John Carmack Says Immersive I/O Devices Trump Graphics

[Synexious]

In this PCper interview, id founder Carmack says we need immersive VR devices, such as HMDs, more than we need better rendering. Even photorealistic graphics won't be that great if we're still staring at them on a screen.

[cybereality]

Totally true. Its all about the interaction, and a lot of that is hindered by antiquated IO devices. Even worse, when innovative devices do come to market (and they DO) they get very little support from developers. Hopefully this will change at some point, but we shall see.

Also, I would be interested to know what HMD Carmack bought. Certainly he can afford anything out there.

[Fredz]

I guess we can now dream of an HMD version for Rage, hopefully...

[Aeroflux]

Wouldn't nVidia have to do something about their lack of support (non-commercial at least) for OpenGL S3D? Even if they did something wouldn't that leave out IZ3D and DDD? Since Id is set on OpenGL it seems the only approach is for Rage to support S3D natively.

I’ve been saying this for years, but my money is still eventually on direct ocular scanning. I think mobile devices will probably be the thing that drives it home, where we are carrying supercomputers around in our pockets that are crippled by lack of IO devices on there. I think that once we get the thing that clips on your glasses, and laser scans into your eye that gives you very high resolution.

I really strongly believe at this point that the big impact changes where people are going to say “wow, this game is so much different than what we’ve had before,” is going to be from IO devices. It is going to be... we’ve got rendering ability to do this for sure... we can do incredible virtual reality world rendering, but if you are just looking at it on a TV set there is a limit to what the extra quality will do.

Carmack seems to be waiting for a better chicken (hardware) to come along before he invests in eggs (software). It is bizarre to rely on laser optics developed for smartphones as a catalyst for widespread VR. The last I heard of laser optic research, it was being done by Kaiser, and that was before I had even heard of OLED technology (7+ years ago). What's the current status of development?

[Synexious]

Owen Rowley, an early VR researcher, told me that the HMZ-T1 will be a waste of time because there's no point in VR at all until we have direct neural interface. Nevermind that DNI isn't VR at all (it's SR), but passing on something good (HMZ-T1) or great (iOptik) for something perfect (the Matrix) is depressingly stubborn. "I will have the world, or I will have nothing at all! What's that you say? You'll give me a continent? No! The world! Or nothing at all!"

[cybereality]

There is a whole lot that can be done without a direct connection. Just look at the stuff Palmer's been posting. The technology is out there, we have decent hardware. Its just not cheap or mainstream, but we could do it with enough money and manpower.

[Aeroflux]

I think that's the problem with VR becoming mainstream, there is never a foundation that people can relate to. It remains obscure, expensive and technical.

I think society needs a base of VR equipment that makes economic sense first. Everybody wants to be in the future, but I can look to the past and clearly see I spent too much time anticipating what I don't yet have. At some point I'm going to have to enjoy what exists in the present. Likewise, at some point society needs to accept a base level of hardware that allows Virtual Reality to take place in limited form. The Wii did allow that exposure in part. So did Move and Kinect. Now the industry needs to make it work better, i.e. more accurate, wider range of movement accepted, bring the software past the gimmick stage and really innovate the interaction. Make it a part of something people already enjoy. That's what needs to be done with VR hardware.

3D movies brought the motivation that HDTV manufacturers needed to make 3D a standard feature in many homes. People get a taste of what 3D is, but we're still in the time when the quality of 3D films are sporadic. We need somebody to bring the elements of VR together in an affordable, enjoyable form and mass produce it. Mainstream may have hurt the videogame industry in some ways but it has exposed gaming concepts to many people who once thought it belonged in a toy chest. The indie game development industry is thriving now as a result of the tunnel-vision major publishers have. It's a start and that's what VR needs to get to the next viable evolution of technology. It's kind of a "one step back, two steps forward" optimism.

[cybereality]

Basically we just need a "killer app".

[Aeroflux]

Tron! What I'd give just have a full light cycle simulator with the modern art and some of the gameplay in Tron 2.0. GTA+MotoGP+Tron Legacy=Win.

It certainly isn't Rage. Apparently graphics trump gameplay according to the Arstechnica review.