Why is this marked w/ Video games?

Nevermind! Just realized I didn't read the whole tag. Anything with John Carmack should instantly being videogames tagged. ;;

@ dag:

Mac vs PC commercials are a great example of FUD tactics. This has been argued on other forums ad naseum and I will avoid repeating what has already been heavily debated. FUD on any scale is bad; I really could care less how Apple's compares to Microsoft or Sun or any other company. But combine FUD with the Apple RDF and it only serves to make consumers more stupid and companies richer for hurting the market =P

Moving on... As for the iPhone SDK and API, I'm only in partial agreement with you. I'm not sure if you are are low-level (assembly) programmer, dag, but to call the API for the iPhone unprecedented and robust is not accurate and really depends on what you code. It is, in fact, very limited from a more general viewpoint. This is in part due to the EULA and TOS (don't forget, Apple tells you what you are allowed to release for the iPhone) but also because of what access the APIs provide to the hardware.

That access, in fact, is none. The SDK and API are heavily abstracted from the hardware. This incurs a serious performance penalty that prevents certain applications from being practical. John Carmack, lead programmer of id Software made commentary regarding this while developing a version of Doom 3 for the iPhone:

“If you look at it in raw hardware horsepower, the iPhone should be better in performance than the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable,” Carmack said. “But the truth is, you can’t exploit it all because of software inefficiencies.”

More can be found here: http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/06/10/next-generation-iphone-game-doom-resurrection-debuting-next-week/

Those software inefficiencies he is referring to are a result of the API design, and is not an example of being supportive of all external developers. Don't get me wrong. The current API works well for a large amount of apps, as proved by the number present on the App Store. But really, how many of these apps really push the technological envelope? Alot of the apps on the stores are the technological equivalents of a basic .NET project: easy and fast to code (good) but not efficient (bad). This effectively kills one area of development: high end games. Kind of funny when you think about it. Apple is yet again limiting game development on another one of their platforms, although for very different reasons. I'm convinced (at risk of butchering something Steve Jobs might say) high-end gaming is not compatible with Apple's DNA.

I do understand Apple's reasoning behind this level of abstraction: control. This isn't necessarily malevolent control. An advantage of abstraction is that it can prevent nasty things from happening... your risk of crashes is reduced for example. But you will always lose performance due to overhead. There is simply no way around that.

Overall the iPhone's API philosophy was probably the right way to go in the very beginning. It's now been two years, though, and Apple needs to rethink their strategy when it comes to low-level access if they expect AAA developers to do anything remotely close what Tegra-based hardware can do when it hits the market. The iPhone will appear quite flimsy by comparison and only an API change will fix it.

Sorry for the long post, but game and assembly programming are passions of mine and I feel people are incredibly misinformed as to the true nature of the iPhone SDK and API. Good for some, but not for all.

I love it as is. Watching John Carmack sing the news is just awesome!

(I don't think they're being obnoxious. It's the right kind of comically silly look to go alongside the serious news casters and speakers.)

Tags for this video have been changed from 'John Carmack et al, 2008' to 'John Carmack et al, 2008, rocket, plane, test, flight' - edited by kulpims

great review. however, i disagree with a couple of points (and the John Carmack slam at the end, wtf!), specifically the minute about 50% market share for video games being bad.

I've been "Riding" Carmack Rockets for over a decade now. The man knows his rocket engines.

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Thanks for that Thylan - I have discarded. I haven't checked out the latest from Carmack yet - but I will.

In reply to this comment by Thylan:
Dont quite see how to * discuss this but:
http://art.videosift.com/talk/web-design-orange-county

sending to lucky too

The guy in the hat shaved, threw the hat, and changed his name to John Carmack.

just watched 6 parts of the carmack keynote... thanks thylan

the way carmack speak reminds me of jorja fox´s character on csi

I emailed Carmack today and asked some rocket related stuff, he actually wrote back right away. I'm that dude who emailed Carmack that one time.

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^ John Carmack - not Jesus Christ, in case anyone was wondering. (though maybe one in the same?)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I've been following these guys for years too. I'm a big fan of Carmack's work ethic - and how open he is with their failures and successes.

In all of the contests the are definitely "the little guys" but they have written some amazing software for their rockets.

Quote:John Carmack, team leader of Armadillo Aerospace, later announced the cause of the vehicle's mishap.

Apparently, during the landing phase, a piece of the rocket's engine fell off. The vehicle began to veer due to the problem, with the motor shutting down, causing the craft's touchdown mishap.

There is no doubt that Carmack and id are the fathers of the FPS genere. The Doom and Quake series were outstanding in their own rights. However, it seems like id kind of lost its way of being at the forefront tech-wise and game-wise. Doom3 may have been an exercise in technology, but it was not that much fun to play. Now with MMORPGs capturing a large percentage of the market and interest, I wonder how they will come back. Perhaps they are shifting to the console arena. I don't know, but I want them to be a factor in the future of gaming/online gaming.