John Carmack to work primarily on Oculus Rift

[mankrip]

[leileilol]

, that's just Eurogamer spin.

[mankrip]

[frag.machine]

[scar3crow]

[Dr. Shadowborg]

Hmmm... Upon closer inspection of Oculus Rift, I can only say that I think this is more than likely just a "working vacation" for Carmack.

Don't get me wrong, I support the idea and ideal offered by Oculus, but I can't really see anybody but the truly obsessed (or the military) with money burning a hole in their pocket to actually shell out for a $300 head mounted display especially in the current economy.

VR Devices not too different from Oculus have been built, marketed, and failed in the past. (VirtualBoy, Dactyl Attack, etc. If nothing else, they're gonna have to make it a lot cheaper, lighter, and less bulky to use. Those headbands WILL get sweaty and nasty with use. )

Something that DOES have a lot of potental yet to be explored is the old lightgun concept that somebody around here recently played around with. (Used DP and a hacked together wii-controller in a airsoft frame I think?)

[frag.machine]

Hmm I don't know, he sounds very passionated about it (which is a very odd thing coming from Carmack - when was the last time you saw him showing EMOTIONS ? ).
I believe he's very commited to the project. He's a hacker at heart and personally I think OR is a challenge up to the level of his skills.
JC always sounded kinda bored/frustrated since Bethesda assimilated id. To be fair, they (Bethesda) gave to him all autonomy he wanted, but things didn't work out as expected.
If he actually leaves the company in the foreseen future, I believe it's the end of the id brand. It would be a sad day, and the end of an era.
And who knows ? Maybe crazy things can happen, like Gabe Newell hiring him to work with Abrash in VR stuff (Valve has interest in the OR project too, so this may not be that crazy after all).

[leileilol]

wasn't Abrash let go?

[Baker]

Neat thread. A few months ago, I perceived Oculus Rift as being in "serious trouble" delivering a product on par with the expectations. Perhaps the main role for Carmack is to supervise the project to get the performance to meet the expectations? A guess. Probably a poor one ....

[frag.machine]

[scar3crow]

One can only hope nothing crazy like Carmack working for Newell never happens.

I don't really know what to make of this, other than it being a boon for Oculus Rift. There is little exciting happening in games these days anyhow.

[scar3crow]

And Matt Hooper is also at Oculus, http://www.linkedin.com/in/hoopermatt

[gnounc]

I think John Carmack can do more good for the video game industry working on the occulus team, than he can by working at id for the time being.
Once he and occulus get that bitch a goin' though, he'll be needed on the enginetech side at id
(though I suspect he'll be doing engine work for occulus support in the id engine at occulus...so its really a gray area as to who he's working for at that point).

I think this is a very good thing with very few downsides is what I'm getting at.

[scar3crow]

It is worth noting that Oculus has job postings for engine coders who specialize in Unreal and Unity, I imagine Carmack fulfills their need for engine coders familiar with idtech... Seems like they're aiming themselves at being a supporting peripheral for many engines. And that is just for jobs they still need filled, I'd wager they already have Source (even if it is still idtech), Crytek, and maybe some random other things like OGRE covered.

[leileilol]