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J.A.C.K. (Initially Volatile Hammer Editor^[1], commonly Jack) is a map editor for games with a Quake-style BSP architecture. J.A.C.K. is heavily based on Hammer, improving upon the experience from Hammer 3.5 by adding many quality of life features inspired by those found in Hammer 4.x, Q3Radiant, and more^[Clarify]

J.A.C.K. is available for free on its website. A paid version, with several bugfixes and some extra features, is also available on Steam.

Important:The map compilers which come with J.A.C.K. are forked from older versions of the various engines' compile tools and are not actively maintained. Additionally, the paid version of J.A.C.K. does not include compile tools for GoldSrc due to license conflicts.

As J.A.C.K. exclusively uses Valve220 notation for exported MAP files (being the first editor to extend it for use with Quake II and Quake III), a supported compiler is required. The following up-to-date compilers are supported:

• GoldSrc - VHLT 3.4 and forks
  • Sven Co-op - SCHLT
• Quake (and  Hexen II) - ericw-tools
• Quake II - see Quake MAP (file format)
• id Tech 3 - the version of Q3MAP2 included with NetRadiant-Custom

Features

General Features

• Cross-platform editing (Windows and Linux)
• Large memory addressing (64-bit)
• Extensible via plugins
• Supports various game formats and resources
• Customizable color schemes
• Realtime texture effects (transparency, animation, scrolling)
• Improved decal rendering (Half-Life)
• Embedded shader editor (Quake III)
• Large map support (up to 262144 x 262144 units)
• Multiple VisGroups per object
• Textures bound to game configurations
• Loads resources on demand
• Dynamic sky rendering
• Supports curved surfaces (patches) from Quake III engine

2D View Features

• Background images with adjustable offset, scale, luminance, and filtering
• Selection while dragging in 3D view

3D View Features

• Selection while dragging objects
• Display of origins for models and sprites
• User camera placement, movement, deletion, saving, and loading

Entity Editing Features

• Smart mode improvements with preview of assigned key values
• Support for Hexen II
• VMF format import and export (beta)
• Triangulation of non-planar faces
• Incremental saving with version numbering
• Improved entity report with hidden entity management
• Advanced patch texturing functions

Other Features

• Tabs in Texture Browser
• Ability to hide triggers and unknown entities
• Texture axes locking during vertex manipulation
• Selection center display in status bar
• Tear-off mode for submenus
• Support for deformVertexes autosprite and autosprite2 in Quake 3 shaders
• Many more minor improvements

Additional Features (from previous versions)

• Compile maps within the editor (non-blocking)
• Automatic selection in 3D view
• Improved snap to grid functionality
• Preserve internal connections during copy/paste and clone operations
• Model viewer integration
• Extended FGD format for entity descriptions
• Autosave functionality
• Update checking
• Multilingual support (English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish)
• Precise model selection in 3D view
• Loading and rendering of portal (*.prt) and hull (*.p0-p3) files
• Assigning random yaw to entities
• Multiple texture fitting
• Texture replacement with scaling
• Context menus for entity creation

For more details, refer to the changelog^[2].

Trivia

• J.A.C.K. was used to make three of the four deathmatch maps that were added in Half-Life's 25th Anniversary Update. Contamination and Rocket Frenzy were built using the free version (1.1.1064), and Pool Party was built using the Steam version (1.1.2800).

Support

• GoldSrc
  • Half-Life
  • Gunman Chronicles
• id Tech 2
  • Quake
  • Quake II
  • Quake III
• Hexen II
•  Tremulous

External links

• Home page
• Website
• Download page
• Steam page
• HLFX Topic of first alpha.

References

1. HLFX Topic of first announcement (Volatile Hammer Editor).
2. List of J.A.C.K. features on official website.