Virtual reality firm opens new Dallas office

Oculus appoints John Carmack as CTO

Id software co-founder and technical director John Carmack has joined Oculus as its chief technology officer.

Carmack will work from the virtual reality company’s new office in Dallas, which the firm is currently in the process of staffing up.

A spokesperson has told Develop that he has joined the company on a full-time basis.

“I have fond memories of the development work that led to a lot of great things in modern gaming – the intensity of the first person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods, and so on,” he said.

“Duct taping a strap and hot gluing sensors onto Palmer’s early prototype Rift and writing the code to drive it ranks right up there. Now is a special time. I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer. The paradigms that everyone will take for granted in the future are being figured out today; probably by people reading this message.

“It’s certainly not there yet. There is a lot more work to do, and there are problems we don’t even know about that will need to be solved, but I am eager to work on them. It’s going to be awesome.”

Oculus first emerged last year when it took on crowdfunding website Kickstarter to raise $250,000 for its virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift.

The company ended up raising over $2.4 million from 9,522, and has won over developers across the industry with its ambitions to make virtual reality gaming a realistic proposition. The firm also recently won the Technical Innovation accolade at this year’s Develop Awards.

Update: Id Software has said John Carmack is not leaving the company, and will "continue to provide leadership" for its games in development.

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