Id Software co-founder and lead developer John Carmack recently posted some thoughts about the future of 3D technology to “News for Nerds” site Slashdot.org. He also mentioned the Mac.
On 3D technology, Carmack takes a more conciliatory tone towards Microsoft than he has in the past — the developer of the Quake games wishes that Microsoft had chosen to embrace and extended OpenGL rather than craft its own Direct3D standard, but says that it’s “water under the bridge now.”
He also goes into some detail about what he thinks of the future of 3D technology — he said that the next two years in driver and card development will usher in “a real golden age for graphics programming.”
“At that point, a higher level graphics API will finally make good sense. There is debate over exactly what it is going to look like, but the model will be like C. Just like any CPU can compile any C program (with various levels of efficiency), any graphics card past this point will be able to run any shader,” said Carmack.
Noting that he still uses OpenGL to develop his technology, Carmack said that he’s still targeting both Mac and Linux platforms in addition to Windows. You might say he damns the Mac market with faint praise, however.
“It has been pretty clearly demonstrated that the Mac market is barely viable and the Linux market is not viable for game developers to pursue. Linux ports will be done out of good will, not profit motives. From an economic standpoint, a developer is not making a bad call if they ignore the existence of all platforms but Windows,” said Carmack.
There’s a lot more to his post, and it’s incited a sometimes heated, sometimes insightful debate among Slashdot.org posters, as well, so you might want to pop by for a visit and check it out.