Man who's smarter than you changes jobs

june gloom on 23/11/2013 at 21:33

(http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/22/seismic-john-carmack-officially-leaves-id-software/) John Carmack leaves id Software to work on Oculus Rift.

This is totally within character for him. It's never been about the games, strictly, for him -- games just presented an interesting programming challenge. But at this point there really isn't a lot to do anymore, and he's been getting into the hardware end of things.

SubJeff on 23/11/2013 at 23:24

Well it looks like it's got potential. Good luck to him. I hope they take this tech to the limit.

Renault on 23/11/2013 at 23:31

I know someday it will be commonplace, and I embrace the tech in concept, but I still don't look forward to sitting in a dark room with a giant mask strapped across my face. :(

june gloom on 24/11/2013 at 00:29

Whereas I find that hot. mmmmm

Renzatic on 24/11/2013 at 03:24

Only if he's wearing an Indian chief headdress...

...and a ballgag.

demagogue on 24/11/2013 at 04:02

I don't blame him. FPS tech has been pushed far enough, and he wants to stay on the cutting edge of what's actually going to make waves in the future. And I'd rather him there than anybody else.

I'm also hoping in a few years it can start scaling down so it'd be more reasonably sized, like a regular lightweight diving mask & headphones for the same experience.

And then the augmented reality starts up, and our world will never be the same again...

icemann on 24/11/2013 at 04:15

Shame he could never completely fix the texture tearing bug in Rage for PC. Only id game that was not up to par, from a programming perspective.

Anyways, I hope he can do good for the Rift.

henke on 25/11/2013 at 07:22

Yeah, with the RAGE engine it felt like his heart wasn't in it anymore. Luckily from the OR videos I've seen with him he seems super-excited about the tech. This will lead to good things, I feel. :)

demagogue on 25/11/2013 at 09:47

I remember a quote where he said something like the idTech5 / Rage engine was in some ways a step backwards from idT4, or at least not as elegant & cohesive in design -- of course it's an objectively more powerful engine, but in the sense of reverting back to lighting hacks and bloat when idT4 had sleek unified lighting system, and the needs of the games were overtaking the needs for innovation in the engines or something like that. Quotes like that made me think that FPS engines were at a stage where he wasn't going to be making breakthroughs like the good old days.

Volitions Advocate on 25/11/2013 at 10:07

That and a horde of angry PC gamers filling his inbox with youtube comment style hate mail and "quitting" id games forever probably didn't do much to bolster his faith in much of anything that had to do with his job. Add the zenimax buyout which made him not-his-own-boss for the first time in 20 years, and it would be pretty logical to leave and hook into something else he really loves.