As you likely know, the most recent J.A.C.K. updates and bug fixes have been kept in beta branch for a while. These updates and fixes are only available to those who opted in the beta program. The holiday season has come, hence there is a major update for everyone!

Background Images in 2D Views

J.A.C.K. now supports background images for 2D-views. You can adjust offset, scale, luminance of a background image; turn on and off bilinear filtering of the image; invert colors of the image. The editor supportes BMP and PNG image formats. Background image filenames and settings are stored in a JMF file, so you don't have to setup from scratch when you re-open a map.

Drawing Selection while Dragging in 3D

Selection is now drawn while dragging objects in 3D views; it also displays origins for models and sprites, for easier positioning. There is also a checkbox in 3D view settings which enables and disables the new behaviour.

Smart Mode Improvements

Entity editing in J.A.C.K. becomes much more convenient with new Smart Mode features. Now you can preview assigned key values on the right, with "smart" text elision; this feature can be turned off in "VDKSettings.ini", parameter "PreviewValuesInSmartEdit". It is also possible to preview assigned key values in tooltips.

Snap Control of Point Entities

There is a new "Snap Point Entities" toggle in the Map menu (Shift+O), enabled by default. If disabled, point entities and paths will not snap to grid at all while dragging. If there are also brushes selected, then snap to grid will be enabled anyway.

FGD Format Extensions

For those FGD-savvy mod authors who prefer to customize everything, there are more extensions to the FGD game data format. A new parameter type, "target_generic", is fully equivalent to "target_destination" but, if there is no target existing on a map, where will be no "unmatched target field" map error. This could be useful for mods utilizing the SOHL concept of *locus, or similar. There is a new global FGD "syntax" parameter (@syntax default or @syntax strict); the strict mode enables some additional map checks. For example, in the strict syntax mode, J.A.C.K. can check if there is an entity field declared as integer in FGD, but actually contains a float or a string. Strict syntax is disabled by default, since most of the existing FGD files don't follow the rule.

Sizeable Dialogs

Object Properties and Entity Help dialogs are now sizeable, so that you can benefit from higher desktop resolutions. The adjusted sizes are remembered between J.A.C.K. sessions.

Lots of Improvements and Fixes

Here is a list of the major changes in version 1.1.3773; many of those were requested by the community:

• Selection tool now respects cordon bounds when selecting objects within bounds (if Cordon restrictions apply to views).
  
• Max Model Rendering Distance slider value in settings increased to 50000.
  
• Alt+Enter with visible Object Properties dialog now hides it (VHE behaviour).
  
• Arch group color is now assigned from a color of the first brush.
  
• SteamCloud synchronization dialog UX improved.
  
• On Windows, when editing a FGD file, JACK will use an associated executable instead of the default Notepad.
  
• FPS cap values can be specified in Preferences: the default value (60), 75, 100, 125, 167, and 250.
  
• Game Profile list size in the corresponsing dialogs increased to fis 12 profiles instead of 6.
  
• It is now possible to change the order of game profiles.
  
• Minimum size of the drop-down combo in Object Properties increased from 10 to 18.
  
• The default button in the Advertisement dialog is now "Cancel".
  
• Three Texture Lock related commands in "Tools" menu moved to a submenu.
  
• Some minor updates to the PDF documentation.
  

Many bugs have also been fixed; here are some examples:

• Fixed a crash in Object Properties dialog.
  
• Fixed a crash when using Object Properties dialog after closing the map (now this also closes the dialog).
  
• Fixed a bug in Object Properties dialog: now it is not showing up in taskbar.
  
• Fixed a bug in Vertex Manipulation mode: now "Center on Selection" centers on selected vertices or edges, not on selected brushes.
  
• Fixed a bug of a map marked as modified upon putting cursor to a smart field in Object Properties.
  
• Fixed a bug of a map was not marked as modified after entity deletion in Entity Report.
  
• Fixed a bug of angle assignment which now doesn't reset current parameter value in SmartEdit mode.
  
• Fixed a bug with Shift+Z, not it remembers the original window layout.
  
• Fixed a bug of incorrect floating-point numbers parsing when output in scientific notation.
  
• Fixed a bug of worldspawn ungrouping.
  
• Fixed a bug with Cloud storage not available.
  
• Fixed a bug of decal rendition (Half-Life-specific).
  
• Fixed a bug of modelT.mdl files not loading in a case-sensitive filesystem (Linux, Half-Life-specific).
  
• Fixed a bug with drawing patch handles in Cordon mode (Quake3-specific).
  
• Fixed a bug of incorrect geometry rendering in the shader editor (Quake3-specific).
  

Thanks again for using J.A.C.K., and happy Winter Holidays!