Gaming legend John Carmack joins Oculus Rift as CTO

Shawn Knight

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id Software co-founder John Carmack has officially joined the Oculus Rift team as chief technology officer. The gaming pioneer will be working with the virtual reality headset of the same name on a full-time basis at the company’s new office in Dallas, Texas.

In a press release, Carmack said the dream of virtual reality has been simmering in the background for decades but now, the people and the technology are finally coming together to allow it to reach the potential many have imagined. He said he was extremely excited to make a mark in what he believes will be a transformative technology.

A Bethesda spokesperson told Gamasutra that John has been interested in working at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. Furthermore, the leadership that he provides for games in development at iD Software is unaffected. Meanwhile, an Oculus spokesperson noted Carmack was a full-time employee at Oculus VR.

Carmack has been in cahoots with the Oculus Rift team for at least a year. During an interview in June of 2012, he said he was hard at work on a virtual reality headset and spent most of his time demonstrating it with Doom 3 BFG Edition at last year’s E3 convention. The headset eventually hit Kickstarter and raised nearly $2.5 million. The rest, as they say, is history.

Last we heard, the company planned to bring the Oculus Rift to market at a target price of $300. A commercial release date, however, has not been set.

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With John Carmack there we can safely say that it will be at least profitable if not a huge success. Loved his really loooooong keynotes this year.
 
This should mean the oculus rift will be pushing its way into peoples homes faster with a better quality product!
 
Oculus has one major flaw in my opinion, and it's that I (users) can't look around the display.

By that, I mean that if I want to type something on the keyboard to my friends I have to lift/remove the display to find the keys since I'm the hunt and peck type of keyboarder. Or if I want to get a drink from a cup on my desk I have risk knocking it over and grab blindly in air for the cup or lift the display and find locate the cup before I pick it up.

I think that this can be corrected through a button or some other interaction to switch the display to a camera that can be mounted on the Oculus somewhere to allow temporary vision into your environment. It would be a bonus if that button was pressure sensitive and made the game screen more transparent the harder you press the button.

I just hope that some tester points this out before it goes into production.
 
Oculus has one major flaw in my opinion, and it's that I (users) can't look around the display.

By that, I mean that if I want to type something on the keyboard to my friends I have to lift/remove the display to find the keys since I'm the hunt and peck type of keyboarder. Or if I want to get a drink from a cup on my desk I have risk knocking it over and grab blindly in air for the cup or lift the display and find locate the cup before I pick it up.

I think that this can be corrected through a button or some other interaction to switch the display to a camera that can be mounted on the Oculus somewhere to allow temporary vision into your environment. It would be a bonus if that button was pressure sensitive and made the game screen more transparent the harder you press the button.

I just hope that some tester points this out before it goes into production.

Reverse Google Glass, with a camera showing a small feed of the outside world in the corner of your eye?
 
I look forward to the Rift.. As long as the refresh is fast enough I don't get headaches. As far as typing... Learn how to type. I haven't looked at a keyboard in 30 years. Feel for the F and J keys and off your fingers run.

Getting a drink? Pause the game and remove the headset or use sports bottles in prepared locations. There are always solutions. The whole POINT to the Rift is the immersion effect. If you can see through it or around it, you lose that. I wouldn't see how they could see through it without always having light-bleed issues also. But we'll see I guess. I have no problem popping up a corner of the mask to see something if necessary, especially with twins running around the house.

I just want them to stop mucking about with it and release it already!!! Drift with Rift! COMEON! Save me from buying my other 2 monitors!!!
 
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