John Carmack’s laments and regrets for Next Gen

“Just as you fully understand a previous generation, you have to put it away to surf forward on the tidal wave of technology that’s always moving”

John Carmack’s name is synonymous with the technical evolution of gaming, but the Oculus VR CTO now feels uncomfortable with the relentless progress in console hardware.

Speaking to Wired on the 20th anniversary of the release of Doom, the genre-defining FPS he co-created with Jon Romero, Carmack recalled id Software’s tendency to demand better hardware with each new release – ignoring the huge number of people with aging graphics cards to cater for the more dedicated and tech-savvy players.

With the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 now on-sale in most major territories, Carmack noted that the trend has continued, the huge audience and untapped potential of the previous generation abandoned for uncertainty and rising costs.

“The 360 and PS3 are far from tapped out in terms of what a developer could do with them, but the whole world’s gonna move over towards next-gen and high-end PCs”

“Even to this day, I struggle a little bit with that,” he said. “There’s so much you can still do on the previous console generation. The 360 and PS3 are far from tapped out in terms of what a developer could do with them, but the whole world’s gonna move over towards next-gen and high-end PCs and all these other things.

“Part of me still frets a little bit about that, where just as you fully understand a previous generation, you have to put it away to kind of surf forward on the tidal wave of technology that’s always moving. That’s something that we’ve struggled with in every generation. And now I at least know enough to recognize that some of my internal feelings or fondness for technology that I understand or have done various things with usually has to be put aside. Because data has shown over the decades that that’s usually not as important as you think it is.”

Carmack now has one clear regret from his time at id Software. In the push for technical excellence, the studio missed the opportunity to make more games, falling into a cycle where huge production cycles were the norm. Carmack would not comment the protracted development of Doom 4, but he did admit that establishing the core of the franchise so many years later is, “a heck of a lot harder than you might think.”

“The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often.

“And that was id’s mantra for so long: ‘It’ll be done when it’s done.’ And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by-if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game.”

The last year has not been kind to id Software. In April, reports surfaced that work on Doom 4 had essentially been scrapped and started again, and ZeniMax PR boss Pete Hines admitted that the original plans, “did not exhibit the quality and excitement that id and Bethesda intend to deliver.”

In June, CEO Todd Hollenshead left the company after 17 years, with Carmack officially jumping to Oculus in November after a short period where he focused the bulk of his efforts on the nascent VR technology.

John Carmack resigns from id Software

Co-founder of Doom developer severs ties in order to focus full-time on Oculus VR CTO position.

When John Carmack signed on to be the full-time chief technology officer at upstart Oculus VR, id Software parent Bethesda Softworks was quick to say the developer’s work at the Doom development studio would be unaffected. That might have been the plan, but in practice it hasn’t turned out that way. In a statement to GamesIndustry International, id studio director Tim Willits confirmed that Carmack has left the company entirely.

“John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio,” Willits said. “John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.”

Carmack offered his own comment through Twitter, saying, “I wanted to remain a technical adviser for Id, but it just didn’t work out. Probably for the best, as the divided focus was challenging.”

Carmack was an original co-founder at id Software, working there since its inception in 1991. He is the last of the original core of founders–which also included Tom Hall, John Romero, and Adrian Carmack–to leave the company. Earlier this year, the company also lost studio president Todd Hollenshead, who had been part of the company since 1996 and served as its CEO until its 2009 acquisition by Bethesda.

Oculus wasn’t Carmack’s only non-id responsibility. The developer also founded the Texas-based rocketry firm Armadillo Aerospace, but inquiries as to his current status with the company have not been returned as of press time.

 

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Good old days weren’t so good – Mark Cerny

PS4 architect says indie scene not like his start, talks about massive Atari infrastructure, making “shovelware” for Sega.

Between creating Marble Madness and helping design the PlayStation 4, Mark Cerny has seen the process of making games transform time and again over his career. And while the growing popularity of independently developed games is bringing some development team sizes back to where they were when he first started, Cerny told Game Informer the parallels between the two eras pretty much end there.

“It is absolutely not like us back in those days,” Cerny said when asked if current indie studios reminded him of his early years. “So Atari was one-person teams, or two-person teams. But because it was coin-operated games, there was dedicated hardware, and those cabinets cost $3,000.”

As a result, there was a huge amount of infrastructure built up around each game, Cerny said, with multiple levels of management tracking and green-lighting the work from a single programmer. Developers were similarly stifled at Sega, where Cerny worked on games like Kid Chameleon and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

“If you look at what we were doing at Sega, that was, in some sense, I hate to say it, shovelware,” Cerny said. “It was one programmer, one designer, three months, and you just shipped it. And the quality was low and they didn’t care. That is so far from what we call indie today, which is a labor of love and you never know when it will be done. It’ll be done when it’ll be done, when it achieves the creator’s vision.”

As system architect for the PlayStation 4, Cerny was also asked about any misconceptions regarding the soon-to-launch system that he would like to clear up.

“John Carmack came out recently and said that the [Xbox One and PS4] console hardware seems to be about the same level of performance,” Cerny said. “I think that probably the power of the PS4 is a little bit underappreciated there in that statement. But you have to take it from John Carmack’s perspective. This is a man who builds spaceships, right? So from his perspective, he’s 20 years out in the future looking back, and they all kind of look the same.”

Cerny didn’t seem to take the slight too personally, calling Carmack a “true genius,” citing his work on engines as evidence of an “unbelievable” level of vision.

 

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Inside PS4’s new VR headset

Sony’s next big peripheral expected for fall 2014 launch, said to be more accurate than Oculus Rift.

Three months ago, Sony made a big splash at E3 touting the PlayStation 4 to the world. At the same time, though, it was already laying the groundwork for another notable consumer technology venture.

As media and buyers got hands on time with the upcoming console and debated the WWE-like theatrics of the Sony and Microsoft press conferences, the company was holding top secret meetings with developers and publishers, showing off a virtual reality headset for the PS4 and drumming up support for it.

Officially, Sony isn’t talking about the device, citing its long-standing policy of not commenting on rumor and speculation. But people in the know say the company is making a major push with the technology – even greater than it did with the PlayStation Move three years ago. (Like the Move, the headset will be sold separate from the console.)

The headset (which is not tied to the company’s existing Wearable HDTV Personal 3D Viewer, pictured above) uses the PS4’s PlayStation Eye camera, like Move did, for head tracking. This, say people who have used it, makes the headset even more accurate than the Oculus Rift – though it does present some aesthetic challenges.

At present, the working prototype for the headset, which select developers currently have in house, looks much like Oculus’ better-known VR system – with ping pong balls attached. The design is not expected to be final.

While there have been reports that the system will make its debut at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, those appear inaccurate. Sony does not wish to distract buyers in the days leading up to the PS4’s launch – and, as yet, there are not enough games that can showcase the technology.

People with knowledge of the product say they believe the headset will launch in the fall of 2014, but that date, too, is subject to change.

While this isn’t Sony’s first time experimenting with virtual reality, it does appear to be the company’s most serious. Several years ago, developers at GDC showcased a prototype game using the Personal 3D Viewer to select members of the media, though no version was ever released for that system. (That could be because the product was expensive and never sold in the North American market.)

The headset could be a differentiator for the PS4 – and could be part of the reason Sony is so aggressively targeting independent developers in the upcoming generation. Microsoft is not believed to be working on similar technology – and Oculus has said its focus with the Rift is PC and mobile technology.

Sony’s device will certainly be a rival to Oculus. That company, though, has momentum on its side. After an incredibly successful Kickstarter, which brought in just shy of $2.5 million, Oculus raised $16 million in Series A venture capital led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners. Sony is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, but it has been experiencing significant financial hardships in recent years, which could erase some of that financial advantage.

Oculus also has been recruiting high-level developer talent to its roster. A month ago, id Software founder John Carmack signed on to become the company’s chief technical officer.

“I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer,” said Carmack at the time. “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.”

Oculus declined to comment on Sony’s headset when contacted by GamesIndustry International.

Sony’s push into virtual reality brings to mind its ‘jump in with both feet’ approach to 3D two years ago. That didn’t work out for a number of the same danger factors as VR. Players weren’t crazy about wearing the glasses – and the fast-moving 3D images, combined with the fact that gamers blink less than passive TV watchers, resulted in player headaches.

The most significant problem, however, was lack of publisher support. Sony is working hard to ensure that doesn’t happen again, making something Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said at the launch of the PlayStation 3D monitor just as relevant today.

“I think it’s a very similar analogy to HD,” he noted. “Content will drive adoption.”

 

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John Carmack joins Oculus VR

id Software co-founder announced as Rift maker’s new full-time CTO; id says Carmack’s technical leadership at studio “unaffected”

[UPDATE]: A Bethesda representative provided the following comment: “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.” When asked for clarification, the rep told GamesIndustry International that Carmack “will spend time working out of Oculus as part of his role with them, but he will also continue to work at id.”

Carmack provided his own clarification in a Twitter post, saying, “My time division is now Oculus over Id over [rocketry developer] Armadillo. Busy busy busy!”

The original story follows below:

John Carmack has always been a vocal supporter of the Oculus Rift VR headset, but the id Software co-founder has taken that support a step further. Oculus VR today announced that Carmack has joined the company full-time to be its chief technology officer, and will work out of a new Dallas, Texas office the company is forming.

A representative with id Software parent Bethesda had not returned a request for comment as of press time, but Oculus referred to Carmack as “formerly at id Software.”

“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,” Carmack said in a statement. “I’m extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology.” Oculus noted that Carmack has championed open source software, and co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe stressed the company shares his commitment on that front.

“John’s early experiments with the Rift put Oculus on the map and helped create an amazing amount of momentum around virtual reality,” Oculus founder Palmer Lucky said. “His technical genius and passion for solving hard problems makes him the ideal CTO.”

Oculus Rift kits have been available to developers since March. The headset has no commercial release date as of yet.

 

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