John D. Carmack
John D. Carmack II ( born August 20, 1970 in Kansas City, Kansas) is an American programmer and game developers. He is best known for the development of innovative game engines in computer games area. He is co-founder of id Software, the studio that developed the first first-person shooter. In addition, he founded in 2000 the missile construction company Armadillo Aerospace. In August 2013 he was appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Oculus VR. In November 2013 Carmack left id Software.
Life and work
John Carmack was born the son of Stan Carmack, a local TV presenter, and the microbiologist Inga Carmack in Kansas. In his childhood, the above average intelligent boy for science fiction, fantasy, comics, and games such as Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts. At school he was a good student, but had a hard time in dealing with fellow students and teachers. In his school, he came closer with computers in contact and early on he recognized the potential of computing. At the age of 14, he broke up with friends in his school to steal Apple II computers. However, he was caught and had to Carmack in an educational institution. After school he started at the University of Kansas to study, but he interrupted his studies after only two semesters and then worked for the company Soft Disk, where he met John Romero.
In 1991 he founded - among others, along with John Romero - the games developer company id Software. Carmack earned a reputation as an excellent programmer, specially in the field of graphics engines quickly. He developed until several 2D shareware games, of which especially the Jump 'n' Run game Commander Keen obtained a high level of awareness. Commander Keen used Carmacks proprietary scrolling technique based on personal computer ( PC) for the first time soft image movements (known as scrolling) enabled.
As a further milestone you can call the game Wolfenstein 3D, with the id Software created the first real first person shooter. In Germany, this game was created in 1994 nationwide seized because of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations. The correct breakthrough Carmack with the first two parts of the Doom series. Doom 1 and 2 showed for the first time, the potential for PC games have, when programmed as efficiently as possible. Because of its " harmful to minors " content Doom has been indexed in Germany (which was not lifted until the end of 2011 ). Through his insistence on the realization of his ideas and the advancement of new techniques Carmack supported the launch of so-called graphics accelerators.
The limits of technology were set by Carmack constantly new, limited only by the speed of the computer, which in the end was also one of the main motivations for the development of graphics accelerators: Improving opportunities for game developers like him and thus an increased demand for these special graphic cards.
Others
The Carmack 's Reverse mentioned method for shadow calculation, which in the game Doom 3 was using for the first time, was patented by Creative Labs. Id Software agreed with Creative Labs that Doom 3 came with a note that says that a Creative card the best sound experience was to be expected. This dealt Id patent payment to Creative Labs.
On March 22, 2001 Carmack was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences ' Hall of Fame and received on 16 March 2006 a star on the Walk of Game.
For his achievements in the development of 3D graphics engines Carmack ( and id Software ) received an Emmy on 8 January 2007.
In 2010 he received at the Game Developers Conference, an award for his life's work. The award was presented to him by Sims creator Will Wright.
He is married to Katherine Anna Kang since January 2000., A businesswoman in the field of machinima films. In his Armadillo blog he gave in August 2004, known to have a son.
With its established in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace rocket construction company he developed primarily vertical takeoff and landing rocket ( VTVL or VTOL). On 24 October 2008 Armadillo won $ 350,000 for the achievement of Level 1 Sponsored by the NASA Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. On September 12, 2009 Armadillo reached Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge and won another $ 500,000. Currently, projects are underway with NASA, Space Adventures and the Rocket Racing League.
On August 7, 2013 were announced by Oculus VR that Carmack as new CTO ( Chief Technical Officer ) should promote the development of virtual reality headsets. On November 22, 2013 it was announced that John Carmack has terminated at id Software to be able to fully concentrate on his work at Oculus VR can.