Michael Abrash
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Michael Abrash | |
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Oculus VR (2014–present) | |
Title | Chief scientist |
Michael Abrash is an American
Abrash started his career in 1982 writing action video games for the IBM PC, which eventually resulted in the 1990 book Zen of Assembly Language Volume 1: Knowledge.
Game programmer
Abrash began writing video games the early days of the
After working at Microsoft on graphics and assembly code for Windows NT 3.1, he was hired by id Software in the mid-1990s to work on Quake. Some of the technology behind Quake is documented in Abrash's Ramblings in Realtime published in Dr. Dobb's Journal.[7] He mentions Quake as his favourite game of all time.[8] After Quake was released, Abrash returned to Microsoft to work on natural language research, then moved to the Xbox team until 2001.[9]
In 2002, Abrash went to RAD Game Tools where he co-wrote the Pixomatic
Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve, said that he had "been trying to hire Michael Abrash forever. [...] About once a quarter we go for dinner and I say 'are you ready to work here yet?'"[11] In 2011 Abrash joined Valve.[12]
On March 28, 2014, three days after
Technical writer
Michael Abrash was a columnist in the 1980s for the magazine Programmer's Journal. The articles were collected in the 1989 book, Power Graphics Programming. His second book, Zen of Assembly Language Volume 1: Knowledge (1990),
In the early to mid-1990s, Abrash wrote a column about graphics programming for IBM PC compatibles for Dr. Dobb's Journal called "Ramblings in Realtime." In 1991, his colummn introduced Mode X: a 256 color 320x240 graphics mode with square pixels instead of the slightly elongated pixels of the standard 320x200 mode. The same column covers a VGA feature allowing up to four pixels to be written at once—something which had not been widely documented outside of the VGA specification. The article and its follow-ups ignited interest among MS-DOS game programmers. "Ramblings in Realtime" also covered polygon drawing, 3D graphics, and texture mapping.
Much of the content of Zen of Assembly Language was updated in Zen of Code Optimization: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Software That Pushes PCs to the Limit (1994),[16] In 1997 Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book,[17][18] was published. It was a collection of Dr. Dobb's Journal articles and his work on the Quake graphic subsystem.
Abrash stopped writing publicly in the 2000s until maintaining a public blog at Valve, "Ramblings in Valve Time", from April 2012 until January 2014.
References
- ^ Abrash, Michael (April 1, 1997). "Some Things I've Learned About Win32 Game Programming". Dr. Dobb's.
- ^ a b "Introducing Michael Abrash, Oculus Chief Scientist". Oculus VR. 2014-03-28. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-673-38602-1.
- ISBN 978-1-883577-08-7.
- ^ Lacine, Mark (Mar–Apr 1983). "Micro-Reviews". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 9. p. 44.
- ^ Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
- ^ Abrash, Michael (1996-02-01). "Ramblings in Realtime". www.drdobbs.com. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^ Valve Pipeline. "Pipeline Interviews: Michael Abrash on Virtual Reality & the Future of Gaming". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ "Xbox Graphics Analyzed". GameSpot. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
- ^ Abrash, Michael (2009-04-01). "A First Look at the Larrabee New Instructions (LRBni)". drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
- ^ Crossley, Rob (2011-05-13). "Valve hires world-class development trio". Develop. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Facebook to Acquire Oculus". Facebook. 2014-03-25. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-673-38602-1.
- ^ Hague, James (2008-02-18). "Five Memorable Books About Programming". Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ISBN 978-1-883577-03-2.
- ISBN 978-1-57610-174-2.
- ^ Abrash, Michael (2001-11-01). "Graphics Programming Black Book". www.drdobbs.com/high-performance-computing. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
External links
- Ramblings in Valve Time - A blog by Michael Abrash (archived)
- Michael Abrash's developer profile at MobyGames
- Ramblings in Realtime by Michael Abrash, detailed description of Quake's graphics engine programming (PDF version)
- Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash (HTML version and ebook source)
- 40 minutes with Michael Abrash of Valve Software", Audio interview with Michael Abrash at QuakeCon 2012 discussing Abrash's career and work at Valve