John Carmack to work primarily on Oculus Rift

[mankrip]

John Carmack joins Oculus as chief technology officer

So long, id Software.

John Carmack has left id Software to join Oculus VR, the company making Oculus Rift.

There he will take up his new role as chief technology officer.

"The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined," commented Carmack.

"I'm extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology."

It was John Carmack who announced Oculus Rift to the world at E3 in 2012, having acquired one to work with his own passion project Doom 3: BFG Edition.

Carmack's presentation sent Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey on a rollercoaster ride of success that is still picking up speed. I caught up with Luckey recently to hear the story of how Oculus Rift, the glasses that made this 20-year-old a millionaire, came to be.

Source: Eurogamer

Unbelievable. I wonder what will be of Id Software now.

[leileilol]

HE DID NOT LEAVE ID SOFTWARE, that's just Eurogamer spin.

[mankrip]

I just found out, the actual article reads very differently from that initial quote, which I got elsewhere.

Legendary brain-box John Carmack has joined Oculus VR, the company behind Oculus Rift, as chief technology officer. He will apparently lead development from Oculus HQ in Dallas, Texas.

However, John Carmack will also remain in some capacity at the studio he co-founded in 1991, and is synonymous with, id Software.

Moments ago, Carmack tweeted: "My time division is now Oculus over id over Armadillo. Busy busy busy!"

Explained Bethesda to Eurogamer: "John will spend time working out of Oculus as part of his role with them, but he will also continue to work at id."

id Software is also based in Dallas, Texas.

Bethesda added: "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected."

id Software tweeted to say much the same thing. "Happy to say [John Carmack] is not leaving id & will continue to provide leadership for our games in development," it wrote.

Exactly how he'll divide his time between id Software and Oculus, however, remains to be seen. At least he won't have to worry about his spaceship company Armadillo Aerospace, which was put in hibernation mode only this month.

In the press release sent by Oculus, Carmack commented: "The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined. I'm extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology."

It was John Carmack who announced Oculus Rift to the world at E3 in 2012, having acquired one to experiment with VR in Doom 3: BFG Edition.

Carmack's presentation sent Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey on a rollercoaster ride of success that is still picking up speed. I caught up with Luckey recently to hear the story of how Oculus Rift, the glasses that made this 20-year-old a millionaire, came to be.

[frag.machine]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/j ... oculus-vr/

FURTHER UPDATE: By way of clarification, Carmack tweeted that "My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo [Aerospace]. Busy busy busy!"

UPDATE: An id spokesman has confirmed to Polygon that Carmack will "remain at id," but it's unclear how his role at the company will change, if at all, given his new position at Oculus. A Bethesda spokesperson told Penny Arcade Report that "the technical leadership [Carmack] provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson at Oculus has said that he has no idea how Carmack's position at id will be affected by today's news, but "I just know John is now full-time at Oculus." That would seem to preclude having a traditional, full-time role at id as well.

[scar3crow]

My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo. Busy busy busy!

It is a big change of pace to go from working on carefully engineered code for the long haul to PANICKY STARTUP CODING FOR THE NEXT DEMO.

Oculus specifying he is working full time, Bethesda acknowledging that he has office space with Oculus, and the fact that he is writing code for Oculus... This seems like a case of burning through the last few months of a contract, like Hollenshead did before he left, only Carmack found a way to move forward with something interesting to him.

I'm pretty depressed about this honestly.

[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]

wasn't Abrash let go?

blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash

Last entry is July 26th, so I believe not.
The hardware research team was dismantled and he worked closely with them, though.

[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]

oh shit.