Video games are about to take another giant step forward in terms of realism. Oculus Rift, the startup company that generated a lot of buzz at this year's E3 conference with its 1080p virtual reality headset device for gaming has just made its first big-name hire.
John Carmack, the co-creator of one of the pioneering first person shooters "Doom" has joined Oculus Rift as Chief Technical Officer. Carmack has two previous companies that require his attention including id Software, the Bethesda Softworks owned development company behind the "Doom" games. In a statement released by id, the company said "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected." Id later went on to clarify that Carmack has been interested in the world of virtual reality gaming for quite some time and has decided to join Oculus Rift, the current front runner of developing the highly anticipated technology. He did not leave id Software completely but he is a full-time employee at Oculus.
Carmack tweeted a bit of clarification about his new role saying "My time division is now Oculus over Id Over Armadillo. Busy busy busy!"
Armadillo is a reference to his rocket building company that is currently not working on anything in particular, making it easy for the game developer to divide his time. He will begin working in the newly established Dallas offices for Oculus and help develop some popular games that will work well with the company's virtual reality goggles.
Oculus represents a lot of potential, particularly for first person shooter games such as "Call of Duty," "Halo," or "Borderlands." Oculus would offer gamers the chance to check behind them for danger or allied players simply by moving their heads rather than controlling the player's field of vision with two thumb sticks that represent the X and Y axis. This is something Carmack has reportedly been interested in for a while. When he got his hands on the Oculus Rift dev kit headset he said it compared to a lot of other first time gaming milestones in his life.
"The intensity of the first-person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods and so on," he said, according to Endgadget he believes VR gaming "will have a huge impact in the coming years."
Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe said in the announcement of Caramck's hiring that he is putting together a team of the brightest minds and that Carmack was apparently at the top of that list.
Below is a video of Carmack talking about Oculus Rift and VR at E3 2013.
