WASD. A basic eight-direction WASD setup can omit them; match the addon’s movement configuration to the mapper’s capabilities. WoWPadX’s automatic walk/run handling uses additional feedback logic, so copying the physical mappings does not reproduce every WoWPadX feature.

WoWPadX also supports other modifier profiles:

The trigger profile above is our tested configuration; it is not WoWPadX’s factory-default modifier selection. Recalibrate whenever changing profiles. Optional L1/R1 bar indicators retain the original addon’s modifier-label behavior; their captions can reflect the configured modifiers rather than literally naming Xbox bumpers.

Mapping sources: WoWPadX KeybindDefaults.h and InputMapper.cpp. These links pin the inspected version so the documented mappings remain traceable.

What changed from the original ConsolePortLK

These changes are compared with the original ConsolePortLK 1.5.0-rc2, rather than earlier Enhanced development builds.

New features

• Cooldown satellites on every layout except Triple: abilities on inactive modifier bars can appear while cooling down, without holding those modifiers. Triple retains its permanently visible modifier bars.
• Inactive-bar cooldown controls: choose up to one hour, ten minutes, or five minutes remaining, or turn these displays off. Short global cooldowns are excluded.
• Separate saved layout profiles: size, scale, artwork, and positioning preferences are retained independently when switching layouts and logging out.
• Optional FormFreedom integration: the controller cursor can select supported FormFreedom menu helpers, and the displayed modifier bar is reconciled afterward. Automatic druid form cancellation remains in the separate FormFreedom addon.

Fixes and improvements

• Druid-form action-bar glitches: improved action-page and action-identity refreshes when switching forms or bonus bars, so cooldown text and swipes follow the correct actions. Added spell-cooldown fallback for cases where the client temporarily reports an empty action-slot cooldown after a form/page transition.
• Modifier-bar updates: cooldown displays refresh when modifiers are pressed or released. Triple wings track their own modifier actions rather than inheriting the currently displayed main-bar layer.
• Cooldown rendering: reworked the original countdown renderer for reliable updates, proportional sizing, readable placement, whole-second/minute formatting, urgency colors, and coordination with OmniCC to avoid duplicate text.
• Satellite display behavior: cooldown satellites disappear at expiry, restore their normal labels, and handle hover and overlapping modifier layers consistently.
• Scalable bar geometry: improved Minimal button, satellite, artwork, highlight, and border proportions; retained native layout geometry where appropriate.
• Settings navigation: ordinary first launch selects General and its heading. Returning from Bindings or reopening settings restores the subsection selected during that session, including Advanced and Action Bars.
• Action Bars configuration: improved the populated integrated editor, optional-button checkbox behavior, and layout presentation restoration.
• Save and reload handling: reload prompts reflect the final difference from the loaded settings. Reverting an edit before saving does not itself require a reload.
• Fixed the original RT+A default binding, which targeted an Extra Action Button unavailable in WotLK 3.3.5a - a leftover from backporting ConsolePort from newer WoW versions. It now maps to a usable action-bar slot, with the equivalent correction applied across all relevant controller presets.
• Input reliability: reduced redundant binding writes and improved calibrated stick-click fallback, binding-view focus, and cursor click handling.
• Update processing: reduced repeated callback work and nameplate polling. No independently measured performance gain is claimed.
• Smaller fixes: removed debug chat noise, corrected an optional specialization API call, and corrected raid-marker labels in the keyboard editor.

Fresh-install defaults and documentation

• Pixel bridge and controller nameplates are enabled by default; the optional on-screen keyboard and double-modifier-tap behavior are disabled by default.
• RT+A refers to the tested Xbox LT/RT modifier profile. Other controller preset bindings and the Wii template retain their original defaults.
• Optional upper bar indicators begin unchecked on fresh profiles. Their original modifier-label behavior is retained.
• Added Xbox input mappings for alternative mappers, WoWPadX setup guidance, compatibility notes, source comparison documentation, and testing history.

The reported Prowl/stealth-break cooldown issue could no longer be reproduced in the final tested setup; every possible enemy-caused stealth break has not been independently verified. See TESTING.md for confirmed results and remaining limits.

See CHANGELOG.md for technical details and UPSTREAM-CHANGES.md for the complete source-file inventory and review notes.

Installation

Required clean install when first switching to Enhanced

For your first installation of ConsolePortLK Enhanced, remove all previous ConsolePort / ConsolePortLK addon folders and their saved settings before installing this version. Existing saved bindings and settings can override Enhanced's fresh defaults.

1. Fully close WoW.
2. In World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/, delete all addon folders belonging to previous ConsolePort or ConsolePortLK installations, including their modules and any renamed copies. The standard folders are ConsolePort, ConsolePortAdvanced, ConsolePortBar, ConsolePortHelp, ConsolePortKeyboard, ConsolePortLoader, ConsolePortUI_Loot, and ConsolePortUI_Menu.
3. Delete all ConsolePort / ConsolePortLK SavedVariables files, including .lua and .lua.bak copies, from both your account and character SavedVariables folders: WTF/Account/ACCOUNT/SavedVariables/ and WTF/Account/ACCOUNT/REALM/CHARACTER/SavedVariables/. Replace ACCOUNT, REALM, and CHARACTER with your actual folder names. Remove only ConsolePort-related files (normally ConsolePort*.lua and ConsolePort*.lua.bak). Repeat for every account and character that used the previous addon. Do not delete unrelated settings or the entire WTF folder.
4. Download the install ZIP attached to this fork's GitHub release. GitHub's automatic “Source code” ZIP contains a repository parent folder; it is not the ready-to-install archive.
5. Extract the eight addon folders directly into World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/.
6. Install and start WoWPadX, connect your controller, and select your modifier profile.
7. Start WoW, enable the modules you need, select your controller preset, and complete calibration.

Initial switch to Enhanced: SavedVariables DELETE; CLIENT RESTART. This resets old ConsolePort bindings, calibration, and layout preferences, so configure them again. This is the initial-install requirement, not an instruction to erase settings for every future update. The optional on-screen keyboard is disabled by default on a fresh configuration.

Optional druid form support

Install FormFreedom separately if you want automatic form cancellation for its supported interactions. FormFreedom works independently on desktop and alongside ConsolePortLK. Its cancellation logic is not bundled into Enhanced; the integration here supports controller selection and correct bar-state reconciliation.

Commands

Client and platform notes

The tested target is WotLK 3.3.5a. A client identifying itself as 3.3.5 may be the normal 3.3.5a client build; compatibility with a separately different 3.3.5 client has not been independently established. Modified client APIs and custom server behavior can affect compatibility.

For Steam Deck/Proton/Wine, consult the original ConsolePortLK setup guidance. WoWPadX and WoW may need to run in the same Wine/Proton prefix. A Steam keyboard/mouse layout is an alternative when the mapper cannot attach to the game, but the alternative configuration still needs calibration.

Credits and license

• Sebastian Lindfors / seblindfors: original ConsolePort.
• Leandro Araujo / leoaviana: ConsolePortLK backport and WoWPadX.
• dan-schales: binding-update optimization included through the upstream contribution documented in the development history.
• SuttonX: Enhanced development, runtime testing, and maintenance.

Distributed under the existing Artistic License 2.0. This fork is not affiliated with Blizzard or the original ConsolePort project.