bjb writes "It appears that Brian Hook is leaving Id software. " Well, departing seems to be the theme of this week, at least this depature is more amicable then the other.
Speculations on Brian's Future
by
yuzow
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· Score: 2
It might be likely that Brian could go to NVIDIA, considering his past experience with 3DFX and his previous.plan's extolling the company's virtues. But personally, I think he might go to a game company where he has more of a leadership/architectural position. 911 Studios with EverQuest? Doubtful considering the game's done and mostly upgrades are all that are left.
I do have some lovely "overheard" conversations to back up my claim. A few months ago during the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Jose, Brian was heard to have made a few cracks about how great it is to be at the GDC; mainly because when he goes back to ID, he's Beta Male to John Carmack's Alpha Male. It was a lot funnier the way he said it, and it sounded more joking than anything.. But with the recent events, perhaps there were seeds of wanderlust already sown by that time.
BTW, he gave a great keynote/seminar on Q3A technology! Though Brian may not be the game architect/technologist that John C is, he's definitely no slouch in the 3D Programming department.
Such a simple statement... =) Everyone I have talked to who has both played HL and Q3A agree that Q3A is just a little boring. TFC really rocks and TF2 is going to be better.
So, first off: Everyone I have talked to... Q3A is just a little boring.
So what? Is that one person? Two persons? Even if it were a hundred persons, what does it matter that 100 people or 1000 people think Q3A is boring compared to Half Life. Statistically, it could be explained by the fact that you and your friends like team play and coop more than free for all; it says nothing about the games or the market.
Likewise, Q3A is unfinished, a test, not even a demo. There is no polished sounds, polished maps, polished models and animation, etc, etc, etc. You're comparing a polished and shipping product to essentially a technology test.
TFC really rocks and TF2 is going to be better.
Sure. What does this have to do with Q3A? How does your endorsement mean anything to anyone else? If you said TPM sucks, and Episode II is going to be worse, why should I listen to you?
Not to say I disagree, necessarily, just that your logic, isn't logic =)
TFC and TF2 have different play mechanisms than Q3A; in that respect, I can say I like coop better than free for all. It does not mean that coop games are 'better', just that *I* like them better. I happen to think that Q3A will be great, but that games based off of it's engine will be even better, because I prefer single play games most of all, like Half Life, Curse of Monkey Island, Jedi Knight.
Well, Brian Hook has always had quite a mouth on him. From facing off against Alex St. John on OGL and DirectX, to his benchmarking controversies vs. Tom's Hardware, to basically any comment made in his plan, he's managed to piss someone off. I liked that:)
Brian Hook has given plenty to the community. If you haven't read Ask GMB over at www.voodooextreme.com, now would be a good time to go check it out. It's become part of my routine, plus I've picked up some hot advice on everything from programming, to attitude, to women. It's rare for a programmer to give as much back as Brian has.
I'm sure Brian won't be going far (perhaps some graphics company? He did work for 3DFX for a while). Good luck Brian, you will be missed at id, and by the Quake community. Don't stray too far, Paul Steed can only stir up so much controversy.
As for id, they still have fine programmers in John Carmack & John Cash. They'll hardly miss a beat. Plus, the Q3 engine is looking pretty solid as it is.
Re:Brian Hook...the guy who wrote Glide.
by
M1m3R
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· Score: 2
Here is an old PlanetQukae interview with Hook...has a bit more of his background.
And here is an interview on bootNet with Carmack and Hook....it's got pica and opinions.
-- m1m3r - n. - a leet speak performance artist that sometimes gets trapped in an imaginary glass box
I've been a diehard reader of ID Plans from before Hook joined ID Software. Judging by his work on GLide being far superior to Redmond's work on Direct3D at the time, and showing up Microsoft again with Quake 2, the first all-OpenGL hardware accelerated commerical game (GLQuake 1 was an unsupported download) I am willing to wager someone at Microsoft would want this man to fill the shoes of, say, Alex St. John. Farfetched, perhaps. However, Hook has managed to keep his mouth shut in his.plans representing ID software for the past year or so. This is something that Alex St. John could not do, and was fired from Microsoft.
I wish Brian good luck, but I would not be surprised if he shows up at Microsoft, and we see a drastic improvement in proprietary 3D. If that ever happens, I would have wished that it was someone still working at ID calling all the shots on the Direct3D team.:)
More food for thought: This wouldn't be the first ID employee to make the shift over to Microsoft. Abrash did so on the release of WinQuake 1.0.
Re:Where's Brian going? 989 studios (Everquest)
by
jwag
·
· Score: 4
I think he will go work on Everquest. Here is a long article he recently wrote on how to improve part of that game: http://www.voodooextreme.com/ask/editorial2.htm
He has also written about how much he likes the game.
I don't think he will go back to 3dfx. He has written that he left there for good reasons.
I don't think he will go to Transmeta because he has written some derogatory things about Unix in the past.
Q3 will excel in the deathmatch arena, and depending on it's bots, may do well in CTF.
I think TF2 will carve it's own niche.
I wouldn't be surprised if Q3Arena doesn't do so hot, due to all the competition, but I don't imagine there will be a lack of licenses. It's a damn beautiful engine.
Linux newbie? I guess that isn't totally inaccurate. He's not interested in OS politics, or shafting The Man, or going revolutionary, I guess. If I read the man right, Carmack is interested in what works, what works well, and what he can do with it.
I mean, he was champion of OpenGL before it gained any acceptance, he loves the NeXTStep programming and user interface, and he believes in cross platform capability.
He doesn't care overmuch about the socio-political issues of using an open vs non-open OS, though it seems he knows of the advantages of open source. He's not an advocate, per se, but an excellent poster child.
"I use Linux because it works. And when it doesn't, I can fix it"
However, as long as a *real* better alternative exists, I don't imagine him taking the effort to deal with Linux overmuch. As he states, it is now almost an alternative to his much loved NeXTStep, and definitely to WinNT. I would be careful about his advocacy, however, as MacOSX may usurp Linux in his heart, seeing as how much of it is actually NeXTStep based.
Seeing as how they have different play styles, I don't see how one can dominate another, excepting that there may be people who enjoy both playstyles... and then wouldn't they play both games?
Now Unreal Tournament, that might be the logical challenge to TF2, what with it's bot code, it's CTF and other coop modes.
Is anyone making a deathmatch game anymore? I thought id was the only one; AvP might be, I guess, but it seems better suited for coop and teamplay, as soon as the patches are out and the editors are released, and I'd think that UT may have good enough free for all to compete against Q3A...
Brian certainly knows his 3D, and he has a strongly held set of opinions about color depth and graphics APIs. But it's very strange the he's considered such an all-around expert in the game field, especially considering that:
1. He's never actually architected a game engine. 2. He's never actually designed a game.
He did write a book about 3D graphics, but he's obviously no Abrash. It's mostly average C++ code with a bit of thin commentary.
He also writes a Q&A column for Voodoo Extreme, but he sounds like an old man, constantly ranting about the same issues and never putting things in a new light. He seems very close-minded, certainly not an innovator.
He's damn good at self-promotion, though! Sour grapes? You betcha!:)
He's already worked at 3dfx, and doesn't quite mesh with them, as evidenced in age old plan files. Not unless something radical has occurred. But hey, they're still using the same technology in their V3 cards as when Brian worked there and helped to write Glide.
Software startup is a blind guess, though prolly not Ion Storm.
-AS
--
-AS
*Pikachu*
An offer he couldn't refuse
by
EggDye
·
· Score: 2
The most interesting part of this post is where Brian talks about getting "an offer he couldn't refuse". As nice a gig as working at a game company like id would be, there was one thing he was never going to get...ownership.
I imagine whoever has made this offer to Brian has either included some kind of ownership stake, or huge wads of profit sharing.
Slashdot Mirror
It might be likely that Brian could go to NVIDIA, considering his past experience with 3DFX and his previous .plan's extolling the company's virtues. But personally, I think he might go to a game company where he has more of a leadership/architectural position. 911 Studios with EverQuest? Doubtful considering the game's done and mostly upgrades are all that are left.
I do have some lovely "overheard" conversations to back up my claim. A few months ago during the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Jose, Brian was heard to have made a few cracks about how great it is to be at the GDC; mainly because when he goes back to ID, he's Beta Male to John Carmack's Alpha Male. It was a lot funnier the way he said it, and it sounded more joking than anything.. But with the recent events, perhaps there were seeds of wanderlust already sown by that time.
BTW, he gave a great keynote/seminar on Q3A technology! Though Brian may not be the game architect/technologist that John C is, he's definitely no slouch in the 3D Programming department.
Yw
Such a simple statement... =)
Everyone I have talked to who has both played HL and Q3A agree that Q3A is just a little boring. TFC really rocks and TF2 is going to be better.
So, first off:
Everyone I have talked to... Q3A is just a little boring.
So what? Is that one person? Two persons? Even if it were a hundred persons, what does it matter that 100 people or 1000 people think Q3A is boring compared to Half Life. Statistically, it could be explained by the fact that you and your friends like team play and coop more than free for all; it says nothing about the games or the market.
Likewise, Q3A is unfinished, a test, not even a demo. There is no polished sounds, polished maps, polished models and animation, etc, etc, etc. You're comparing a polished and shipping product to essentially a technology test.
TFC really rocks and TF2 is going to be better.
Sure. What does this have to do with Q3A? How does your endorsement mean anything to anyone else? If you said TPM sucks, and Episode II is going to be worse, why should I listen to you?
Not to say I disagree, necessarily, just that your logic, isn't logic =)
TFC and TF2 have different play mechanisms than Q3A; in that respect, I can say I like coop better than free for all. It does not mean that coop games are 'better', just that *I* like them better. I happen to think that Q3A will be great, but that games based off of it's engine will be even better, because I prefer single play games most of all, like Half Life, Curse of Monkey Island, Jedi Knight.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Well, Brian Hook has always had quite a mouth on him. From facing off against Alex St. John on OGL and DirectX, to his benchmarking controversies vs. Tom's Hardware, to basically any comment made in his plan, he's managed to piss someone off. I liked that :)
Brian Hook has given plenty to the community. If you haven't read Ask GMB over at www.voodooextreme.com, now would be a good time to go check it out. It's become part of my routine, plus I've picked up some hot advice on everything from programming, to attitude, to women. It's rare for a programmer to give as much back as Brian has.
I'm sure Brian won't be going far (perhaps some graphics company? He did work for 3DFX for a while). Good luck Brian, you will be missed at id, and by the Quake community. Don't stray too far, Paul Steed can only stir up so much controversy.
As for id, they still have fine programmers in John Carmack & John Cash. They'll hardly miss a beat. Plus, the Q3 engine is looking pretty solid as it is.
Here is an old PlanetQukae interview with Hook...has a bit more of his background.
And here is an interview on bootNet with Carmack and Hook....it's got pica and opinions.
m1m3r - n. - a leet speak performance artist that sometimes gets trapped in an imaginary glass box
I've been a diehard reader of ID Plans from before Hook joined ID Software. Judging by his work on GLide being far superior to Redmond's work on Direct3D at the time, and showing up Microsoft again with Quake 2, the first all-OpenGL hardware accelerated commerical game (GLQuake 1 was an unsupported download) I am willing to wager someone at Microsoft would want this man to fill the shoes of, say, Alex St. John. Farfetched, perhaps. However, Hook has managed to keep his mouth shut in his .plans representing ID software for the past year or so. This is something that Alex St. John could not do, and was fired from Microsoft.
:)
I wish Brian good luck, but I would not be surprised if he shows up at Microsoft, and we see a drastic improvement in proprietary 3D. If that ever happens, I would have wished that it was someone still working at ID calling all the shots on the Direct3D team.
More food for thought: This wouldn't be the first ID employee to make the shift over to Microsoft. Abrash did so on the release of WinQuake 1.0.
I think he will go work on Everquest. Here is a long article he recently wrote on how to improve part of that game:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/ask/editorial2.htm
He has also written about how much he likes the game.
I don't think he will go back to 3dfx. He has written that he left there for good reasons.
I don't think he will go to Transmeta because he has written some derogatory things about Unix in the past.
-- jwag
Sorry, but TF2 is not deathmatch.
Q3 will excel in the deathmatch arena, and depending on it's bots, may do well in CTF.
I think TF2 will carve it's own niche.
I wouldn't be surprised if Q3Arena doesn't do so hot, due to all the competition, but I don't imagine there will be a lack of licenses. It's a damn beautiful engine.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Linux newbie? I guess that isn't totally inaccurate. He's not interested in OS politics, or shafting The Man, or going revolutionary, I guess. If I read the man right, Carmack is interested in what works, what works well, and what he can do with it.
I mean, he was champion of OpenGL before it gained any acceptance, he loves the NeXTStep programming and user interface, and he believes in cross platform capability.
He doesn't care overmuch about the socio-political issues of using an open vs non-open OS, though it seems he knows of the advantages of open source. He's not an advocate, per se, but an excellent poster child.
"I use Linux because it works. And when it doesn't, I can fix it"
However, as long as a *real* better alternative exists, I don't imagine him taking the effort to deal with Linux overmuch. As he states, it is now almost an alternative to his much loved NeXTStep, and definitely to WinNT. I would be careful about his advocacy, however, as MacOSX may usurp Linux in his heart, seeing as how much of it is actually NeXTStep based.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Seeing as how they have different play styles, I don't see how one can dominate another, excepting that there may be people who enjoy both playstyles... and then wouldn't they play both games?
Now Unreal Tournament, that might be the logical challenge to TF2, what with it's bot code, it's CTF and other coop modes.
Is anyone making a deathmatch game anymore? I thought id was the only one; AvP might be, I guess, but it seems better suited for coop and teamplay, as soon as the patches are out and the editors are released, and I'd think that UT may have good enough free for all to compete against Q3A...
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Brian certainly knows his 3D, and he has a strongly held set of opinions about color depth and graphics APIs. But it's very strange the he's considered such an all-around expert in the game field, especially considering that:
:)
1. He's never actually architected a game engine.
2. He's never actually designed a game.
He did write a book about 3D graphics, but he's obviously no Abrash. It's mostly average C++ code with a bit of thin commentary.
He also writes a Q&A column for Voodoo Extreme, but he sounds like an old man, constantly ranting about the same issues and never putting things in a new light. He seems very close-minded, certainly not an innovator.
He's damn good at self-promotion, though! Sour grapes? You betcha!
He's already worked at 3dfx, and doesn't quite mesh with them, as evidenced in age old plan files. Not unless something radical has occurred. But hey, they're still using the same technology in their V3 cards as when Brian worked there and helped to write Glide.
Software startup is a blind guess, though prolly not Ion Storm.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
The most interesting part of this post is where Brian talks about getting "an offer he couldn't refuse". As nice a gig as working at a game company like id would be, there was one thing he was never going to get...ownership.
I imagine whoever has made this offer to Brian has either included some kind of ownership stake, or huge wads of profit sharing.