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John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

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Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#61

Post by JVIDEL »

starship wrote: post #52
JVIDEL wrote: post #8

Dude, Carmack was never a consoles guy, he didn't like the Genesis nor the SNES, he didn't like the Playstation, Saturn and N64, etc... If he was excited by nextgen consoles, now THAT would be news...

The 1990's were fifteen years ago. Since then Carmack has spent 60 hours per week writing code for every conceivable console, PC, and mobile platform. Most people in his position would have moved into management by this point, he chose not to. As a result he has more expertise on more topics than just about anyone else in the gaming industry. And more than most in computer science generally. If he has an opinion on s…

I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, he just never liked consoles, he was always a PC guy and if he were truly "excited" about the nextgen that's like hearing Armstrong will quit riding bikes and be a F1 pilot.

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#62

Post by endersshadow »

mortenjorck wrote: post #51
recursive wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I tried playing it, it was a very confusing experience. The built in tutorial was very simple, and the actual game didn't resemble it much at all. I gave up.

I think what has multiplied the confusion factor in the years since it was released (can you believe the game came out in 2007?) is the... culture that has sprung up around it, fueled by a unique feedback loop between fans and Valve. There's this whole strange world of hats, crafting, backstories, inside jokes, Australia, and hats that has coalesced, making it about as culturally daunting for a newcomer as an establi…

At the same time, I can get on and play for 20 minutes with my friend in a different city, and we have a great time on public servers. If you want to get really into it, you can. I haven't spent any additional money on it since I bought it in 2007, and it's still a riot.

Sure, there's some cultural stuff that you'll have to get used to (and will become apparent) as you play more, but it's not nearly as much of a commitment as, say, WoW. A newbie (to the game, not to FPSes) can pick it up and play immediately at a fairly decent level. At the same time, there's a rich culture and stories and little things you can discover, if you care enough to spend the time finding them. If not, you can just blow some stuff up and go about your day.

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#63

Post by freehunter »

heretohelp wrote: post #53
Tycho wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in future games, textures will be loaded and stored on a P2P basis, like how Spotify streams songs from the machines of other users.

Please. No.

Why are you so opposed to this idea? I think it would work well if implemented properly. It's similar to how games like GTA IV work. They don't load a level, they load the immediate area you're looking at. As you drive around, the new maps are streamed from the DVD. Other games have played with loading a small first level, and as you're working through the first level the rest of the game streams into cache behind the scenes.

It would be nice to get a game on a 4GB DVD and have the rest of the data get pulled down as you're playing. Guild Wars did this. While you're in one zone, the next zone is being downloaded in the background. It would only work for geographical regions which don't have caps on Internet traffic (for example, Americans on Comcast, but not Canadians on Rogers), but it'd be a nice option.

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#64

Post by maggit »

gouranga wrote: post #22
phoboslab wrote: post #12

I love how Carmack is constantly pushing the industry forward. He made raycasting engines when everyone else was still doing 2D stuff. He made fully 3D games when everyone else was still using raycasting. He built a game engine with completely dynamic lighting, when everyone else was still relying on lightmaps and some cheap hacks. Arguably Duke Nukem 3D looked better than Quake, but polygonal was the future. Half-Li…

Let us not forget Unreal which was arguably better than quake at the time from a technology standpoint... However, I find that the gaming experience peaked with Unreal Tournament. Its been about appearance over substance since (apart from tribes 2). Stop whinging about the tech and make something fun again!

I misread your comment several times before I consulted Wikipedia to find some clarifications. It might be the case that others need the same clarifications as me, so I might as well post them here:

* Quake was released June 1996

* Quake II was released November 1997

* Unreal was released May 1998

So, the Quake "at that time" is Quake II. Just to clarify :)

"Make something fun" needs no clarification, though. That one needs agreement ;)

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#65

Post by Aldor »

phoboslab wrote: post #12

I love how Carmack is constantly pushing the industry forward. He made raycasting engines when everyone else was still doing 2D stuff. He made fully 3D games when everyone else was still using raycasting. He built a game engine with completely dynamic lighting, when everyone else was still relying on lightmaps and some cheap hacks. Arguably Duke Nukem 3D looked better than Quake, but polygonal was the future. Half-Li…

Didn't Half-Life 2 have dynamic lighting?

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#66

Post by Aldor »

Argorak wrote: post #41
Negitivefrags wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rage was a huge shame (tech wise). They needed to be able to ship more data to make the tech really shine. The game was 3 DVDs as it was but it needed to something more like 8 or 9 DVDs. It just feels like such a shame for the graphics to look bad for want of the ability to ship data to the customer.

Hm. I only played the PS3 version, but was actually impressed by the graphics. Not only does it look great, it runs smooth as butter, especially when moving. I don't think the Rage engine was ever built for still shots, but in movement, it think it is gorgeous.

Yeah, if looked really good, but all the textures (on PC at least) were extremely low-res, and it was distracting.

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#67

Post by tfb »

neutronicus wrote: post #28
gouranga wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let us not forget Unreal which was arguably better than quake at the time from a technology standpoint... However, I find that the gaming experience peaked with Unreal Tournament. Its been about appearance over substance since (apart from tribes 2). Stop whinging about the tech and make something fun again!

The orignal UT was so fun. The later ones tried to be Halo and suffered for it.

I actually still play UT99 daily! There's still a fairly competitive community where we hold tournaments and stuff.

Plus, I'm developing something (long-awaited) for UT99 called NewNet (similar to Lotus's UT2004 UTComp mod) that eliminates all movement lag and simulates zero ping server-side. And at some point I'd love to create something similar to QuakeLive (Quake via the browser, with tons of stats tracking and stuff) for UT99.

For a 13 year old game, it's still more fun than most games out there if you ignore the trolls.

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#68

Post by gouranga »

tfb wrote: post #67
neutronicus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The orignal UT was so fun. The later ones tried to be Halo and suffered for it.

I actually still play UT99 daily! There's still a fairly competitive community where we hold tournaments and stuff. Plus, I'm developing something (long-awaited) for UT99 called NewNet (similar to Lotus's UT2004 UTComp mod) that eliminates all movement lag and simulates zero ping server-side. And at some point I'd love to create something similar to QuakeLive (Quake via the browser, with tons of stats tracking and st…

Great stuff. Might dig out my CD later!

Thanks for keeping it going :)

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#69

Post by gouranga »

maggit wrote: post #64
gouranga wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let us not forget Unreal which was arguably better than quake at the time from a technology standpoint... However, I find that the gaming experience peaked with Unreal Tournament. Its been about appearance over substance since (apart from tribes 2). Stop whinging about the tech and make something fun again!

I misread your comment several times before I consulted Wikipedia to find some clarifications. It might be the case that others need the same clarifications as me, so I might as well post them here: * Quake was released June 1996 * Quake II was released November 1997 * Unreal was released May 1998 So, the Quake "at that time" is Quake II. Just to clarify :) "Make something fun" needs no clarification, though. That on…

fair point! I'll give you that :)

Re: John Carmack "not all that excited" by next-gen hardware

#70

Post by tfb »

gouranga wrote: post #68
tfb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually still play UT99 daily! There's still a fairly competitive community where we hold tournaments and stuff. Plus, I'm developing something (long-awaited) for UT99 called NewNet (similar to Lotus's UT2004 UTComp mod) that eliminates all movement lag and simulates zero ping server-side. And at some point I'd love to create something similar to QuakeLive (Quake via the browser, with tons of stats tracking and st…

Great stuff. Might dig out my CD later! Thanks for keeping it going :)

If anyone is interested in our little community, it's mostly on irc.globalgamers.net within the following channels: #tdmpickups, #iPug, #mlut, and #mlig. Basically you join pickup games (aka pugs) - 4v4, 5v5, etc. - using an IRC bot that keeps track of everything, captains choose teams, select a server, everyone enters, ready-up, and may the best fraggers win. And of course hilarity ensues on IRC afterwards. ;)
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