7 ms·
Wow, someone has a Stephen Wolfram-sized ego going on there.
by jpeterson 16y ago
Wow, someone has a Stephen Wolfram-sized ego going on there.
- jonursenbach 16y agoCarmack's ego is well deserved.
- bprater 16y agoAgreed. Only someone who hasn't been in the tech industry since the early days of 3D games wouldn't recognize Carmack's name. He is a demi-god to me, a person who has passionately stuck with 3D programming for most of his career and even pressed outside his comfort zone into the emerging commercial space race. If anyone deserves to have ego, he does. Frankly, considering what he's accomplished, I think he's quite humble on stage.
- jpeterson 16y ago... because he makes video game engines. Okay.
- hc 16y agoi'm willing to let your remarks on carmack's "ego" slide, but only because you're such a paragon of humility yourself
- jameskilton 16y agoCarmack is the 3D engine GOD. There is no-one like him. Seeing that, on an iPhone, holy crap. I'd love to see what it's like on an iPad (as he nicely describes for us).
- snprbob86 16y agono one? There are quite a few developers like him. Sure, he's one of the first and most famous, but having worked in the game development space for a while, I can safely say that there are people quietly writing equally, if not more impressive graphics engines.
- phoboslab 16y agoI think one reason why Carmack still sticks out, is that he set up his company in a way where he can still "play" with new techniques every day. I suspect that not many other programmers have this kind of freedom. Also, not many other graphic engine programmers have their own company. They might be as good or better as Carmack, but they are hidden under layers of corporate obscurity. The guys at Crytek who invented SSAO come to mind - most of the time SSAO is credited to Crytek and not to individual people (which is a shame, imho). ( SSAO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Space_Ambient_Occlusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Space_Ambient_Occlusion )
- elxrr 16y agoWhat about Epic's Tim Sweeney?
- CamperBob 16y agoSweeney's a strong, innovative player in his own right, but the fact is, he got his start by chasing Carmack's taillights from one E3 to the next. JC was doing this stuff back before you could Google how to do it, or buy a book at your local B&N telling you how to do it. That counts for a lot. So does his consistent willingness to bring the fire down the mountain and hand it to the masses.
- snprbob86 16y agoI think you're not giving Sweeney enough credit. He basically invented modding with ZZT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZT Additionally, post Quake 3, the team at Epic routinely chose better design tradeoffs for real world games. This includes both performance tradeoffs and spending of engineering effort on production needs (like a solid level editor). Hence the popularity of the Unreal 3 engine.
- CamperBob 16y agoYeah, I don't think there's any question that Epic owns id in the production department. That was true from the beginning.
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- BigZaphod 16y agoI think you'll find that pretty much anyone will freely give him a pass on that. It's beyond well-earned. His skills are freaking legendary.
- MRL 16y agoHe's John Carmack, he's earnt it many times over.
- elxrr 16y agoHe usually comes across as a very nice and level-headed guy. Still though, he's a legend.