Rage creative director joins Oculus VR

Matt Hooper, the creative director of Rage who departed id six months ago, has joined Oculus VR as the new Director of Development.

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Hot on the heels of John Carmack joining the Oculus Rift team, another id Software veteran has gone over to work on the VR device. Matt Hooper, creative director on Rage, is now the director of development at the Oculus Rift office.

Hooper didn't swap id for Oculus, though, as he actually left the company about six months ago. GameFront reports that id has been notably tight-lipped about Hooper's departure, refusing to comment on it recently at QuakeCon.

"We are thrilled to have Matt Hooper join the Oculus VR team as our Director of Development," read a statement from Oculus VR. "Hooper will be working out of the Dallas, TX office. He's a top talent who had been out of id for a few months and ended up being a great fit for the Oculus team. We're looking for more all-stars!"

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  • reply
    August 9, 2013 7:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Rage creative director joins Oculus VR.

    Matt Hooper, the creative director of Rage who departed id six months ago, has joined Oculus VR as the new Director of Development.

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      August 9, 2013 7:37 AM

      Oculus calling in the big guns!

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        August 9, 2013 7:40 AM

        Yup. I think all signs point to Oculus VR being a big fucking deal in the future of video gaming.

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          August 9, 2013 8:03 AM

          I have not met anyone who has strapped one on their face who wouldn't agree.

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            August 9, 2013 12:13 PM

            Well, me, since I'm stereoblind...
            Oh, wait, I'm trying to fix that just so I can enjoy the Rift.
            Motherfuck

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            August 12, 2013 12:08 PM

            then meet one
            I tried it at GDC this year, and I think it is still very limited in its use and takes a whole lot for its tech to make it actually usable

            the resolutions of each screen were pretty low and the shutter speed/frame rate was below average making it feel more like a novelty rather than actual usable product that you can use in real world for more than 15 minutes. (I know they have been working on it constantly to increase its fidelity, but as per the dev kit we have in our studio, it is still NOT usable!)
            And I still have not delved into the fact that the dissonance of you not seeing your real world hands on the controller and having your eyes see something completely different is a real hurdle too (it would be WAY worse with the mouse and keyboard situation)

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      August 9, 2013 7:39 AM

      Abandon ship!! Abandon ship!!!

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      August 9, 2013 7:44 AM

      Rage had a creative director?

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      August 9, 2013 7:56 AM

      If this hardware ends up optimized for generic shooters and not crazy new VR experiences I'll be sad.

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        August 9, 2013 8:16 AM

        I'm sure plenty of indie developers will make interesting stuff for the Rift. Surgeon Simulator 2013 already supports it.

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        August 9, 2013 8:27 AM

        It makes sense because shooters are technically FIRST PERSON games. Does this tech not revolve around giving you a first person perspective? The genre of the game shouldn't matter as much - as more so how the tech is used to interact with the game.

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          August 9, 2013 10:57 AM

          Yep, it will be most relevant for first person games, including vehicle-based stuff and RPGs

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          August 9, 2013 11:52 AM

          The thing is FPS engines tend to be very narrow in scope. They want you walk down a hall and shoot something. They don't want you to interact or explore. It's why there were all sorts of unreal engine games last gen but they almost showed limits of the engine still like seeing the textures stream in.

          For this technology you should be required to be thinking of every possible game from flight sims to adventure games, to FPS. But my concern would be people who only have done FPS games see the tech in a very precise way that doesn't support other goals the same.

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            August 9, 2013 11:56 AM

            How would that impact the hardware though? That's a question of game design, not hardware design.

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          August 9, 2013 12:00 PM

          Don't worry about it. Oculus isn't making games, they're providing a framework in which to work. I'm sure they'll provide tech and user experience demos representing the largest variety of games that they can. I wouldn't be surprised if they even worked out a way to view your desktop effectively in the Rift.

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          August 9, 2013 12:45 PM

          [deleted]

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            August 9, 2013 2:16 PM

            As long as there's body presence I've found it works fine. Even Minecraft's blocky body is enough. I love looking down and seeing arrows poking out of me as I run after a fight.

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      August 9, 2013 7:57 AM

      Man I wish I could buy some shares of that company.

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      August 9, 2013 8:40 AM

      Rift + Doom 4 = a very happy me. :D

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      August 9, 2013 9:20 AM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2013 11:40 AM

      are they privately held? i would be up for buying some stock if they were available just because i believe in the product and the staff.

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      August 9, 2013 11:55 AM

      So whats a reasonable mass consumer price point? Personally I think $100 would put this in a LOT of households.

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        August 9, 2013 12:01 PM

        $300 is fine. I can't believe it's that inexpensive.

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        August 9, 2013 12:06 PM

        $289.99? Hard to tell.

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        August 9, 2013 12:08 PM

        I think 300 is unfortunately going to be the floor, as they're going to have to use a state of the art display to get good results. The future sensor technology they use will influence it as well, I have a feeling that's not going to be commodity parts.

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          August 9, 2013 12:15 PM

          I bet its going to be $500, the cost of an iPad

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        August 9, 2013 1:20 PM

        $300 is my price point..anything more is probably a nosale.

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        August 9, 2013 1:47 PM

        I'm ok with 1000 if it really works and has high build quality. Realistically it is going to exceed the immersion from 3 monitors, so I'm fine with a price point of at least one expensive quality display.

        I've been tempted many times to go valcan S on my office and throw down for 3 tvs but I never do it. Partially because I don't want 3 tvs in my office. One device that I can put away that makes 3 displays look pointless.

        A grand to build a super immersion racing sim setup? Yea, I'm perfectly ok with a price that high if the build quality and support is high.

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        August 9, 2013 2:26 PM

        $300ish. Maybe get some $100-150 knock offs and $1-2k enthusiast models in the mix too and everyone will be happy..

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        August 9, 2013 4:43 PM

        [deleted]

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        August 9, 2013 4:43 PM

        i'd pay up to $5-600 in a heartbeat. anything more and i might wait a bit.

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        August 9, 2013 5:03 PM

        My gross simplification is it's like strapping a 2013 nexus 7 to your head, so $230 for the tablet + $100 for the lenses / case / converter box brings it around $300-$350.

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        August 9, 2013 5:09 PM

        i think as long as it's under $500, and it really does what it's designed to do well - meaning low latency and high res, and with one or two killer apps, this thing will fly off the shelves.

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        August 9, 2013 5:22 PM

        Ultimately (but sooner rather than later) they will need to get the rendering hardware in there too, so I'd expect it to stay around 300 even just for consumer perception reasons

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        August 9, 2013 5:25 PM

        $300 will be a good starter for this. At the moment the focus is the developers, then PC gamers, and most likely console gamers down the road. If you are into proper PC gaming you most likely have a budget towards hardware upgrades and this will just get tossed into the mix.

        Console gamers will be the mass market goal, but first manufacturing costs will have to decrease, and get down to a $150 level. Hopefully when that's rolling out an even higher def w/ more features will come out for the PC's which will more than likely be leaving the consoles in the dust with raw power.

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        August 10, 2013 12:37 AM

        I'd love it to be 300 but I know it will be probably closer to 350 just to disappoint me.

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      August 9, 2013 12:19 PM

      Those of you that have played FPS' with the OC, besides the novelty of the experience do you see it's performance as being better for a FPS? Isn't the flick of the wrist for a snap 180 turn still faster and more accurate than trying to look over your shoulder?

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        August 9, 2013 1:29 PM

        It's not really about performance. I imagine that in strictly technical terms it's completely effective to use a VR headset while never moving your head once. It's just more natural and immersive to have the option of looking around.

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      August 9, 2013 2:20 PM

      i want oculus to have twin cameras on the outside and either a button/voice command to switch from game to life display

      not just so i dont have to take the thing off to see whats physically around me but imagine the AR stuff you could play with

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        August 9, 2013 2:22 PM

        I'm not sure it'd feel natural; the cameras are by nature not going to be where your eyes are, but at a minimum at least an inch and a half farther forward.

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          August 9, 2013 2:23 PM

          Maybe by having the ability to adjust their distance from eachother and zooming the image in or out slightly you could do something that would look almost right? I may have to experiment with this.

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          August 9, 2013 3:41 PM

          It'd be like those toy night vision goggles. As someone who's spent a bunch of time with one, it's a feature I'd really like and might even hack onto my dk. Finding the keyboard or any other peripherals can be a pain, plus it has a bunch of applications for gestural interfaces and AR.

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            August 9, 2013 5:16 PM

            Most of those are monocular though. If you want to actually give a sense of depth it's a trickier issue.

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          August 9, 2013 5:26 PM

          I'm messing with this at the moment -got two PS eyes at 60 fps and some 110 degrees fov lenses on the way. Haven't got stereo working yet but a single one at 75 degrees isn't much more disorienting than a misconfigured rift demo

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      August 9, 2013 4:38 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2013 4:57 PM

      Boy things are sure looking good for Oculus!

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      August 10, 2013 12:34 AM

      I like where this is going.

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