John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO • Hacker News Board

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#61

Post by untog » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:16 PM UTC

mistercow wrote: post #49

sbarre wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I'd call Google Glass "AR". It's just a small screen in your vision, it doesn't analyze or enhance your existing viewpoint in any way (unless I am mistaken). Cast AR is a better example: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/cast-ar-hands-on-with-jer...

Google Glass could be called a kind of "proto-AR". It could certainly be a first (significant) step toward real AR.

Not really. In terms of AR, Google Glass is doing absolutely nothing new, so it wouldn't be the first.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#62

Post by AndrewDucker » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:18 PM UTC

I've played with an Oculus VR, and I think they're amazing.

But I'm not convinced that they're ready for the mass market yet. Not because of any failing on their part, but because I think that they need games, and controllers, specifically designed to work with VR.

You can't use mouse/keyboard well if you can't see the mouse/keyboard. UIs that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your head around and they stay at the bottom of your vision.

We're going to need a year or two of people producing iterations of new interfaces before we have something that feels really smooth to the average user.

(In the meantime they're great fun to play with.)

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#63

Post by Nogwater » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:18 PM UTC

This is good news for Oculus, but I worry about them having two locations at such an early stage. They're going to have to work very hard to keep everyone on the same page. Hopefully they're not going to split hardware and software development.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#64

Post by wesley » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:21 PM UTC

Nogwater wrote: post #63

This is good news for Oculus, but I worry about them having two locations at such an early stage. They're going to have to work very hard to keep everyone on the same page. Hopefully they're not going to split hardware and software development.

I guess they could do some virtual reality meetings.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#65

Post by btbuildem » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:22 PM UTC

AndrewDucker wrote: post #62

I've played with an Oculus VR, and I think they're amazing. But I'm not convinced that they're ready for the mass market yet. Not because of any failing on their part, but because I think that they need games, and controllers, specifically designed to work with VR. You can't use mouse/keyboard well if you can't see the mouse/keyboard. UIs that float at the bottom of the screen feel very odd when you move your head ar…

Leap Motion?

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#66

Post by AdrianRossouw » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:25 PM UTC

runevault wrote: post #35

tanepiper wrote: post #19

Also seems to be confirmed he's leaving id: http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/07/oculus-rift-john-carmack-...

They've updated it, now looks like he's supposedly still involved with Bethesda/Zenimax. Which at least to me seems weird, since last I knew he did at least a LOT of the work on any new engines himself. Hard to do that if he's busy with being CTO of another company working on the Rift.

he's done the dual executive thing for many many years.

he used to be id first, armadillo airpspace second. now he's occulus first, id second.

it'll only preclude him from doing much programming.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#67

Post by ripter » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:25 PM UTC

mistercow wrote: post #49

sbarre wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I'd call Google Glass "AR". It's just a small screen in your vision, it doesn't analyze or enhance your existing viewpoint in any way (unless I am mistaken). Cast AR is a better example: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/cast-ar-hands-on-with-jer...

Google Glass could be called a kind of "proto-AR". It could certainly be a first (significant) step toward real AR.

Right now your phone is as much AR as the google glass. Now if Google starts letting us use the camera for face recognition we could see some proto AR stuff.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#68

Post by dynjo » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:25 PM UTC

I own an Oculus and even before I read this I knew it was the next big step in gaming, now it is beyond question.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#69

Post by agentultra » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:26 PM UTC

deletes wrote: post #46

Looks like the http://www.oculusvr.com/careers/ is offline. It seems a lot of people want to work with John.

Of course they would... smart people tend to want to be around people smarter than they are.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#70

Post by nsxwolf » Wed, Aug 07, 2013, 3:30 PM UTC

sbarre wrote: post #36

daraul wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Augmented Reality. For a good example of current projects representing each field: Virtual Reality - Oculus Rift Augmented Reality - Google Glass AR sits on top of/alongside the real world, where VR tries to replace it.

I'm not sure I'd call Google Glass "AR". It's just a small screen in your vision, it doesn't analyze or enhance your existing viewpoint in any way (unless I am mistaken). Cast AR is a better example: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/18/cast-ar-hands-on-with-jer...

A smartphone is a better AR platform than Google Glass because you can hold it up directly in front of your field of vision and use AR apps.

Google Glass is wearable, but the display position is fixed relative to your head. You have to look up to see the screen, so unless you tilt your head down in some awkward manner to point to what you want the AR overlay on, it won't work. Not a very good AR experience.