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John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

oculusvr.com

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Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#111

Post by coldpie »

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…

I agree with you, but what I found really encouraging was how apparently easy it is to get your 3D game working on the Oculus. I play iRacing.com, and they released official support for the Oculus in their shipped product less than a month after receiving their devkit. That kind of turnaround is really impressive to me. I'm really excited to see what Oculus decides to release as their final product.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#112

Post by pinchyfingers »

angersock wrote: post #7

So, let me say this much: Fuck. Yes. Quake 3 had stereoscopic rendering in the source back before anybody really cared, and Carmack has had long involvement both in consumer 3D graphics as well as vendor relations. Long-short is that if you look at the code the dude has shipped, he really cares about things being both technically correct and worth hacking on. This is a really good move, and if they end up picking Mik…

Yep. Something is right in the world. The future is suddenly looking really good.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#113

Post by swax »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #104
LandoCalrissian wrote: post #42

John Carmack believes in the tech, and I believe in John Carmack, so I will be getting one. He has basically been with them since the beginning in some capacity, here is a video of him demoing a unit at E3 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-DlWwlXHo You can see that one is still a very early prototype held together with duct tape. It's not specifically stated, but it sounds like he will be leaving id for this.…

The dev kit is not yet consumer ready, but it does show a glimpse of the future. The (low) resolution of the screen on the dev kit is really distracting, but more importantly we are still learning about the control schemes. Right now, it is very hard/disorienting to play FPSs on the rift (IMNSHO).

I've done work to translate familiar 2d fps aim views to 3d and it feels very natural. I had tons of people at QuakeCon jumping right in a fragging just as well as they do in 2d. If you have a rift you can try it - https://github.com/swax/Quakespasm-Rift

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#114

Post by Dn_Ab »

mistercow wrote: post #16
angersock wrote: post #7

So, let me say this much: Fuck. Yes. Quake 3 had stereoscopic rendering in the source back before anybody really cared, and Carmack has had long involvement both in consumer 3D graphics as well as vendor relations. Long-short is that if you look at the code the dude has shipped, he really cares about things being both technically correct and worth hacking on. This is a really good move, and if they end up picking Mik…

From his blog, Abrash seems to be much more interested in AR than VR, and seems to lean toward VR being a parallel (but mutually supportive) path to AR, rather than a step along the way. Also, I think Newell might offer Abrash the entire company before he lets him slip away from Valve.

I think he is focusing on VR. Though he prefers AR, he does not consider it as productive a way to spend one's efforts in the near term.

"So my personal opinion (which is not necessarily Valve’s) is that it makes sense to do VR now, and push it forward as quickly as possible, but at the same time to continue research into the problems unique to AR, with an eye to tilting more and more toward AR over time as it matures. As I said, it’s not the definitive answer we’d all like, but it’s where my thinking has led me. However, I’ve encountered intelligent opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other, and I look forward to continuing the discussion in the comments."

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-int...

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#115

Post by jasonkolb »

mistercow wrote: post #16
angersock wrote: post #7

So, let me say this much: Fuck. Yes. Quake 3 had stereoscopic rendering in the source back before anybody really cared, and Carmack has had long involvement both in consumer 3D graphics as well as vendor relations. Long-short is that if you look at the code the dude has shipped, he really cares about things being both technically correct and worth hacking on. This is a really good move, and if they end up picking Mik…

From his blog, Abrash seems to be much more interested in AR than VR, and seems to lean toward VR being a parallel (but mutually supportive) path to AR, rather than a step along the way. Also, I think Newell might offer Abrash the entire company before he lets him slip away from Valve.

If you look at some of the recent demos with the Oculus you'll see that AR is not necessarily mutually exclusive with a full field of vision headset. Some of the most exciting demos in my opinion involve moving around in a real physical space while wearing the headset. The headset shows a digital re-creation of the physical space along with anything else that the developer wants to overlay onto to the scene. You're basically using the physical world as a skeleton on which you can hang the digital meat. Check out this kickstarter for example: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/62367895/atlas-virtual-r...

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#116

Post by mistercow »

untog wrote: post #61
mistercow wrote: post #49

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.

Google is putting "screen that overlays with your vision constantly", as a real thing that you can actually have, further into the public consciousness than it has ever been before. They even have a real shot at making it popular.

Without that initial step, it's hard to see any practical path to AR actually becoming a reality.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#117

Post by thenomad »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #104
LandoCalrissian wrote: post #42

John Carmack believes in the tech, and I believe in John Carmack, so I will be getting one. He has basically been with them since the beginning in some capacity, here is a video of him demoing a unit at E3 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-DlWwlXHo You can see that one is still a very early prototype held together with duct tape. It's not specifically stated, but it sounds like he will be leaving id for this.…

The dev kit is not yet consumer ready, but it does show a glimpse of the future. The (low) resolution of the screen on the dev kit is really distracting, but more importantly we are still learning about the control schemes. Right now, it is very hard/disorienting to play FPSs on the rift (IMNSHO).

The solutions to this problem might be really odd.

Personally, I've been testing the Wii Balance Board as a useful input device for the Rift - and it's showing some promise.

One tester did describe my test game as "Dungeon Segway Challenge", but we're getting there slowly...

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#118

Post by thenomad »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #95
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…

> 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. I haven't used an Oculus, but just thinking about it I suspect the solution is going to be to locate HUD elements in world space locked to the player's position.

Yup, that's what Minecraft VR did - and it works well.

Re: John Carmack joins Oculus as CTO

#120

Post by untog »

mistercow wrote: post #116
untog wrote: 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.

Google is putting "screen that overlays with your vision constantly", as a real thing that you can actually have, further into the public consciousness than it has ever been before. They even have a real shot at making it popular. Without that initial step, it's hard to see any practical path to AR actually becoming a reality.

Without that initial step, it's hard to see any practical path to AR actually becoming a reality.

Only if you consider AR to be something that is 'always on'. There are a ton of applications that do not require that.

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