John Carmack Joins Oculus VR as Chief Technology Officer

[MacRumors]

Oculus VR, the company behind the highly anticipated virtual reality gaming headset Oculus Rift, has announced that legendary game programmer John Carmack is joining the team as Chief Technology Officer. Carmack co-founded id Software, where he has led development of a number of popular gaming franchises, including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. He will remain with id Software, although Oculus will be his primary focus for the time being.

John put together a short note for the Oculus community:

"I have fond memories of the development work that led to a lot of great things in modern gaming - the intensity of the first person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods, and so on. Duct taping a strap and hot gluing sensors onto Palmer's early prototype Rift and writing the code to drive it ranks right up there. Now is a special time. I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer. The paradigms that everyone will take for granted in the future are being figured out today; probably by people reading this message. It's certainly not there yet. There is a lot more work to do, and there are problems we don't even know about that will need to be solved, but I am eager to work on them. It's going to be awesome!"

Oculus Rift raised nearly $2.5 million in a Kickstarter campaign ending last September, with the company delivering thousands of prototype headsets to developers to help them build games for the system. A consumer launch for the headset is rumored for next year, although the company has refrained from committing to a specific timeline.

While some have suspected that console gaming might be an area of interest for Oculus, the company indicates that beyond PC gaming it is also focusing on mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, with the rapid pace of innovation in mobile serving as a distinct draw compared to the much longer development cycles on console platforms.

Article Link: John Carmack Joins Oculus VR as Chief Technology Officer

 

[chrmjenkins]

Carmack was the co-founder of id Software and led development of a number of popular gaming franchises, including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake

Is. He's still with Id.

 

[khirok]

Is. He's still with Id.

According to wikipedia he has left Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

 

[Jo Bot]

It's cool to see someone who's been in the business as long as Carmack still gets inspired by new technologies. Go make some great stuff!

 

[snebes]

According to wikipedia he has left Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

I wouldn't take Wikipedia as fact.

 

[Millah]

According to wikipedia he has left Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

And if you investigate the citation on Wikipedia for that, the source article has been updated stating "John Carmack will remain at id"

Just because something is on Wikipedia doesn't make it correct

 

[CReimer]

I wouldn't take Wikipedia as fact.

A grain of salt should do the trick.

 

[Dookieman]

According to wikipedia he has left Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

You can watch newest Quakecon video with him, released 3 days ago, he mentions multiple times about projects he is working on at id.

 

[bpcookson]

This is great news for the Oculus. Very promising.

 

[nagromme]

Can't wait for the consumer version with positional tracking and extra detail. I've been waiting for this kind of gaming (and even art) experience most of my life! YouTube reactions make me jealous--but I should have the chance to try a Rift for myself next week.

The long-term future of VR, as Oculus has said, will be connecting these to future, more-powerful smartphones, not to bulky PCs. And that means, Apple, get rid of the video-out lag! (Faster encoding/decoding chips?)

(Also, John: Doom 3 BFG Edition with Rift support on the Mac App Store please )

 

[thekingofnerds]

You can watch newest Quakecon video with him, released 3 days ago, he mentions multiple times about projects he is working on at id.

Could be like a Bill Gates situation. He "left" his daily duties, but is such an important figure he is still involved in projects and consults them.

According to wikipedia he has left Id.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

I don't even see where it says he left. Everything still says he is there?

"On August 7, 2013, Carmack joined Oculus VR as their CTO, while still contributing to id Software"

 

[macs4nw]

With the received encouragement and support from the dev community, this product has an excellent chance to catch on. Intended mostly for indoor/at-home use, obviously. I definitely think it has a future.

 

[0098386]

I'd love to be a part-time worker at 2 established companies!

I like my Rift and can't wait to see what they do with a retail unit. It's amazing tech.

 

[WildCowboy]

Is. He's still with Id.

I meant "was" from the perspective that he co-founded it many years ago.

But I updated to make it clear that he will remain with id...thanks.

 

[Mr Rabbit]

Guess that answer the "But can it play Doom?" question...

 

[PeterQVenkman]

So, can people use it with glasses now?

 

[lupinglade]

Oculus has stated their current #1 support goal is PC gaming, #2 mobile devices. They did not say their focus is console gaming as this article states.

 

[mdelvecchio]

I wouldn't take Wikipedia as fact.

regardless Carmack tweeted he's over half his time at Occulus now. that's closer to be FT at Occ than id. I'd imagine contractual obligations to the new corporate owner of id are a factor.

 

[kbfr08]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this dude looks a lot like alton brown in that photo

 

[dazed]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this dude looks a lot like alton brown in that photo

Lol. You're not alone.

 

[infinitech]

Lol. You're not alone.

If you were dazed, I was confused.

 

[the8thark]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this dude looks a lot like alton brown in that photo

Once you said that I took another look and they both do look kinda alike.