Live data from Hacker News

John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

oculusvr.com

81–90 of 210 posts

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#81
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The 'new' part of Google Glass is likely to be 'being on your face most of the day'.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#82
Is the level of immersion likely coming with the Rift going to really challenge parts of our interest in the 'real world'? Get Thalmic's MYO to the stage where two of them are enough to replace a typical game controller, and virtual worlds might be possible that reel us in tight with few physical reminders that it's all not real.

As it is, games, gambling and social networks are sticky enough. I had to drag myself away from Minecraft after trying it, thinking about how I was building a virtual house and garden in a captivating world, while a load of household projects went unfinished in my actual backyard.

Story- or world-driven games like Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire could be incredible.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#83
post #71
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't make assumptions. He could still work at Id as a consultant or continue as a technical director with a diminished role. EDIT: He still works at Id http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/16593/article/john-carmac...

Good to hear. I hope they will finish id Tech 6 some day. I've been sold on sparse voxel octrees since I first heard about them, and I think the super-scalable level of detail would be great for VR as well.

I think in his keynote or graphics talk this year he mentioned that he didn't think that was the way forward anymore.

Don't quote me on that though because a lot of those talks did go over my head.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#84

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?

Omni would be even better.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#85
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Nothing new by default, but its opening up a lot of hardware potential. Its not just a screen and camera that's at eye level, its also setting new social norms that make that acceptable. Even now, Glass isn't far from Bluetooth levels of socially okay, which is say annoying to most but acceptable. Once it reaches that point, I expect AR to be a focal point of development. It only makes sense. A simple street view ove…

A simple street view overlay + wikipedia filter would be basic AR, and that doesn't seem difficult at all.

It would be extremely difficult. It would use a lot of processing power to examine the camera input and attempt to extrapolate positioning for overlayed elements. I'm not sure Glass has that power.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#86

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.

Honestly, I think they would be better off doing their hardware development here in Dallas.[1] This area is much less expensive than Irvine, already has a strong hardware development presence with supporting companies, and a decent second-tier university whose EE department has a strong semiconductor/telecom/signal processing focus.

[1] I say this out of enlightened self-interest. :)

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#87
post #57

Maybe he can start by helping with their website database...

web programming is not the entirety of programming. They're making virtual reality actually happen, and you're effectively complaining that a poster fell down.

Mea culpa. I was just trying to make a joke.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#88
post #36
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...

AR is any augmentation of senses, so a wristwatch is AR for your sense of time for instance. Google glass doesn't do predator-vision, but it can augment stuff like memory or positional awareness.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Carmack is a workaholic of legendary productivity. If there are truly 10x programmers out there, he is undoubtedly one. Another important point is that it's not games he develops, it's game engines . Other people do most of the game logic and design. Working on a 3d display for those engines doesn't seem so far removed from that, and of potential value to future id/ZeniMax work.

I remember reading his .plan files in the 90s; the amount of work he would do in a single day was utterly insane.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#90

Wow, what a coup! Instant and absolute legitimacy. They are in for the long haul. This is going to be real stuff. As a fanatic of 360 photography and video, this is simply fantastic to see. The oculus has the potential to challenge what we have known as TV for half a century.

I would have my doubts about 3D revolutionising TV, as TV makers and content creators don't seem to be getting the reaction they'd hoped for from consumers. A lot of 3D movies are gimmicky, and some heavyweight directors like Christopher Nolan and Michael Scorsese have said it doesn't add anything to the storytelling nature of movies (unlike say IMAX).

Gaming, on the other hand, will be simply amazing on the Rift, especially first person shooters. That's one of the reasons it's so exciting to see Carmack working on the project.

Post reply on HN