John Carmack becomes Oculus CTO, will remain at id as well

John Carmack, the co-founder of id Software and creator of the Doom, Quake and Rage series of games, joined Oculus VR as its chief technology officer, according to a post on the virtual reality headset's Kickstarter blog.

Carmack will also remain at id, Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Softworks, confirmed to Polygon.

"John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project," Hines said. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected."

In a tweet this morning, Carmack explained that he'll divide his time between three companies, and Oculus VR takes pride of place at the top of the list.

Carmack, who was an early supporter of the Oculus Rift headset, will set up shop in the company's soon-to-be-opened Dallas office, where the developers are looking to hire new employees."

"VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer."

"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," Carmack said in a statement posted on the blog. "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!"

In another tweet this morning, he discussed the difference between working at id Software and Oculus VR.

The virtual reality headset was funded through Kickstarter in Sept. 2012, having raised more than $2.4 million, well beyond its $250,000 goal. Oculus Rift developer kits began shipping in March. Games that support the headset include Hawken and Team Fortress 2. At QuakeCon 2012, Carmack revealed that Doom 4 would include Oculus Rift support, just like it was added to Doom 3 BFG Edition.

Carmack's other projects include Armadillo Aerospace, which he founded in 2000 to develop reusable rocket-powered vehicles. Earlier this month, he announced the company would be entering "hibernation mode" in the wake of a failed landing in January.

For more on the Oculus Rift, be sure to check out Polygon's hands-on impressions from earlier this year.