John Carmack facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Carmack
Carmack at the 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards
Born	(1970-08-21) August 21, 1970 (age 54) Shawnee Mission, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation	Computer programmer, video game developer, engineer
Employer	Keen Technologies (2023–present) Oculus VR (2013–2022)
Known for	Co-founding id Software Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage
Title	Consulting CTO, Oculus VR Founder, Armadillo Aerospace
Political party	Libertarian
Spouse(s)	Katherine Anna Kang ​ ​ (m. 2000; div. 2021)​
Partner(s)	Trista DeLeon (2022–present)
Children	2
Signature

John D. Carmack II (born August 21, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He is famous for co-founding the video game company id Software. There, he was the main programmer for many popular games in the 1990s. These games include Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.

Carmack created new ways to make 3D computer graphics look amazing. For example, he developed a special method for shadow volumes. In 2013, he left id Software to work at Oculus VR as their Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He later focused on artificial general intelligence (AGI). In 2022, he started his own AGI company called Keen Technologies.

About John Carmack

Early Life and Learning

John Carmack was born in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. His father was a local TV news reporter. John grew up in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He became very interested in computers when he was young. He went to high school in Kansas and Missouri.

Carmack first discovered video games with Space Invaders in 1978. He played it at arcades during a summer vacation. The game Pac-Man (1980) also made a big impression on him. He really looked up to Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

When Carmack was 14, he got into trouble for trying to take Apple II computers from a school. He was arrested and sent to a juvenile home for a year. After this, he went to the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He studied there for two semesters. Then, he left to work as a freelance programmer.

Building a Career in Games

A computer company called Softdisk hired Carmack. This was in Shreveport, Louisiana. There, he met John Romero and other people who would later start id Software with him. They worked on a game magazine for the Apple II computer.

Later, this team at Softdisk started a game subscription product. In 1990, Carmack, Romero, and others made the first Commander Keen games. These games were published by Apogee Software. They used a method called shareware, where you could try the game for free. After this, Carmack left Softdisk to help create id Software.

Carmack has been a pioneer in computer graphics. He helped create or make popular many important techniques. These include "adaptive tile refresh" for Commander Keen. He also used ray casting for games like Hovertank 3D and Wolfenstein 3D. Doom was the first game to use binary space partitioning. He also invented surface caching for Quake.

His special shadow technique, called Carmack's Reverse, was used in Doom 3. The MegaTexture technology first appeared in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The game Quake 3 also helped make the fast inverse square root algorithm well-known.

Carmack's game engines were used in other famous first-person shooter games. These include Half-Life, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. In 2007, he decided to make a "good" mobile game after playing some on his phone.

Carmack giving a speech after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 11, 2010

On August 7, 2013, Carmack joined Oculus VR as their Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He left id Software completely on November 22, 2013. He wanted to work full-time at Oculus VR. Carmack left because id's parent company, ZeniMax Media, did not want to support the Oculus Rift.

Carmack speaking about "The Dawn of Mobile VR" during the Game Developers Conference 2015

In November 2019, Carmack changed his role at Oculus. He became a "Consulting CTO." This allowed him to spend more time on his work in artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is about creating AI that can learn and think like humans. On August 19, 2022, Carmack announced he had raised money for his new AGI company, Keen Technologies. He left Oculus in December 2022 to focus on Keen.

How John Carmack Works

Carmack says he has worked about sixty hours a week for most of his career. This means 10 hours a day, six days a week. He believes that long hours of deep focus help him make progress faster. It also helps him stay focused over time. Even with this demanding schedule, he has never felt "burned out."

Carmack also takes week-long programming retreats. During these retreats, he goes away by himself. He often stays in a hotel in a different city. The goal is to focus completely on a difficult problem or learn a new skill. Being alone helps him think deeply and creatively.

Carmack was open about his frustrations at Meta (Oculus's parent company). He felt there was too much bureaucracy. He said they had many people and resources but often wasted effort. He wished he could stop "stupid things" before they caused problems.

Carmack believes that small, steady steps lead to big changes. He compares this to "gradient descent" in math. This idea means that small steps, using local information, lead to the best results. He says this has worked for him and for many smart people he knows.

Armadillo Aerospace

Carmack during the 2005 X PRIZE Cup in Las Cruces and Alamogordo, New Mexico

Around the year 2000, Carmack became interested in rocketry again. This had been a hobby when he was younger. He decided to use some of his own money to fund a company called Armadillo Aerospace. He spent over a million dollars a year on it. The company worked towards making suborbital space flights.

In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace won first place in the Lunar Lander Challenge. This was a NASA contest. They won $350,000. In September 2009, they won another $500,000 for completing Level 2. The company went into "hibernation mode" in 2013. Carmack said that working in the aerospace industry was "simple" compared to making video games.

Open-Source Software and Beliefs

Carmack supports open-source software. This means software whose code is available for anyone to see and change. He has often said he is against software patents. He thinks they are like stealing ideas. He has also helped open-source projects. For example, he helped bring the X Window System to Mac OS X Server.

Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995. He released the Doom source code in 1997. Later, he put it under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This allowed others to use and change the code. When the Quake source code was leaked, a programmer used it to make a Linux version. Instead of legal action, id Software used these changes to make an official Linux version.

id Software has since released the source code for many of its games. These include Quake (1999), Quake 2 (2001), Quake 3 (2005), and Doom 3 (2011). Carmack later wished he had used a more flexible license, like the BSD license.

Carmack has sometimes been doubtful about Linux as a gaming platform. In 2013, he thought emulation was the best way for gaming on Linux. In 2014, he felt Linux might be a big problem for the success of the Steam Machine.

Carmack also gives money to charities and gaming groups. He has supported his old high school. He also helps groups that promote open-source software and fight against software patents.

Personal Life and Habits

John Carmack was very successful at id Software. By 1994, he owned two Ferraris. In 1997, he gave one of them away as a prize. It went to Dennis Fong, the winner of the Quake tournament "Red Annihilation".

He met his ex-wife, Katherine Anna Kang, at QuakeCon in 1997. She challenged him to sponsor an all-female Quake tournament. Carmack thought only 25 people would join, but 1,500 did! Carmack and Kang married on January 1, 2000. They had two sons, one in 2004 and another in 2009.

Carmack is now divorced. In 2022, he shared that he met his current partner, Trista, through playing the VR game Beat Saber.

As a game developer, Carmack used to say games would be released "when it's done." He did not like to set firm release dates. However, his views have changed over time. He now thinks they should have released Rage two years earlier. He also felt that the development of Quake was "traumatic." He thought id Software could have split the game into two parts and released it sooner.

Carmack used to have a blog and still has an active Twitter account. He also sometimes posts comments on Slashdot.

Carmack supported Ron Paul's presidential campaign in 2012. He also convinced the Libertarian Party of Texas to accept BitCoin donations. He is an atheist. He has also trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo as a hobby.

During his time at id Software, a medium pepperoni pizza from Domino's Pizza arrived for Carmack almost every day. The same delivery person brought it for over 15 years. He was such a regular customer that they kept charging him 1995 prices.

He has praised other talented programmers. These include Ken Silverman, who made the Build engine. He also admired Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, who created the Unreal Engine.

Awards and Recognition

Games John Carmack Worked On

See also

In Spanish: John Carmack para niños