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Id Software founder John Carmack resigns

590 points by footpath 13y ago

atburrow 13y ago
It will be interesting to see how the future pans out for both companies. John Carmack is a brilliant person and I think that Oculus VR will do very well with him on board full time.
LandoCalrissian 13y ago
I think this check had been in the mail for a while. He is clearly far more excited these days about VR and where it can go. I'm sure he has more than enough money too to never have to worry about working again if he wanted. I really wish him the best of luck, truly one of my favorite people in tech. I hope we still can get his annual keynotes, because they are great to listen to.
- kmfrk 13y ago
  It's weird they didn't designate him as "Spiritual Leader" instead or something that fits him better long ago. Everyone knew this, so it's weird it had to end in this drastic manner.
  - Lagged2Death 13y ago
    Every personnel change at id seems to happen "in a drastic manner."
  - jfoster 13y ago
    Perhaps I'm unaware of the circumstances, but what about this is drastic? His company got acquired, he stayed for a few years, and now he's moving on to the next thing that excites him.
- kjozwiak 13y ago
  Definitely would be a shame to lose the yearly keynotes.. Not sure if he will do them anymore as their usually about his research to push idsoftware to newer technologies and improving their games. Maybe a yearly keynote from Oculus VR?
  - jcurbo 13y ago
    He said this on Twitter: "If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days. :-)" https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/403986360731594752 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/403986360731594752
    - LandoCalrissian 13y ago
      Haha, that's great to hear. He's just such an upbeat guy all the time, his enthusiasm is always infectious.
      - benched 13y ago
        I have a theory that I'd be super upbeat if I had achieved massive, world-class success doing something I love, that was game-changing, in about as pure a form as it gets.
- Hansi 13y ago
  "He is clearly far more excited these days about VR and where it can go." Actually according to the book Masters of Doom he's been that since the beginning of iD and not just these days. It also gives the perception that he's always been more about pushing gaming technology (or just general technology) rather than being in it for the gaming itself.
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  He was always excited about VR. One of his life's ambitions is to create the Holodeck from Star Trek. Games were an important stepping stone along the way.
  - staunch 13y ago
    Games aren't a stepping stone. The holodeck is just the ultimate game.
_random_ 13y ago
Basically confirms that VR is in the "Slope of Enlightment".
- sixQuarks 13y ago
  "Slope of Enlightment" assumes that the peak excitement of the technology is already behind us. I don't think we've seen that peak yet. VR in the 90s never came close to living up to expectations and was a dud. The peak is yet to come in my opinion. When the oculus consumer version comes out, people are gonna go crazy and predict that we're all going to live in the virtual world very soon. That won't pan out in the short-term, but we will slowly get there. That's when the Slope of Enlightment will hit.
danso 13y ago
Obligatory mention of "Masters of DOOM", the biography of Johns Carmack and Romero: http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155 http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu... Like reading iWoz... a lot of stories of brilliant engineering at an elite level.
- mg74 13y ago
  Seconded! And I can recommend the audio version, Wil Wheaton does a great job.
- deleted 13y ago
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- WA 13y ago
  This book is absolutely fantastic. I devoured it in 2 afternoons, unable to do anything else. More exciting than some fictional thriller.
leoc 13y ago
Slightly testy tone in that iD statement, isn't there?
- untog 13y ago
  Not sure why anyone is downvoting you- this is the quote: "John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio,"" It does sound kind of testy/flippant to me. But it could be out of context.
  - kleiba 13y ago
    This is from his twitter: 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. And then: If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days. :-)
    - justin66 13y ago
      I'm pretty sure they'd PAY him to talk at Quakecon. Although it's not a big money event, so they'd probably just ask really nicely. :)
      - kazagistar 13y ago
        I am pretty sure there is 0 chance that I would pay attention to quakecon if not for Carmack's talks.
        charlieflowers 13y ago
        Amen. That is the biggest thing I'll miss as a result of him stepping down. They'd really be screwing up their conference by taking him off the docket.
  - chops 13y ago
    I don't think it's flippant at all. It comes across as very succinct and matter-of-fact to me. His focus is elsewhere, so it's not a great fit for him to work there anymore, even if he is the founder.
endgame 13y ago
I find it interesting that iD and Carmack are still described in terms of Doom and Quake.
- dasil003 13y ago
  They've embraced it to a large extent with a huge number of sequels. Aside from that, Quake 3 is considered by many to be the apex of fast-twitch FPS skill games. It certainly makes Call of Duty look like grandma's bridge club.
  - aryastark 13y ago
    Quake 3 was pure perfection. That game never crashed. And I was playing on Linux in the bad old days of the late '90s, when sound and graphics drivers were spotty at best. I don't think we'll see anything like it again. It's a FPS that plays more like an action arcade game than a simulator. It took some of the elements of Quake 1 and 2 but placed them in a Snow Crash cyberpunk world.
    - to3m 13y ago
      The Quake games probably never exposed any driver bugs, because they were the games the driver authors used to decide which code paths to test, optimize, and (in some cases) even which bits of the driver to actually write in the first place. I wouldn't be so quick to infer anything either way, from the fact they never crashed ;) (I used to have a PowerVR PCX2. Its OpenGL driver did exactly what Quake II needed - and absolutely nothing else. As I recall, they didn't even bother to get the OpenGL screen savers working. I believe the Voodoo GL drivers "worked" along similar lines.)
  - deleted 13y ago
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gagege 13y ago
It's bittersweet for me. I grew up with id games and John Carmack has just always been there as id's genius programmer guy. Feels like the end of an era. On the other hand, John Carmack is working full time for Oculus VR!
- erbo 13y ago
  Yes, as their CTO. Which makes me wonder if we've seen the last of his Code God skills. (But maybe not...)
  - gagege 13y ago
    I seriously doubt it. You should read his tweets. He's still very much a programmer.
    - jhartmann 13y ago
      About 10 years ago he talked to some of us guys writing 3D drivers for Linux, he is all kinds of awesome when it comes to code skills and spent a few hours geeking out with us at Siggraph. About a year before, I got to see his coding in action when we were first bringing up the first Matrox G200-GLX driver. He would accomplish so much in just a few days when he donated some time to helping us get the MGA-G200 working with Quake. He would accomplish in days what most of us at the time would have taken weeks to do. He just naturally understands 3D and 3D hardware and is a geeks geek. I will bet he is spending most of his day to day coding and hacking.
    - erbo 13y ago
      I should add that I hope we haven't seen the last of his Code God skills. The title of "CTO" kind of scares me in that regard, unless, of course, Oculus is still small enough that the CTO might still be expected to put his hands in the source.
      - jmelloy 13y ago
        I don't believe he would take any job where he wasn't programming.
aryastark 13y ago
First Winamp, and now John Carmack leaves id. This has been a brutal week. On one hand, it's exciting to see John working on VR tech. I really do hope we see something amazing out of it. But it still feels wrong, an id Software without Carmack. Hopefully they can continue on and reclaim some of their former glory as well, and let's hope Carmack keeps in the spotlight.
- deletes 13y ago
  Both are positive things, the best Doom has already been made and Winamp stagnated for years now. Time to stop being lazy, learn foobar2000 and buy an Oculus Rift. Too bad IdTech6 won't be as awesome as it could be, but again VR will be so much better instead.
- theandrewbailey 13y ago
  Feels weird to be in a world without Carmack at iD. What's next? Winamp at Microsoft?
untog 13y ago
Very happy for John - his early days were at the very forefront of PC game development and while iD still does great stuff, video gaming is in a very stable, iterative place right now. Hopefully chasing this VR dream will take him back to those early pioneering days.
ogreyonder 13y ago
Am I the only one surprised to find that Carmack was still working for iD? I had thought his taking a position with OculusVR implied his departure months ago.
- barnabask 13y ago
  I felt the same way when he was doing Armadillo Aerospace too. There are more people than JC who have said: "I invented some cool tech, made a lot of money, started a family, and also I think I'll start a rocket company on the side." How much time/energy to these people have? This is like a thing now.
  - cfreeman 13y ago
    Well apparently he didn't really have the time/energy to keep AA going.
BlackDeath3 13y ago
Wherever he goes, he shall kick ass. Best wishes, Carmack!
salient 13y ago
> John's work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete. So he's leaving just before starting to work on the voxel/polygon id Tech 6 hybrid gaming engine. Darn it! http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybrid-rendering.html http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybr... Hopefully id Software will continue that without him, but I doubt it.
- leoc 13y ago
  It has to be uncertain whether iD's commitment to open-sourcing its engines will continue after his departure, too.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Most likely not. The FOSS culture is not part of the gaming industry.
saturdaysaint 13y ago
Sounds like good news - I'd rather see him working on core technologies that can benefit all games than working on iD's games, which I'd characterize as merely being "pretty good" (albeit very technically impressive).
Arjuna 13y ago
Wow, I'm just now seeing this news. Initially, I had that sinking feeling set in... I mean, like you, I have been impacted by his story, his games (not just the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake franchises... I'm talking Commander Keen, boys and girls), his code, reading Masters of Doom, etc. I can see my copy of Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book Special Edition sitting here, which was such a treat to read when it came out, because it has so many great chapters on the development of Quake and little stories about John's discoveries and thought processes throughout the development of the game. But, then I thought... wait... this is a new beginning. I wrote about this previously, but, look for gaming to start heading in the direction of VR with technology like Oculus Rift. Also, with someone of the caliber of John Carmack involved (now totally focused on it because of the resignation announcement) with not only his passion and skill, but his ability to work with graphics hardware manufacturers and driver developers to effect change and garner the necessary support and backing, expect to see vibrant, compelling developments in this field. In case you missed it, check this video out of John discussing some of his VR work. It is from E3 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg That momentary sinking feeling has faded away now... great things are ahead!
- drzaiusapelord 13y ago
  Frankly, he's too talented to keep making mediocre shooters for twitch gamers. Heck, 3D game engines are practically commodities nowadays. No idea if the Oculus Rift will succeed, but I love it when people on his level take chances. I watch the Rift project very carefully, and really see a lot of potential there. It might not end up being what we expect it to be in the end. We assume it'll be this great little game accessory like a Kinect. It has the potential to be much more.
  - venomsnake 13y ago
    Poorly optimized 3d engines are a commodity. Quake 3, Painkiller and Serious Sam 1 were a piece of great engineering. Also there was nothing mediocre in the twitch based era of id. Their decline began with Doom 3.
mkramlich 13y ago
smells like vesting and/or end of golden handcuffs period (in the context of the prior Betheseda -> iD acquisition)
- hide_nowhere 13y ago
  Agreed. He and the rest of iD seemed to have lost themselves once Bethesda came into the picture, but these types of things are almost a certainty after a big M/A event. Good luck to John!
mkramlich 13y ago
It's a little sad news but exciting as well. I'd rather see John's mind helping push VR/AR and 'cheaper/nimbler/entrepeneurial/hacker-maker/DIY' aerospace forward than churning out yet another 3D FPS game. We have tons of great games/engines of that type already to choose from, and lots of great people continuing to work in that space.
venomsnake 13y ago
This makes me happy. I have a feeling that iD were dragging John down. He could always make a brilliant tech that they somehow always failed to makes decent game of after q3 arena. I really hope that he will be able to push the limits of possible about graphics technology once again.
billyjobob 13y ago
In the early days of PC gaming John Carmack was a genius, and Quake 3 was his masterpiece. I guess he is still a genius, but from an outsider's perspective the advancements he has made since then don't seem to changed the world in the same way. Graphics get prettier, but gameplay stays the same, or even gets worse because the prettier graphics require higher budgets which require lowest-common-denominator appeal to recoup. So it's good that he is trying something truly new now, where he has a chance to make a difference again.
melling 13y ago
Carmack is going full-time and the company is doing a lot of hiring... https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/ https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/ I'm not into VR, but this could be one of those "this changes everything" moments.
avoutthere 13y ago
This is truly the end of an era. John's work has given me countless hours of joy and I look forward to seeing what he produces next.
marksands07 13y ago
I guess I should feel dumb, because I thought Carmack left id when he joined OculusVR.
beloch 13y ago
This is fantastic news. I loved Id back in the day. When all it took for a game studio to be great was the most advanced code, Id was king! Then FPS games became more like movies, and Id became a bit like Michael Bay. They still pushed the technology forward, but almost everyone was making FPS's that had better plots, characters, etc.. The technologies Id licenses to other game studios are put to better use by them than in Id's own hands! VR has been around for decades, but it has always sucked. Low resolution displays and poor head-tracking have historically been problems, but latency has long been a problem that trumped all others. Carmack and Oculus were already working on getting Rift's latency down to levels that would make VR a less nauseating experience for users. This move just means Carmack is finding his work at Oculus more rewarding than at Id. That means we can probably expect great things from Oculus in the near future.
na85 13y ago
At first I was elated, but then I realized I was confusing Carmack with the egotistical John Romero.
blah32497 13y ago
What a strange move. Maybe he wasn't spending enough time at iD and was forced to leave? You'd think his having a leg in gaming and a leg in VR would create a wonderful synergy. Knowing all the in's and out of both worlds he could have insured great integration of Doom 4 with the Oculus rift - making sure iD was on the technological forefront while the Oculus would have a great demo from day 1. (see the Leap Motion for an example of what happens when you don't have a good demo day 1)
10098 13y ago
I'm not sure how to feel about this... He's always been an inspiration to me. But I don't really care about VR tech, and would much rather see Carmack working on games (at id or any other company). But I wish him success anyway.
akurilin 13y ago
John can make real impact on the videogame industry a second time at Oculus, the same couldn't have been said about id. This is a win for everybody.
nicholassmith 13y ago
A developers developer taking the opportunity to flex his wings on something new, what a fantastic turn of events for us all.
eco 13y ago
Off topic but why do so many people capitalize "id" as "iD"? I did myself years ago as well but I have no idea why I did. None of their logos use that capitalization and my memory of the early games is too poor to recall where, if anywhere, it was written like that.
- shrikant 13y ago
  I've seen this usage in the wild a few times. It makes me twitch just like when someone types out "FireFox".
  - maaku 13y ago
    or "BitCoin"
- rschmitty 13y ago
  I've never seen id written as iD until these comments, so I'm not sure and it looks very odd seeing it that way. I used to write it as Id, though perhaps because I was confused on when to capitalize a name vs a company who writes their name in all lowercase
- sjwright 13y ago
  Yep, iD is definitely wrong. (And for anyone who pronounces it "eye dee" instead of the correct "idd", you're doubly wrong!)
- beedogs 13y ago
  Apple Derangement Syndrome, is my guess. To some people, anything beginning with a lowercase "i" has a capitalized second letter by default.
deleted 13y ago
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the_mat 13y ago
This is the end for id. The only thing id has had going for it are Carmack's engines. In recent years his stuff has been as amazing as ever, but so many commercial engines are only a fraction of a step behind, and the difference hardly matters. Design-wise id is a complete mess. They're stuck back in the 1990s. RAGE appears to have had no leadership and no vision, and the actual design work that shipped is amateur-hour at best.
- adventured 13y ago
  ZeniMax will fold the id software llc, keep anybody worth keeping, and work on making money with the intellectual property (either internally or farming it out). There's nothing else left at id that's worth what ZeniMax paid for the company other than the IP and the game engine. I'm sure they knew the day would come sooner than later that they'd lose the Carmack value factor in id.
benmorris 13y ago
Initially this is depressing until you see where he is going. I think Oculus and VR in general will change the gaming industry.
macspoofing 13y ago
It doesn't seem like an amicable parting. You never want to have a guy like Carmack just leave. He's a giant in your industry, he's popular and highly respected and you gain a lot by having him be associated with your company. So at the very least you give him a honorific title and invite him to all the corporate parties. It didn't seem like this happened here.
squozzer 13y ago
Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
BuckRogers 13y ago
This is a good thing. Carmack said at a recent Quakecon that he didn't let us have a light on any gun in Doom 3 because he didn't want another light source in his rendering.. this is a guy who has no business making games. And none of his games have been good for a long time (and they were always pretty bland, Quake was the peak). Having Carmack out of id's games is a good thing. Having him geek out on technical problems without being allowed in game design decisions of any sort is also a good thing.

590 points by footpath 13y ago

It will be interesting to see how the future pans out for both companies. John Carmack is a brilliant person and I think that Oculus VR will do very well with him on board full time.

LandoCalrissian 13y ago

I think this check had been in the mail for a while. He is clearly far more excited these days about VR and where it can go. I'm sure he has more than enough money too to never have to worry about working again if he wanted. I really wish him the best of luck, truly one of my favorite people in tech. I hope we still can get his annual keynotes, because they are great to listen to.

kmfrk 13y ago
It's weird they didn't designate him as "Spiritual Leader" instead or something that fits him better long ago. Everyone knew this, so it's weird it had to end in this drastic manner.
- Lagged2Death 13y ago
  Every personnel change at id seems to happen "in a drastic manner."
- jfoster 13y ago
  Perhaps I'm unaware of the circumstances, but what about this is drastic? His company got acquired, he stayed for a few years, and now he's moving on to the next thing that excites him.
kjozwiak 13y ago
Definitely would be a shame to lose the yearly keynotes.. Not sure if he will do them anymore as their usually about his research to push idsoftware to newer technologies and improving their games. Maybe a yearly keynote from Oculus VR?
- jcurbo 13y ago
  He said this on Twitter: "If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days. :-)" https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/403986360731594752 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/403986360731594752
  - LandoCalrissian 13y ago
    Haha, that's great to hear. He's just such an upbeat guy all the time, his enthusiasm is always infectious.
    - benched 13y ago
      I have a theory that I'd be super upbeat if I had achieved massive, world-class success doing something I love, that was game-changing, in about as pure a form as it gets.
Hansi 13y ago
"He is clearly far more excited these days about VR and where it can go." Actually according to the book Masters of Doom he's been that since the beginning of iD and not just these days. It also gives the perception that he's always been more about pushing gaming technology (or just general technology) rather than being in it for the gaming itself.
nsxwolf 13y ago
He was always excited about VR. One of his life's ambitions is to create the Holodeck from Star Trek. Games were an important stepping stone along the way.
- staunch 13y ago
  Games aren't a stepping stone. The holodeck is just the ultimate game.

_random_ 13y ago

Basically confirms that VR is in the "Slope of Enlightment".

sixQuarks 13y ago
"Slope of Enlightment" assumes that the peak excitement of the technology is already behind us. I don't think we've seen that peak yet. VR in the 90s never came close to living up to expectations and was a dud. The peak is yet to come in my opinion. When the oculus consumer version comes out, people are gonna go crazy and predict that we're all going to live in the virtual world very soon. That won't pan out in the short-term, but we will slowly get there. That's when the Slope of Enlightment will hit.

danso 13y ago

Obligatory mention of "Masters of DOOM", the biography of Johns Carmack and Romero: http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155 http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu... Like reading iWoz... a lot of stories of brilliant engineering at an elite level.

mg74 13y ago
Seconded! And I can recommend the audio version, Wil Wheaton does a great job.
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WA 13y ago
This book is absolutely fantastic. I devoured it in 2 afternoons, unable to do anything else. More exciting than some fictional thriller.

leoc 13y ago

Slightly testy tone in that iD statement, isn't there?

untog 13y ago
Not sure why anyone is downvoting you- this is the quote: "John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio,"" It does sound kind of testy/flippant to me. But it could be out of context.
- kleiba 13y ago
  This is from his twitter: 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. And then: If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days. :-)
  - justin66 13y ago
    I'm pretty sure they'd PAY him to talk at Quakecon. Although it's not a big money event, so they'd probably just ask really nicely. :)
    - kazagistar 13y ago
      I am pretty sure there is 0 chance that I would pay attention to quakecon if not for Carmack's talks.
      - charlieflowers 13y ago
        Amen. That is the biggest thing I'll miss as a result of him stepping down. They'd really be screwing up their conference by taking him off the docket.
- chops 13y ago
  I don't think it's flippant at all. It comes across as very succinct and matter-of-fact to me. His focus is elsewhere, so it's not a great fit for him to work there anymore, even if he is the founder.

endgame 13y ago

I find it interesting that iD and Carmack are still described in terms of Doom and Quake.

dasil003 13y ago
They've embraced it to a large extent with a huge number of sequels. Aside from that, Quake 3 is considered by many to be the apex of fast-twitch FPS skill games. It certainly makes Call of Duty look like grandma's bridge club.
- aryastark 13y ago
  Quake 3 was pure perfection. That game never crashed. And I was playing on Linux in the bad old days of the late '90s, when sound and graphics drivers were spotty at best. I don't think we'll see anything like it again. It's a FPS that plays more like an action arcade game than a simulator. It took some of the elements of Quake 1 and 2 but placed them in a Snow Crash cyberpunk world.
  - to3m 13y ago
    The Quake games probably never exposed any driver bugs, because they were the games the driver authors used to decide which code paths to test, optimize, and (in some cases) even which bits of the driver to actually write in the first place. I wouldn't be so quick to infer anything either way, from the fact they never crashed ;) (I used to have a PowerVR PCX2. Its OpenGL driver did exactly what Quake II needed - and absolutely nothing else. As I recall, they didn't even bother to get the OpenGL screen savers working. I believe the Voodoo GL drivers "worked" along similar lines.)
- deleted 13y ago
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gagege 13y ago

It's bittersweet for me. I grew up with id games and John Carmack has just always been there as id's genius programmer guy. Feels like the end of an era. On the other hand, John Carmack is working full time for Oculus VR!

erbo 13y ago
Yes, as their CTO. Which makes me wonder if we've seen the last of his Code God skills. (But maybe not...)
- gagege 13y ago
  I seriously doubt it. You should read his tweets. He's still very much a programmer.
  - jhartmann 13y ago
    About 10 years ago he talked to some of us guys writing 3D drivers for Linux, he is all kinds of awesome when it comes to code skills and spent a few hours geeking out with us at Siggraph. About a year before, I got to see his coding in action when we were first bringing up the first Matrox G200-GLX driver. He would accomplish so much in just a few days when he donated some time to helping us get the MGA-G200 working with Quake. He would accomplish in days what most of us at the time would have taken weeks to do. He just naturally understands 3D and 3D hardware and is a geeks geek. I will bet he is spending most of his day to day coding and hacking.
  - erbo 13y ago
    I should add that I hope we haven't seen the last of his Code God skills. The title of "CTO" kind of scares me in that regard, unless, of course, Oculus is still small enough that the CTO might still be expected to put his hands in the source.
    - jmelloy 13y ago
      I don't believe he would take any job where he wasn't programming.

aryastark 13y ago

First Winamp, and now John Carmack leaves id. This has been a brutal week. On one hand, it's exciting to see John working on VR tech. I really do hope we see something amazing out of it. But it still feels wrong, an id Software without Carmack. Hopefully they can continue on and reclaim some of their former glory as well, and let's hope Carmack keeps in the spotlight.

deletes 13y ago
Both are positive things, the best Doom has already been made and Winamp stagnated for years now. Time to stop being lazy, learn foobar2000 and buy an Oculus Rift. Too bad IdTech6 won't be as awesome as it could be, but again VR will be so much better instead.
theandrewbailey 13y ago
Feels weird to be in a world without Carmack at iD. What's next? Winamp at Microsoft?

untog 13y ago

Very happy for John - his early days were at the very forefront of PC game development and while iD still does great stuff, video gaming is in a very stable, iterative place right now. Hopefully chasing this VR dream will take him back to those early pioneering days.

ogreyonder 13y ago

Am I the only one surprised to find that Carmack was still working for iD? I had thought his taking a position with OculusVR implied his departure months ago.

barnabask 13y ago
I felt the same way when he was doing Armadillo Aerospace too. There are more people than JC who have said: "I invented some cool tech, made a lot of money, started a family, and also I think I'll start a rocket company on the side." How much time/energy to these people have? This is like a thing now.
- cfreeman 13y ago
  Well apparently he didn't really have the time/energy to keep AA going.

BlackDeath3 13y ago

Wherever he goes, he shall kick ass. Best wishes, Carmack!

salient 13y ago

> John's work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete. So he's leaving just before starting to work on the voxel/polygon id Tech 6 hybrid gaming engine. Darn it! http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybrid-rendering.html http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybr... Hopefully id Software will continue that without him, but I doubt it.

leoc 13y ago
It has to be uncertain whether iD's commitment to open-sourcing its engines will continue after his departure, too.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  Most likely not. The FOSS culture is not part of the gaming industry.

saturdaysaint 13y ago

Sounds like good news - I'd rather see him working on core technologies that can benefit all games than working on iD's games, which I'd characterize as merely being "pretty good" (albeit very technically impressive).

Arjuna 13y ago

Wow, I'm just now seeing this news. Initially, I had that sinking feeling set in... I mean, like you, I have been impacted by his story, his games (not just the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake franchises... I'm talking Commander Keen, boys and girls), his code, reading Masters of Doom, etc. I can see my copy of Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book Special Edition sitting here, which was such a treat to read when it came out, because it has so many great chapters on the development of Quake and little stories about John's discoveries and thought processes throughout the development of the game. But, then I thought... wait... this is a new beginning. I wrote about this previously, but, look for gaming to start heading in the direction of VR with technology like Oculus Rift. Also, with someone of the caliber of John Carmack involved (now totally focused on it because of the resignation announcement) with not only his passion and skill, but his ability to work with graphics hardware manufacturers and driver developers to effect change and garner the necessary support and backing, expect to see vibrant, compelling developments in this field. In case you missed it, check this video out of John discussing some of his VR work. It is from E3 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg That momentary sinking feeling has faded away now... great things are ahead!

drzaiusapelord 13y ago
Frankly, he's too talented to keep making mediocre shooters for twitch gamers. Heck, 3D game engines are practically commodities nowadays. No idea if the Oculus Rift will succeed, but I love it when people on his level take chances. I watch the Rift project very carefully, and really see a lot of potential there. It might not end up being what we expect it to be in the end. We assume it'll be this great little game accessory like a Kinect. It has the potential to be much more.
- venomsnake 13y ago
  Poorly optimized 3d engines are a commodity. Quake 3, Painkiller and Serious Sam 1 were a piece of great engineering. Also there was nothing mediocre in the twitch based era of id. Their decline began with Doom 3.

mkramlich 13y ago

smells like vesting and/or end of golden handcuffs period (in the context of the prior Betheseda -> iD acquisition)

hide_nowhere 13y ago
Agreed. He and the rest of iD seemed to have lost themselves once Bethesda came into the picture, but these types of things are almost a certainty after a big M/A event. Good luck to John!

mkramlich 13y ago

It's a little sad news but exciting as well. I'd rather see John's mind helping push VR/AR and 'cheaper/nimbler/entrepeneurial/hacker-maker/DIY' aerospace forward than churning out yet another 3D FPS game. We have tons of great games/engines of that type already to choose from, and lots of great people continuing to work in that space.

venomsnake 13y ago

This makes me happy. I have a feeling that iD were dragging John down. He could always make a brilliant tech that they somehow always failed to makes decent game of after q3 arena. I really hope that he will be able to push the limits of possible about graphics technology once again.

billyjobob 13y ago

In the early days of PC gaming John Carmack was a genius, and Quake 3 was his masterpiece. I guess he is still a genius, but from an outsider's perspective the advancements he has made since then don't seem to changed the world in the same way. Graphics get prettier, but gameplay stays the same, or even gets worse because the prettier graphics require higher budgets which require lowest-common-denominator appeal to recoup. So it's good that he is trying something truly new now, where he has a chance to make a difference again.

melling 13y ago

Carmack is going full-time and the company is doing a lot of hiring... https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/ https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/ I'm not into VR, but this could be one of those "this changes everything" moments.

avoutthere 13y ago

This is truly the end of an era. John's work has given me countless hours of joy and I look forward to seeing what he produces next.

marksands07 13y ago

I guess I should feel dumb, because I thought Carmack left id when he joined OculusVR.

beloch 13y ago

This is fantastic news. I loved Id back in the day. When all it took for a game studio to be great was the most advanced code, Id was king! Then FPS games became more like movies, and Id became a bit like Michael Bay. They still pushed the technology forward, but almost everyone was making FPS's that had better plots, characters, etc.. The technologies Id licenses to other game studios are put to better use by them than in Id's own hands! VR has been around for decades, but it has always sucked. Low resolution displays and poor head-tracking have historically been problems, but latency has long been a problem that trumped all others. Carmack and Oculus were already working on getting Rift's latency down to levels that would make VR a less nauseating experience for users. This move just means Carmack is finding his work at Oculus more rewarding than at Id. That means we can probably expect great things from Oculus in the near future.

na85 13y ago

At first I was elated, but then I realized I was confusing Carmack with the egotistical John Romero.

blah32497 13y ago

What a strange move. Maybe he wasn't spending enough time at iD and was forced to leave? You'd think his having a leg in gaming and a leg in VR would create a wonderful synergy. Knowing all the in's and out of both worlds he could have insured great integration of Doom 4 with the Oculus rift - making sure iD was on the technological forefront while the Oculus would have a great demo from day 1. (see the Leap Motion for an example of what happens when you don't have a good demo day 1)

10098 13y ago

I'm not sure how to feel about this... He's always been an inspiration to me. But I don't really care about VR tech, and would much rather see Carmack working on games (at id or any other company). But I wish him success anyway.

akurilin 13y ago

John can make real impact on the videogame industry a second time at Oculus, the same couldn't have been said about id. This is a win for everybody.

nicholassmith 13y ago

A developers developer taking the opportunity to flex his wings on something new, what a fantastic turn of events for us all.

eco 13y ago

Off topic but why do so many people capitalize "id" as "iD"? I did myself years ago as well but I have no idea why I did. None of their logos use that capitalization and my memory of the early games is too poor to recall where, if anywhere, it was written like that.

shrikant 13y ago
I've seen this usage in the wild a few times. It makes me twitch just like when someone types out "FireFox".
- maaku 13y ago
  or "BitCoin"
rschmitty 13y ago
I've never seen id written as iD until these comments, so I'm not sure and it looks very odd seeing it that way. I used to write it as Id, though perhaps because I was confused on when to capitalize a name vs a company who writes their name in all lowercase
sjwright 13y ago
Yep, iD is definitely wrong. (And for anyone who pronounces it "eye dee" instead of the correct "idd", you're doubly wrong!)
beedogs 13y ago
Apple Derangement Syndrome, is my guess. To some people, anything beginning with a lowercase "i" has a capitalized second letter by default.

deleted 13y ago

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the_mat 13y ago

This is the end for id. The only thing id has had going for it are Carmack's engines. In recent years his stuff has been as amazing as ever, but so many commercial engines are only a fraction of a step behind, and the difference hardly matters. Design-wise id is a complete mess. They're stuck back in the 1990s. RAGE appears to have had no leadership and no vision, and the actual design work that shipped is amateur-hour at best.

adventured 13y ago
ZeniMax will fold the id software llc, keep anybody worth keeping, and work on making money with the intellectual property (either internally or farming it out). There's nothing else left at id that's worth what ZeniMax paid for the company other than the IP and the game engine. I'm sure they knew the day would come sooner than later that they'd lose the Carmack value factor in id.

benmorris 13y ago

Initially this is depressing until you see where he is going. I think Oculus and VR in general will change the gaming industry.

macspoofing 13y ago

It doesn't seem like an amicable parting. You never want to have a guy like Carmack just leave. He's a giant in your industry, he's popular and highly respected and you gain a lot by having him be associated with your company. So at the very least you give him a honorific title and invite him to all the corporate parties. It didn't seem like this happened here.

squozzer 13y ago

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

BuckRogers 13y ago

This is a good thing. Carmack said at a recent Quakecon that he didn't let us have a light on any gun in Doom 3 because he didn't want another light source in his rendering.. this is a guy who has no business making games. And none of his games have been good for a long time (and they were always pretty bland, Quake was the peak). Having Carmack out of id's games is a good thing. Having him geek out on technical problems without being allowed in game design decisions of any sort is also a good thing.