His hope is that the Rift eventually becomes available as some $500 build-it-yourself kit that sets the bar for casual hobbyists - a less mainstream group, but one that's still forgiving of the quirks of early design.
Carmack's big contribution has been the algorithms used to optimize the code for HMDs and lower latency, some specially designed for Rift, but he acknowledges it's the early days. So why bring Doom 3 back now? Carmack said virtual reality has been pitched since the Wolfenstein 3D days, but now it's finally hitting a reasonable price point with technology capable of lowering latency to the point where it's a viable option. That's something that we think will improve with time, and the other factors - ergonomics, low latency, smooth framerate, wide field of view - make it a step above most of the headsets we've tried over the years. However, one of our video production members with better vision noticed the low resolution and felt it took away from the experience. We played without our prescription glasses, so our vision was blurry enough that it didn't affect our gameplay. The main knock against Rift at this stage is the aforementioned low resolution screen. For 3D - both with traditional glasses or a HMD - the crosshairs on screen have been replaced with a red laser sight, something that Studio Director Tim Willits chose to do for the 3D version (HMD and traditional 3D) after extensive research. The gun can be raised and lowered independently from your view to avoid excessive tilting the head up and down. The gyroscope and accelerometers track your movement - minor adjustments to your field of view as well as precision aiming - while the controller still handles the broad strokes of moving and strafing. The framerate was also a smooth 60fps - something that Carmack focused on almost as much as the latency issue itself. The Rift also helps by being surprisingly thin and light, even in this prototype form. As you can see in the video, the sides of the round eyepieces have been literally taped off to hide some of the end-of-screen effect that might take away from the experience (reminder: early prototype). That's due to the Rift's 90 degree field-of-view, something you won't find in most other HMD's (including Sony's recently-launched 3D head mounted display, which Carmack praised for its high quality and relatively low price point). While the images themselves are relatively low-resolution, the immersion factor is pretty fantastic. Essentially, the Oculus Rift contains a 1280 x 800 screen split in two - 640 x 800 for each eye - with an image that really needs to be seen to be believed.
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