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Question about metal-cpp resource allocation
I notice some metal-cpp classes have static funtion like static URL* fileURLWithPath(const class String* pPath); static class ComputePassDescriptor* computePassDescriptor(); static class AccelerationStructurePassDescriptor* accelerationStructurePassDescriptor(); which return a new object. these classes also provide 'alloc' and 'init' function to create object by default. for object created by 'alloc' and 'init', I use something like NS::Shaderd_Ptr or call release directly to free memory. Because 'alloc' and 'init' not explicit call on these static function. I wonder how to correctly free object created by these static function? did they managed by autorelease pool?
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463
Mar ’25
Metal IR reference
Hello! I'm developing a GPU (shader) language, where I aim to target multiple backends with a common frontend. I wanted to avoid having to round trip through Metal, and go straight to IR just like I have with SPIRV, in order to have a fast and efficient compilation process. I've been looking for a reference page where I can read about Metals IR, and as far as I'm aware, it exists, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Furthermore, if such a reference is available, is there also a toolkit where I can run validation on the output IR, and perhaps even run optimizations, much like spv-tools for SPIRV? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Gustav
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275
Jul ’25
Metal-cpp-extensions isn't working inside frameworks
I am making a framework in C++ using metal-cpp, basically a small game engine. I am also consequently using metal-cpp-extensions provided in LearnMetalCPP to make applications work. For one of my classes, I needed to add AppKit.hpp inside a public header file, so I moved it and its associate headers(NSApplication.hpp, NSMenu.hpp, etc.) from Project headers to Public in Build Phases' Headers, however, it started giving me the error "cast of C pointer type 'void *' to Objective-C pointer type 'Class' requires a bridged cast" at several points in the AppKit headers. They don't appear when AppKit and its associates are in the Project headers, or when they are in the Private headers and no headers import it. I imagined that disabling Objective-C ARC and Using __bridge casts outside of ARC in Build Settings would solve it, but it didn't budge. I imagined it wouldn't involve actively changing the headers would be the answer, but even if I try to put __bridge before the problematic casts, it didn't recognize __bridge. How do I solve this? And why is it only happening in Public and not Project headers?
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802
Jan ’25
Learn Metal
I am interested in learning the Metal framework for rendering development. However, most of Apple’s official documentation uses Objective-C code. Therefore, I am seeking guidance on whether it is more advantageous for me to focus solely on learning Swift to gain proficiency in Metal.
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818
Jan ’25
M1 GPU violates atomic_thread_fence across threadgroups
I have an M1 Pro with a 16-core GPU. When I run a shader with 8193 threads, atomic_thread_fence is violated across the boundary between thread 8191 (the last thread in the 7th threadgroup) and 8192 (the first thread in the 9th threadgroup). I've attached the Metal and Swift files, but I'll repost the relevant kernel here. It's a function that launches N threads to iterate through a binary tree from the leaves, where the first thread to reach the parent terminates and the second one populates it with the sum of the nodes two children. // clang-format off void sum(device const int& size, device const int* __restrict__ in, device int* __restrict__ out, device atomic_int* visited, uint i [[thread_position_in_grid]]) { // clang-format on int val = in[i]; uint cur = (size + i - 1); out[cur] = val; atomic_thread_fence(mem_flags::mem_device, memory_order_seq_cst); cur = (cur - 1) / 2; int proceed = atomic_fetch_add_explicit(&visited[cur], 1, memory_order_relaxed); while (proceed == 1) { uint left = 2 * cur + 1; uint right = 2 * cur + 2; uint val_left = out[left]; uint val_right = out[right]; uint val_cur = val_left + val_right; out[cur] = val_cur; if (cur == 0) { break; } cur = (cur - 1) / 2; atomic_thread_fence(mem_flags::mem_device, memory_order_seq_cst); proceed = atomic_fetch_add_explicit(&visited[cur], 1, memory_order_relaxed); } } What I'm observing is that thread 8192 hits the atomic_fetch_add first and terminates, while thread 8191 hits it second (observes that thread 8192 had incremented it by 1) and proceeds into the loop. Thread 8191 reads out[16383] (which it populated with 8191) and out[16384] (which thread 8192 populated with 8192 prior to the atomic_thread_fence). Instead of reading 8192 from out[16384] though, it reads 0. Maybe I'm missing something but this seems like a pretty clear violation of the atomic_thread_fence which (I thought) was supposed to guarantee that the write from thread 8192 to out[16384] would be visible to any thread observing the effects of the following atomic_fetch_add. Is atomic_fetch_add not a store operation? Modifying it to an atomic_store or atomic_exchange still results in the bug. Adding another atomic_thread_fence between the atomic_fetch_add and reading of out also doesn't change anything. I only begin to observe this on grid sizes of 8193 and upwards. That's 9 threadgroups per grid, which I assume could be related to my M1 Pro GPU having 16 cores. Running the same example on an A17 Pro GPU doesn't show any of this behavior up through a tested grid size of 4194303 (2^22-1), at which point testing larger grid sizes starts to run into other issues so I can't test anything larger. Removing the atomic_thread_fences on both the M1 and A17 cause the test to fail at much smaller grid sizes, as expected. sum.metal main.swift
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530
Dec ’24
metal-cpp syntax for MTL::Buffer float2 parameter
I'm trying to pass a buffer of float2 items from CPU to GPU. In the kernel, I can provide a parameter for the buffer: device const float2* values for example. How do I specify float2 as the type for the MTL::Buffer? I managed to get the code to work by "cheating" by defining a simple class that has the same data members as a float2, but there is probably a better way. class Coord_f { public: float x{0.0f}; float y{0.0f}; }; then using code to allocate like this: NS::TransferPtr(device->newBuffer(n_elements * sizeof(Coord_f), MTL::ResourceStorageModeManaged)) The headers for metal-cpp do not appear to define vector objects like float2, but I'm doubtless missing something. Thanks.
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649
Jan ’25
Request: API to temporarily defer Reachability for fullscreen game swipes (bottom edge)
In swipe-driven games, a first downward swipe starting near the home indicator can trigger Reachability, even when using preferredScreenEdgesDeferringSystemGestures = .bottom and prefersHomeIndicatorAutoHidden = true. This causes the app to slide down to half screen and breaks gameplay. Please consider an API to temporarily defer Reachability while a custom gesture is active (similar to existing system gesture deferral), without disabling accessibility globally. Environment: Devices: iPhones with Home Indicator (Face ID) Why this matters: Bottom-origin swipes are core in many games (flick shots, slingshot, physics toss, bottom sheets). Current workarounds degrade UX and discoverability, and players still accidentally trigger Reachability. Feedback Assistant Post
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655
Aug ’25
[tvOS] Reacting to button taps
I've just started working on my first SpriteKit game that will eventually run on both tvOS and iOS and am looking at how to build a "button". So far, I've got a custom node that looks like: class MyButton: SKSpriteNode { ... #if os(tvOS) override var canBecomeFocused: Bool { true } override func didUpdateFocus(...) { ... } #endif } The above let me nicely handle focus changes in tvOS and now I'm looking at reacting to selecting the button. Searching around, all the articles/questions/posts are from 2015-2016 - which is a LOOOONG time ago. Most of the guidance appears to be to add a tap gesture recognizer in the owning scene and getting the scene to hand it off to the button. That seems pretty brittle and I'd much prefer if the button itself is responsible for its own tap management. So, I guess my question is whether I should just add a gesture recognizer to my custom button class? Is this inefficient if I end up having 7-8 buttons on the screen and each one has its own gesture recognizer? Somewhat related, all of the 10-year-old advice is that if we add recognizers to scenes, then they need to be removed from the view controller... however, in the modern day world with SwiftUI, my project doesn't even have a view controller (yet, anyway)... what gesture recognizer lifecycle management do I need in a SpriteKit scene that is presented within a SpriteKitView? Or, is there a better way? I was kind of hoping that overriding pressesBegan() (or something similar) in my custom button might have been triggered on tvOS (like touchesBegan() lets me manage touches for the iOS variant of my app) Any pointers or suggestions would be gladly received. Thanks.
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701
Jan ’25
Blurry Game Center Achievement Images?
Hey all — I’ve been building out my first set of Game Center Achievements for a game I’m working on, and I’ve run into something odd with the image quality. The specs say to upload icons at 512x512 or 1024x1024@2x. I’ve been uploading 1024x1024 PNGs (without explicitly naming them “@2x” since there’s only one upload slot), assuming that Game Center would just handle the scaling automatically — kind of like how a lot of things are getting more streamlined across platforms lately. But in testing, the icons are showing up a bit blurry, especially in the Game Center interface. It’s not horrible, but it’s definitely softer than I expected — more like low-res than Retina. All my test devices (outside the Simulator) are running iOS 26, so I’m also wondering if this might be a beta-related display bug? Has anyone else run into this? Curious if I’m missing a best practice here, or if I really do need to ensure I’m uploading it with the @2x suffix, or maybe something else entirely? Thanks!
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160
Jul ’25
Metal-CPP Errors
After following the instructions here: https://developer.apple.com/metal/cpp/ I attempted building my project and Xcode presented several errors. In essence it's complaining about some redeclarations in the Metal-CPP headers. NSBundle.hpp and NSError.hpp are included in the metal-cpp/foundation directory from the metal-cpp download. Any help in getting these issues resolved is appreciated. Thanks!
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559
Feb ’25
GPTK did not build error
Hey there, I tried to install GPTK again, since I had to reinstall the OS for irrelevant reasons. But every time I try to install the tool kit, it gives me theError: apple/apple/game-porting-toolkit 1.1 did not build error. Before that error occired, I had the Openssl error, which I fixed with the rbenv version of openssl. Is there any way to fix this error? Down bellow you'll find the full error message it gave me. The specs for my Mac are (if they are helpful in any way): M1 Pro MBP 14" with 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD. Thanks! ``Error: apple/apple/game-porting-toolkit 1.1 did not build Logs: /Users/myuser/Library/Logs/Homebrew/game-porting-toolkit/00.options.out /Users/myuser/Library/Logs/Homebrew/game-porting-toolkit/01.configure /Users/myuser/Library/Logs/Homebrew/game-porting-toolkit/01.configure.cc /Users/myuser/Library/Logs/Homebrew/game-porting-toolkit/wine64-build If reporting this issue please do so at (not Homebrew/brew or Homebrew/homebrew-core): https://github.com/apple/homebrew-apple/issues```
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640
Mar ’25
How do I test a new leaderboard added to a Published app with prior leaderboard?
Hi I have attempted to find a fix for my issue via documentation online and one phone support ( not code level support ) call to no end. I could continue to try various things but would like to see if someone else has encountered this issue and a fix for it. Background: My Game app is live on App Store and has 1 classic leaderboard . I am now getting ready to submit an update to the app and it also entails adding a new recurring leaderboard. I added the leaderboard in App Store. I however have NOT uploaded my new build yet. I have also not added my leaderboards ( currently live and not live ) to any set. When I try to submit scores using GKLeaderboard.submitScore(_:context:player:leaderboardIDs:completionHandler:) to the new non-live leaderboard it works ( gives me no error ) When I try to load the scores from the new non-live leaderboard GKLeaderboard.loadLeaderboards(IDs:completionHandler:) loadEntries(for:timeScope:range:completionHandler:) it fails. Error: "leaderboardID not found" I could try ( and will ) uploading the new build to AppStore connect and associating the new leaderboard to it before testing again. try associating each leaderboard to a set Is there anything else that I should be aware of ? Thanks in advance
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105
Jul ’25
Problem running Unreal 5.6
I am using Unreal Engine 5.6 on a MacBook Pro with an M3 chip and macOS 15.5. I’ve installed Xcode and accepted the license, but Unreal is not detecting the latest Metal Shader Standard (Metal v3.0). The maximum version Unreal sees is Metal v2.4, even though the hardware and OS should support Metal 3.0. I’ve also run sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app and accepted the license via Terminal. Is there anything in Xcode settings, SDK availability, or system permissions that could be preventing access to Metal 3.0 features?"
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482
Jul ’25
Metal: Non-uniform thread groups unsupported in Simulator? Is it?
My app is running Compute Shaders that use non-uniform thread groups. When I run the app in the debugger with a simulator target the app crashes on encoder.dispatchThreads and the error message is: Dispatch Threads with Non-Uniform Threadgroup Size is not supported on this device. Previously the log output states that: Metal Shader Validation is unsupported for Simulator. However: When I stop the debugger and just run the app in the simulator without the debugger attached, the app just runs fine and does not crash. The SwiftUI Preview that also triggers the Compute Shader when preparing data also just runs fine without a crash. I can run and debug on a real device no problem - I just don't have all sizes available. Is there anything I need to check in my lldb/simulator configuration? It obviously does work, just the debugger cannot really deal with it? Any input would be nice as this really slows my down as I have to be extremely careful when debugging on the simulator.
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571
Mar ’25
VisionOS VideoMaterial on 3D Mesh
I'm trying to get video material to work on an imported 3D asset, and this asset is a USDC file. There's actually an example in this WWDC video from Apple. You can see it running on the flag in this airplane, but there are no examples of this, and there are no other examples on the internet. Does anybody know how to do this? You can look at 10:34 in this video. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/videomaterial
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806
1d
RealityKit Blend Modes
I have 2 planes with textures on. I want these planes to intersect [ –|– ], and I want the blend mode to be additive. Currently I get z fighting on the planes, and I can't see how to set blend modes. I've done this before in Unity and Godot in a fairly straight forward manner. How do I accomplish this with RealityKit, preferably using code only (my scene is quite dynamic)? Do I need to do it with a shader manually? How can I stop the z fighting?
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746
Aug ’25
Unknown CHHapticError.Code (1852797029 == 'nope') in iOS 18+ on iPhone 11 Pro
Hello, I'm getting this error when launching a SpriteKit Swift game in iOS 18+ on an iPhone 11 Pro, whose shell is partly damaged in the back: CHHapticEngine.mm:1206 -[CHHapticEngine doStartWithCompletionHandler:]_block_invoke: ERROR: Player start failed: The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.CoreHaptics error 1852797029.) Haptics do not work on this device, due to the damaged shell, so some error — which obviously occurs when calling start(completionHandler:) — is definitely expected; what is not expected is the main thread sometimes blocking for up to 5 seconds — although the method is not called from the main thread... the error itself is always displayed from some other secondary (system) thread. During this time, the main thread does not access the haptics engine at all; on average, it blocks once every four or five launches. In each launch (blocking or not), the 'nope' error is displayed ~5 seconds after trying to start the engine. After going nuts with all kinds of breakpoints and instrumentation, I'm at a loss as to why the main thread would sometimes block... Ideas, anyone? Thank you, D.
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176
Jul ’25
Editor Ok, but running batch get: Cannot locate a Release or Debug Apple.GameKit native library for macOS
After running build.py -p Core GameKit and adding the tar balls to the Unity project in Assets/ExternalPackages no packages seem to be found when running the build using our continuous integration system. This was not the case when the project was opened in the Editor. It looks like in Apple.Core, the ApplePluginEnvironment hasn't run the OnEditorUpdate function and so the _appleUnityPackages Dictionary is empty. A change to ApplePlugInEnvironment.cs seemed to fix the issue: public static AppleNativeLibrary GetLibrary(string packageDisplayName, string appleBuildConfig, string applePlatform) { // ?FIX?: If we're not in the editor, we might not have updated the package list. if (_appleUnityPackages.Count == 0 && _updateState == UpdateState.Initializing) { OnEditorUpdate(); // UpdateState.Initializing OnEditorUpdate(); // UpdateState.Updating } I'm not sure if this is something we're doing incorrectly, the documentation for the plug-in mostly covered building the package.
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697
Dec ’24
WWDC25 Metal & game technologies group lab
Hello, Thank you for attending today’s Metal & game technologies group lab at WWDC25! We were delighted to answer many questions from developers and energized by the community engagement. We hope you enjoyed it and welcome your feedback. We invite you to carry on the conversation here, particularly if your question appeared in Slido and we were unable to answer it during the lab. If your question received feedback let us know if you need clarification. You may want to ask your question again in a different lab e.g. visionOS tomorrow. (We realize that this can be confusing when frameworks interoperate) We have a lot to learn from each other so let’s get to Q&A and make the best of WWDC25! 😃 Looking forward to your questions posted in new threads.
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375
Jul ’25
How to play Vorbis/OGG files with swift?
Does anyone have a working example on how to play OGG files with swift? I've been trying for over a year now. I was able to wrap the C Vorbis library in swift. I then used it to parse an OGG file successfully. Then I was required to use Obj-C\++ to fill the PCM because this method seems to only be available in C\++ and that part hangs my app for a good 40 seconds to several minutes depending on the audio file, it then plays for about 2 seconds and then crashes. I can't get the examples on the Vorbis site to work in objective-c and i tried every example on github I could find (most of which are for iOS - I want to play the files on mac) I also tried using Cricket Audio framework below. https://github.com/sjmerel/ck It has a swift example and it can play their proprietary soundbank format but it is also supposed to play OGG and it just doesn't do anything when trying to play OGG as you can see in the posted issue https://github.com/sjmerel/ck/issues/3 Right now I believe every player that can play OGGs on mac is written in Objective-C or C++. Anyway, any help/advice is appreciated. OGG format is very prevalent in the gaming community. I could use unity, which I believe plays oggs through the mono framework but I really really want to stay in swift.
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4.1k
Jul ’25