John Carmack Joins Oculus VR

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According to this report, John Carmack is now a full time employee at Oculus Rift while still being full time employed by Bethesda. Ummm, say what?!? If you ask me, there's definitely something going on behind the scenes here. :eek:

Bethesda tells them: "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected." This has a certain vagueness to it, and Oculus VR's announcement states "John will be working from the new Oculus Dallas office that we’re opening soon." When pressed, Bethesda told GamesIndustry International that he "will spend time working out of Oculus as part of his role with them, but he will also continue to work at id."
 
He probably doesn't have much to do at id technology wise. They're not building any new engines.

This way Bethesda gets a strong connection at Oculus VR. It's like a marriage between royal families to form diplomatic ties.
 
Until 4K becomes more firmly entrenched I don't think there will be a big new graphics push in the industry (especially since most companies need to maintain compatibility with consoles) so this is probably a good move for him ... he brings a big name to the Oculus Rift project and can help them make sure that they have all the tech pieces in place to succeed in a very competitive market ;)
 
He sure spent a lot of time pimping it out.
Now say goodbye to zenimax next year and start making tech for better games. I'd perfectly happy with rebranded id gameplay. Don't care for names
 
If the guy is moving hes not actually working for ID in the same capacity anymore so its just in name. He had I bet a more advisory (come in once a week) type position anyway im sure, guy has put in his dues.
 
Good for him. I hope he helps make OR the great leap forward in virtual reality that it deserves to be.

(also - wheres my freaking consumer version god damnit!)
 
Fine with me. He doesn't really do game development anymore , he seems much more interested in aeronautics and the VR tech then he does making a solid video game.

Frankly while I respect the man I do not think he should develop games anymore. Based on how he treated PC gamers during the Rage launch he's basically abandoned the very gaming community that provided his fame and fortune (a common process it seems) and turned on it in one form or another.

Personally after trying out the Oculus Rift I am not impressed. Its low def and headache inducing and vomit inducing effects after more than 15 minutes of usage basically rule out its benefits for me. If Carmack thinks tons of people will shell out for the Oculus , for 3D in general maybe he should ask the entire 3D industry how its doing right now..
 
He might be able to do some good in this arena, since his heart is obviously not in staying with game production.
 
I don't get why people keep blaming Carmack for Rage's development or issue. He's not a game developer.

This move is good for both Oculus and the game industry.
 
Fine with me. He doesn't really do game development anymore , he seems much more interested in aeronautics and the VR tech then he does making a solid video game.

Frankly while I respect the man I do not think he should develop games anymore. Based on how he treated PC gamers during the Rage launch he's basically abandoned the very gaming community that provided his fame and fortune (a common process it seems) and turned on it in one form or another.

Personally after trying out the Oculus Rift I am not impressed. Its low def and headache inducing and vomit inducing effects after more than 15 minutes of usage basically rule out its benefits for me. If Carmack thinks tons of people will shell out for the Oculus , for 3D in general maybe he should ask the entire 3D industry how its doing right now..

Barfing your opinion around when it's not relevant much?
(A) He's not really in video game development any more

(B) He messed up big time, acknowledged it, and apologized for it. I can only assume that by "By the way he treated PC gamers during the rage launch" you mean "He didn't put PC gamers at the forefront and I'm still pissed about it." I know I wouldn't want to try managing the development of a game and co-coordinating hundreds of people on a deadline and I'm pretty sure that I'd mess it up. Fuck him right!?! He changed the face of gaming and then he messed up once! That totally discredits him for the rest of his life, obviously.

(C) The only Oculus Rift available at this point is the low definition version and it's a freaking developers kit. You're whining and crying about technology that is not meant for consumer release and does not have the resolution that the consumer product is going to have. There's been one event in Melbourne, Australia where the public got to try out the high definition version and unless you work for Oculus, in which case you should be fired, or went to that event and tried it, you opinion of the tech is outdated and irrelevant.

This is an opportunity to bring a great 3-d gaming experience to the public at a reasonable price and I hope to hell they succeed, regardless of what armchair technologists amateur reviewers think about a pre-release version of a product.
 
Why does anyone care about this occulus crap anyway?
As soon as they release it they will start talking about a "hi-res" version and then first adopters will be facepalming their heads off.
 
I had no idea there was any animosity towards him. Then again I wasn't fool enough to pre order or even buy rage. I'm assuming this is the main complaint. I listened to his ramblings a few days ago and he seemed really in touch with the technology and what should be most heavily pursued. The ideas he shared during the conference seemed very interesting.

I'm a big fan of VR and hope it continues to grow.
 
Why does anyone care about this occulus crap anyway?
As soon as they release it they will start talking about a "hi-res" version and then first adopters will be facepalming their heads off.

Um ... doesn't all technology operate that way ... you release a basic version to launch and then you enhance it in subsequent launches ... processors will always be faster next year than this year, monitors will have more pixels and faster refreshes, phones will have different features ... that is why most new technologies are asymptotic with a steep curve for the first few years or generations and then flattening out over time ;)
 
Why does anyone care about this occulus crap anyway?
As soon as they release it they will start talking about a "hi-res" version and then first adopters will be facepalming their heads off.

Why not wait 15 years until we have real holodecks? Well, because we can't get there if nobody invests in these things now.
 
Why does anyone care about this occulus crap anyway?
As soon as they release it they will start talking about a "hi-res" version and then first adopters will be facepalming their heads off.

Why are you care for hardware? Soon after release, people talk about the future iterations that frequently make large leaps in performance. Regardless, the actual consumer version is already going to be HD, and I have no issues with my dev kit, because I ordered it for what it was.
 
I'm okay with this. A has-been programmer is going to continue to ignore his basically dead 3D shooter company to work for Kickstarter thieves making a silly niche product and a more popular gaming studio that's made crappy CRPGs for decades and is throwing away what little reputation it has on a generic MMO on the waning side of MMO popularity. Can someone make some popcorn for us so we have something to noms on while we watch all these trains crash?
 
Why does anyone care about this occulus crap anyway?
What's with all the negativity here??? I have the Dev Kit and to be quite blunt, it BLEW ME AWAY. Seriously, this is the coolest tech I've seen since 3dfx cards shipped in the 1990s. After spending a few hours in HL2 with the Rift + Hydra, I don't really see 2D monitor and M&K as being a de facto standard for I/O anymore. :D
 
What's with all the negativity here??? I have the Dev Kit and to be quite blunt, it BLEW ME AWAY. Seriously, this is the coolest tech I've seen since 3dfx cards shipped in the 1990s. After spending a few hours in HL2 with the Rift + Hydra, I don't really see 2D monitor and M&K as being a de facto standard for I/O anymore. :D

It's because you're a nerd (not intended as insulting in this case) and gadgets get you excited. On the other hand, you're one of only a few people on the planet who might be intersted. Normal people are going to look at the Rift and say, "I wouldn't wear something that ugly if I was getting paid to use it," or they'll ask, "How does this make Facebook or Twitter posts better and can it work with my iPad or phone and what about while I'm driving?" to which the answers are pretty obvious. The lack of fashion and the lack of usefulness in non-gaming scenarios that account for the majority of computing activity make it pretty much not relevant in the technology industry.
 
Kickstarter thieves making a silly niche product

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

This has got to be the most asinine thing I've ever read at [H]. How on earth is Oculus VR a Kickstarter thief? They created a product on Kickstarter and sold it. I bought their product on Kickstater, I received it in the mail, and guess what... I ***LOVE*** it. :cool:

And it's not a niche product. Valve Software is natively porting HL2 and Portal to the Rift with the Source SDK 2013. And in 2014, Project CARS, The Gallery: Six Elements, Star Citizen, and Among the Sleep are shipping with native Rift support. The Rift is the future bro, have fun getting left behind in the dust.
 
Normal people are going to look at the Rift and say, "I wouldn't wear something that ugly if I was getting paid to use it," or they'll ask, "How does this make Facebook or Twitter posts better and can it work with my iPad or phone and what about while I'm driving?" to which the answers are pretty obvious. The lack of fashion and the lack of usefulness in non-gaming scenarios that account for the majority of computing activity make it pretty much not relevant in the technology industry.
I demoed it for my aunt and uncle, along with my grandma and they LOVED it.
 
I have a dev kit and am looking forward to getting the consumer version when it comes out. I'll also upgrade every time they come out with a newer version with significant upgrades. Their price point is right around what I spend on a GPU or other major system component and I'm used to buying another one of those each new generation, so why should this be any different?

I guess I realized earlier than most that id wasn't doing much new with games around doom3 and was just pushing new engines out and not innovating on anything else. (Hello Quake4)

Carmack will be a great addition to their team and seemed to have been helping out anyhow, now he can devote a lot more time to it.
 
I demoed it for my aunt and uncle, along with my grandma and they LOVED it.

Of course. They were being nice because you're excited about something. Relatives should be supportive in that manner. It's unlikely, unless they play games quite a bit, that they'd actually buy one for themselves because it has no purpose to them if they don't.
 
Barfing your opinion around when it's not relevant much?
(A) He's not really in video game development any more

(B) He messed up big time, acknowledged it, and apologized for it. I can only assume that by "By the way he treated PC gamers during the rage launch" you mean "He didn't put PC gamers at the forefront and I'm still pissed about it." I know I wouldn't want to try managing the development of a game and co-coordinating hundreds of people on a deadline and I'm pretty sure that I'd mess it up. Fuck him right!?! He changed the face of gaming and then he messed up once! That totally discredits him for the rest of his life, obviously.

(C) The only Oculus Rift available at this point is the low definition version and it's a freaking developers kit. You're whining and crying about technology that is not meant for consumer release and does not have the resolution that the consumer product is going to have. There's been one event in Melbourne, Australia where the public got to try out the high definition version and unless you work for Oculus, in which case you should be fired, or went to that event and tried it, you opinion of the tech is outdated and irrelevant.

This is an opportunity to bring a great 3-d gaming experience to the public at a reasonable price and I hope to hell they succeed, regardless of what armchair technologists amateur reviewers think about a pre-release version of a product.

Sigh.. and apologist. Not worth it.
 
The Rift needs a name to go with it for the media and to build hype. Good job all around.

Can't wait for the consumer version.
 
It's because you're a nerd (not intended as insulting in this case) and gadgets get you excited. On the other hand, you're one of only a few people on the planet who might be intersted. Normal people are going to look at the Rift and say, "I wouldn't wear something that ugly if I was getting paid to use it," or they'll ask, "How does this make Facebook or Twitter posts better and can it work with my iPad or phone and what about while I'm driving?" to which the answers are pretty obvious. The lack of fashion and the lack of usefulness in non-gaming scenarios that account for the majority of computing activity make it pretty much not relevant in the technology industry.

In the car, really? REALLY? This isn't Google glass, you're not going out in public with it on. Huge HD flatscreens seem pretty popular with normal people and they don't do jack for Facebook or Twitter either. A better comparison would be to a game console, which normal people also buy, and I think it beats the crap out of those.
 
In the car, really? REALLY? This isn't Google glass, you're not going out in public with it on. Huge HD flatscreens seem pretty popular with normal people and they don't do jack for Facebook or Twitter either. A better comparison would be to a game console, which normal people also buy, and I think it beats the crap out of those.

In the car would be great. You could see the government mandated backup camera, side and rearview mirrors all at the same time if it integrated with your car OS.
 
The lack of fashion and the lack of usefulness in non-gaming scenarios that account for the majority of computing activity make it pretty much not relevant in the technology industry.
Tactical Haptics has been working on a haptic feedback controller for the Rift and hopes to market it to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for VR medical simulations. So yeah, it's going to be pretty relevant in the very near future across the entire technology industry.
 
It's because you're a nerd (not intended as insulting in this case) and gadgets get you excited. On the other hand, you're one of only a few people on the planet who might be intersted. Normal people are going to look at the Rift and say, "I wouldn't wear something that ugly if I was getting paid to use it," or they'll ask, "How does this make Facebook or Twitter posts better and can it work with my iPad or phone and what about while I'm driving?" to which the answers are pretty obvious. The lack of fashion and the lack of usefulness in non-gaming scenarios that account for the majority of computing activity make it pretty much not relevant in the technology industry.

I wouldn't worry about the fashion element ... how many millions of people wear these

bicycle-helmet.jpg


Bicycle helmets aren't the most stylish things in the world usually (and they can be expensive as heck) ... if people can wear those they can wear an OR ... besides, OR will be all about the software (which Carmack can help them make sure they have SDKs to help facilitate lots of useful and interactive programs) ... as Field of Dreams said, "If you build it, THEY will come" :cool:
 
I like how John Carmack can talk for three hours at Quakecon.
 
Wow....lot of animosity going around on Carmack. I wouldn't call him a "has been programmer" - the guy developed some of the best game engines of all time.

I would predict he's going to help take the rift to the next level.
 
I wouldn't worry about the fashion element ... how many millions of people wear these

bicycle-helmet.jpg

Every time I hit the slopes or hit the trails.

Bunch of fucking whiners here. Probably more than half of you didn't even build your own rig.

Doom 3. Still fucking awesome.
 
Love Carmack. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next. Like it or not he is the face of PC gaming.


Doom 4 on Oculus Rift anyone?

:eek:I know guys I'm scared too:eek:
 
Wow, first Todd Hollenshead and now John Carmack. I demoed the Rift at Quakecon last year, was amazing. I figured it would be some gimmick until I actually put it on, blew my mind. I'm really looking forward to the consumer release of this. Also, I'm excited to to hear that Carmack is going to be their CTO, it just makes sense. Hes always been really enthusiastic about the project.
 
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