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Micro optimized by John Carmack himself who volunteered (he was like a free consultant for while) for the task because he believed that's the best that could be
by sheepdestroyer 11y ago
Micro optimized by John Carmack himself who volunteered (he was like a free consultant for while) for the task because he believed that's the best that could be done to help VR. He first had to personally persuade both hierarchy at FB & MS. So bold.
From : http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/24/how-john-carmack-pestered-microsoft-to-let-him-make-minecraft-for-gear-vr/ http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/24/how-john-carmack-pestered-... :
“I was willing to do just about anything,” he said. “On the phone I said that if this doesn’t happen, I’m going to cry. This will just be so terrible. This will be the best thing that we can do for the platform. But there are some problems that compilers can’t solve.”
It turns out that the solution was to get the top executives from Facebook and Microsoft together.
“Mark [Zuckerberg] and Satya [Nadella] were able to sit down and make sure that the deal happened,” said Carmack.
- degenerate 11y agoCarmack is such a boss. If your interest is piqued every time you hear about him, make sure to read Masters of Doom: http://amzn.com/0812972155 http://amzn.com/0812972155
- Kiro 11y agoI just finished this book 5 minutes ago. Can't recommend it enough.
- phodo 11y agoYou might also enjoy the Blizzard book: Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire [1] [1] http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Blizzards-Video-Game-ebook/dp/B00G8UL474 http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Blizzards-Video-Gam...
- douche 11y agoGreat book. I wish there was more literature in this vein. Some other fun reads from the Blizzard team at http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/ http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/
- phodo 11y agoHere are a couple of additional things to read if you liked those: * Jordan Mechner - of Prince of Persia / Karateka [1] * Ready Player One - fiction - but in the same vein [2] [1] Jordan's website w general links: http://www.jordanmechner.com/ http://www.jordanmechner.com/ The Making of Karateka - 1982- 1985 : http://www.amazon.com/Making-Karateka-Journals-1982-1985/dp/1480297232/ http://www.amazon.com/Making-Karateka-Journals-1982-1985/dp/... The Making of Prince of Persia - Journals 1985-1993: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Prince-Persia-Journals-1985/dp/1468093657/ http://www.amazon.com/Making-Prince-Persia-Journals-1985/dp/... [2] Ready Player One - http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/0307887448 http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/03078...
- Cyph0n 11y agoI listened to the audiobook for around 15 minutes and just couldn't see what's so good about it. I think it was the reader's tone and voice (Wil Wheaton) that made it sound... is "rad" the word? I might try reading it in eBook form instead.
- fossuser 11y agoIt was probably the voice that was annoying - I read the paper copy and really enjoyed it. If you like books like Hackers, Crypto, Soul of a New Machine, What the Dormouse said etc. you'll probably like it.
- eco 11y agoI didn't like Wil Wheaton's reading of Ready Player One either. The main character came off as, I don't know, whiney I guess. I have nothing against Wil Wheaton himself. The reading just didn't do it for me. Masters of Doom is a great book though. I read it a couple years back. I recommend picking up a copy if the audiobook isn't working out.
- NoahTheDuke 11y ago> The main character came off as, I don't know, whiney I guess. Well, the main character is whiny, and I found the book to be terrible, so I don't think your opinion is too off base.
- PretzelPirate 11y ago
- prezjordan 11y agoMy single favorite non-fiction work. (Probably better than any fiction I've read, too) Even if you're not a gamer, this book has such a great story and has so much to offer when it comes to software development in general.
- markpapadakis 11y agoSame here. I read this every year -- it motivates me like no other work or fiction or reality. I bought a few copies for friends, and it seems to have similar effects on them. I can't recommend it enough.
- pjc50 11y agoYou may also like "Racing the beam", which is not so long on human interest but has a lot of great technical, social and business perspective on the Atari era.
- fossuser 11y agoIf you want to watch the Oculus connect talk where Carmack discusses this it's online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti_3SqavXjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti_3SqavXjk Carmack talks are fun to watch - I think it's worth checking out.
- erikpukinskis 11y agoWhen will people realize you just need to put Carmack on the stage at 4pm and let him go until he tires himself out? You just shouldn't put an end time on a Carmack talk. Shit, maybe there just needs to be CarmackCon where it's just a start time for his keynote which just sort of seamlessly blends into a hackathon. Or maybe we just need to start a petition for no end time on his talk at Connect 2016.
- MrZongle2 11y agoFrom the linked article: "...when Facebook acquired Oculus in July 2014, Notch “blew up about it,” as Carmack puts it. Notch referred to the social media company as “creepy” and publicly stated that it wasn’t the partner he was envisioning when he backed the original Oculus Rift when it was just a Kickstarter project." The more I read about Notch, the more I'm convinced that Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and getting him out of the scene was the best thing for Minecraft. He strikes me as an incredibly fortunate but oddly emotional individual who was way over his head once his creation took off.
- colordrops 11y agoTo be fair, the majority of HN comments on the Oculus acquisition also took a similar upset tone, more than I've ever seen (except for maybe the announcement of Angular 2), so Notch's opinion only seems odd out of context.
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoYeah, I don't think he was really prepared for or interested in all this fame. He wanted to be just another experimental indie dev, but every time he made a game for a game jam or something, the gaming media would explode with "NOTCH MAKES NEW GAME" stories and his piddly little three-day speed-typing game or whatever would get 100 times as much attention as the entire rest of the jam. I imagine that would wear, after a while. From recent news, it sounds like he's now given up trying to be normal and is trying out being an over-the-top hedonistic rich guy, and doesn't enjoy that either but doesn't know how to stop.
- eco 11y agoTo be fair to Notch, a huge chunk of Oculus fans were devastated by the unexpected Facebook acquisition, not just him. /r/Oculus was in flames the day it was announced. Notch put it this way "I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition." Gamers at large were really disappointed because Oculus was a games focused device and then suddenly it's owned by a social networking company whose only reputation for games is being a place for friend-pestering, "free"-to-plays (the exact opposite of what most self ascribed "gamers" want for the future of gaming). It makes sense that they would be worried. I think Oculus has done a good job allaying those fears but it makes sense that oculus fans would cautiously optimistic.
- Analemma_ 11y agoThis is amazing. John Carmack has become like the Lone Ranger of code optimization. He shows up out of nowhere, makes your game run 20 times faster, then rides off into the sunset. "Who was that masked man?" "Oh, he's John Carmack."
- granos 11y agoI feel like this needs to be an xkcd
- wtallis 11y agoIf Carmack only made Minecraft 20x faster, that would be extremely disappointing. That's just the low-hanging fruit.
- Ralfp 11y agoJudging Minecraft by its blocky world is very unfair and shortsighted. Game world is not only de-facto voxels. Its transparent, masked and oblique voxels that interact with each other or other entities, like farm blocks by water blocks, lava blocks with burnable blocks nearby, plants growing up, hostile mobs spawns and lines of sights, mobs pathing as they follow player, fellow mobs or random points of interest for wandering, etc ect.
- Almaviva 11y agoI think he may be the best refutation against people who don't believe in 10x engineers. Imagine you want to create a VR prototype and get to hire 100 average programmers with some experience in the industry, and you're up against Carmack with a month until your demo...
- untog 11y agoI don't think people disbelieve that 10x engineers exist. Just that 98% of those who claim to be one are wrong.
- espadrine 11y agoI disbelieve. That said, I don't contend that some people are not at some point 10 times more productive than others. I contend that anyone can be just as productive, and often are, were or will be, although the manner in which they should be productive is absolutely not clear-cut. Society as a whole shapes how we act. Diversity in its composition allows what we rely upon. For instance, I would not be as productive at work if I had to take care of a few children on my own. Similarly, I am extremely unproductive while gardening, and don't intend to spend the time to improve.
- eloff 11y agoYou're practically coming out and saying that all humans are equal and the only productivity differences can be attributed to other factors. That's a ridiculous position to take.
- adventured 11y agoAnd extremely easy to disprove at this point with brain scans vs capabilities. We know enough about the brain now to understand that some people are born with advantages (or disadvantages), whether that's in memory or social skills.
- samizdatum 11y agoYou're making a far stronger claim than denying that some people are not 10x more productive than others. You're claiming that anyone can be just as productive as anyone else. That seems to either be such a strong claim that it's trivial to refute, (i.e. a newborn baby, or a quadriplegic with severe mental retardation, etc.), or too nebulous and ill-defined to be of any use (i.e. said quadriplegic is productive in cultivating character in carers?)
- anonbanker 11y agoevery worry I had about this product is now less of a worry: The man who wrote QuakeC is now on the job.
- redthrowaway 11y agoMan, would I ever love to see some before and after code.