John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#21

Post by the_hoser » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

smusamashah wrote: post #13

Has Occulus ever tried electromagnetic motion sensors. Sixense probably did that once, thought they never went into production but they said it was super precise and has very low latency. Occulus is tracking motion with camera which is way more CPU intensive than calculating position based on electromagnetic signals. One trouble they had though that it wouldnt work well with high energy electric items nearby. So dooe…

The problem with magnetic tracking is distance. Unless the motion you're tracking is in a relatively small space, you need a terribly powerful magnet to overcome background EMI, and that introduces problems of its own.

Adding compute power to compensate is a much easier problem to solve.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#22

Post by test1235 » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 2:06 PM UTC

dougmwne wrote: post #20

This talk was such a treat. After all the carefuly crafted hype from Zuck and the gang, Carmack threw huge bucket of cold water on everything. I think it's just wonderful that he's allowed to speak so openly, about the things he's proud of, the things he thinks are failures, internal politics, the possibilities for improvement, the real hard physical limits VR is running into, and his growing pessimism for the future…

>I could really hear it in his talk why he moved on to spend more time on his next passion

what is he moving onto?

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#23

Post by aantix » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 2:09 PM UTC

test1235 wrote: post #22

dougmwne wrote: post #20

This talk was such a treat. After all the carefuly crafted hype from Zuck and the gang, Carmack threw huge bucket of cold water on everything. I think it's just wonderful that he's allowed to speak so openly, about the things he's proud of, the things he thinks are failures, internal politics, the possibilities for improvement, the real hard physical limits VR is running into, and his growing pessimism for the future…

>I could really hear it in his talk why he moved on to spend more time on his next passion what is he moving onto?

AGI, artificial general intelligence as an independent researcher.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#24

Post by dougmwne » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 2:23 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #8

Would anyone be so kind as to enumerate some of the things he talks about?

It's a wide ranging and frank talk on the many technical and management challenges that come with creating a cutting-edge product. His bits about latency and compromise should be required reading in all Compsci curriculums.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#25

Post by jokoon » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 2:31 PM UTC

I see many developers betting on VR. I could see it happening everywhere but at home.

At best VR somehow is a perfect argument on why people should play escape games or paintball/airsoft. It sound like a second version of the google glass.

You just need to use some common logic: a video game works on a screen. It's too difficult to add new sensors. You cannot bridge reality and virtuality. You either have a video game or a normal game/toy/puzzle, you cannot have both.

Maybe the military will come up with new sensors, but until then, I would not bet on VR.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#26

Post by thomasfortes » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:24 PM UTC

aantix wrote: post #23

test1235 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I could really hear it in his talk why he moved on to spend more time on his next passion what is he moving onto?

AGI, artificial general intelligence as an independent researcher.

He was complaining a couple days ago in twitter that he couldn't buy a ton of expensive gpu machines on GCP as an independent researcher, but being John Carmack someone from google stepped up and fixed it for him.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#27

Post by dougmwne » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:25 PM UTC

fsiefken wrote: post #18

k__ wrote: post #3

I thought he locked himself up in a cabin in the woods and tried to get into AI lately.

A bit like in Ex Machina? It would be cool to have a GPT-3 cloud powered clippy like guide in the Quest2, not only responding verbally but non-verbally as well.

Not only that, but he's said his primary interest is in embodied AI.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#28

Post by sbarre » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:34 PM UTC

scott31 wrote: post #16

twic wrote: post #8

Would anyone be so kind as to enumerate some of the things he talks about?

He does not talk about the most important topic: required facebook login to use the device

Because he probably has nothing to do with that decision.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#29

Post by gonehome » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

I think his point about latency is a big one.

I suspect a lot of the problems with videochat (and VR) has to do with this.

Bad latency is frustrating and wears you down, at some point it's not worth attempting to speak up because it's tiring to deal with.

In real life communication transitions between people are fast and you can overlap a bit.

VR could solve the issue of what people are looking at least which I think is the other issue, though I'm not sure how well avatars will fit in for that.

Re: John Carmack’s presentation at Facebook Connect [video]

#30

Post by wlesieutre » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #25

I see many developers betting on VR. I could see it happening everywhere but at home. At best VR somehow is a perfect argument on why people should play escape games or paintball/airsoft. It sound like a second version of the google glass. You just need to use some common logic: a video game works on a screen. It's too difficult to add new sensors. You cannot bridge reality and virtuality. You either have a video gam…

VR games are great at home already. I'm not sure I understand your common logic about video games working on a screen.

Is playing real paintball more immersive and real than playing VR paintball in Rec Room? Of course it is. It's also an expensive hobby with a bunch of equipment that requires you to set aside hours of time and drive to a paintball arena.

You can't just jump from "This isn't a 100% faithful reproduction of real life activities" to "This is pointless and will never catch on."

Pong is clearly inspired by ping pong, but you wouldn't have played it in the 70's and said "Pong is not the same as ping pong, video games aren't going anywhere."

Funnily enough, ping pong is one of the more convincing VR experiences because you only need to move in a small area, and the small haptic feedback from the controller is close enough to a ball hitting the paddle. Just don't try to lean on the table, it's not there.