Ask John Carmack About Quake - or Anything Else

John Carmack is, of course, a GameGod[tm] so famous that even stuffy, all-business Forbes.com recently noticed him and Id Software. He's been interviewed about 42 gazillion times - but not by you. So go ahead. One question per post please, and since we expect a huge response, please try not to whine too loudly if our exotic blend of moderation, editorial judiciousness, and random dart-throwing doesn't pop your question(s) to the top o' the heap, which only has room for 10 - 15 no matter how many are submitted. Answers will be posted Friday, as usual, and I'm sure they'll be great, because John's a great guy!

OS preference?

I know that you and id are doing simultaneous development of Q3 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Which of those is your favorite OS to use, and which to program for?

How've you become what you are...?

How'd you start, personally (I mean on the inside, like emotionally and morally), and how has Id software changed you? for better or worse? and what do you think of the way that the software/IS industry is headed? (greediness for example)

Dan

I once read in Wired...

I once read in Wired, an article, that said you have an incredible headstart on everyone else for making "virtual worlds" on the Internet using your engine from the Quake games. Do you have any intention of doing this? Has anyone approached you about it? It would seem like a fantastic use of the technology with online gaming being so popular. Entire worlds online could be created virtually and very life-like with many different purposes.

----------------

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

Art

Do you see game programming/creating as an art, and do you consider yourself an artist, or a technician(or something else, of course)?

Programming Skill Question

John,

Many people consider you to be one of the best programmers in the game/graphics scene, based on your ability to keep pushing the limits of current PC hardware.

I was wondering what measures you use to gauge the skill of a programmer, and who, if anyone, you look up to and consider to be a "great" programmer.

Cheers,
Justin

Commercial video games for Linux?

As a Linux enthusiast and a gamer, I can honestly say that playing my favourite video games on Linux is a LOT better than trying to screw around with DirectSex in Windoze. My question is this:

1) When are we going to see widespread adoption of Linux as a gaming platform?

2) What should the community focus on in order to bring about this change more rapidly? Should we write gaming engines, API's, contribute to MESA, or just lake history take its course?

3) What is the best way to encourage game companies that Linux development is a sound financial decision? Or isn't it right now?

4) Public adoption of Linux has been increasing rapidly over the past year, but I don't see a lot of games coming out of large development houses, except of course for ID and Loki, and right now I don't consider Loki a large development house. Why is this?


Thanks for your time, John, and keep cranking out the killer games!

Commander Keen

The Keen games just don't play well with the new high speed video cards or dosemu. Wolf and Doom have had there source code released; any chance we can get the source for Keen to do a Linux port? Please?

Why was Id a success?

I'm interested in why you feel Id made it to the top, where so many other companies like this fail,and what people getting into the business should do to capture that success?

Was it dedicted people, the way you used venture funding, the shear talent you have in the group, the product (Doom) being so unique at the time...

Thanx

Carmack = God

As we all know by now JC has chosen to remove the Grappling hook from the default Q3:Arena installation. This move has prompted a lot of flameing and praise from the community.

I'd like to know this, did you play with the Grapple yourself before making your decision or did you take advice/opinions from other people who played with and without it then make a decision based off of that?

Secondly, Do you feel that ID is moving farther away from making the games and more towards making and licensing the engines? Is this the image you've had for the company or is it just a trend that kind of happened? Are you happy with this direction?

Assuming Q3:A isn't the last game you make will the next game be another FPS? Or do you see ID branching into other game types? Are there already plans for another game?

What has your relationship with MODmakers for Q3:A been like? Most of us have already heard about the freeze on MOD making for the tests, which is understandable since it IS a Test. Has this hurt your relationship with some of the more reputable MOD makers?

That's all I can think of right now, I may post again later if I can come up with something else...

Kintanon

Violence

With all the talk about violent video games causing the killing sprees in schools, offices and on the streets, I have a question for you.

The game industry's usual response to such allegations is to tone down the graphical violence. Parental controlls can allow you to limit the amout of blood, gibs, etc.

I think that displaying the visual artifacts of violence is to treat it more seriously, and removing them won't help as much as some other methods.

Do you think such content controlls are effective? I think that a more mature story and cast would be more effective in carrying a non violent message that a bunch of 'clean' deaths would be. Of course feel free to disagree with me, as I know ID has been a villian in many murders.

Question for John...

Hey John,

Are you guys thinking of doing a something besides first person shooters? id mades some pretty good platform games once upon a time, any thoughts of trying to go back to something like that for variety? Does it get boring just reinventing the wheel with prettier graphics each time?

Common code base?

How much of the codebase is common across all platforms? Do you primarily design for one platform, and then effectively port to the rest, or do you start off with portability in mind, and use common codebase for all platforms?

Persistant Worlds and Reality Modelling

Hi John

I was wondering if you are thinking much nowdays about persistant worlds for your games, it seems you are nearing the grail of visual realism, but what about the things that go on behind the scenes. NPC's are obvious, will they 'get on with their lives' when you aren't interacting ( gibbing! ) with them? Social groups, natural occurances, things that make our world a rich and complicated one. Sometimes its nice to have a blas t in what seems like a realistic Wild West town facade, but I'm really hanging out for complex worlds that surprise the shit out of me when I do something different.

cheers and thanks for the cool stuff you've done so far
lcs

"Your gonna get up and burn an X in your head" - Some movie via Rob Zombie

NOTE: The caps in the subject are sure to annoy pedants, aren't they?

Voxels

I read in a previous interview (some gaming mag) that you believe 3D in games will be moving to Voxel based rendering. While I love this idea because it's a more 'pure' 3D solution I imagine there are some major difficulties in moving to this type of setup. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on possible problems? and some solutions? (For example how do you create/paint/manipulate a 3D voxel model?)
---
Don Rude - AKA - RudeDude

Cars

Are you ever tempted to get a car that isn't a Ferrari (e.g., Lamborghini, Maclaren, etc.)? Which is your favourite of the cars you own (or have owned)?

DirectX, Open GL, Linux and X

I read a sort-of-analysis that you wrote way back comparing DirectX 3D handling to Open GL (with Open GL being far preferable to you). Do you feel that the tools that you and others will need to create the next generation of games exist now under Linux or other Open Source operating systems, or is that still a long way off? What would you recommend that we developers and developer wannabes dedicate our time to?

On an almost related point... Doom was the beginning of 3D, first-person shooters, and they have lived quite happilly in the gaming market for some time. Other games have proven to be stable formats: sports, strategy and/or tactics simulations (e.g. Myth), multi-player build-and-conquer type games (e.g. Starcraft). What do you envision being the next set of technical hurldes that will lead to what sort of new game formats?

Nervana

What is your opinion of Nervana's Psi Visualization engine (the analog, post-script-type 3D environment description language, described at www.nervana.com)? What possibilities does it have for 3D gaming, and do you intend to do anything with it?

Contact with John Romero

Just a quickie, do you still have any contact with Romero, either socially or professionally ?

Is it possible ID may join Ion Storm for a future project together , or are the 'artistic' differences between you too great ?

Regards

Alex

Experimentation, mods, and reverse-engineering.

Recently someone posted about their experience in determining the file structure of the Doom WADfile. How did you feel when people were discovering how to modify Doom, from building new levels, to changing the executable itself(dhacked) originally without any information from id? In your opinion, is the modding community a valuable place for creating future game developers?

And, what did you think of how Nitrozac portrayed you in After Y2K? ;)

What could you do for the world?

Hi John,

Sometimes, after reading your .plan files, I
wonder what you could do if you applied your
intelligence, programming skills, and sheer effort
towards something else revolutionary... You've
often said that you like working on your games
because they give you a chance to work on many
different areas (networking, 3D graphics,
compression, etc).

My question is, if you ever gave up games, or if
you were to do something else entirely, what would
it be? Although I love your games, I'd give them
up in an instant without complaint if I knew you
were going to work on something revolutionary
outside the gaming arena.

-WW

BSP

I'm curious if you learned of Binary Space Partitioning before or after DOOM was conceived as a game? For example, were you aware of it when Wolfenstein was written? Did you consider and reject other rendering methods for DOOM?

Computer Vision, the future of Graphics, and Q3 AI

A few months ago I remember you were interested in the problem of computer vision, citing it was "the opposite of computer graphics." Did you ever look into this? If so, did your research have a direct impact on the Q3 artificial intelligence?

In what ways could computer vision research benefeit future computer graphics development?

-Ted

Multiplatform Games

You have occasionally made changes to your development efforts to accomodate non-Intel platforms; for example, making sure the latest Quake code is 64-bit clean so that it will run correctly on Alphas.

Non-Wintel markets are clearly not going to produce as much revenue as Wintel, so some people would say you're wasting time and money. What is your answer to this, and what importance do you see in multi-OS and multi-architecture development?

OpenGL for Quake3

I'm curious as to why you selected OpenGL for Quake 3 Arena. Is it because Glide is restricted to 3dfx cards and you decided to appeal the the increasing number of gamers who've chosen nVidia cards over 3dfx?

What are your thoughts on nVidia's new card NV10, redubed GeForce 256? Specificially the low, 120 MHz rating? Will the low fill rate that will result from this sub-standard speed be a barrier to the next generation 3D games running at high resolutions? Or will there be some workaround for this potential problem?

Finally, do you predict that OpenGL will entirely replace Glide in the future, despite the fact that certain game companies own stock in 3dfx, and have a vested interest in keeping this API alive?

Gaming communities

Many people think that the extreme sucessfulness and longevity of DOOM and Quake was partly due to the internet communities that sprung up around them, to discuss playing them and write new levels for them.

How important do you feel a viable gaming community is to the success of a new game today?

Open Source Games?

What is your opinion on the viability of commercial open source games or game engines? Is it possible that some day id software will create an open source game engine? Or would you consider building off of an open source game egine rather than starting from scratch when the Quake codebase is deemed obscelete? (not to suggest that my project would be worthy of such a thing. :)
-Kenton Varda

The question on EVRYONE's mind.

Here it is, the question everyone wants to know, but are all to afraid to ask. (please don't hurt me, im just the messenger)

boxers or briefs??

(or panties or thongs or nothing, or whatever else. its all good here)

DOOM and Quake

You just recently GPLed Doom. Thanks a million for that. Do you have plans to GPL any of your other titles?

Road to ID

I'm sure there are alot of people out there who look up to you, and basically want to know how you got where you are.

How did you do it, meaning studies, previous jobs, encounter with ultra-intelligent beings from outer space?

Linux game development.

I, obviously, am not Carmack. However, I think we (linux users) need to ask ourself, why would a game company develop a game exclusively for linux, or develop for Linux first, when the Windoze gaming market is: a) definetly there b) definetly much larger? The only reason I can think of, is if the game has such nerd appeal that the Linux has more paying customers.... Or if the game is substandard by Windows standards (eg: doesn't have that 'look and feel' that windoze users seem to want).

I'm sure there are API and performance issues as well, but until the market is there, why risk it? Also another possible reason, I think, is that many of these game companies are becoming increasingly wed to Microsoft APIs (eg: DirectX, Direct3D...). I'm sure Microsoft does this intentionally to make it that much harder to port games to _any_ OS, regardless of how much better the other APIs may be. (though a better API would help).

Just my two cents. It'd be nice to hear what Carmack has to say about this.

-Fall

What is fun?

What are your theories on what makes a game "fun" (multi-player vs single player)?

Which car do you drive to work?

This is a break from the usual questions from this group, but I thought it would be interesting to know.. You have a couple of exotic sports cars, one being a 1000 horsepower/750 ft-lbs of torque (insane!) ferrari, and I was wondering which one you generally drive to work?

Open Source game development?

Though it unlikely that games will ever be free (ala beer), since so much effort goes into them from all angles (not just code, but also art, music, design etc), but that does not necessarily preclude open source game engines.

Admittedly (and I don't mean this as a slam against you) game engines today do suffer from many of the same problems that Open Source activists attack in Operative systems and other software: bugs, instability and sometimes even bloat and vaporware.

Do you think that Open Source will play a part in the future of game development?

-
/. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.

Learning...

John,
I've been following your exploits, grin, for the last couple of years. One of the comments that benefited me the most was your suggestiong to read the Graphics Programming Blackbook by Micheal Abrash(sp?). Could you give a list of books that you consider excellent source material for someone that is looking and doing high end programming. Both graphical and non-graphical.

Sincerely,
Kal Kolberg
aka Lando

Is id helped by being a small company?

I've got lots of friends who work in the games industry, and they're all in huge development teams (typically 35 or more people) with all the useless (IMHO) management junk hanging on. Do you think id's refusal to go down this route (last I heard, you had 13 employees) has helped in your success? From what I've seen, you've been able to consistently keep quality high and deliver an end product without resorting to having 7 artists, 6 musicians, 3 game concept designers and countless hordes of coders. Basically, do you think staying small has helped ship a decent product in a sensible timeframe?

A Challenge

The nature (not the quality) of Id games changed after Romero (left/was ousted/whatever) from the company. Without going into detail, I laud some changes and bemoan the loss of others.

My challenge to you is this:

Say something positive (as in 'kind', 'upbeat', 'flattering', etc.,) about John Romero's contribution(s) to the astounding success of the early Id games, up to and including Quake, and tell us what, if anything, you miss since his departure.

If you respond with something clever ("He made great coffee") or something bitter ("He never made coffee") I will surely chuckle with the rest or nod in solemn understanding, but will consider the challenge a failure on your part. If you manage to say something positive and insightful about his technical/design/whatever contributions, without retracting it or qualifying it, I will touch my head to the floor in respect and say "Wow. There goes a Man."

If you truly believe that he contributed nothing, then by all means say so and we'll call it a draw.

In any case, I will continue to be an avid admirer and follower of your efforts to continuously raise the bar of Sheer Amazingness in Computer Gaming Quality(TM).

How do you find the time

John,

1) I often take a look at your .plan file. I am constantly amazed at all of the various areas of computing you have knowledge on. For example, besides being a graphics god, you recently started discussing dynamic interpreters and code generation.

You obviously understand the ins and outs of the varous platforms you develop on, and their development tools. You're fixing bugs and working with networking issues. How do you find the time to learn all of this stuff to a useful level? Do you hire consultants to help you out for initial advice and direction?

You're the head programmer: how do you even find time to code so much when you have project management responsibilities? I find that taking on the leadership of a team can reduce coding time to 20% or less of my schdule. I find that I can't work on anything on the critical path. I find that that I am more useful if I keep myself free of coding responsibilities so that I can help others on the team and prototype high-risk or unknown tasks. Finally, on top of all this, how do you find the time for a personal life outside work?

2) Are you going to be like Bill Gates and just keep going, even though you're already extremely successful? lol! Really though, what keeps you motivated and drives you to work so hard for so long, especially now that you've earnt enough to retire, travel the world, do something else, etc?

3) I guess that this stems from 1)... how much project management and team leadership do you have to do? You have a small team of developers, do you have somebody to handle all of that for you?

Hardware Too Powerful?

You'd have to live in a deep, dark cave to not hear the buzz over Sony PlayStation2. I've seen reports that studios are complaining that PSX2 is so powerful, they don't really know how to take advantage of it all. It seems like whining to me, since I come from the world of PCs with their ever-expanding memory/hard drive space. Do you think game studios can fall that far behind hardware, are these studios thinking too short-term, or are they just not accustomed to having that much power at their disposal? Do you think that PSX2, and Dreamcast and Nintendo "Dolphin," for that matter, have reached parity with PCs, from a developer's standpoint?

Keith Russell
OS != Religion

***** VOICE COMMUNICATION ********

I SERIOUSLY think this is a MAJOR asset to the game. I WISH you would seriously think about implementing it. This would take TEAM games to the next level. I've always known id for being very innovative, but if you release Q3 without voice communication, I feel the innovation will stop here. I'll be honest, i'll still buy it without voice communication. However, I really really really really really wish you would put it in. It would be so much fun to trash talk. It makes me think of the movie "White Men Can't Jump."

"It's hard, so hard, to make you look so bad."

And if you're a player that feels you don't want to hear a bunch of people screaming into a mic while you play, you can just goto the option menu and turn voice communication off. There's no reason why the rest of us should do without.

"dude, I only have 5 rockets."
"ok, what impulse is it again?"
"22"

Concepts of Halo and new graphics tech (on /.)?'s

I believe that it may be a bit rude to ask directly about another product, however I would like to know what possibilities that you believe exist on dynamically stored map/landscape that changes as the game progresses (ex: a rocket blasts a piece of rock from a celing and the rubble crushes someone else and remains a barrier while providing a hole in the celing to the sky and level of the map above). I would also like to know how hard it would be to implement somthing along these lines with respect to programming time and any potential hardware limitations of the current market. Additionally there was a facinating article about a graphics technology that was invented/developing in Austrailia on slashdot a couple days ago that involved 3D imaging [newsunlimited.co.uk] I was wondering what you though of this technology from a viability and implementation (if viable) prospective and how it could change both the hardware and software markets for products based on visualization?

Answers...

I just wanted to help out by giving the answers to some previously answered questions. :) I read through some of the more highly-moderated questions for things that I, through various Carmack interviews, already knew. I would hate for /. to send him some questions that have been asked of him a million times. Hopefully others will follow suit, and the moderators will notice and not mark these questions up. You just recently GPLed Doom. Thanks a million for that. Do you have plans to GPL any of your other titles? When the last Quake licensee finishes their title (*cough* ION Storm), Carmack has stated he will release the source of Quake. I'm not certain if he'll GPL it or not, but the source will be available. Are you guys thinking of doing a something besides first person shooters? Assuming Q3:A isn't the last game you make will the next game be another FPS? Or do you see ID branching into other game types? Are there already plans for another game? Carmack and others at id (read: Mr. Devine) have stated that the next game probably will not be an FPS (first-person shooter), but there will be a next game from all signs.
"My works are like water. The works of the great masters is like wine, but everybody drinks water."

Will polygon-based rendering last much longer?

On Oct. 8, a thread on /. [slashdot.org] addressed a new graphics engine, that supposedly left "everyone from the designers at Nintendo to programmers at Apple" in shock. It eschews traditional polygon/texture-based rendering in favor of what the /. post called "build[ing] it up from a molecular level, with apparently amazing results." Do you see computer/game graphics straying from the polygon-based model we see today? If so, what do you see replacing it? -brennan

What type of setup do you use for quake?

Hey John,
Ok there is a holy war in the quake world of what is better...using the keyboard and a 3/2 button mouse or a trackball? what type of setup do you use?

JediLuke

What did you think about the Q1 leak?

How did you feel when you learned that the Quake 1 source had leaked and that people were using it to create unauthorized ports for previously unsupported platforms? Outraged? Interested? Amused? Litigous?

---

Re:Learning...

Please, include all books you'd recommend, even non-graphical. There's more to games programming (at least, beyond Quake) than graphics.

Programming Pearls? The Art of Computer Programming? The Mythical Man-Month?

What's the complete contents of your bookshelf!!??

Linux as id's primary development platform...

As man id-ites know, you developed Quake on NeXTStep and then ported it to DOS (then Windows and Linux). Since Quake2, however, you've been developing natively on Windows NT, which I remember you lamenting at one point because it made you a bit lazy in your programming habits...
Anyway, what I'm wondering is, "what would it take for Linux to become your preferred development platform?"
Obviously, better 3D hardware support is paramount, but what other issues are there? Would you need a feature-full, cohesive IDE? Better support for the vector instruction sets (MMX, 3DNow!, SSE)? A simpler GUI?
At the time of Quake's development, Linux as a game (development) platform would have seemed pretty silly, but with Quake[123], Kingpin, and Unreal Tournament making Linux appearances, as well as Loki's ports of Civ:CTP and Railroad Tycoon, Linux-as-game-platform is starting to seem quite viable...

MoNsTeR