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John Carmack surprises fans (and his CEO) with Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone
- cfrey 18y agoLater in the interview: "How did the launch for Quake Live [the free browser-based version of the circa 1995 ID Software game]..." Way to do your research; Quake 3 came out in 1999.
- adammarkey 18y agoNot only does Wolf3d run beautifully on the iPhone, the controls (and options for modifying them) actually make the iPhone a viable platform for 2.5 dimensional FPS games. I'd like to see what he can come up with for Quake (a fully 3D shooter - which adds aiming up and down)
- daniel-cussen 18y agoYou'd need some kind of giro for the z-axis. Right now the iphone can only tell if it's facing uyp or facing down, but can't tell by what degree. Maybe in later edititons they will make the z-axis giro like the others. Alternatively, you could make a device you can attach to the iphone that tells it its position along the median plane.
- nickb 18y agoPeople thought you couldn’t do 3D games on the iPhone but here it is running. Who thought that? Todd never looked at Apple's App Store. PS: Wolfenstein 3D doesn't have a real 3D engine anyway.
- palish 18y ago3D is not "real". The output of 3D apps are projected onto a 2D screen (VR goggles not withstanding, but even then, there are simply two outputs projected onto two 2D screens). Wolfenstein has rasterization, just like a "real" 3D engine does. Its engine happens to be optimized for certain viewpoints, which makes it "2.5D", but it still gives a crude approximation of 3D, just like every other "3D" game.
- ConradHex 18y agoI think your comment underestimates developments in 3d hardware and software in the last 15 years or so.
- nickb 18y ago"which makes it "2.5D"" You wasted all those words to say what I said... it's not 3D. :) PS: I know very well how 3D games work since I co-wrote a commercial 3D engine in 2002-3 and used to teach computer graphics course at a university.
- jcromartie 18y agoThis particular version of Wolfenstein 3D is actually rendered using standard 3D techniques in OpenGL. It's just low on detail and the ability to look up/down.
- jcapote 18y agoHow is this a surprise? He's been blogging about it for months...
- matthew-wegner 18y agoIt's just an angle to the story--and a clever one, too! Would it have showed up on HC if it were just "Wolf 3D Launches on iPhone" versus "Carmack Made iPhone Wolf 3D Without his CEO Knowing"?
- erik 18y agoDo you have a source on that? Carmack rarely updates his blog. The only info I've seen about Wolf3d on the iPhone are the development notes released a little over a week ago. Edit: The dev notes are here: http://www.idsoftware.com/wolfenstein3dclassic/wolfdevelopment.htm http://www.idsoftware.com/wolfenstein3dclassic/wolfdevelopme...
- DougBTX 18y agoGreat interview, this guy makes a good publicity person. Watch how he stays on his point throughout the questions, the list of products you (the consumer) should be watching out for at the end is superb.