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J.A.C.K. 1.1.1058 Public Beta Is Out!
Hi all!

Jackhammer has been renamed to J.A.C.K. because of copyright issues, but there is also good news: we've finally passed Greenlight. This means that J.A.C.K. will be eventually released on Steam (Q4 2016). Thanks everybody for support! Today we are presenting the last pre-Steam version with more bugfixes and improvements. Further, there will be two versions of the editor: the Steam one, commercial, with SteamWorks features and automatic updates, and non-Steam, completely free, although updated not very often.

New version highlights:

* Hexen II Support: now the editor supports Hexen II, the game based on Quake engine. There are compilers, FGD file and palette in the install package. Game configuration of the editor is identical to Quake's.
* VMF Format: now one can import and export maps in VMF format; this is a Source engine format. Although the support is still in beta mode, and not all the features are supported (e.g. the editor can't process Displacements), you can use the feature to transfer your projects between VHE4 and J.A.C.K., and also to include other utilities to the development pipeline (e.g. HammUEr - an UE4 plugin).
* User Cameras: now it is possible to place, move and delete user cameras, like in VHE. There is also an ability to load and save such cameras to JMF, RMF and VMF formats.
* Triangulation: a special command enables triangulation of non-planar faces that frequently arise during vertex manipulation. This helps to get rid of many "Invalid Solid Structure" errors, and to facilitate creation of curved columns and other complex geometry using vertex rotation tool. Simply triangulate your complex stuff after you're done. This command, along with others, is added to a new context menu in Vertex Manipulation mode.
* Incremental Save: a new version saving command automatically adds version number to the file name. Such behaviour is familiar to 3DSMax users; it enables easy creation of checkpoints during prolonged project development.
* Improved Entity Report: now hidden entities in "Include Hidden Objects" mode are marked in italic; also there are Hide and Unhide buttons added, to hide and show selected entities. Besides the dialog remembers last parameters entered, even between sessions.
* Advanced Patch Texturing: Naturalize and Set patch texturing functions now account not only for scale, but also for shift and 90-fold rotation (i.e. 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees). Along with that, Set function now performs in "naturalized" mode, i.e. taking into account segment lengths. These features greatly facilitate texturing of curves in Quake 3.
* Other Useful Stuff: tabs in Texture Browser, ability to hide triggers and unknown entities, ability to "lock" texture axes in Scale Vertices operation during vertex manipulation, display of selection center in status bar, tear-off mode for submenus, support for deformVertexes autosprite and autosprite2 in Quake 3 shaders, and many more.
* Lots of Improvements: the new version traditionally contains lots of bugfixes and improvements in comparison with the previous release. The editor became much more stable and functional. Please view a changelog for the details.

This version supports Quake, Hexen II, Quake II, Quake III, Half-Life, Gunman Chronicles and their modifications.
Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux.
Supported architectures: x86 (32-bit), amd64 (64-bit).

Web page
Feature list
Changelog of version 1.1.1058

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Again, thanks for suggestions and bug reports, some features were added because of your requests.
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Another Bug 
Flipping brushes (CTRL+L or +I) who have angled surfaces causes the texture to become stretched.

Adjusting a vertex on an angled triangular surface also causes the same effect, texture is stretched and no longer world aligned. 
FGD Source Compatibility 
The studio("progs/somemodel.mdl") format used by the fgd should be changed from studio to studioprop in order to provide compatibility with Source engine games. This will break any custom fgd's but I believe it should be done now so that going forward the same format can be shared across all games that J.A.C.K aspires to support. 
Feature Request 
Support for string data type in choices lists when parsing the fgd. Example format:
noise(choices) : "noise1" = [
"ambient/drone6.wav" : "Drone"
"ambient/riftpower.wav : "Hipnotic - Riftpower"
"ambient/rain.wav" : "Rain"
]

Currently only integer is supported. String would allow for any data to be entered. 
Hm 
I have been chipping away at a tiny experiment in HL using JACK. I recently closed the file without saving. Now when I try to open it it tells me the file is corrupt.
I have no idea what caused this or how to potentially recover the file. Please let me know where to start - what info to provide etc.
Only spent a little bit on this so if its lost it isn't the worst thing, but I'm afraid of this happening in the future! 
Drew 
in the folder where you saved your work you should have 5 most recent autosaves as well 
Thanks Daz... 
but can you clarify how I can access previous saves? Opening in JACK i just see jmf file.
opening in explorer I also see a jfx file.
I'll look thru the docs now... 
Change The Filetype Drop Down In The "File Open" Dialog 
 
Oh I See What Happened 
I had saved maps into one directory (half life/valve/maps) and a different one set in the options (half life/ maps) 
Actually 
that's not it. That directory doesn't seem to have been created even though its specified in the options...? I would have had to create that one *not* in JACK? is that the issue? 
And What Filetype Are The Backed Up Files Going To Be? 
 
Make Sure You Run As Admin 
J.A.C.K misbehaves or doesn't update settings changes unless you run in Admin (on Windoze). 
.JMX 
 
 
J.A.C.K misbehaves or doesn't update settings changes unless you run in Admin (on Windoze).

Just curious, but why should that be necessary? I don't have any programs with that problem. 
It Installs To Program Files (evil Location In Windows) 
Unless of course you have UAC disabled then the only evil location is C:\Windows 
Works Fine Here 
Have you got the latest version? I know some old releases installed user-specific stuff to Program Files, but recent ones use a subdirectory of your Documents folder, specifically "Documents\\Jackhammer" for pre-Greenlight versions and "Documents\\J.A.C.K." since the rename. I just tested 1.1.1064 in Windows 10 and changed settings persisted, despite being a standard user with the most restrictive UAC options on and running without elevation. 
 
Also I just learned you need to manually escape backslashes to see them on this board's post preview page, but the published post does it for you so they end up doubled. Pardon my goofy looking paths. 
 
I never understood the logic of restricting programs installed in "Program Files" from write access anywhere but a few locations, while programs in "Program Files (x86) or directly in C: can do pretty much as they please. So much for security, eh? 
 
Last time I checked the Program Files (x86) directory had the same rules and limitations as the regular one, which seemed to be the case for others as well following a quick visit to el' goog.

And writing directly to the C:\ folder is hardly harmful. Ugly, perhaps, but last time I checked there's no risk from the user creating folders or files there. System files and subdirectories of the C: drive are protected individually... 
 
Did that get changed since Vista? I don't know, I don't use either one.

After I install something, I move its folder to another drive and do a system restore. If it won't run after that, I'll usually delete it.

Only exception is Steam and Steam games. They're on their own separate boot disk. 
Would This Be Useful? 
I mostly dabble with map making as I have always seriously struggled with creativity! But I was messing around with J.A.C.K. tonight and thought.. wouldn't it be a cool feature to have a "create brush with selected texture" button? In the Surface Properties dialog box?

Could automate the centering of the texture and place it "selected" and "centered" in 3D/2D view?

Pardon my ignorance if this is silly, just seemed like it'd be a time saver(windows/door/buttons etc).

Thoughts... 
Bug/Feature Request 
"f" toggles texture filtering in the 3D view. It would also be nice to toggle texture filtering in the texture browser at the same time. The texture browser defaults to that horrible texture blurring. 
Feauture Request 
I'm new to mapping, but so far (apart from some crashing) JACK seems to be about the best in class for editors, good job!

A small request - a spherical "effect radius" indicator/tool for entities which rely on a radius to determine their operation, such as env_sound and scripted_sequence/sentence (Half-Life).

The tool might draw a pale red globe in 3D and maybe a red circle in 2D, size based on the radius setting of the selected entity.

It would make determining the range of these entities trivial, in much the same way that trigger brushes have a clearly visible footprint. Currently it requires careful measurement and calculations in order to place these entities effectively.

BTW, thanks for adding "centre" to the bottom right co-ordinates display, that's so handy! :D 
Another Request 
Here's another one, when you select an entity a pale arrow appears in 3D and 2D views, starting at the origin and pointing in the "forward" direction of the entity, as set by its "angles" keyvalue.

This would make placing most oriented entities (squadmaker, scripted sequence, trigger_push etc) so much easier - you'd just plonk it down and spin the compass until the temporary alignment arrow is pointing in the correct direction, in 3D or x/y views. The arrow would disappear when the entity was de-selected.

Thanks :) 
Any Way To Export Maps NOT IN Valve's 220 Format? 
I can't find any way to do it. I just want plain ole quake standard map format NOT Valve's 220 format. Am I missing something in the settings to allow this? 
Using F4 Instead Of F5 To Export The Map Is Weird 
At least for the first time. I can't get used to it. 
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