John Carmack

juliefionaroberts · 2001-03-30T11:10:31

Honestly, I''d like to know how good he is ? and how long it take to get at this level ? I am looking forward at serious reply .. PS: I have a lot of respect for him, and what he do .. it''s just I am curious and wondering how good we need to be to create great 3d engine ...

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming

Started by juliefionaroberts March 16, 2001 04:23 PM

106 comments, last by juliefionaroberts 23 years ago

dusik

133

March 17, 2001 02:26 PM

Heh, cooldaddyk, it''s not really that simple. I''ve been using Pascal since 1990, so learning C++ wasn''t too hard. My first (and only) cpp programme was my 3D engine, and I just learned as my engine progressed. So I''ve been working on it like 2 months so far, and have a pretty decent terrain engine.

Now, I think we shouldn''t all try to be "like Carmack". The guy is awesome, but if we all follow, then we''ll just all be copy-cats, and that''s not as cool as the genius at the forefront. Don''t be jealous -- that''s nonproductive.

You do, in fact, need to be smart to be like Carmack. It''s, in part, about intelligence, which you either have or you don''t. And Carmack isn''t the only one that good. Go to Ken Silverman''s site ( http://www.advsys.net/ken ), the guy who made Duke3D. He took a break from professional programming to go to college, and now he''s back. Let''s see what he can do

Also, Tim Sweeney (Unreal) is up there. And perhaps several others (like the guy at Monolith).

I think what you need to do high end 3D engines is: intelligence, enthusiasm, and the ability to keep a huge project in mind. But remember, everybody can''t be a Carmack. It''s like, everybody can''t be an Einstein. Not even with x years of 24/7 work, where x is any real measure of time

Just my take on this. Oh crap, why am I even wasting time on this; I should be working on Quake 10: Murder Simulator (j/k)

------------------------
CRAZY_DUSIK* pCrazyDuSiK;
pCrazyDuSiK->EatMicroshaft(MS_MUNCH_BILL_GATES | MS_CHEW_BILL_GATES);

------------------------CRAZY_DUSIK* pCrazyDuSiK = new CRAZY_DUSIK;pCrazyDuSiK->EatMicroshaft(MS_MUNCH_BILL_GATES | MS_CHEW_BILL_GATES);pCrazyDuSiK->WebSiteURL = "http://www.geocities.com/dusik2000";

phueppl1

122

March 17, 2001 03:08 PM

Hey, interesting thread....

Well, what I think it takes is a lot of trust in yourself... you gotta know that what you''re doing is leading in the right direction. Sure, JC is a great programmer and he''s on top, but he developed one technology (BSP trees, well he didn''t develope them, but you know what I mean), and it seems like he''s sticking 2 them. If everybody follows, we''ll end up having 10 Quake 3 engines with diffrent names... common guys, start your brains and think of something diffrent!

The thing I don''t like about ID software is that they are so damn unfunny... they code day and night, and it somehow doesn''t seem like they''re having fun doing it.. Look at Lionhead studios.. I my point of view, the best development company... It must be soo much fun to work there, and for sure it is productive... well maybe not as much as ID software, but I think you get the point...

I''m 15 now, I learned to code C++, MFC, Opengl and a few tricks within a year, maybe a bit less cause I had a few breaks and not I''m coding a Leveleditor for our game that should (and I will, I know it will, I beleive in it ;p) be as good (even better? ;p) than Serious Editor (Man, I love those videos, I keep on watching them day for day). I really beleive in it... Rarebyte is going to make Paradigm a kick as game, just like Quake 3 Arena, Half-Life Unreal & Co are/were.... :o)

ok, before I get too sentimental, I''ll go back to complete my ASE file loader rewrite, including Animations and so on ;o)

good luck juliefionaroberts!
cya,
Phil

Visit Rarebyte!
and no!, there are NO kangaroos in Austria (I got this questions a few times over in the states

RAW!

Visit Rarebyte! and no!, there are NO kangaroos in Austria (I got this question a few times over in the states ;) )

cooldaddyk

122

March 17, 2001 03:46 PM

Hey phueppl1,
I agree with you 100%. That does seem the way the industry''s going.

teenytim

122

March 18, 2001 12:27 AM

You know what though? I went to GDC 2000, and at one point, I saw him(JC) walking around the expo.(he was on a break or something). I walked up to him, and we conversed for a short while. He''s just a regular guy. He''s not some dark demented genius with a passion for ODEs, FFTs, and mind-numbing parts of 4D linear algebra.(Yeah, I''m exaggerating, but what the hell.)
He didn''t look like anybody special. Hell, I wouldn''t have recognized him if he didn''t have his badge on. I don''t think we should treat him like he invented 3D graphics. Yes, he''s very intelligent, and he knows what he''s doing, but remember, he didn''t code Wolf, Doom, or Quake by himself. The art team at ID deserves a lot of credit, as well as people like Michael Abrash(now at Micro$oft, I think) who contributed a lot to Quake 1. Anybody know American McGee? or John Romero? They all worked on these great games too you know...
He''s "popular" in the gaming/game programming community because he realized the potential of taking a 2D genre(side scrollers), and adding another dimension. Anyway, enough of my rant.
Tim

P.S. JC, if you happen to be reading this, I''m the short kid with my jaw on the floor, who was babbling at you for 5 min about god knows what...

Anonymous

March 18, 2001 01:21 AM

Of course we shouldn''t treat him like he invented 3d graphics; he didn''t. I believe Micro$oft did with a flight simulator before Windows was created.
I could be wrong here, but from my understanding, Quake''s success was due in large part to Carmack''s ingenuity and Abrash''s code optimization and assembly. Now, American McGee left iD and made his own game, "American McGee''s ''Alice''" (personally, I think working your name into the title of a game is a little egotistical, but that''s not the point). That game has the most ridiculous system requirements I have ever seen on a game. From what I hear, the gameplay sucks eggs right now, just like UnReal and Half-Life, and will continue to suck until they release a patch. Also, it uses the Quake3 engine. Why is that so special? Sure, I guess it takes some talent to code all of the perfection of Q3 into oblivion, but it''s nothing worthy of praise.

Romero left iD and made Daikatana. I personally have never played that game, as I have been told that there is a huge-ass bug in it that ION Storm refuses to fix. It seems to be a laughing stock of the industry right now .. just like Blood 2.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

I think one person who needs to be mentioned is Paul Steed, the Martyr of iD Software. Without his breast fetish, the world would not have the Crackwhore PIM or that sickeningly erotic self-groping animation for the "Iron Maiden" in Quake2. Sure, his work isn''t really obvious, but the nerds of the world thank him for getting us through those lonely nights of fragging JeffK wannabes.

I think Abrash lost most of his stature after OpenGL became the norm, but I must say that Tim Sweeney is a logical comparison to Carmack. I mean .. UnReal came out of nowhere and if it were not for iD''s reputation and having a homefield (first-person shooters) advantage, Epic and iD would be neck-to-neck.

One more thing ... Carmack is a genius, but only a graphics genius. He has done one or two human-esque things that some would consider blatant violations of reasoning ... like forgetting that not everyone has a T1 connection (Quake ran fine on his system when it was made ... no surprise, because he had a T1. Not so for the consumer ... whoops).

bishop_pass

112

March 18, 2001 02:11 AM

quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster

Of course we shouldn''t treat him like he invented 3d graphics; he didn''t. I believe Micro$oft did with a flight simulator before Windows was created.

Are you serious?! Geez...

While Bill still had his thumb up his butt there were guys like Newell, Blinn, Bezier, Warnock, and Evans. Back in the ''60s and early ''70s, the University of Utah was the hotbed of computer graphics research.

It is no coincidence that Evans & Sutherland has its headquarters on the campus.

_______________________________
"To understand the horse you'll find that you're going to be working on yourself. The horse will give you the answers and he will question you to see if you are sure or not."
- Ray Hunt, in Think Harmony With Horses
ALU - SHRDLU - WORDNET - CYC - SWALE - AM - CD - J.M. - K.S. | CAA - BCHA - AQHA - APHA - R.H. - T.D. | 395 - SPS - GORDIE - SCMA - R.M. - G.R. - V.C. - C.F.

MfA

122

March 18, 2001 07:50 AM

Id say Bruce Naylor deserves more credit for "inventing" BSP''s... he''s making games now too BTW.

bishop_pass

112

March 18, 2001 11:25 AM

quote:Original post by MfA

Id say Bruce Naylor deserves more credit for "inventing" BSP''s... he''s making games now too BTW.

Yes, he does deserve more credit. But the original idea goes to H. Fuchs in 1980.

Metallicon

122

March 18, 2001 11:39 AM

You dont have to be a total genius to be like jc, experience helps and so does maths. Im 14 and ive been programming c++ since the age of 9, and i pretty much suck at all subjects apart from maths. r35p3c7 my m4th skillz!

Suck my rocket

Anonymous

March 18, 2001 11:58 AM

quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster

Hey, im 13... and still in school... and im learning C++... its pretty hard whilst trying to learn other stuff that is different but means the same thing...
I Really Want to learn C++ and am finding it difficult since i dont have 24/7 to learn it!
but i guess ill have to try my best...
(* and try to beat JC >:D *)

hehe stupid guy, learning c++ and opengl is easier then a² + b² = c² ... structure such a big project (like quake3) is the hard part of work.
everyone can read a few nehe tutorials in a week, but learn how to structure things needs years ...

John Carmack

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

John Carmack

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines