J.A.C.K. Reference Manual
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J.A.C.K. Reference Manual Version 1.1 November 24, 2016 Copyright © Crystice Softworks 2013 — 2016 VDK Reference Manual Revision 3 (Nov 2016) Page 2/86 Introduction J.A.C.K. (Just Another Creation Kit; previously known as Jackhammer) is a brand new level editor for games with a quake-style BSP architecture. The aim is to develop a convenient cross- platform tool capable of incorporating the best features of existing editors, such as Valve Hammer Editor, Q3Radiant and others. Despite Quake and Half-Life having been released a long time ago, the large communities have arisen around, still developing modifications and games on their bases. However the existing editors suffer from fundamental disadvantages their users are well familiar with. J.A.C.K. does aspire to be the universal level design tool for classic games. But not only the classics! The editor shall become a key development tool for the Volatile engine, so that is why its second name is Volatile Development Kit. J.A.C.K. is being developed since August 2013. Despite not all the ideas being implemented and not all the functions being completely error-free, you are already able to download fully functional version of the editor, install and evaluate J.A.C.K. in action. Please don't forget that any complicated software may contain some issues. We are interested in a vast testing of the editor and grateful in advance for your comments and suggestions! We are pleased to see you amongst the J.A.C.K. users! J.A.C.K. Steam Store page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/496450 Online information about J.A.C.K. is available from: http://jack.hlfx.ru Def2fgd tool: https://bitbucket.org/FreeSlave/def2fgd Copyright Notice: some parts of the manual were taken from the official Worldcraft 3.x CHM manual; copyright © 1996- 2000 Valve LLC, all rights reserved. The appropriate modifications were introduced in some places, to handle the differences between Worldcraft/VHE and J.A.C.K. 2 VDK Reference Manual Revision 3 (Nov 2016) Page 3/86 Contents 1. BASIC INFORMATION ....................................................................................................................................................6 1.1. KEY FEATURES ...............................................................................................................................................................6 1.2. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS................................................................................................................10 1.3. CONTACTING THE AUTHORS..........................................................................................................................................10 2. SETUP GUIDE ..................................................................................................................................................................11 2.1. GENERAL SETTINGS ......................................................................................................................................................11 2.2. GAME CONFIGURATIONS ..............................................................................................................................................11 Automatic Setup .............................................................................................................................................................11 Manual Setup .................................................................................................................................................................11 3. LEVEL DESIGN BASICS ................................................................................................................................................16 3.1. INTRODUCTION TO EDITING ..........................................................................................................................................16 Solids: the Foundation of 3D Design.............................................................................................................................16 Entities ...........................................................................................................................................................................16 Entity Types....................................................................................................................................................................16 Putting it All Together....................................................................................................................................................16 3.2. THE 3D AND 2D VIEWS.................................................................................................................................................17 Using Cameras...............................................................................................................................................................17 Camera Placement.........................................................................................................................................................17 Keyboard Shortcuts........................................................................................................................................................18 3.3. CREATING SOLIDS.........................................................................................................................................................18 Creating Solids from Scratch .........................................................................................................................................18 Creating Solids by Cloning ............................................................................................................................................19 3.4. TEXTURING SOLIDS.......................................................................................................................................................19 Texture Browser.............................................................................................................................................................20 Texture Application Mode..............................................................................................................................................21 3.5. RESHAPING SOLIDS.......................................................................................................................................................22 Vertex Manipulation.......................................................................................................................................................22 Vertices and Edges.........................................................................................................................................................23 Face Splitting .................................................................................................................................................................24 Vertex Welding...............................................................................................................................................................24 Vertex Scaling ................................................................................................................................................................24 Clipping Tool .................................................................................................................................................................25 Brush Merging ...............................................................................................................................................................26 Carving...........................................................................................................................................................................26 3.6. CREATING ENTITIES......................................................................................................................................................27 Point Entity Placement...................................................................................................................................................28 Solid Entity Placement ...................................................................................................................................................28 Names and Targets.........................................................................................................................................................28 3 VDK Reference Manual Revision 3 (Nov 2016) Page 4/86 3.7. USING THE ARCH TOOL ................................................................................................................................................29 3.8. GROUPING AND VISGROUPING .....................................................................................................................................30 Grouping ........................................................................................................................................................................30 VisGroups.......................................................................................................................................................................30 3.9. COMPILING AND RUNNING YOUR LEVEL ......................................................................................................................32 4. ADVANCED TOPICS.......................................................................................................................................................34