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Update:

The Penny Arcade Report has been able to clarify that Carmack begins working full time for Oculus today, but still has “ties” to id Software, according to Oculus PR. His role in the company he co-founded, if any, is unknown at this point. We'll be following up to see what we can find out about his relationship to the company.

He is working full time for Oculus.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/arti...-cto-of-oculus-vr-retains-ties-to-id-software

----

Just got this PR!

John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO

We have incredible news to share with the community: legendary game programmer John Carmack will be officially joining the Oculus team as our new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

John is one of the brightest minds of our generation -- pioneer, visionary, and industry legend. There are very few people in the world that can contribute to the Oculus Rift and the future of virtual reality like John can.

John put together a short note for the Oculus community:

“I have fond memories of the development work that led to a lot of great things in modern gaming – the intensity of the first person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods, and so on. Duct taping a strap and hot gluing sensors onto Palmer’s early prototype Rift and writing the code to drive it ranks right up there. Now is a special time. I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer. The paradigms that everyone will take for granted in the future are being figured out today; probably by people reading this message. It’s certainly not there yet. There is a lot more work to do, and there are problems we don’t even know about that will need to be solved, but I am eager to work on them. It’s going to be awesome!”

If you’re unfamiliar with John’s background, John co-founded id Software, served as lead programmer on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and the Quake series, and is one of the pioneers of 3D graphics. When John’s not working on revolutionizing video games or computer graphics, he can be found coding at Armadillo Aerospace.

If you’ve been following Oculus since the launch of the Kickstarter campaign (or before that on MTBS3D), you know that John has been a part of the project and a true believer in the future of virtual reality since the beginning. He was the first developer to actually integrate the Rift into a game, back when the hardware was just a hand-held prototype without an SDK.

QuakeCon 2012 Panel - Virtual Insanity
Watch the Video

Palmer, Michael Abrash (Valve), and John discuss virtual reality at QuakeCon 2012.

John will be working from the new Oculus Dallas office that we’re opening soon. We’re looking for a few key hires to help us in Dallas, so if you’re interested, check out the Oculus Careers page.

Please join us in welcoming John to the Oculus family! You can follow John at @ID_AA_Carmack on Twitter.

Happy anniversary to our Kickstarter backers! We've come a long a way in 1 year, and we can't wait to show you where we're headed next. This is just the beginning.

-- Palmer, John and the Oculus team

Well EG is saying he's left id :O

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-07-john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-chief-technology-officer

 

[iMax]

So he's left id?

 

[Jarmel]

How much time is he going to be spending at Oculus? This could be a megaton or just a title on paper.

 

[Smokey]

Wow

 

[benny_a]

So he's left id?

id is located in Dallas county too.

 

[swordfishtrombones]

Awesome, good to see the commitment of a big name with a lot of technical knowhow.

 

[Big_Al]

He could be doing both, the guy is so good he could probably fulfill both roles with ease.

 

[dmr87]

You beat me to it.

 

[$h@d0w]

I'm glad he's onboard the project after the minor 'rift' that was reported earlier in the year.

 

[statham]

whoa.

 

[Cincaid]

Didn't he drop his support earlier due to the device not meeting his somewhat strict latency demands? Or am I hopelessly out of the loop once again?

 

[Dance Inferno]

Damn. Oculus Rift just skyrocketed in my chart of things to possibly buy.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

First time i saw anything occulus related was his interview with Brad from giant bomb previewing the tech. Bodes well for them, given his obsession with latency.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Well EG is saying he's left id :O

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-07-john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-chief-technology-officer

Damn.

Damn. Oculus Rift just skyrocketed in my chart of things to possibly buy.

Same, very eager to get a hands on with it next month at EG Expo.

 

[mckmas8808]

Wow good for the product.

 

[we.are.the.armada]

Impressive!

You beat me to it.

Oh. God. Yes.

 

[Moff]

doom 4 on oculus rift will be a mindblowing experience

 

[Qassim]

This is huge news.

Does this mean his Quakecon talk this year was his last? He also did an extra talk this year especially on lighting and rendering.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Good get for Oculus

 

[bbyybb]

Very interesting news, good to see John join their team.

This is something that aligns more with his interests as of late that he can work on in a full time capacity.

 

[IncandescentPrecept]

id is located in Dallas county too.

Doesn't mean anything. Both company could be in the same building but he won't have time to fulfil both roles.

 

[LiK]

BAM, this is awesome. Oculus with 60fps and a steady framerate!

 

[Insane Metal]

Well EG is saying he's left id :O

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-07-john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-chief-technology-officer

Damn.



Same, very eager to get a hands on with it next month at EG Expo.

WAT

Holy shit. This is huge.

 

[Whitechocolatekrispies]

His games haven't exactly blown us away, graphically or with gameplay ... but his vision and talks are great. This position might just be perfect for him.

Push the tech, talk the talk and let the A teams make the games.

 

[Acheteedo]

He was stagnating at ID, imo, this is a great move for him.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

He clearly had been hitting a wall with progressing 3d engine technology. This makes a lot of sense, and he was super passionate about VR technology way before Oculus was even a thing.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Has he left id?! Oh my

 

[MrKayle]

adds a layer of legitimacy that gets me hyyyyyype

 

[badb0y]

 

[Krusenstern]

Show me your Oculus magick, John.

 

[TheJCAbr]

A great engineer working on a great product?! Hyped.

 

[k_trout]

wow
im kind of sad now

quakecon keynote is my favourite time of the internet year

id software

 

[gofreak]

Holy wow if he's left iD o_0

I guess all these Bethesda contracts are expiring...no sentimental connection left once you've sold up and the contract's fulfilled I guess.

 

[Jarmel]

HOLY SHIT!

id is dead in the water now

 

[maniac-kun]

What he left id? OMG!

Just watched his rendering talk from Quakecon this morning. I Didnt see this comming.

 

[legacyzero]

Are things that bad at id that even Carmack has said Buh-Bye?

You beat me to it.

This GIF has me in tears :lol :lol

 

[KageMaru]

This is huge news.

Does this mean his Quakecon talk this year was his last? He also did an extra talk this year especially on lighting and rendering.

If he really did leave Id, besides his contribution to the game industry, I'm going to miss his talks the most. =(

 

[2MF]

Hopefully this shuts up the people who say he doesn't care about game tech anymore. It's been clear for the past few years that he's very excited about VR stuff.

 

[jett]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

id is dead to me now.

 

[SparkTR]

If Carmack is on board I'll probably get one day 1, there already seems to be a nice selection of games that use it so far.

 

[UrbanRats]

Megaton if he left ID.

 

[VillageBC]

I am probably completely out to launch but... As I understand it, John is pretty good at building engines. The Ocolus rift (and similar tech)looks like it would benefit from an engine build specifically to support them.

John gets to build a new engine for a new tech and a shot at being premiere engine again. Well, that's my theory anyway and sticking to it.

 

[DieH@rd]

I... dont think that he would totally left iD for this. He can do both, expecially now that he wont spend his "crazy money" on rockets.

I am probably completely out to launch but... As I understand it, John is pretty good at building engines. The Ocolus rift (and similar tech)looks like it would benefit from an engine build specifically to support them.

John gets to build a new engine for a new tech and a shot at being premiere engine again. Well, that's my theory anyway and sticking to it.

He needs to build extremely modable engine, and its base must be some awesome new form of VR Minecraft. From there on, users can build their own experiences, which will eventually lead to the Snow Crash's Metaverse or Ready Player One's OASIS.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Nice career move.

 

[McHuj]

Wow.

 

[2MF]

I... dont think that he would totally left iD for this. He can do both, expecially now that he wont spend his "crazy money" on rockets.

Is there any example of a part-time CTO job? I've never heard of one.

 

[Tokubetsu]

Somewhere, a dream is dying.

 

[hbkajshdvfbkjhvgkahsgdfka]

The Fall of id continues. Rage was just the start.

 

[Marvel]

Whoa.

 

[harrytang]

so it sounds like all of the rumors of Carmack and Lucky not getting along just that, rumors. this is some of the best news for the rift. fucking A.