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John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

arstechnica.com

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Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#71

Post by mywittyname »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13
nicolaslem wrote: post #3

> allowing for a randomly discovered shrink wrapped headset twenty years from now to be able to update to the final software version, long after over-the-air update servers have been shut down. This resonates so much with me. Each time I setup a new device that requires an Internet connection, I think about how we can enjoy booting 30 years old retro computers and how the next generation will not be able to do the sa…

This is why I still try so hard to buy physical copies of games, and if there is a GOTY Edition, to have the DLC be on-disk , as opposed to being a bunch of download vouchers. I wanna be able to play the freaking game in ten years without worrying about whether the game/console's online service is still available to do some mandatory authentication or version check.

Unfortunately, a lot of new releases need a 0-day patch to be playable. It's basically an anti-piracy/anti-early release measure.

So if you really want to preserve a game on disk, you pretty much have to pick up another copy stamped at a later date to include all of the patches.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#72

Post by sillysaurusx »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #28

John Carmack working for Facebook is such a huge loss for mankind :(. It makes me sad every time I think about it.

People keep talking like he's focused solely on Facebook.

He does AGI research. He's sent me screenshots of his experiments.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#73

Post by kfprt »

dewey wrote: post #57
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I still try so hard to buy physical copies of games, and if there is a GOTY Edition, to have the DLC be on-disk , as opposed to being a bunch of download vouchers. I wanna be able to play the freaking game in ten years without worrying about whether the game/console's online service is still available to do some mandatory authentication or version check.

> This is why I still try so hard to buy physical copies of games Aren't these also subject to disk rot?

Disk rot is slower than online service rot. The other day I tried FC3 blood dragon and it had an error because they shut the servers down. It hasn't even been 10 years.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#75

Post by barkingcat »

rob74 wrote: post #66
freediver wrote: post #9

Imagining that future is about people wearing VR devices on their head (even as minimal as a pair of glasses) is hard to grasp. "In their head" would be a different matter but that is not what the current technology is focusing on (apart from Neuralink). Edit: not propagating for any such vision the future! just noticing that wearing stuff on head would be clunky and impractical for true immersion.

A VR world controlled by Facebook sounds dystopian enough already - now imagine the same with neural implants...

imagine if other people's "likes" and "angry face" are broadcasted into your neurons directly

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#76

Post by kfprt »

CobaltFire wrote: post #53
gibbonsrcool wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if we required lifetime warranties for everything? By lifetime I mean human lifetime, not lifetime if the device. It sounds crazy when thinking how it’d work out in practice, especially with electronics, but we need drastic action like this to respond to climate change.

This would completely close markets to new entrants. As an inventor I can't financially hope to support a device for a human lifetime and break even, much less profit. Right to repair and allowing these things to be legally opened and hacked by the end user is the right way, not burdening every manufacturer with unrealistic support laws. For an example, look at military equipment costs. 20 year support is often built…

Declare abandonment and open source all documentation and code. This should get you out of the human lifetime burden.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#77

Post by mywittyname »

spicybright wrote: post #26
londons_explore wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As systems get more complex, cracking/emulating them gets more effort. We already see this in old stuff. DOS games run great in dosbox, because the IBM PC was pretty simple. Same with the gameboy, snes, etc. When you get to more modern things like Windows 98 games, PS3 games, xbox360 games... Most of those are much harder to emulate/crack/archive. They have more complex copy protection schemes, interact more deeply w…

We need a law to require the removal of DRM after 10 years. That's more than fair for how fast hardware and games currently move.

I don't think we need a law, we just need businesses to stay greedy.

DRM licenses are kind of expensive and it's hard to publishers to justify the added cost of DRM after the initial release, when they've made 80% of the revenue for the game. So they often (though, not always) get patched out eventually.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#78

Post by sillysaurusx »

amackera wrote: post #63
dyingkneepad wrote: post #28

John Carmack working for Facebook is such a huge loss for mankind :(. It makes me sad every time I think about it.

I admire and respect John Carmack for his role in the history of computing (and his ongoing contributions), but I don't see how making 3D video games was really helping humanity more than this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Carmack made multiple fundamental breakthroughs in 3D graphics. Not only that, but he consistently positioned himself to commercialize those, which is not easy. His Quake 3 engine was the bread and butter of Id Software, generating billions in revenue.

In recent times, he's done coronavirus simulations (I don't know anything else about that), and is doing AGI research.

He's also a true hacker through and through. Simply having an example like his, as a model to follow, is helping humanity. I happen to be human, and I distinctly remember his .plan files influencing my decisions in a positive way since I was 13 or so.

(The line about getting a hotel and accomplishing as much as possible in 2 days of focused effort was particularly impactful.)

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#79

Post by mywittyname »

kfprt wrote: post #70
metagame wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have a few reasoning errors in your comment: The PS3 and 360 aren't actually harder to emulate because they have more complex copy protection; they're hard to emulate because they're very novel systems (hardware-wise) and developers had to use all sorts of tricks, which is something their successors are not. Meanwhile, the PS4 is literally just a PC and already has a pretty good emulator (if early), becau…

PS4 has a PS specific graphics API.

This is probably beneficial, as it provides a clean interface for emulation writers to target.

Part of the intent on getting developers to use these APIs as much as possible is to make forward-porting / "legitimate" emulation of games easier.

Re: John Carmack pushes out unlocked OS for defunct Oculus Go headset

#80

Post by kfprt »

mywittyname wrote: post #79
kfprt wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS4 has a PS specific graphics API.

This is probably beneficial, as it provides a clean interface for emulation writers to target. Part of the intent on getting developers to use these APIs as much as possible is to make forward-porting / "legitimate" emulation of games easier.

Ideally you could map API calls to Vulkan but it would still be a huge amount of work.
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