John Carmack

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John Carmack 2010

John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970 in Kansas City , Kansas ) is an American programmer and game developer . He became known for the development of innovative game engines in the computer games sector and is a co-founder of the id Software studio . As a programmer, he was involved in groundbreaking video games such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom . In addition, he founded the rocket construction company Armadillo Aerospace in 2000 . In August 2013, he was hired as Chief Technology Officer at Oculus VR and held this position until November 2019. Carmack left id Software in November 2013.

life and work

John Carmack was born in Kansas to Stan Carmack, a local television host , and microbiologist Inga Carmack. In his childhood, the exceptionally intelligent boy was enthusiastic about science fiction , fantasy, comics and board games such as Dungeons & Dragons . He was a good student at school, but found it difficult to deal with classmates and teachers. In his school he came into closer contact with computers and he recognized the potential of computers early on. At the age of 14, he broke into his school with friends to steal Apple II computers. However, he was caught and Carmack was sent to an educational institution . After school he began to study at the University of Kansas , but he dropped out after two semesters and then worked for the company Softdisk , where he met John Romero .

In 1991 he founded the game development company id Software - together with John Romero, among others. Carmack quickly gained a reputation as an excellent programmer, especially in the field of graphics engines . He first developed a few 2D shareware games, of which the jump-'n'-run game Commander Keen achieved a high level of popularity. Commander Keen used Carmack's self-developed scrolling technology, which for the first time allowed soft image movements (so-called scrolling ) on personal computers (PC) .

Another milestone was the game Wolfenstein 3D , with which id Software created the first real first-person shooter. In Germany, this game was confiscated nationwide in 1994 because of the use of symbols from unconstitutional organizations . Carmack made the real breakthrough with the first two parts of the Doom series. Doom 1 and 2 showed for the first time what potential PCs have in games if you program as efficiently as possible. Due to its "youth-endangering" content, Doom was indexed in Germany (which was not lifted until the end of 2011). Through his persistence and the advancement of new technologies, Carmack supported the market introduction of so-called graphics accelerators .

John Carmack has been married to Katherine Anna Kang since January 2000 , a machinima film entrepreneur . In August 2004, he announced on his Armadillo blog that he had had a son.

With his rocket construction company Armadillo Aerospace , founded in 2000 , he mainly develops vertically launching and landing rockets ( VTVL and VTOL ). On October 24, 2008, Armadillo won $ 350,000 for reaching Level 1 of the NASA- sponsored Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge . On September 12, 2009, Armadillo reached Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge and won another $ 500,000. Projects are currently underway with NASA , Space Adventures and the Rocket Racing League .

On August 7, 2013, Oculus VR announced that Carmack would drive the development of virtual reality headsets as the new CTO (Chief Technical Officer) . On November 22, 2013 it was announced that John Carmack had resigned from id Software in order to be able to concentrate fully on his work at Oculus VR. On November 14, 2019, Carmack announced his resignation because he was dissatisfied with the slow progress in VR development. From now on he wants to devote himself to the development of artificial intelligence , but Oculus will remain as a consultant.

Others

The method for calculating shadows called Carmack's Reverse , which was first used in the Doom 3 game , was already patented by Creative Labs in an almost identical manner . Id Software then agreed with Creative Labs that Doom 3 supports the Creative Labs audio technology EAX and that a note is enclosed stating that the best sound experience can be expected with a Creative card. This allowed Id to use this technology from Creative Labs without license payments.

On March 22, 2001, Carmack was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame and received a star on the Walk of Game on March 16, 2006 .

Carmack (and id Software) received an Emmy on January 8, 2007 for his achievements in developing 3D graphics engines .

In 2010 he received the honorary award for his life's work at the Game Developers Conference . The award was presented to him by Sims inventor Will Wright .

2016 Carmack received at the BAFTA Video Games Awards the Fellowship Award for Lifetime Achievement.

In 2017, Carmack received an honorary doctorate from the University of Missouri – Kansas City for his achievements as a programmer and innovator.

In 2019 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his life's work at the VR Awards.

literature

  • David Kushner: Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture . Random House, ISBN 0-375-50524-5 (English, hardcover)

Web links

Commons : John D. Carmack  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Carmack leaves CTO post at Oculus on heise.de (accessed November 18, 2019)
  2. ↑ John Carmack officially resigns to 4Players , Author: Julian Dasgupta, accessed on November 23, 2013
  3. ↑ http://www.gamersglobal.de/report/john-carmack
  4. ↑ Konrad Lischka: IT legends today: Doom programmer builds spaceships. In: Spiegel Online . February 2, 2008, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  5. ^ Spiegel Online: "Doom" is no longer indexed
  6. ↑ http://www.giantbomb.com/katherine-anna-kang/72-87644/
  7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / armadilloaerospace.com
  8. ↑ http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/09/a_three-minute_hover_over_cadd.php
  9. ↑ Lunar lander qualifies for prize ( Memento from February 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ http://www.t-online.de/spiele/id_64875388/oculus-rift-id-software-mitgruender-john-carmack-unterstuetzt-vr-brille.html
  11. ↑ AI instead of VR: John Carmack resigns as CTO of Oculus on gamestar.de (accessed November 18, 2019)
  12. ↑ National Television Academy Announces Emmy Winning Achievements: Honors Bestowed at 58th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ They Have Touched Our Lives on info.umkc.edu (accessed November 18, 2019)
  14. ↑ John Carmack says he's not 'satisfied with the pace of progress' in VR development on pcgamer.com (accessed November 18, 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Carmack, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carmack, John D.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American programmer and game developer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th August 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City