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"And I had argued for it a long time. I wrote so many of these multi-page emails about how important it was. But once we had it so people could see and see that

"And I had argued for it a long time. I wrote so many of these multi-page emails about how important it was. But once we had it so people could see and see that it really does work, then Samsung went and wrote a proper interface for it." Wow, I really have to admire his patience. While reading this I was even thinking "They are arguing with John Carmack about what he needs to get the graphics right? Who do they think they are?!" and I am not him. I would never have the patience for this. That must be like my grandma arguing with me about programming.

fidotron 12y ago
I too admire his patience, but outside of the games and graphics industries and PC gaming community he is a relative obscurity. The other people involved are from other worlds with different idols.
- pyre 12y ago
  Surely he doesn't need to be an idol or hero to someone for his accomplishments and skills to be acknowledged.
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    His largest achievements were years ago, though. Doom was one, Quake another, and Quake 3 probably the last big step. Afterwards, he hasn't distinguished himself so much (I don't think Rage was very impressive, for example), so unless you keep pushing the limits every single time, your reputation can fade quickly.
    - teamonkey 12y ago
      The Doom 3 engine was impressive at the time for its dynamic lighting and shadows. He also developed megatextures for Rage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTexture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTexture
      - ekianjo 12y ago
        I don't know if you could the Doom 3 tech impressive - I always found that at the time, it looked like a dirty hack rather than being genuinely impressive. Later games with soft shadows looked much better. And for Rage I'm aware of the megatextures, but that looked horrible for anything that was close to you - again a failed tech. EDIT: interesting, getting downvoted because I wasn't impressed by Carmack's later productions?
        Negitivefrags 12y ago
        Megatexture was simply a technology before it's time. The problem is that there just isn't a way to ship the data set right now that you need to support it properly. The hardware is there, the infrastructure is not. They really needed to ship several hundred gigs of textures to do it justice. Right now you can't realistically deliver that to players. Now certainly basing a game off a technology that isn't ready for prime time is a mistake, but the technology itself is very impressive and the underlying concept will come back when the internet is fast enough that you can realistically expect someone to download a half terabyte game.
        ekianjo 12y ago
        > Now certainly basing a game off a technology that isn't ready for prime time is a mistake, but the technology itself is very impressive and the underlying concept will come back when the internet is fast enough that you can realistically expect someone to download a half terabyte game. Well I agree with your statement, but I'm not sure the tech is worth it in the end. The current tech is advancing faster than the Megatexture one, and by the time the Megatexture becomes a reality again, we won't need it anymore. Look at all games coming out in 1 to 2 years, they look fantastic while still relying on traditional texture concepts. On a side note, it did not help to sell the technology that Rage was a notoriously bad game (just like Doom3, but hey, it's not a popular opinion apparently not to like having monsters jumping at you right when you open a door).
        teamonkey 12y ago
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    In the typical enterprise world, like Samsung might be, that doesn't matter much.
2muchcoffeeman 12y ago
It's good to know that even John Carmack has to deal with this sort of thing though. It's not just us lowly programmers, even the legends get hassled.
- Joeri 12y ago
  He is also by his own admission still learning about programming: On the software development side, you know there was an interesting thing at E3, one of the interviews I gave, I had mentioned something about how I’ve been learning a whole lot, and I’m a better programmer now than I was a year ago and the interviewer expressed a lot of surprise at that, you know after 20 years and going through all of this that you’d have it all figured out by now, but I actually have been learning quite a bit about software development, both on the personal craftsman level but also paying more attention by what it means on the team dynamics side of things. https://blogs.uw.edu/ajko/2012/08/22/john-carmack-discusses-the-art-and-science-of-software-engineering/ https://blogs.uw.edu/ajko/2012/08/22/john-carmack-discusses-...
staunch 12y ago
This is one of John Carmack's great skills. Over the years he has steered the entire industry towards improving itself. He's probably sent thousands of emails to Intel, Microsoft, AMD, NVIDIA, OpenGL, etc. He's one of the greatest driving forces in computing advancement. Millions of people upgraded their computers from 1996-2001 almost exclusively to play his games. He's probably responsible for more sold NVIDIA and Intel chips than any single person outside those companies.

fidotron 12y ago

I too admire his patience, but outside of the games and graphics industries and PC gaming community he is a relative obscurity. The other people involved are from other worlds with different idols.

pyre 12y ago
Surely he doesn't need to be an idol or hero to someone for his accomplishments and skills to be acknowledged.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  His largest achievements were years ago, though. Doom was one, Quake another, and Quake 3 probably the last big step. Afterwards, he hasn't distinguished himself so much (I don't think Rage was very impressive, for example), so unless you keep pushing the limits every single time, your reputation can fade quickly.
  - teamonkey 12y ago
    The Doom 3 engine was impressive at the time for its dynamic lighting and shadows. He also developed megatextures for Rage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTexture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTexture
    - ekianjo 12y ago
      I don't know if you could the Doom 3 tech impressive - I always found that at the time, it looked like a dirty hack rather than being genuinely impressive. Later games with soft shadows looked much better. And for Rage I'm aware of the megatextures, but that looked horrible for anything that was close to you - again a failed tech. EDIT: interesting, getting downvoted because I wasn't impressed by Carmack's later productions?
      - Negitivefrags 12y ago
        Megatexture was simply a technology before it's time. The problem is that there just isn't a way to ship the data set right now that you need to support it properly. The hardware is there, the infrastructure is not. They really needed to ship several hundred gigs of textures to do it justice. Right now you can't realistically deliver that to players. Now certainly basing a game off a technology that isn't ready for prime time is a mistake, but the technology itself is very impressive and the underlying concept will come back when the internet is fast enough that you can realistically expect someone to download a half terabyte game.
        ekianjo 12y ago
        > Now certainly basing a game off a technology that isn't ready for prime time is a mistake, but the technology itself is very impressive and the underlying concept will come back when the internet is fast enough that you can realistically expect someone to download a half terabyte game. Well I agree with your statement, but I'm not sure the tech is worth it in the end. The current tech is advancing faster than the Megatexture one, and by the time the Megatexture becomes a reality again, we won't need it anymore. Look at all games coming out in 1 to 2 years, they look fantastic while still relying on traditional texture concepts. On a side note, it did not help to sell the technology that Rage was a notoriously bad game (just like Doom3, but hey, it's not a popular opinion apparently not to like having monsters jumping at you right when you open a door).
        teamonkey 12y ago
- pjmlp 12y ago
  In the typical enterprise world, like Samsung might be, that doesn't matter much.

2muchcoffeeman 12y ago

It's good to know that even John Carmack has to deal with this sort of thing though. It's not just us lowly programmers, even the legends get hassled.

Joeri 12y ago
He is also by his own admission still learning about programming: On the software development side, you know there was an interesting thing at E3, one of the interviews I gave, I had mentioned something about how I’ve been learning a whole lot, and I’m a better programmer now than I was a year ago and the interviewer expressed a lot of surprise at that, you know after 20 years and going through all of this that you’d have it all figured out by now, but I actually have been learning quite a bit about software development, both on the personal craftsman level but also paying more attention by what it means on the team dynamics side of things. https://blogs.uw.edu/ajko/2012/08/22/john-carmack-discusses-the-art-and-science-of-software-engineering/ https://blogs.uw.edu/ajko/2012/08/22/john-carmack-discusses-...

staunch 12y ago

This is one of John Carmack's great skills. Over the years he has steered the entire industry towards improving itself. He's probably sent thousands of emails to Intel, Microsoft, AMD, NVIDIA, OpenGL, etc. He's one of the greatest driving forces in computing advancement. Millions of people upgraded their computers from 1996-2001 almost exclusively to play his games. He's probably responsible for more sold NVIDIA and Intel chips than any single person outside those companies.