7 ms·

>probably one the top 10 programmers of all time By what metric? Popularity? PR? Net worth? Complex software? Competitive programming? Impact? For every "top

>probably one the top 10 programmers of all time By what metric? Popularity? PR? Net worth? Complex software? Competitive programming? Impact? For every "top" SE there are tens of similarly skilled engineers that you have never heard of

otikik 3y ago
I don't think a deep analysis is required here. It is quite obvious that he'll not be the top-10 programmer on every single metric that one can imagine. He's very good. Enough people agree. I recommend letting it at that.
xen2xen1 3y ago
Impact. He pretty much invented the FPS genre by reading a paper about Z buffers from some guy in the Navy, IIRC. All the Call Duty kiddies owe him a debt. Who knows how long it would have taken for that whole genre to get going without him?
nailer 3y ago
He popularised BSP for FPS which meant doom ran faster than SystemShock, despite having more complex level geometry
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  Was Doom's geometry more complex? No room over room, no slopes, vertical axis was awkward. Feels like apples and oranges, even before considering the gameplay was also very distinct between them.
  - nailer 3y ago
    All true. SystemShock also have 3-D models for some objects too. I guess a better way of putting it would’ve been the SystemShock would have run a lot faster if it had BSP.
dadarecit 3y ago
Amount of tickets closed on JIRA lmaoo
- gokaygurcan 3y ago
  Please no. I know it's a joke, but please.
  - dadarecit 3y ago
    I know, the truth hurts
- steve_mcdougall 3y ago
  [dead]
- danmur 3y ago
  LoC, the ultimate metric
Eisenstein 3y ago
> By what metric? His record speaks for itself. I know it is tough to imagine what it was like programming 3D engines meant to run on graphics non-accelerated PCs running DOS, without the internet knowledge or collaboration available to us now, but the stuff he was doing was absolutely revolutionary. He basically created PC gaming as we know it today by creating a market for 3D accelerators and before that by doing it in software very well. He also did this stuff in an record amount of time. From Wolfenstein 3D (1992) to Quake (1995) he made three separate engines which each revolutionized the industry one after the other. EDIT: The metric I am using is 'impact' in an industry and in society in general -- the impact of Doom and Quake on culture and the adoption of computers and PC gaming and many other things can not be overstated. You can draw a direct line from Doom to Quake to nVidia to CUDA and machine learning if you want.
- ionwake 3y ago
  Excellent summary
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  An interesting read into some of the insights that Carmack had which lead to the revolution that was Quake can be found in the "Ramblings in Realtime" articles[1] by Michael Abrash[2], who helped John develop Quake's 3D engine. Abrash wrote the rather famous "Graphics Programming Black Book", now available for free[3]. [1]: https://valvedev.info/archives/abrash/ https://valvedev.info/archives/abrash/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abrash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abrash [3]: https://github.com/jagregory/abrash-black-book https://github.com/jagregory/abrash-black-book
- pdntspa 3y ago
  I remember he dropped Doom 3 on us with fully dynamic lighting and shadows in like fucking 2004 or something. I remember getting my hands on the engine leak (in 2003?) and absolutely getting my mind blown to see shadows dancing on the wall (at like 8 FPS on my athlonXP geforce4 rig) at something resembling real-time, in the same map that was used at the Apple developer demo where Steve Jobs announced mac support. All of Carmack's engines were YEARS ahead of their time. Everyone was doing baked lighting and employing various gimmicks for dynamic-looking shadows, and this dude (and his team) comes in and destroys everyone with this fully-, actually-dynamic lighting system. I don't think anyone else even came close until Crysis in 2007. If that isn't a top 10 programmer performance than I don't know what is. 2001 macworld demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80guchXqz14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80guchXqz14

otikik 3y ago

I don't think a deep analysis is required here. It is quite obvious that he'll not be the top-10 programmer on every single metric that one can imagine. He's very good. Enough people agree. I recommend letting it at that.

xen2xen1 3y ago

Impact. He pretty much invented the FPS genre by reading a paper about Z buffers from some guy in the Navy, IIRC. All the Call Duty kiddies owe him a debt. Who knows how long it would have taken for that whole genre to get going without him?

nailer 3y ago

He popularised BSP for FPS which meant doom ran faster than SystemShock, despite having more complex level geometry

paulryanrogers 3y ago
Was Doom's geometry more complex? No room over room, no slopes, vertical axis was awkward. Feels like apples and oranges, even before considering the gameplay was also very distinct between them.
- nailer 3y ago
  All true. SystemShock also have 3-D models for some objects too. I guess a better way of putting it would’ve been the SystemShock would have run a lot faster if it had BSP.

dadarecit 3y ago

Amount of tickets closed on JIRA lmaoo

gokaygurcan 3y ago
Please no. I know it's a joke, but please.
- dadarecit 3y ago
  I know, the truth hurts
steve_mcdougall 3y ago
[dead]
danmur 3y ago
LoC, the ultimate metric

Eisenstein 3y ago

> By what metric? His record speaks for itself. I know it is tough to imagine what it was like programming 3D engines meant to run on graphics non-accelerated PCs running DOS, without the internet knowledge or collaboration available to us now, but the stuff he was doing was absolutely revolutionary. He basically created PC gaming as we know it today by creating a market for 3D accelerators and before that by doing it in software very well. He also did this stuff in an record amount of time. From Wolfenstein 3D (1992) to Quake (1995) he made three separate engines which each revolutionized the industry one after the other. EDIT: The metric I am using is 'impact' in an industry and in society in general -- the impact of Doom and Quake on culture and the adoption of computers and PC gaming and many other things can not be overstated. You can draw a direct line from Doom to Quake to nVidia to CUDA and machine learning if you want.

ionwake 3y ago
Excellent summary
magicalhippo 3y ago
An interesting read into some of the insights that Carmack had which lead to the revolution that was Quake can be found in the "Ramblings in Realtime" articles[1] by Michael Abrash[2], who helped John develop Quake's 3D engine. Abrash wrote the rather famous "Graphics Programming Black Book", now available for free[3]. [1]: https://valvedev.info/archives/abrash/ https://valvedev.info/archives/abrash/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abrash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abrash [3]: https://github.com/jagregory/abrash-black-book https://github.com/jagregory/abrash-black-book
pdntspa 3y ago
I remember he dropped Doom 3 on us with fully dynamic lighting and shadows in like fucking 2004 or something. I remember getting my hands on the engine leak (in 2003?) and absolutely getting my mind blown to see shadows dancing on the wall (at like 8 FPS on my athlonXP geforce4 rig) at something resembling real-time, in the same map that was used at the Apple developer demo where Steve Jobs announced mac support. All of Carmack's engines were YEARS ahead of their time. Everyone was doing baked lighting and employing various gimmicks for dynamic-looking shadows, and this dude (and his team) comes in and destroys everyone with this fully-, actually-dynamic lighting system. I don't think anyone else even came close until Crysis in 2007. If that isn't a top 10 programmer performance than I don't know what is. 2001 macworld demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80guchXqz14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80guchXqz14