
Using Binary Space Partitioning in Doom - pkilgore
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/12/how-much-of-a-genius-level-move-was-using-binary-space-partitioning-in-doom/
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bluedino
Here's a BSP tool - the originals for Doom were both in Objective-C and big-
endian, so third party tools were used when the community made level editing
tools

[http://games.moria.org.uk/games/doom/bsp/](http://games.moria.org.uk/games/doom/bsp/)

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theothermkn
> That story about Carmack applying cutting-edge academic research to video
> games has always impressed me.... He deserves to be known as the archetypal
> genius video game programmer for all sorts of reasons, but this episode with
> the academic papers and the binary space partitioning is the justification I
> think of first.

I'm not throwing shade on Carmack when I say that the reason the author states
seems to me to be evidence, taken alone, of the exact opposite of the case
that Carmack is "the archetypal genius video game programmer." Or, if it is,
then it impugns the profession of video game programming, because, in most
_real_ engineering fields, a literature review is the _first_ step, not the
desperate measure taken after "creativity" has been exhausted. It seems to me
that a better case can immediately be made that the originators of the
technique are the real geniuses, having come up with the idea, and Carmack
just adopted it. Geniuses create; the rest of us adopt, right?

Again, don't get me wrong: Carmack could program circles around me. (Or
ellipses, or pentagons, or particle clouds, or fractals, or...) But affirming
the consequent doesn't make him "a genius." He may or may not be, for other
reasons, but 'applying a known technique' just can't be one of them.

~~~
oscargrouch
You are forgetting a important detail here. If BSP was already succesfully
used in games by a pioneer, you would be right. The question is, to recognize
an algorithm and apply it, with the proper changes to a novel field, being the
first to recognize this, in my experience at least, is not for the average
intelligence.

We all have trouble with tagging someone a "genius", because its not clear
what this is, or if we are using this too much and in a wrong way (and i think
we do)

But i also need to remind you about the early nineties, and how hard was to
get into information, papers and research, compared to now. Also the
limitation of the computers back then forcing people like Carmack to use very
clever algorithms to thrive. We always need to take the context people were in
to properly estimate this kind of things.

By the way, he did not just solved that, but a lot of other hard problems with
different, successful outcomes.. So its not just because of the BSP he have
this level of recognition.

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egosoftware
Once again Seth Teller (rip) gets slighted in the name of mythbuilding around
Id Software and Carmack -- zero mentions in Masters of Doom, zero mentions
here (at least some prior art was mentioned, progress I suppose). Perhaps the
2020s will be ready for a measured history of programming without all the
Great Men gloating.

~~~
exlurker
It's nice if you could link us a good article on the guy, I'd love to read it.

