Quake Con 2012: Answers with John Carmack + John Carmack’s Keynote

Greetings id maniacs,

We just got back from Dallas, and while we were at Quake Con managed to get a few answers out of John Carmack personally…

When asked about his intentions on continuing his work with non-polygonal rendering: He commented that it was going to have to take a back seat, as right now the technology is not really there and it wouldn’t be worth the trouble at this time. He did say that it could happen down the road though. When we asked him if it could be a feature of id Tech 6, he told us that it was possible, and that non-polygonal rendering would be the next major break through in graphics rendering technology.

We also asked Mr.Carmack about whether he’d considered the possible use of neural interfacing in the new VR HMD (Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display): To this he admitted that he had not really done enough research to fully say, but when he did a little bit of checking, he found that it was far more advanced than he’d thought. It would not be something that we should expect too soon, but he did hint towards an interest in the idea, and said that it is not impossible or even that wild of a thought that eventually neural interface would be implemented with VR and AR (Augmented Reality).

He also said that almost all of id’s resources are being directed at Doom 4, which we speculate will return to the action/horror roots that Doom 3 seemed to ignore in favor of survival/horror game play.  We base this speculation, on the new Doom 3 BFG Edition and its increased emphasis on action game play over its original version. Carmack also said that Doom 4 was being made in “Bethesda Mode“, and that they are not going to release any information on it, as not to create premature expectations and rushed hype, while they take the time they need to make sure the best possible Doom is made for us, the gamers.

We can’t be sure what the long term spells for id, but one thing is sure. Doom 4 needs to be a success, and that is definitely something that we support here at BSMH.

You can also watch the entire Quakecon 2012 Keynote here in its 3 hour and 36 minute keynote where John Carmack speaks in detail about his hopes for virtual reality and the future of id Software.

Soon we’ll be putting up a post with Quake Engine co-creator Michael Abrash, who’s now working at Valve as one of their star programmers.

-Tom E.

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