QuakeCon 07: John Carmack Keynote [update: questions and answers added]

sounds very impressive. I was purhaps going to post it myself.
The editor alone is enough to sell a game imo. Good competition for UE3.

Thanks! Interesting to see how he thinks mobile phones are a relatively risk free way of trying out new ideas.

It's a shame I can't access the link from work. What all does Mr. Carmack have to say?

He goes on for about an hour.
The new game 'Rage' looks very pretty. Too bad its a racing game though, Id really like to shoot that guy with the rice hat.

I found it very interesting when he was talking about the pros and cons of doing simultaneous release (PC, 360 and PS3) of a game. Basically if you plan to support multiple platforms you pretty much have to do a simultaneous release. And apparently the PS3 is very difficult to develop for, compared to the 360 (and of course the PC). Putting this all together, this means that if a game is coming out for both the PC and the PS3, the PC people have to wait up to a year extra to play it even when the PC version is finished, just because the PS3 has such a long development time.

I guess Ill just add this to my list of reasons why I hate consoles.

Carmack reminds me of

">Bruce McCullogh from Kids In The Hall

Quote:

Original post by AndreTheGiant He goes on for about an hour. The new game 'Rage' looks very pretty. Too bad its a racing game though, Id really like to shoot that guy with the rice hat.

http://www.quakeunity.com/file=2514

If you watch that I get the impression you might be able to shoot the guy in the rice hat =p.

also:
more

I wish Carmack would do as much for game AI as he has done for game graphics.

Quote:

Original post by capn_midnight Carmack reminds me of ">Bruce McCullogh from Kids In The Hall

To me he seems more like Ritchie Cunningham (from Happy Days). Just the voice really (minus the speech impediment)

[edit]

I just started watching the keynote ... what happened to Carmack's speech impediment? He used to make a 'mmm' sound at the end of certain sentences.

[Edited by - fpsgamer on August 12, 2007 9:15:06 PM]

His talk of 'virtualisation' of textures is quite intresting, more than the actual game they are producing with it. in the Q/A, he talk on how this could be used to drive the video card memory requirements down, but then the pressure would then be on the memory buses and how fast you can stream data from a DVD, especially on the PC platform.

He still 'ah' a little :) Maybe he is thinking of the glass of water he hasn't been provided with.

Is there a transcript anywhere out there? I'd rather read some nice, small, text rather than spend ages for a video download.

Me too. I'm not a native speaker, I prefer reading text instead of watching a movie and trying to listen.

That's also an issue with the present tendency of some technical websites to provide their stuff as webcast, video or whatever. I'm always searching for a written version of it but they're just getting more obsessed with it than ever before. I don't like it.

Bye, Thomas

Quote:

Original post by OrangyTang Is there a transcript anywhere out there? I'd rather read some nice, small, text rather than spend ages for a video download.

I've found this blog:
live blog
but it's not a transcript... just a "live blog" of the speech (as such, it doesn't have much extended info).

P.S. I've added the Q&A video link at the 1st post.

Quote:

Original post by PjB I use my PS3 devkit as a footstool at work. But, credit where it's due, it's an amazing bit of technology. It's just so arcane and messed up that I can't deal with it.

Your post doesn't make any sense. If you have a ps3 dev kit "at work" and simply use it as a foot stool, how in the hell do you get any work done?

The problem with the PS3 isn't that it's arcane, its that its complex. This is because it requires more sophisticated parallel programming than the 360 due to the SPUs.

Quote:

Original post by fpsgamer Your post doesn't make any sense. If you have a ps3 dev kit "at work" and simply use it as a foot stool, how in the hell do you get any work done?

It still works with my feet on it.

Quote:

Original post by fpsgamer The problem with the PS3 isn't that it's arcane, its that its complex.

Arcane means "known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric" (straight from Dictionary.com). Basically we mean exactly the same thing. It is complex. I agree. That was my point!

Quote:

Original post by fpsgamer This is because it requires more sophisticated parallel programming than the 360 due to the SPUs.

Well, obviously. The 360 is therefore my platform of choice because it's quite powerful yet still relatively simple to work with. I make no aspersions on the quality of the PS3, by the way, as it's a brilliant bit of kit. I'm just saying that I have other preferences when it comes to development.

I was just being facetious in my last post. And remember that these are just my worthless opinions. I'd hate to get to the stage where I have to put little disclaimers on the bottom of my posts! Obviously my opinions aren't that of my company, either, and shouldn't be taken as such.

Back to the keynote speech: I've just watched it and I love the way that Carmack doesn't give a hoot about revealing future titles or technology. Normally companies are very secretive, and it's quite refreshing to see one that isn't. It seems they've made a decent engine that won't date as fast as Doom 3 did, too.

Quake 3 on the DS! Awesome. I'd buy one just for that.

Quote:

Original post by fpsgamer The problem with the PS3 isn't that it's arcane, its that its complex. This is because it requires more sophisticated parallel programming than the 360 due to the SPUs.

Which makes it arcane;

Quote:

Arcane: Known or understood by only a few. Difficult to explain or understand.