Wow, I'm just now seeing this news. Initially, I had that <i>sinking feeling</i> set in... I mean, like you, I have been impacted by his story, his games (not just the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake franchises... I'm talking Commander Keen, boys and girls), his code, reading <i>Masters of Doom</i>, etc.<p>I can see my copy of <i>Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book Special Edition</i> sitting here, which was such a treat to read when it came out, because it has so many great chapters on the development of Quake and little stories about John's discoveries and thought processes throughout the development of the game.<p>But, then I thought... wait... <i>this is a new beginning.</i> I wrote about this previously, but, look for gaming to start heading in the direction of VR with technology like Oculus Rift. Also, with someone of the caliber of John Carmack involved (now totally focused on it because of the resignation announcement) with not only his passion and skill, but his ability to work with graphics hardware manufacturers and driver developers to effect change and garner the necessary support and backing, expect to see vibrant, compelling developments in this field.<p>In case you missed it, check this video out of John discussing some of his VR work. It is from E3 2012:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg</a><p>That momentary sinking feeling has faded away now... great things are ahead!
This is <i>fantastic</i> news.<p>I loved Id back in the day. When all it took for a game studio to be great was the most advanced code, Id was king! Then FPS games became more like movies, and Id became a bit like Michael Bay. They still pushed the technology forward, but almost everyone was making FPS's that had better plots, characters, etc.. The technologies Id licenses to other game studios are put to better use by them than in Id's own hands!<p>VR has been around for decades, but it has always <i>sucked</i>. Low resolution displays and poor head-tracking have historically been problems, but <i>latency</i> has long been a problem that trumped all others. Carmack and Oculus were already working on getting Rift's latency down to levels that would make VR a less nauseating experience for users.<p>This move just means Carmack is finding his work at Oculus more rewarding than at Id. That means we can probably expect great things from Oculus in the near future.
I think this check had been in the mail for a while. He is clearly far more excited these days about VR and where it can go. I'm sure he has more than enough money too to never have to worry about working again if he wanted.<p>I really wish him the best of luck, truly one of my favorite people in tech. I hope we still can get his annual keynotes, because they are great to listen to.
First Winamp, and now John Carmack leaves id. This has been a brutal week.<p>On one hand, it's exciting to see John working on VR tech. I really do hope we see something amazing out of it. But it still feels wrong, an id Software without Carmack. Hopefully they can continue on and reclaim some of their former glory as well, and let's hope Carmack keeps in the spotlight.
Obligatory mention of "Masters of DOOM", the biography of Johns Carmack and Romero:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...</a><p>Like reading iWoz... a lot of stories of brilliant engineering at an elite level.
This is the end for id.<p>The only thing id has had going for it are Carmack's engines. In recent years his stuff has been as amazing as ever, but so many commercial engines are only a fraction of a step behind, and the difference hardly matters.<p>Design-wise id is a complete mess. They're stuck back in the 1990s. RAGE appears to have had no leadership and no vision, and the actual design work that shipped is amateur-hour at best.
This makes me happy. I have a feeling that iD were dragging John down. He could always make a brilliant tech that they somehow always failed to makes decent game of after q3 arena.<p>I really hope that he will be able to push the limits of possible about graphics technology once again.
Very happy for John - his early days were at the very forefront of PC game development and while iD still does great stuff, video gaming is in a very stable, iterative place right now.<p>Hopefully chasing this VR dream will take him back to those early pioneering days.
> John's work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete.<p>So he's leaving just before starting to work on the voxel/polygon id Tech 6 hybrid gaming engine. Darn it!<p><a href="http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybrid-rendering.html" rel="nofollow">http://raytracey.blogspot.com/2008/08/carmack-id-tech-6-hybr...</a><p>Hopefully id Software will continue that without him, but I doubt it.
Carmack is going full-time and the company is doing a lot of hiring...<p><a href="https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/" rel="nofollow">https://careers.oculusvr.com/jobs/</a><p>I'm not into VR, but this could be one of those "this changes everything" moments.
Off topic but why do so many people capitalize "id" as "iD"? I did myself years ago as well but I have no idea why I did. None of their logos use that capitalization and my memory of the early games is too poor to recall where, if anywhere, it was written like that.
It's bittersweet for me. I grew up with id games and John Carmack has just always been there as id's genius programmer guy. Feels like the end of an era.<p>On the other hand, John Carmack is working full time for Oculus VR!
John can make real impact on the videogame industry a second time at Oculus, the same couldn't have been said about id. This is a win for everybody.
It doesn't seem like an amicable parting. You never want to have a guy like Carmack just leave. He's a giant in your industry, he's popular and highly respected and you gain a lot by having him be associated with your company. So at the very least you give him a honorific title and invite him to all the corporate parties. It didn't seem like this happened here.
Sounds like good news - I'd rather see him working on core technologies that can benefit all games than working on iD's games, which I'd characterize as merely being "pretty good" (albeit very technically impressive).
In the early days of PC gaming John Carmack was a genius, and Quake 3 was his masterpiece. I guess he is still a genius, but from an outsider's perspective the advancements he has made since then don't seem to changed the world in the same way.<p>Graphics get prettier, but gameplay stays the same, or even gets worse because the prettier graphics require higher budgets which require lowest-common-denominator appeal to recoup.<p>So it's good that he is trying something truly new now, where he has a chance to make a difference again.
It will be interesting to see how the future pans out for both companies. John Carmack is a brilliant person and I think that Oculus VR will do very well with him on board full time.
This is a good thing. Carmack said at a recent Quakecon that he didn't let us have a light on any gun in Doom 3 because he didn't want another light source in his rendering..<p>this is a guy who has no business making games. And none of his games have been good for a long time (and they were always pretty bland, Quake was the peak).<p>Having Carmack out of id's games is a good thing. Having him geek out on technical problems without being allowed in game design decisions of any sort is also a good thing.
What a strange move. Maybe he wasn't spending enough time at iD and was forced to leave?<p>You'd think his having a leg in gaming and a leg in VR would create a wonderful synergy. Knowing all the in's and out of both worlds he could have insured great integration of Doom 4 with the Oculus rift - making sure iD was on the technological forefront while the Oculus would have a great demo from day 1.<p>(see the Leap Motion for an example of what happens when you don't have a good demo day 1)
I'm not sure how to feel about this... He's always been an inspiration to me. But I don't really care about VR tech, and would much rather see Carmack working on games (at id or any other company). But I wish him success anyway.
Am I the only one surprised to find that Carmack was still working for iD? I had thought his taking a position with OculusVR implied his departure months ago.
It's a little sad news but exciting as well. I'd rather see John's mind helping push VR/AR and 'cheaper/nimbler/entrepeneurial/hacker-maker/DIY' aerospace forward than churning out yet another 3D FPS game. We have tons of great games/engines of that type already to choose from, and lots of great people continuing to work in that space.