SHOCKING NEWS: John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO

[Mushkins]

Shocking News: People are still avid Carmack followers?

I haven't heard that name tied to any groundbreaking or even mildly successful or interesting events in gaming since... Quake 2. Guys like Carmack had their time to shine in the 90's, and shine they did, but gaming has grown and the industry talent has grown to match. Thats not to say that they aren't talented in their own right, but these names mean less and less every single day. Just because he did some really awesome stuff back then doesn't mean he's inherently going to keep pooping out industry gems for all eternity.

I hope he finds great success on the Oculus team, maybe his talents will help bring some cool stuff to the project. It's definitely time for him to move on from iD and trying to make yet another FPS.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Shocking News: People are still avid Carmack followers?

I haven't heard that name tied to any groundbreaking or even mildly successful or interesting events in gaming since... Quake 2. Guys like Carmack had their time to shine in the 90's, and shine they did, but gaming has grown and the industry talent has grown to match. Thats not to say that they aren't talented in their own right, but these names mean less and less every single day. Just because he did some really awesome stuff back then doesn't mean he's inherently going to keep pooping out industry gems for all eternity.

I hope he finds great success on the Oculus team, maybe his talents will help bring some cool stuff to the project. It's definitely time for him to move on from iD and trying to make yet another FPS.

Wat. I think you underestimate his intellect. He's not interested in games, he's a tech guy with a ton of experience. His team won a X prize and he's done a lot in aerospace for NASA competitions.

 

[smackababy]

Wat. I think you underestimate his intellect. He's not interested in games, he's a tech guy with a ton of experience. His team won a X prize and he's done a lot in aerospace for NASA competitions.

They won two prizes.

As a developer and technical expert, his knowledge is probably unmatched in the gaming world. He will do great things for Oculus, but that doesn't mean they will succeed.

 

[Mushkins]

Wat. I think you underestimate his intellect. He's not interested in games, he's a tech guy with a ton of experience. His team won a X prize and he's done a lot in aerospace for NASA competitions.

Right, all the more reason him helping iD build "yet another FPS striving to bring back the Quake glory days" is not taking him anywhere. Specifically to the games industry, his talents have been exhausted. He *belongs* doing tech in aerospace and high level development where his talents are still actually useful, not working for iD to help them develop another FPS engine. He has nothing left to give gaming unless you want to get into completely new technologies that might also be used for gaming (like virtual reality systems aka what he's actually moving on to). I'm sure he knows this too, which is exactly why he made the move.

 

[Skel]

Always amusing to read these kind of threads where the posters are in a rush to bury the older generation. While I haven't really followed Carmack that much, to say he or the company he founded is irrelevant is pretty funny. The impact they make may not be directly obvious to the end user, but they influence and help drive tech. Too many people are judging id software by the game, and not the engine. None of their games have been strong, but man have their engines been on point.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Don't care about carmack anymore. He is smart but in gaming is irrelevant anymore

I would disagree completely. I don't think there's a studio in the world that wouldn't welcome him as a consultant or advisor.

 

[Juddog]

Awesome; this Occulus Rift thing seems to be gaining momentum, and it's the type of device that I envisioned when I first heard about Virtual Reality back in the mid 1990's (except back then the HMD was a $50,000 chunk of hardware and the graphics sucked in comparison).

Now we just need to incorporate Occulus Rift with an XBOX Kinect for the perfect video game experience!

 

[dougp]

Right, all the more reason him helping iD build "yet another FPS striving to bring back the Quake glory days" is not taking him anywhere. Specifically to the games industry, his talents have been exhausted. He *belongs* doing tech in aerospace and high level development where his talents are still actually useful, not working for iD to help them develop another FPS engine. He has nothing left to give gaming unless you want to get into completely new technologies that might also be used for gaming (like virtual reality systems aka what he's actually moving on to). I'm sure he knows this too, which is exactly why he made the move.

You have no clue what you're talking about.

http://www.twitch.tv/bethesda/c/2685811

Watch that. If you think that he has nothing left to contribute to gaming after watching one of his keynotes, then perhaps you should replace him.

 

[Juddog]

You have no clue what you're talking about.

http://www.twitch.tv/bethesda/c/2685811

Watch that. If you think that he has nothing left to contribute to gaming after watching one of his keynotes, then perhaps you should replace him.

It's the usual internet "this guy sux" type mentality, when the poster can't do anything remotely as good as the person they're putting down. Haters gonna hate.

 

[clok1966]

Always amusing to read these kind of threads where the posters are in a rush to bury the older generation. While I haven't really followed Carmack that much, to say he or the company he founded is irrelevant is pretty funny. The impact they make may not be directly obvious to the end user, but they influence and help drive tech. Too many people are judging id software by the game, and not the engine. None of their games have been strong, but man have their engines been on point.

agreed, far to many dont understand how it works.. Rage was not a HUGE success like earlier games, but many of the things done in that engine have been discussed, copied, re-enginered into games other make.. A way to understand JC is to talk to people making game engines. They all listen and examine his work (even Rage). The games he makes are no longer big sellers, the tech he makes still is used everywhere, copied everywhere.. etc.. even the RAGE stuff. He is still a leader, not a copier, follower, ME TOO guy.. like 99% of the industry.. the difference is 99 of that industry is riding the coattails of the genre he helped create.. the FPS.. The other difference is he make excellent engines.. not the games that are painted on them.. that's the Rest of id. Blaming RAGE's lackluster story, and gameplay on him is pretty far fetched.. the engine (other then an admitted early release before several texture bugs where fixed (using a new process that some others are copying).. hazzard of being bought) was pretty damn cool..and can do stuff that is amazing. The Engine is good, the game.. not so much (i kinda liked all but the racing parts myslef).

 

[clok1966]

Now we just need to incorporate Occulus Rift with an XBOX Kinect for the perfect video game experience!

What? they have that crappy projector thing, that not going to work on dark wall with anything in front of them or on them.. why would they want a true immersion device when they can fake it with more $100 addons that will only work with white empty rooms (remember when kinect only worked in 5 foot by 5 foot areas?) they charge $300 for? beside.. Kinect only has dance games that are supposedly fun ( i know I dont play any of my kinect titles.. the mech game (SB) had such promise and was a monumental turd).. wont that headset fall off dancing around like that?

and relax.. im just giving it some flack...

 

[cmdrdredd]

It's the usual internet "this guy sux" type mentality, when the poster can't do anything remotely as good as the person they're putting down. Haters gonna hate.

No it's called this guy's product had sucked for over a decade.

 

[cmdrdredd]

id as a company is irrelevant today, but John Carmack as a programmer is still the stuff of legend. If you're a developer even slightly interested in gaming, Carmack is as close to a god as you can get in the industry. Sure, the rest of the team is awful, but that isn't his fault.

He is literally a rocket scientist in his spare time.

Read my first comment. He is a genius but in terms of gaming...there and thousands of people who make better stuff.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I actually think this is great. Hopefully he can help push Oculus to get the damn thing out sometime soon. Supposedly the big hangup now is they're waiting for software support, and Carmack should help out a lot with that.

I'm still shocked Microsoft or Sony didn't buy Oculus and make it a focus of their system.

I also think that this is good for id software as I have a hunch the old guard and the new bosses and modern game development might have been causing issues. Carmack himself has said he's really not great at game design, so let him deal with technical issues and leave the rest to others. Hearing his keynotes, he definitely still knows his stuff, I actually wondered how id could be in the position they're in with him still there.

 

[Skel]

No it's called this guy's product had sucked for over a decade.

You really should define what you think his product is. As some of us believe him to be a engine designer, not a game level/story maker.

 

[Mandres]

I'm still shocked Microsoft or Sony didn't buy Oculus and make it a focus of their system.

So am I. This is potentially the most exciting new development in gaming since the invention of 3d engines (not surprising Carmack had a hand in both).

 

[smackababy]

So am I. This is potentially the most exciting new development in gaming since the invention of 3d engines (not surprising Carmack had a hand in both).

Eh, VR has been around for quite awhile and has always been pretty poorly implemented. MS and Sony wouldn't risk buying into a fringe technology that has no real model behind it. Even for their motion stuff, it wasn't until the Wii and Nintendo proved it could sell did they even start putting any real investment into it. It paid for greatly for MS (the Kinect sold 24 million units, which is unheard of for a console peripheral).

If Oculus gets the software support and isn't clunky, Virtual Boy garbage that burns your retinas, we might see console versions / integration.

 

[blackened23]

You really should define what you think his product is. As some of us believe him to be a engine designer, not a game level/story maker.

Well he needs to quit his dayjob at ID because the rage engine (id tech 5) was truly awful. His prior engines pushed the limits of graphical possibilities. ID tech 5 has moments which makes it look far worse than doom 3.

We get it. He's a smart guy. Blah blah blah whatever. Who cares. He needs to apply that genius to something that is interesting to him, because clearly gaming isn't - he has lost his passion for gaming and just needs to QUIT before he ruins ID's legacy for good - id used to be the best, bar none. Those days are done. The passion is gone.

 

[dougp]

Well he needs to quit his dayjob at ID because the rage engine (id tech 5) was truly awful. His prior engines pushed the limits of graphical possibilities. ID tech 5 has moments which makes it look far worse than doom 3.

We get it. He's a smart guy. Blah blah blah whatever. Who cares. He needs to apply that genius to something that is interesting to him, because clearly gaming isn't - he has lost his passion for gaming and just needs to QUIT before he ruins ID's legacy for good - id used to be the best, bar none. Those days are done. The passion is gone.

Watch the video I linked and let me know if you think his passion is gone.

id is not what it was prior to Bethesda and Zenimax buying them. And if you think Tech 5 is bad, then you haven't played it since last year's patch. All of the texture issues and such are gone.

 

[KeithP]

Shocking News: People are still avid Carmack followers?

I haven't heard that name tied to any groundbreaking or even mildly successful or interesting events in gaming since... Quake 2.

Basically what I was thinking as well. Outside of managing to develop a game engine(s) that Id was able to license, I see nothing about his skillset that suggests we would be an asset to have helping to run a company.

-KeithP

 

[cmdrdredd]

You really should define what you think his product is. As some of us believe him to be a engine designer, not a game level/story maker.

Anything I can pay money at the store for that he personally had a hand in producing, writing, coding, creating, or otherwise manufacturing. Quit playing the word games and run around, it's a bit ridiculous.

Watch the video I linked and let me know if you think his passion is gone.

id is not what it was prior to Bethesda and Zenimax buying them. And if you think Tech 5 is bad, then you haven't played it since last year's patch. All of the texture issues and such are gone.

They are? So the phones and papers on the office desk don't look like mud anymore when you walk up to them? Oh right...nothing has changed. Sure the game runs now and won't crash and give you blue splotches where textures should be but they all look like total crap. Other than another derivative and quite boring shooter with a vehicle gimmick, there are no end products from that game engine.

 

[dougp]

Anything I can pay money at the store for that he personally had a hand in producing, writing, coding, creating, or otherwise manufacturing. Quit playing the word games and run around, it's a bit ridiculous.

They are? So the phones and papers on the office desk don't look like mud anymore when you walk up to them? Oh right...nothing has changed. Sure the game runs now and won't crash and give you blue splotches where textures should be but they all look like total crap. Other than another derivative and quite boring shooter with a vehicle gimmick, there are no end products from that game engine.

You sound like a bitter, self-entitled douche.

No personal attacks, please. -Admin DrPizza

 

[Red Hawk]

The engine for rage is terrible. Even gamebryo has better textures. Don't sugar coat it. Their games have sucked and their engine sucked. Look at the revised frostbite, cry engine 3, and ue4 engines and then look at rage. If you can't see the difference you must be blind. I don't care that he is asked about hardware, I am a gamer and until he makes a product worth something again, I don't care.

The whole megatexturing system in idtech 5 was pretty groundbreaking in making detailed distant textures at low performance cost, though at the price of low detail textures up close. A similar system is being adopted in DirectX 11.2 and may see wide use in next gen games, presumably with better textures up close since the hardware will have more memory. Rage also used an interesting resolution adjuster on consoles -- it actually changed the resolution to keep the framerate around 60 FPS, so you could get a balance of high detail and smooth gameplay. For what they were targeting -- current generation consoles -- the way the technology was implemented in Rage was pretty brilliant.

The problems Rage had were that, for all its advancements in the console space, it was still essentially just a console port on PC, and the compromises that were made on consoles with textures up close carried over to PC when they didn't have to. I don't think this was a problem with the engine -- texture detail really only depends on having the artists take the time to make them and the programmers putting them in, not the actual capabilities of the engine. Then there was the whole clusterfnck of the launch with AMD putting up the wrong OpenGL drivers, the game itself being buggy, not having any detail control options, etc., that gave PC gamers a very bad first impression.

UE4, Cryengine 3, and Frostbite 3 are all next-generation aimed engines with support for advanced effects and games that show the effects off. Of course they look better than Rage does. But that doesn't mean Rage's engine is bad at its core -- there is merit to working efficiently and optimizing with limited resources, not just taking as much resources as you want to do whatever without caring too much for optimization.

Shocking News: People are still avid Carmack followers?

I haven't heard that name tied to any groundbreaking or even mildly successful or interesting events in gaming since... Quake 2. Guys like Carmack had their time to shine in the 90's, and shine they did, but gaming has grown and the industry talent has grown to match. Thats not to say that they aren't talented in their own right, but these names mean less and less every single day. Just because he did some really awesome stuff back then doesn't mean he's inherently going to keep pooping out industry gems for all eternity.

I hope he finds great success on the Oculus team, maybe his talents will help bring some cool stuff to the project. It's definitely time for him to move on from iD and trying to make yet another FPS.

Doom 3 had some pretty groundbreaking lighting effects IIRC.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You sound like a bitter, self-entitled douche.

No, i'm a consumer and as a consumer I have this thing called choice. We don't live in soviet russia where product chooses you.

I don't worship programmers...I play the end products they make. If I think they suck I'll say so.

 

[dougp]

No, i'm a consumer and as a consumer I have this thing called choice. We don't live in soviet russia where product chooses you.

I don't worship programmers...I play the end products they make. If I think they suck I'll say so.

Let me know when Carmack actually develops a game you've played.

Again, all he does is create the technology behind the games id produces. He isn't a producer, and never has been. From the ground breaking work he did on Commander Keen, Wolf3D, Doom, Quake, etc. - all of that has been because he wants to push the technological boundaries. Watch his keynotes, and you'll learn that he strives to push the industry. His keynote last Thursday involved him speculating that we'll see ray-tracing in the next few years. The industry values him, and knows what he provides - the fact that both the hardware industry and gaming industry both lean on him for his opinion means a lot more than your "choice."

This guy isn't Romero, he doesn't go out of his way to get you to notice him and give you a reason to dislike him.