Over the past decade, John Carmack , who enjoyed the "father of FPS games" and "god of 3D engines", has played a key role in promoting VR to consumer acceptance, from exchanging hardware with Oculus Riftt creator Palmer Leki to becoming the CTO of Oculus 2 and continuing to work on Facebook and Meta. Not long ago, he also conducted some of the most in-depth technical analysis of VR's pain points and areas of improvement in the annual speech at Oculus/Facebook/Meta Connect.
Unfortunately, the industry "god" recently announced to the outside world that he had resigned from his position as executive consultant for the virtual reality business of Meta and publicly stated that he was "tired of endless struggles." Afterwards, Carmak also wrote out his own voice and disclosed the content to everyone:
Quest2 is almost the mobile VR device I envisioned. It has a mobile version hardware architecture, an internal tracking system, optional PC streaming function, a 4K (ish) screen, and a very cost-effectiveness. Although I am dissatisfied with the software system, millions of users still find fun and value in this device. We have created a good product that is successful and will also make the world a better place. In fact, if our early decisions could be improved a little bit more, it would have happened faster and it would have been better to say first. But anyway, everything built on the web is in the right direction.
However, our efficiency is too inefficient.
Some people may ask, as long as the progress goes smoothly and the results are satisfactory, why do I get confused about the process? When faced with this question, if I want to change the other party, I will definitely answer: an inefficient organization cannot adequately respond to those inevitable market competition and cost reductions. You should know that the hardware device we built has a utilization rate of only 5% for GPU, which is a painful thing, and it has caused a considerable blow to me.
We have a huge amount of talents and resources, but we constantly destroy ourselves and block our efforts in the process, which are all facts that cannot be concealed. I think our team is stopping, but it actually makes me happy. Meanwhile, some people on the team may disagree, laugh at my point of view, and think that everyone is doing well; but others will smile and say, "Half? Ha! I'm only one-quarter of my efficiency!"
For me, it's a struggle. I have the highest level of say in the team, so I feel like I should be able to change the status quo. But unfortunately, my persuasiveness is obviously not enough. Things that many people once complained about turned into a pile of evidence a year or two, and eventually changed the direction of my efforts. During this period, no one discovered and corrected mistakes in time before making stupid decisions, or set a right direction for the team to really stick with it. I think my 's influence on product profit margin is effective, but it has never been my biggest motivation for work.
There is no denying that all this is what I asked for. I could have moved to Menlo Park after Oculus disappeared and tried to fight generations of leadership there, but I've been busy programming. I feel like I will be tired of the struggle, the result will be very bad, and I will lose all opportunities and ways out. At this moment, I have complained enough, I am tired of this struggle and have set up my own startup, but there is still a possibility of victory in this struggle. VR can bring value to most people in the world, and no company is more suitable for this than Meta. This may have been proved through current practice and results, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future.
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