John Carmack | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1970-08-21)August 21, 1970 (age 54)[a] |
| Occupation(s) | Computer programmer,video game developer,engineer |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Employer(s) | Keen Technologies (2023–present) Oculus VR (2013–2022) |
| Known for | Co-foundingid Software Commander Keen,Wolfenstein 3D,Doom,Quake,Rage |
| Title | Consulting CTO, Oculus VR[2][3] Founder,Armadillo Aerospace |
| Political party | Libertarian |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Trista DeLeon (2022–present) |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature | |
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John D. Carmack II[1] (born August 21,[a] 1970)[1] is an Americancomputer programmer andvideo game developer. He co-founded the video game companyid Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s gamesCommander Keen,Wolfenstein 3D,Doom,Quake, and their sequels. Carmack made innovations in3D computer graphics, such as his Carmack's Reverse algorithm forshadow volumes.
In 2013, he resigned from id Software to work full-time atOculus VR as theirCTO. In 2019, he reduced his role to Consulting CTO so he could allocate more time towardartificial general intelligence (AGI).[3] In 2022, he left Oculus to work on his AGI startup, Keen Technologies.[6]
Carmack was born inShawnee Mission, Kansas,[1] the son of local television news reporter Stan Carmack. He grew up in theKansas City metropolitan area, where he became interested incomputers at an early age. He attendedShawnee Mission East High School inPrairie Village, Kansas andRaytown South High School in nearbyRaytown, Missouri.[7]
Carmack was introduced to video games with the 1978shoot 'em up gameSpace Invaders in thearcades during asummer vacation as a child. The 1980maze chase arcade gamePac-Man also left a strong impression on him. He citedNintendo designerShigeru Miyamoto as the game developer he most admired.[8]
As reported in David Kushner'sMasters of Doom, when Carmack was 14, he broke into a school with other children to stealApple II computers. To gain entry to the building, Carmack concocted a sticky substance ofthermite mixed withVaseline that melted through the windows. However, an overweight accomplice struggled to get through the hole and instead opened the window, setting off a silent alarm and alerting police. Carmack was arrested and sent for psychiatric evaluation. He was sentenced to a year in a juvenile home.[9][10] He attended theUniversity of Missouri–Kansas City for two semesters before withdrawing to work as a freelance programmer.[11]
Softdisk, a computer company inShreveport, Louisiana, hired Carmack to work onSoftdisk G-S (anApple IIGS publication), introducing him toJohn Romero and other future key members of id Software such asAdrian Carmack (no relation). Later, Softdisk would place this team in charge of a new, but short-lived, bi-monthly game subscription product calledGamer's Edge for the IBM PC (DOS) platform. In 1990, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of theCommander Keen games, a series that was published byApogee Software, under theshareware distribution model, from 1991 onwards.[12] Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-foundid Software.[13]
Carmack has pioneered or popularized the use of many techniques in computer graphics, including "adaptive tile refresh" forCommander Keen,[14]ray casting forHovertank 3D,Catacomb 3-D, andWolfenstein 3D,binary space partitioning whichDoom became the first game to use,[15]surface caching which he invented forQuake,Carmack's Reverse (formally known as z-fail stencil shadows) which he devised forDoom 3, andMegaTexture technology, first used inEnemy Territory: Quake Wars.[16]Quake 3 popularized thefast inverse square root algorithm.[17]
Carmack's engines have also been licensed for use in other influential first-person shooters such asHalf-Life,Call of Duty andMedal of Honor: Allied Assault. In 2007, when Carmack was on vacation with his wife, he ended up playing some games on his cellphone, and decided he was going to make a "good" mobile game.[18][19]
On August 7, 2013, Carmack joinedOculus VR as theirCTO.[20] On November 22, 2013, he resigned fromid Software to work full-time at Oculus VR.[2][21] Carmack's reason for leaving was that id's parent companyZeniMax Media did not want to support Oculus Rift.[22] Carmack's role at both companies later became central toa ZeniMax lawsuit against Oculus' parent company,Facebook, claiming that Oculus stole ZeniMax's virtual realityintellectual property.[23][24][25] The trial jury absolved Carmack of liability, though Oculus and other corporate officers were held liable for trademark, copyright, and contract violations.[26]
In February 2017, Carmack sued ZeniMax, claiming the company had refused to pay him the remaining $22.5 million (~$27.5 million in 2023) owed to him from their purchase of id Software.[27] In October 2018, Carmack stated that he and ZeniMax had reached an agreement and that "Zenimax has fully satisfied their obligations to me", ending the suit.[28]
On November 13, 2019, Carmack stepped down from the Oculus CTO role to become a "Consulting CTO" in order to allocate more time to his work onartificial general intelligence (AGI).[3] On August 19, 2022, Carmack announced that he has raised $20M for Keen Technologies, his new AGI company.[29] On December 16, 2022, Carmack left Oculus to focus on Keen.[6]
In September 2023 John partnered with computer scientistRichard S Sutton from the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute[30] to help further AI research efforts.[31]
Carmack claims to have maintained a sixty-hour work week, working a 10-hour day, six days a week, throughout his career.[32] He has spoken publicly about the importance of long hours of uninterrupted focus in his work. Not only does high intensity allow him to make progress more quickly, but long hours are also critical to maintaining a focused mindset over time. Despite working such a demanding schedule, he has never experienced burnout.[32]
Carmack is also known for taking week-long programming retreats. These retreats involve a solitary, uninterrupted period away from his normal routine often sequestered in a random city and hotel.[33] The goal of these retreats is to allow Carmack to operate at full cognitive capacity, tackling a specific, difficult problem or learning a new skill.[34] The solitude and physical isolation of these retreats offer the perfect environment for deep focus and reflection, making them an essential part of Carmack's creative process.
Carmack was vocal about his frustration with the bureaucratic inefficiencies he encountered during his time at Meta.[35] In his departure memo, he stated, "We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort," he wrote. "I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it."[36]
Carmack subscribes to the philosophy that small, incremental steps are the fastest route to meaningful and disruptiveinnovation.[32] He compares this approach to the "magic ofgradient descent" where small steps using local information result in the best outcomes. According to Carmack, this principle is proven by his own experience, and he has observed this in many of the smartest people in the world. He states, "Little tiny steps using local information winds up leading to all the best answers."[32]
Around 2000, Carmack became interested in rocketry, a hobby of his youth. Reviewing how much money he was spending on customizing Ferraris,[citation needed] he began by giving financial support to a few local amateur engineers. Carmack funded the company, called Armadillo Aerospace, out of his own pocket, for "something north of a million dollars a year."[37] The company of hobbyists made steady progress toward their goals of suborbital space flight and eventual orbital vehicles. In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace competed in a NASA contest known as theLunar Lander Challenge, winning first place in the Level 1 competition along with $350,000 (~$486,412 in 2023).[38] In September 2009, they completed Level 2 and were awarded $500,000 (~$690,323 in 2023).[39][40][41] The company went into "hibernation mode" in 2013.[37]
According to Carmack, the work in the aerospace industry is "simple" compared to the work he does in video games.[42]
Carmack is an advocate ofopen-source software, and has repeatedly voiced his opposition tosoftware patents, equating them to robbery.[43] He has also contributed to open-source projects, such as starting the initial port of theX Window System toMac OS X Server and working to improve the OpenGL drivers for Linux through theUtah GLX project.[44]
Carmack released the source code forWolfenstein 3D in 1995 and theDoom source code in 1997, first under a custom license and then under theGNU General Public License (GPL) in 1999. When the source code toQuake was leaked and circulated among theQuake community underground in 1997 after licenseeCrack dot Com was hacked,[45] a programmer unaffiliated with id Software named Greg Alexander used it toportQuake to Linux usingSVGALib. As this was more feature rich thanDave Taylor's earlierX11 port, he sent the patches to Carmack.[46] Instead of pursuing legal action, id Software used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctionedLinux port maintained by new hire Zoid Kirsch, who later portedQuakeworld andQuake II to Linux as well.[47]
id Software has since publicly released the source code toQuake in 1999,Quake 2 in 2001,Quake 3 in 2005 and lastlyDoom 3 in 2011 (and later theBFG Edition in 2012). The source code forHovertank 3D andCatacomb 3D (as well as Carmack's earlierCatacomb) was released in June 2014 byFlat Rock Software with Carmack's blessing.[48][49] He has since expressed regret on using thecopyleft GPL over the morepermissiveBSD license.[50]
The release ofid Tech 4 occurred despite patent concerns fromCreative Labs overCarmack's reverse,[51] while the originalDoom source release shipped without music due to complications with theCygnus Studios developed DMX library (which lead to theLinuxversion being selected for release).[52] Carmack has since advised developers to be careful when utilizing middleware, noting how it can limit the possibilities of later releasing source code.[53]Tim Sweeney has implied this issue has hindered potential releases of olderUnreal Engine source code.[54]
On the other hand, despite his technical admiration for the system,[55] Carmack has several times over the years voiced a sceptical opinion aboutLinux as a gaming platform.[56][57] In 2013, he argued foremulation as the "proper technical direction for gaming on Linux",[58] and in 2014 he voiced the opinion that Linux might be the biggest problem for the success of theSteam Machine.[59]
Carmack contributes to charities and gaming communities. Some of the recipients of Carmack'scharitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open-source software, opponents of software patents, and game enthusiasts.[60]
Carmack was so successful at id that by mid-1994 he had purchased twoFerraris: aFerrari 328 and aFerrari Testarossa.[61] In 1997, he gave away the Ferrari 328 as a prize toDennis Fong, the winner of theQuake tournament "Red Annihilation".[62]
He met his now ex-wifeKatherine Anna Kang, at the 1997QuakeCon when she visited id's offices. As a bet, Kang challenged Carmack to sponsor the first all-femaleQuake tournament if she was able to produce a significant number of participants. Carmack predicted a maximum of 25 participants, but there were 1,500.[63] Carmack and Kang married on January 1, 2000, and planned a ceremony in Hawaii. Steve Jobs requested that they would postpone the ceremony so Carmack could attend the MacWorld Expo on January 5, 2000. Carmack declined and suggested making a video instead.[64] Carmack and Kang had a son Christopher Ryan in August 2004.[65] Their second son was born in November 2009.
Carmack is divorced as of 2021. On May 26, 2022, he announced his divorce and how he met his partner Trista through the VRBeat Saber games he would host via Twitter.[66]
As a game developer, Carmack differed from many of his contemporaries by avoiding commitment to a final release date for any game he was developing. Instead, when asked for a release date on a new game, Carmack would usually reply that the game would be released "when it's done".[67] Employees atApogee, in their past years the publishers of games by id Software, adopted this business practice as well.[68] In 2019, as a guest onThe Joe Rogan Experience, Carmack stated that his beliefs have changed over time: "I largely recant from that now." OnRage's 6-year development time he says: "I think we should have done whatever it would have taken to ship it 2 years earlier". Carmack also reflected on the internal development of Quake in this regard and described it as "traumatic" and says id Software could have split the game into two parts and shipped it earlier.[69]
Carmack has ablog last updated in 2006 (previously a.plan, which could be accessed by making a finger request for an activeTwitter account, and also occasionally posts comments toSlashdot.[9]
Carmack supported the2012 presidential campaign ofLibertarianRon Paul,[70] and also persuaded theLibertarian Party of Texas to acceptbitcoin an alternative to donations.[71] He is anatheist.[72][73] During a conversation withJoe Rogan, Carmack revealed that he had trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu andJudo for several years as a hobby.[74]
During his time at id Software, a medium pepperoni pizza would arrive for Carmack fromDomino's Pizza almost every day,[75] carried by the same delivery person for more than 15 years. Carmack had been such a regular customer that they continued to charge him 1995 prices.[76]
On occasion he has commended the efforts of similarly focused programmers – firstKen Silverman, who wrote theBuild engine for3D Realms, and later withTim Sweeney ofEpic Games, who wrote theUnreal Engine.[9]
| Date | Award | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Named among the most influential people in computer gaming of the year and of all time | #1 and #2 inGameSpot's lists.[77][78] |
| 1997 | Named among the most influential people of all time | #7 inComputer Gaming World list, for game design.[79] |
| 1999 | Named among the 50 most influential people in technology | #10 inTime's list.[80] |
| March 2001 | Award for community contribution for the Quake 3 engine | Used in 12 games. Bestowed at 2001Game Developer's Conference Award Ceremony. |
| March 22, 2001 | Inducted intoAcademy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame | The fourth person to be inducted, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry. |
| 2002 | Named to theMITTechnology ReviewTR100 | Included as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[81] |
| 2003 | One subject of bookMasters of Doom | Masters of Doom is a chronicle of id Software and its founders. |
| 2005 | Name in film | The filmDoom featured a character namedDr. Carmack, in recognition of Carmack who co-created the original game. |
| March 2006 | Added to theWalk of Game | Walk of Game is an event that recognizes the developers and games with the most impact on the industry.[82] |
| January 2007 | Awarded 2Emmy Awards | Carmack andid Software were awarded with twoEmmy Awards. The first was Science, Engineering & Technology for Broadcast Television, which includes broadcast, cable and satellite distribution. The second was for Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television, encompassing interactive television, gaming technology, and for the first time, the Internet, cell phones, private networks, and personal media players. id Software is the first independent game developer to be awarded an Emmy since the Academy began honoring technology innovation in 1948.[83] |
| September 2007 | Television appearance | Appeared onDiscovery Channel CanadaDaily Planet featuring his rocket designs along with theArmadillo Aerospace team. |
| 2008 | Honored | Carmack was honored at the 59th AnnualTechnology & Engineering Emmy Awards forQuake's pioneering role of user modifiability.[84] He is the onlygame programmer ever honored twice by theNational Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, having been given an Emmy Award in 2007 for his creation of the 3D technology that underlies modernshootervideo games.[85] Along withDon Daglow ofStormfront Studios andMike Morhaime ofBlizzard Entertainment, Carmack is one of only three game developers to accept awards at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at theAcademy of Interactive Arts & SciencesInteractive Achievement Awards.[citation needed] |
| October 2008 | Won X-Prize | Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace won the $350,000 Level One X-Prize Lunar Lander Challenge.[86] |
| 2009 | Named among the 100 top game creators of all time | #10 inIGN's list.[87] |
| March 11, 2010 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Was awarded theGame Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement award for his work.[88] |
| March 7, 2016 | BAFTA Fellowship Award | Honoured with the Academy's highest honour, the Fellowship for "work that has consistently been at the cutting edge of games and his technical expertise helping the future arrive that little bit faster".[89] |
| May 3, 2017 | Honorary Doctorate | Received a Doctor of Engineering Honoris Causa from theUniversity of Missouri, Kansas City for "his work in cutting edge tech & comp sci".[90] |
 |
| Release date | Game | Developer | Publisher | Credited for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 16, 2012 | Doom 3 BFG Edition | id Software | Bethesda Softworks | Technical director, engine programmer, developer |
| October 4, 2011 | Rage | id Software | Bethesda Softworks | Technical director, engine programmer, developer |
| September 28, 2007 | Enemy Territory: Quake Wars | Splash Damage | Activision | Programming |
| May 1, 2006 | Orcs & Elves | Fountainhead Entertainment | Electronic Arts | Producer/programmer/writer |
| October 18, 2005 | Quake 4 | Raven Software | Activision, Bethesda Softworks (republished 2012) | Technical director |
| September 13, 2005 | Doom RPG | Fountainhead Entertainment | id Software | Producer/programmer |
| April 3, 2005 | Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil | Nerve Software | Activision | Technical director |
| August 3, 2004 | Doom 3 | id Software | Activision | Technical director |
| November 19, 2001 | Return to Castle Wolfenstein | id Software | Activision | Technical director |
| December 18, 2000 | Quake III: Team Arena | id Software | Activision | Programming |
| December 2, 1999 | Quake III Arena | id Software | Activision | Programming |
| November 30, 1997 | Quake II | id Software | Activision | Programming |
| March 31, 1997 | Doom 64 | Midway Games | Midway Games | Programming |
| June 22, 1996 | Quake | id Software | GT Interactive | Programming |
| May 31, 1996 | Final Doom | id Software | GT Interactive | Programming |
| October 30, 1995 | Hexen: Beyond Heretic | Raven Software | id Software | 3D engine |
| December 23, 1994 | Heretic | Raven Software | id Software | Engine programmer |
| September 30, 1994 | Doom II: Hell on Earth | id Software | GT Interactive | Programming |
| December 10, 1993 | Doom | id Software | id Software | Programming |
| 1993 | Shadowcaster | Raven Software | Origin Systems | 3D engine |
| September 18, 1992 | Spear of Destiny | id Software | FormGen | Software engineer |
| May 5, 1992 | Wolfenstein 3D | id Software | Apogee Software | Programming |
| 1991 | Catacomb 3-D | id Software | Softdisk | Programming |
| 1991 | Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter! | id Software | FormGen | Programming |
| December 15, 1991 | Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! | id Software | Apogee Software | Programming |
| 1991 | Commander Keen in Keen Dreams | id Software | Softdisk | Programming |
| 1991 | Shadow Knights | id Software | Softdisk | Design/programming |
| 1991 | Rescue Rover 2 | id Software | Softdisk | Programmer |
| 1991 | Rescue Rover | id Software | Softdisk | Programmer |
| 1991 | Hovertank 3D | id Software | Softdisk | Programming |
| 1991 | Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion | id Software | Softdisk | Programming |
| 1991 | Dark Designs III: Retribution | Softdisk | Softdisk | Programmer/designer |
| December 14, 1990 | Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons | id Software | Apogee Software | Programming |
| 1990 | Slordax: The Unknown Enemy | Softdisk | Softdisk | Programming |
| 1990 | Catacomb II | Softdisk | Softdisk | Developer |
| 1990 | Catacomb | Softdisk | Softdisk | Programmer |
| 1990 | Dark Designs II: Closing the Gate | Softdisk | Softdisk | Programmer/designer |
| 1990 | Dark Designs: Grelminar's Staff | John Carmack | Softdisk | Developer |
| 1990 | Tennis | John Carmack | Softdisk | Developer |
| 1990 | Wraith: The Devil's Demise | John Carmack | Nite Owl Productions | Developer |
| 1989 | Shadowforge | John Carmack | Nite Owl Productions | Developer |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)University of Missouri–Kansas City john carmack.
The recent discussions around copilot are a good opportunity to say this: I wish I could have licensed the Id source code releases as BSD. The GPL virality wound up being a net negative, and more value would have come from BSD. My partners would never have gone for it, though... I touched on that recently with the comment about open source culture and game dev; the best aspects of GPL work didn't manifest, but tons of opportunities to just copy-paste-modify were lost due to license concerns. It is possible that some of the source ports wouldn't have been as open, but I'm pretty sure there would have been more total users of the code, likely making the amount shared in the open still greater. I'm still supportive of lots of GPL work, but I don't think the restrictions helped in this particular case.
I consider linux the second most important platform after win32 for id. From a biz standpoint it would be ludicrous to place it even on par with mac or os/2, but for our types of games that are designed to be hacked, linux has a big plus: the highest hacker to user ratio of any os. I don't personally develop on linux, because I do my unixy things with NEXTSTEP, but I have a lot of technical respect for it.
He reiterated his support for improving emulation as the "proper technical direction for gaming on Linux," noting that native ports don't do much that a good emulator wouldn't be able to handle.
Carmack specifically noted, Linux might be the Steam Machine's downfall
{{cite podcast}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
