
John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO - salgernon
http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-cto/
======
angersock
So, let me say this much: Fuck. Yes.

Quake 3 had stereoscopic rendering in the source back before anybody really
cared, and Carmack has had long involvement both in consumer 3D graphics as
well as vendor relations.

Long-short is that if you look at the code the dude has shipped, he really
cares about things being both technically correct and worth hacking on. This
is a really good move, and if they end up picking Mike Abrash I'll be
unsurprised.

~~~
mistercow
From his blog, Abrash seems to be much more interested in AR than VR, and
seems to lean toward VR being a parallel (but mutually supportive) path to AR,
rather than a step along the way.

Also, I think Newell might offer Abrash the entire company before he lets him
slip away from Valve.

~~~
themstheones
What's AR?

~~~
daraul
Augmented Reality. For a good example of current projects representing each
field:

Virtual Reality - Oculus Rift

Augmented Reality - Google Glass

AR sits on top of/alongside the real world, where VR tries to replace it.

~~~
sbarre
I'm not sure I'd call Google Glass "AR".

It's just a small screen in your vision, it doesn't analyze or enhance your
existing viewpoint in any way (unless I am mistaken).

Cast AR is a better example:

[http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/cast-ar-hands-on-with-
jer...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/cast-ar-hands-on-with-jeri-
ellsworth-at-maker-faire-2013/)

~~~
mistercow
Google Glass could be called a kind of "proto-AR". It could certainly be a
first (significant) step toward real AR.

~~~
untog
Not really. In terms of AR, Google Glass is doing absolutely nothing new, so
it wouldn't be the first.

~~~
lightbritefight
Nothing new by default, but its opening up a lot of hardware potential. Its
not just a screen and camera that's at eye level, its also setting new social
norms that make that acceptable. Even now, Glass isn't far from Bluetooth
levels of socially okay, which is say annoying to most but acceptable. Once it
reaches that point, I expect AR to be a focal point of development. It only
makes sense.

A simple street view overlay + wikipedia filter would be basic AR, and that
doesn't seem difficult at all. Google could monetize with virtual window ads
that businesses would buy for glass+streetview users.

~~~
themstheones
Your ad idea is stomach-turning. I see enough ads without having to subject
myself to new streams of advertisement.

Conversely I'd happily install an app that put art over billboards. It would
be nice to go to Times Square and feel like you're in the Louvre.

~~~
mistercow
>Conversely I'd happily install an app that put art over billboards. It would
be nice to go to Times Square and feel like you're in the Louvre.

That's not going to happen for the foreseeable future. See
[http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-you-wont-see-
hard-...](http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-you-wont-see-hard-ar-
anytime-soon/)

~~~
krrrh
For me it was worth reading the whole post to understand that your idea of
"forseeable future", and Abrash's idea of "a while" are really different from
mine:

> Eventually we’ll get to SF-quality hard AR, but it’ll take a while. I’d be
> surprised if it was sooner than five years, and it could easily be more than
> ten before it makes it into consumer products.

------
LandoCalrissian
John Carmack believes in the tech, and I believe in John Carmack, so I will be
getting one.

He has basically been with them since the beginning in some capacity, here is
a video of him demoing a unit at E3 2012: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-
DlWwlXHo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-DlWwlXHo)

You can see that one is still a very early prototype held together with duct
tape. It's not specifically stated, but it sounds like he will be leaving id
for this. I'm fine with that since there is only so much you can do in the
game engine world these days. Seeing him try to advance gaming and immersion
in a different way seems like it will fit him very well.

Congrats to everyone at Oculus.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
The dev kit is not yet consumer ready, but it does show a glimpse of the
future.

The (low) resolution of the screen on the dev kit is really distracting, but
more importantly we are still learning about the control schemes. Right now,
it is very hard/disorienting to play FPSs on the rift (IMNSHO).

~~~
thenomad
The solutions to this problem might be _really_ odd.

Personally, I've been testing the Wii Balance Board as a useful input device
for the Rift - and it's showing some promise.

One tester did describe my test game as "Dungeon Segway Challenge", but we're
getting there slowly...

~~~
venomsnake
Put a gun, sword into the hands of the player. Just think of the Neal
Stephenson kickstarter with Rift VR.

~~~
thenomad
That's _waaaaaaaaay_ harder than it looks.

The big problem with swords in VR is physical feedback. If I strike at you
with a saber, the saber will stop moving, sooner or later - either because you
parry, or because the resistance of your bones and muscle eventually slows the
thing down. Either way, it's a key component of a realistic swordfight.

And it's bloody difficult to do in VR. You're not just talking about force
feedback, you're talking about enough force to stop a 3 foot long piece of
metal being swung with intent by a 200lb man, with the same speed and solidity
of collision with another piece of metal - without interfering with the
movement of that metal at any other time, risking injuring the person moving
the metal, or generally screwing up.

Guns, on the other hand, are much more doable.

~~~
malandrew
Can you use gyroscopes to provide resistive force. Keep a heavy one running at
low speed in the sword in a gimble. when you are about to hit something
predictively rotate it to the correct orientation and accelerate it to high
speed. Not totally sure this would work but if there is anything that can
provide counteracting force without physical contact, a gyroscope is it.

You don't even have to make a heavy sword, the gyroscope itself could simulate
the force required to overcome the momentum of a heavy broadsword.

~~~
thenomad
Most swords aren't actually all that heavy - at least not ones designed for
combat. My backsword feels about as light in the hand as a walking stick.

Good idea - I shall store that one away for future reference...

------
nakedrobot2
Wow, what a coup!

Instant and absolute legitimacy. They are in for the long haul. This is going
to be real stuff.

As a fanatic of 360 photography and video, this is simply fantastic to see.
The oculus has the potential to challenge what we have known as TV for half a
century.

~~~
patrickk
I would have my doubts about 3D revolutionising TV, as TV makers and content
creators don't seem to be getting the reaction they'd hoped for from
consumers. A lot of 3D movies are gimmicky, and some heavyweight directors
like Christopher Nolan and Michael Scorsese have said it doesn't add anything
to the storytelling nature of movies (unlike say IMAX).

Gaming, on the other hand, will be simply amazing on the Rift, especially
first person shooters. That's one of the reasons it's so exciting to see
Carmack working on the project.

~~~
wcarss
As someone with a rift, I've experienced something really cool: Youtube videos
in rift format.

It's a way different experience than watching a 3D TV is, where you just get
that fun little bit of pop. Just like when playing a rift game, you feel as
though you're physically present in the world, and it's incredible. The thing
they're missing is the ability to move your head around in the video -- it's a
little bit disorienting to have to look where the recorder looked.

I'm aware of a few ways to marry traditional video entertainment and
videogames with rift support (there may be more):

1 - 360 degree video with free head movement 2 - Extremely linear, story-
driven games without cut-scenes 3 - Re-living movies or TV shows by being
placed within them (a la in Ready Player One)

We're very close to having 2, and 3 is very similar to that but it's in the
distance still. 1 is something we're not really doing yet, but I think it'll
be a pretty big deal when it hits. Videogame replays and streaming are already
a big deal, and they're growing fast. Being placed within them and given the
ability to look around will be _fantastic_.

~~~
corysama
As a big fan of the movie Strange Days, the effectiveness of plain-old-mpegs
to deliver recorded first-person experiences that are replayable through the
Rift was a wonderful surprise for me.

Here's my list of favorites so far:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByvt8he58U&t=1m10s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByvt8he58U&t=1m10s)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXaxVLNMIxU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXaxVLNMIxU)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zaYrd0LvI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zaYrd0LvI)

[http://vimeo.com/64769947](http://vimeo.com/64769947) NSFW

------
kayoone
Oh well, probably the best CTO you can get on this planet for a company like
this, very exciting news and makes me even more pumped for the product!

------
AndrewDucker
I've played with an Oculus VR, and I think they're amazing.

But I'm not convinced that they're ready for the mass market yet. Not because
of any failing on their part, but because I think that they need games, and
controllers, specifically designed to work with VR.

You can't use mouse/keyboard well if you can't see the mouse/keyboard. UIs
that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your head
around and they stay at the bottom of your vision.

We're going to need a year or two of people producing iterations of new
interfaces before we have something that feels really smooth to the average
user.

(In the meantime they're great fun to play with.)

~~~
jasonwatkinspdx
> UIs that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your
> head around and they stay at the bottom of your vision.

I haven't used an Oculus, but just thinking about it I suspect the solution is
going to be to locate HUD elements in world space locked to the player's
position.

~~~
rje
That's what I've done to date in First Law and it works well - as I continue
to need more traditional configuration/UI stuff I am finding it a bit of a
struggle though. Like right now I'm trying to create a controller/flight stick
configuration screen and the number of choices continue to expand. Lots of
work to figure out what works well for complicated UI structures.

~~~
thenomad
Awesome work on First Law, btw. Very much enjoyed the demo, and I'm looking
forward to seeing more.

I'll probably be recommending it on
[http://www.oculusriftinfo.com](http://www.oculusriftinfo.com) tomorrow.

(For anyone else looking for Rift demos - First Law is a really excellent
demonstration of the power of the Rift for cockpit-based games. )

~~~
rje
Thanks! After getting slammed by my day job for a couple of months I'm hard at
work on the next build -- been posting screens/videos over at my website
[http://rjevans.net](http://rjevans.net) if you haven't seen them already :)

------
tehwalrus
This news gives me the shivers.

(I recently read "masters of doom" after a HN recommendation, so a couple of
months ago I'd have been like "what? who?".)

~~~
adambratt
I think I read it based off the same recommendation.

After reading that book I don't think there's any way you can come away
without seeing him as one of the top 25 programmers in the world. Mad genius
for sure.

~~~
angersock
Not so much genius as just an absurdly hardcore work-ethic, and a refusal to
ship code that is sloppy where it would matter.

~~~
kayoone
Well the things he has worked on and pioneered arent a result of just hard
work, as computer graphics is one of the most complex fields in our industry.
There is no doubt that he is a super smart guy with an unparalleled work
ethic.

------
jdavid
I think this is more evidence of how much the Oculus team owes to Andrew Scott
Reisse, the developer who was killed during a hit and run.

It might be that John Carmack was trying to help out an amazing team who lost
an amazing and talented developer.

I know the Hawken forums have been amiss with talk that more that one game is
behind schedule since they lost the integration help from Andrew.

I guess there is some there is something to say when a company needs to
replace your absence with John Carmack.

Thank you Andrew for getting VR this far.

------
citricsquid
Alternative URL: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-
rift-s...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-
into-the-game/posts/562211)

------
tanepiper
Also seems to be confirmed he's leaving id:
[http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/07/oculus-rift-john-
carmack-...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/07/oculus-rift-john-carmack-cto/)

~~~
runevault
They've updated it, now looks like he's supposedly still involved with
Bethesda/Zenimax. Which at least to me seems weird, since last I knew he did
at least a LOT of the work on any new engines himself. Hard to do that if he's
busy with being CTO of another company working on the Rift.

~~~
nknighthb
Carmack is a workaholic of legendary productivity. If there are truly 10x
programmers out there, he is undoubtedly one.

Another important point is that it's not _games_ he develops, it's _game
engines_. Other people do most of the game logic and design. Working on a 3d
display for those engines doesn't seem so far removed from that, and of
potential value to future id/ZeniMax work.

~~~
projectileboy
I remember reading his .plan files in the 90s; the amount of work he would do
in a single day was utterly insane.

------
eterm
This makes me want one. This is huge news for Oculus and I wish the team the
best.

I had a first glimpse of an Oculus watching someone use one on a Twitch stream
the other day. He was just watching a tech demo thing of a rollercoaster ride
but it was clear the tech was at or around that tipping point of interesting
vs actually fun.

~~~
angersock
We've had one at our house for a few days now--even the relatively rough
devkit delivers on the promise, in spades. The only thing it needs to is to be
completely USB powered (probably not possible given the power envelope, or at
least have a way of powering it from a battery pack for portability reasons).

People using it (we had a party recently, showed it off) do feel
disorientation, mostly due to a lack of seeing where there real body is. Our
hope is to integrate the point cloud from a kinect to help with that.

Oh, also, after a few drinks the impedance mismatch between what you're seeing
and what you're doing is imperceptible. :)

~~~
peterhajas
Actually, someone modified the Rift to run exclusively off of USB with little
effort. Google around for it.

~~~
angersock
Right, right, you can tie a second USB together and rig up something like they
do with some external drives. It'd be nice if the next devkits shipped with
something like that.

------
thenomad
For anyone who isn't familiar with the current state of progress on the Rift,
I'd recommend a look at

[http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus](http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus)

Lots of cool stuff happening.

------
Nogwater
This is good news for Oculus, but I worry about them having two locations at
such an early stage. They're going to have to work very hard to keep everyone
on the same page. Hopefully they're not going to split hardware and software
development.

~~~
wesley
I guess they could do some virtual reality meetings.

~~~
kayoone
haha, good one!

~~~
eli_gottlieb
What do you mean, "good one"? Add in some AR tech for bringing stuff from your
office, and this _is_ going to be an enterprise application.

------
InclinedPlane
I was actually just thinking recently that John Carmack was past his prime.
Or, more accurately, that he was no longer sitting in the right sweet spot in
the industry that he once was. But with this move it looks like that may
change. He's a one of a kind genius, and if there's anywhere that could see
his skills used to effect more I can't think of it.

~~~
adventured
Yeah the sweet spot (or interesting spot at least) was clearly moving. Gaming
has been stagnating for the last few game cycles (oh look, Gears of War 7).
Obviously the lack of new console hardware was holding back a jump forward in
various aspects, but that's just evolution rather than a technology
inflection.

VR of course is the inflection. Carmack will add a lot of fuel to the fire.
It's truly appropriate that he have a ground floor role in pushing this all
forward. So much better than his abilities being used for Quake N.

------
rcarmo
Carmack has been edging towards this for a while now (not Oculus, but the
concept), and I foresee great things.

OTOH, considering I played all of id's games up to Doom 3 (which I found a tad
too creepy), I hope they strike a good balance between display smoothness and
sheer unmitigated fun. I miss a good Q3A CTF.

~~~
nickstinemates
Can you imagine Q3 CTF but in VR? That thought alone makes me fear for my
future productivity.

~~~
rcarmo
Nothing beats that moment when, late in the evening, you hear someone shout
"GET THE FLAG!!!" across an open plan office.

------
WhitneyLand
What's your guess on how much equity they had to give him? I would have been
inclined to be generous.

~~~
sbarre
I don't think John Carmack is doing what he does for the money at this stage..

That said, he did say during his Quakecon keynote that he needs more "crazy
money" to put into Armadillo Aerospace, so perhaps this is his play for that
funding..

~~~
wsc981
I don't think it is. From what I understand, John Carmack has decided to put
all developments with Armadillo Aerospace on hold, until he can get more
investors (besides himself) to support this company.

------
prawn
Is the level of immersion likely coming with the Rift going to really
challenge parts of our interest in the 'real world'? Get Thalmic's MYO to the
stage where two of them are enough to replace a typical game controller, and
virtual worlds might be possible that reel us in tight with few physical
reminders that it's all not real.

As it is, games, gambling and social networks are sticky enough. I had to drag
myself away from Minecraft after trying it, thinking about how I was building
a virtual house and garden in a captivating world, while a load of household
projects went unfinished in my actual backyard.

Story- or world-driven games like Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire could be
incredible.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
read Infinite Jest by DFW. or watch the TNG episode
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Pursuits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Pursuits)

~~~
prawn
Infinite Jest sounds interesting - I've put it on my To Read list. Thanks!

------
fmax30
The best news I have heard all day.Carmack was one of the reasons I choose
computer Science .Now I will start taking Oculus rift seriously ,I always
thought of it as a niche product. Carmack will put some of his awesome in Rift
to make it more awesome.

------
deletes
Looks like the
[http://www.oculusvr.com/careers/](http://www.oculusvr.com/careers/) is
offline. It seems a lot of people want to work with John.

~~~
agentultra
Of course they would... smart people tend to want to be around people smarter
than they are.

------
adambratt
Shit just got real.

------
pearle
Wait, is he leaving id? Didn't see that clarified in the article.

~~~
justin66
He talked in his Quakecon keynote about being too uninvolved in Armadillo
because he was working at id/Bethesda. Splitting his time three ways would
only seem to exacerbate the problem.

It's been four years since id was purchased. Maybe he's just moving on.

~~~
throwit1979
_Splitting his time three ways would only seem to exacerbate the problem._

Four ways. The man has a wife and two children in whose lives he's quite
active.

I strongly suspect he's managed to obviate the need for sleep.

------
mikeevans
Google cache:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww....](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.oculusvr.com%2Fblog%2Fjohn-
carmack-joins-oculus-as-cto%2F&oq=cache%3Awww.oculusvr.com%2Fblog%2Fjohn-
carmack-joins-oculus-as-cto%2F)

------
yankcrime
Looks like his first job as CTO should be to fix the website's scalability ;)

------
doubledub
Hoping Oculus and EMOTIV Insight
([http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_br...](http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html))
consider a joint project connecting their 2 ground breakers.

That space puppy would make the technology of written language the equivalent
of banging rocks together. The possibilities of creation & control without the
limitations of writing, typing, and even learning means we could create,
build, view, and modify ideas with just thoughts... so rad it's scary.

------
DigitalSea
If there is one man in this world that can bring 3D virtual reality gaming to
the mainstream and do it right, it's John Carmack. We are talking about a guy
here with proven interest and knowledge of 3D gaming, this is massive news. I
guess given the amount of support John has given to the project, joining the
project officially makes sense to me.

Now lets see what his next move is. The gauntlet has been thrown down, lets
battle.

------
ciferkey
When I was watching Carmack's talk from Quake Con this year all I could think
was "how does this man have the time to do all of this?" The email today from
Oculus both excited and worried me though. I really hope Carmack is given the
chance to dedicate himself to the project. His tweet today was reassuring
though: "My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo. Busy busy
busy!"

------
altharaz
When I see the name of "John Carmack", it means to me "deep optimization". I
still remember of this trick
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root).

I heard that Oculus Rift had some minor delay issues. With Carmack as C.T.O.,
I do believe that everything will be solved pretty quick.

Kudos, Oculus!

------
twidlit
Wow. this is a big win for the team. Carmack can go deep and can also look at
the controls on an instinctive level since he made Doom and Quake.

------
lispython
Maybe it's really a good news for Oculus, but if anyone here feel a litter
melancholy?

Armadillo Aerospace run out of money and hibernate (2013), id Software had
been acquired by ZeniMax Media (2009), id software President Todd Hollenshead
has quit after 17 years of service (2013) and there's a long time without
really big new Game.

Now John Carmack some kind of working for another company…

------
tchock23
This is awesome news. I received my Oculus in the first batch and have had a
ton of fun playing around with it (save the occasional nausea, but that's
really game-specific).

Agree with some comments here that the Rift needs more VR-specific content,
but it's still early and with news like this I'm confident that great
VR/Oculus-specific content will emerge soon.

------
10098
I only hope that his work at Oculus will benefit id software. I really want
them to produce more successful games.

------
dynjo
I own an Oculus and even before I read this I knew it was the next big step in
gaming, now it is beyond question.

------
alx
Oculus is not HD yet in its dev version, if you want HD (like Carmack
prototype on this page), you should try Open Dive:
[http://www.durovis.com/index.html](http://www.durovis.com/index.html)

------
taternuts
Wow - now I'm _really_ interested in the Oculus and it's potential.

------
julianpye
As a big 3D and VR fan, this is the best news I have heard in a long time!

------
ZiadHilal
Incredible! Virtual reality just got that much more serious.

------
Kurtz79
First time I hear of the Oculus... somehow I can't stop thinking about the
Virtual Boy :)

Congrats, it must not be easy signing up a programming icon like Carmack.

~~~
83457
If first time hearing about it then that thought may make sense. However
Carmack is the person who launched Oculus into the media spotlight with his
demo of the Rift at E3 last year. He was following a 3d hacker/enthusiasts
forum, saw posts about a prototype Palmer Lucky created, asked if he could get
a prototype and was sent one (apparently the only one), adjusted Doom3 for it,
demoed it to media at E3 and it took off from there.

[http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carmack+e3+oculu...](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carmack+e3+oculus+rift+2012)

------
josh33
Ready Player One! - If you haven't read this, I highly recommend it.

------
RyanMcGreal
Maybe he can start by helping with their website database...

~~~
zemo
web programming is not the entirety of programming. They're making virtual
reality actually happen, and you're effectively complaining that a poster fell
down.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
Mea culpa. I was just trying to make a joke.

------
mhartl
Wow, talk about a hiring coup. Bravo!

------
andyidsinga
holy shit!

------
MrGando
Omg omg omg, lovin' it.

------
obilgic
Error establishing a database connection

------
bluedino
Saddens me to suggest that Carmack has finally 'jumped the shark'. Childhood
hero of mine and all, but id hasn't been doing much lately. He's cutting back
on funding Armadillo. Maybe he plans on retiring and taking it easy pretty
soon? He's had to have an exhausting last 20 years.

No matter how cool this Oculus product is, VR headsets are just not going to
catch on.

~~~
teach
> "VR headsets are just not going to catch on."

There are a lot of very smart people who seem to disagree with you.

~~~
bluedino
They're bulky, heavy, hold heat, and you look like a dork wearing them. Maybe
some sort of light plastic glasses like you wear for a 3D movie, if the
technology was there to put an HD image in the lenses. But nothing in it's
current state.

~~~
csbrooks
Technology tends to get miniaturized over time.

~~~
jordanthoms
And thinking about it, a VR headset is a lot less bulky than a few 30" screens
or a TV, which it could replace once the technology is good enough.

