Our app uses Metal for image processing. We have found that if our app (and its possible intensive image processing) is started quickly after user is logged in, then calls to Metal may be hanging/stuck for a good while. Example: it can take 1-2 minutes for something that usually takes 3-5 seconds! Metal threads are just hanging in a memmove... In Activity Monitor we see a lot of things are happening right after log-in. But why Metal calls are blocking for so long is unknown to us... The workaround is to wait a minute before we start our app and start intensive image processing using Metal. But hard to explain this workaround to end-users... It doesn't happen on all computers but fairly easy to reproduce on some computers. We are using macOS 15.3.1. M1/M3 Max. Any good ideas for how to proceed with this problem and possible reach out to Apple engineers? Thanks! :)

Hello, I am trying to use the subdivision mesh rendering option. I can see it working in RealityComposerPro: But not when loading asset and displaying in Simulator: Using this code: import SwiftUI import RealityKit import RealityKitContent struct AirspaceView: View { // MARK: - VIEW BODY var body: some View { RealityView { content in if let a = try? await Entity(named: "Models/Test/Test.usdc", in: realityKitContentBundle) { content.add(a) } } } } Any ideas why?

We as a team of engineers work on an app intended to visualize medical images. The type of situations where the app is used involves time critical decision making for acute clinical conditions. Stability of the app and performance are of utmost importance and can directly help timely treatment action. The app we are developing uses multiple libraries and tools like vtk, webgl, opengl, webkit, gl-matrix etc. The problem specifically can be described as follows, it has been observed that when 3D volume is rendered in the app and we try to rotate the volume the rotation is slow, unresposive and laggy. Specifically, we have noticed that iOS 18.1 the volume rotation is much smoother as compared to latest iOS 18.2. Eariler, we have faced somewhat similar issue with iOS 17 but it got improved in iOS 18.1. This performance regression is affecting the user experience in our healthcare application. We have taken reference from the cornerstone.js code and you can reproduce the issue using the following example: https://www.cornerstonejs.org/live-examples/volumeviewport3d Steps to Reproduce: Load the above mentioned test example on an iPhone running version 18.2 using safari. Perform volume rendering using the provided dataset. Measure the time taken by volume for each rotate or drag action. Repeat the same steps on an iPhone running version 18.1 for comparison. Additional Information: Device Model Tested: iPhone12, iPhone13, iPhone14 iOS Version With Issue: 18.2 18.3(Beta) I would appreciate any insights or suggestions on how to address this performance regression. If additional information is needed, please let me know. Thank you.

Hi all im having a variety of issues with gamekit matchmaking. On the simulator the matchmaking ui pops up and I can click Quick Match, then immediately "Failed to find Players" this is the same with a real Apple ID and a sandbox account. If I use real devices the app at least discovers a match, but then the match none of the delegate methods for the match ever get called and the logs are filled with socket not connected and various errors. My questions are: Should match making via quick match work in the simulator, I have seen tutorial videos etc of this working, but I can't seem to get it to work. How do people debug issues with GameCenter / Gamekit to find out why its not able to connect? Many thanks in advance

Hi All! I'm being asked to migrate an app which utilizes iCloud KVS (Key Value Storage). This ability is a new-ish feature, and the documentation about this is sparse [1]. Honestly, the entire documentation about the new iCloud transfer functionality seems to be missing. Same with Game Center / GameKit. While the docs say that it should work, I'd like to understand the process in more detail. Has anyone migrated an iCloud KVS app? What happens after the transfer goes through, but before the first release? Do I need to do anything special? I see that the Entitlements file has the TeamID in the Key Value store - is that fine? <key>com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier</key> <string>$(TeamIdentifierPrefix)$(CFBundleIdentifier)</string> Can someone please share their experience? Thank you! [1] https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/overview-of-app-transfer

The title is self-exploratory. I wasn't able to find the CAMetalDisplayLink on the most recent metal-cpp release (metal-cpp_macOS15_iOS18-beta). Are there any plans to include it in the next release?

Hi Looking at the documentation for screenSpaceAmbientOcclusionIntensity, I noticed that it says this is supported on visionOS 1.0+: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/scenekit/scncamera/screenspaceambientocclusionintensity Could someone enlighten me as to how that would work? As far as I know, we don't use an SCNCamera on visionOS. So, what's the idea here? Can we activate SSAO on visionOS?

I am trying to simulate a paste command and it seems to not want to paste. It worked at one point with the same code and now is causing issues. My code looks like this: ` func simulatePaste() { guard let source = CGEventSource(stateID: .hidSystemState) else { print("Failed to create event source") return } let keyDown = CGEvent(keyboardEventSource: source, virtualKey: CGKeyCode(9), keyDown: true) let keyUp = CGEvent(keyboardEventSource: source, virtualKey: CGKeyCode(9), keyDown: false) keyDown?.flags = .maskCommand keyUp?.flags = .maskCommand keyDown?.post(tap: .cgAnnotatedSessionEventTap) keyUp?.post(tap: .cgAnnotatedSessionEventTap) print("Simulated Cmd + V") } I know that there is some issues around permissions and so in my Info.plist I have this: &lt;string&gt;NSApplication&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;NSAppleEventsUsageDescription&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;This app requires permission to send keyboard input for pasting from the clipboard.&lt;/string&gt; I have also disabled sandbox. It does ask me if I want to give the app permissions but after approving it, it still doesn't paste.

Hi, The metal-cpp distribution appears to only contain headers for Foundation and Quartzcore. The LearnMetalCPP download [1] provides a ZIP with an metal-cpp-extensions directory containing AppKit.hpp and MetalKit.hpp headers. First question: Are these headers distributed anywhere else more publicly? Without these headers only the renderer can be fully written in C++ as far as I can tell, i.e. no complete C++ NSApplication. Second question: Will these headers, if needed, be maintained (e.g. updated and/or extended) by Apple along side metal-cpp? [1] https://developer.apple.com/metal/cpp/ Thank you and regards.

Now the examples of metal-cpp are target on desktop and using AppKit which is not supported on iOS. Is there any tips for developing with metal-cpp on mobile device?

Hi everyone, I’m experiencing a critical issue with USDZ files created in Reality Composer on an iPad 9th Generation (iPadOS 18.3). The files work perfectly on iPads from the 10th Generation onwards and on iPad Pros. However, on older devices like the iPad 9th Generation and older iPhones, QuickLook (file preview) crashes when opening them. This is a major issue because these USDZ files are part of an exhibition where artworks are extended with AR elements via a web page. If some visitors cannot view the 3D content, it significantly impacts the experience. What’s puzzling is that two years ago, we exported USDZ files from Reality Composer, made them available via a website, and they worked flawlessly on all devices, including older iPads and iPhones. Now, with the latest iPadOS, they consistently crash on older devices. Has anyone encountered a similar issue? Are there known limitations with QuickLook on older devices, or is there a way to optimize the USDZ files to prevent crashes? Could this be related to changes in iPadOS or RealityKit? Any advice or workaround would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Following the post on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/custommaterial it's simple to use shader for materials and get uniforms and params from each vertex. However it's not available for visionOS. Any alternative to use in this case? I want to write shader to fill material by myself. (I have shader experience from web, familiar with fragment shader)

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```

When inspecting the geometry in Xcode's metal debugger, I noticed that the shown "frustrum box" didn't make sense. Since Metal uses depth range 0,1 in NDC space, I would expect a vertex that is projected to z:0 to be on the front clipping plane of the frustrum shown in the geometry inspector. This is however not the case. A vertex with ndc z:0 is shown halfway inside the frustrum. Vertices with ndc z less than 0 are correctly culled during rendering, while the geometry inspector's frustrum shows that the vertex is stil inside the frustrum. The image shows vertices that are visually in the middle of the frustrum on z axis, but at the same time the out position shows that they are projected to z:0. How is this possible, unless there's a bug in the geometry inspector?

I want to use SwiftUI and RealityView to get AR scene understanding data (ARMeshAnchor) on iOS devices with LiDAR. The only way we can do that is by using ARSession (unless there is another way). However in previous iOS 18 builds there was this function: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/spatialtrackingsession/run(_:session:arconfiguration:) , which worked with SpatialTrackingSession and a custom ARSession together. This function in the the latest iOS and Xcode has since been removed in the RealityKit framework but still there on documentation. I also wanted to get ARFaceAnchor data which I still cannot get without ARSession, the closest I can get is by using: let target = AnchoringComponent.Target.face let anchoringComponent = AnchoringComponent(target, trackingMode: .predicted) entity = Entity() entity!.components.set(anchoringComponent) But I still can't find a way to get the current frame (ARFrame) or the anchors ([ARAnchor]) in the view. Alternatively if I use if I use this function: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/spatialtrackingsession/run(_:) and start the ARSession separately. The session (didUpdate and didAdd) only runs for a few frames before getting interrupted. And if I completely remove SpatialTrackingConfiguration and just run the ARSession. There still is a valid tracked entity for the AnchoringComponent.Target.face component. IF in the configuration for the ARSession I use the ARWorldTrackingConfiguration with face tracking. And I still get updated facial data each frame. But the ARSession didUpdate or didAdd functions don't get called passed the first few frames. Interestingly if I switch the RealityViewCameraContent.RealityViewCamera to .virtual. I get ARMeshAnchor and ARFaceAnchor data, but no camera feed (as expected). This with or without SpatialTrackingConfiguration. My overarching question is what is the proper way to access ARMeshAnchors and other ARAnchors created by the system and track them live while also using SwiftUI. GitHub Repo with sample project can be found here: https://github.com/bpate75/RealityViewTesting

I'm trying to build a Shader in "Reality Composer Pro" that updates from a start time. Initially I tried the following: The idea was that when the startTime was 0, the output would be 0, but then I would set startTime from within code and this would be compared with the current GPU time, and difference used to drive another part of the shader graph: if let testEntity = root.findEntity(named: "Test"), var shaderGraphMaterial = testEntity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials.first as? ShaderGraphMaterial { let time = CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent() try! shaderGraphMaterial.setParameter(name: "StartTime", value: .float(Float(time))) testEntity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = shaderGraphMaterial } However, I haven't found a reference to the time the shader would be using. So now I am trying to write an EntityAction to achieve the same effect. Instead of comparing a start time to the GPU's time I'm trying to animate one of the shader's uniform input. However, I'm not sure how to specify the bind target. Here's my attempt so far: import RealityKit struct ShaderAction: EntityAction { let startValue: Float let targetValue: Float var animatedValueType: (any AnimatableData.Type)? { Float.self } static func registerEntityAction() { ShaderAction.subscribe(to: .updated) { event in guard let animationState = event.animationState else { return } let value = simd_mix(event.action.startValue, event.action.targetValue, Float(animationState.normalizedTime)) animationState.storeAnimatedValue(value) } } } extension Entity { func updateShader(from startValue: Float, to targetValue: Float, duration: Double) { let fadeAction = ShaderAction(startValue: startValue, targetValue: targetValue) if let shaderAnimation = try? AnimationResource.makeActionAnimation(for: fadeAction, duration: duration, bindTarget: .material(0).customValue) { playAnimation(shaderAnimation) } } } ''' Currently when I run this I get an assertion failure: 'Index out of range (operator[]:line 797) index = 260, max = 8' Furthermore, even if it didn't crash I don't understand how to pass a binding to the custom shader value "startValue". Any clues of how to achieve this effect - even if it's a completely different way.

Helle there Currently, I’m attempting to create an interactive learning application with a 3D view. I’ve discovered the framework SceneKit, but I lack the necessary knowledge to animate, load and moving objects. Could someone kindly suggest some good articles or tutorials on this topic?

After many former OS and Xcode updates, my Game Controller Swift code generates a "DIS-CONNECTED" MESSAGE. Mac Sequoia 15.2 Xcode 16.2 Tried to update PlayStation controller firmware on my Mac. Still no luck with Xcode and its use of a game controller with tvOS.

Hi, I wanted to do something quite simple: Put a box on a wall or on the floor. My box: let myBox = ModelEntity( mesh: .generateBox(size: SIMD3<Float>(0.1, 0.1, 0.01)), materials: [SimpleMaterial(color: .systemRed, isMetallic: false)], collisionShape: .generateBox(size: SIMD3<Float>(0.1, 0.1, 0.01)), mass: 0.0) For that I used Plane Detection to identify the walls and floor in the room. Then with SpatialTapGesture I was able to retrieve the position where the user is looking and tap. let position = value.convert(value.location3D, from: .local, to: .scene) And then positioned my box myBox.setPosition(position, relativeTo: nil) When I then tested it I realized that the box was not parallel to the wall but had a slightly inclined angle. I also realized if I tried to put my box on the wall to my left the box was placed perpendicular to this wall and not placed on it. After various searches and several attempts I ended up playing with transform.matrix to identify if the plane is wall or a floor, if it was in front of me or on the side and set up a rotation on the box to "place" it on the wall or a floor. let surfaceTransform = surface.transform.matrix let surfaceNormal = normalize(surfaceTransform.columns.2.xyz) let baseRotation = simd_quatf(angle: .pi, axis: SIMD3<Float>(0, 1, 0)) var finalRotation: simd_quatf if acos(abs(dot(surfaceNormal, SIMD3<Float>(0, 1, 0)))) < 0.3 { logger.info("Surface: ceiling/floor") finalRotation = simd_quatf(angle: surfaceNormal.y > 0 ? 0 : .pi, axis: SIMD3<Float>(1, 0, 0)) } else if abs(surfaceNormal.x) > abs(surfaceNormal.z) { logger.info("Surface: left/right") finalRotation = simd_quatf(angle: surfaceNormal.x > 0 ? .pi/2 : -.pi/2, axis: SIMD3<Float>(0, 1, 0)) } else { logger.info("Surface: front/back") finalRotation = baseRotation } Playing with matrices is not really my thing so I don't know if I'm doing it right. Could you tell me if my tests for the orientation of the walls are correct? During my tests I don't always correctly identify whether the wall is in front or on the side. Is this generally the right way to do it? Is there an easier way to do this? Regards Tof

I have used SceneKit for several years but recently have a problem where a scene with fewer than 50 nodes is partially drawn, i.e., some nodes are, some aren't, and greater than 50 nodes are always draw correctly. This seems to have happened since concurrency was introduced. (w.r.t. concurrency, I had been using DispatchQueue successfully before then.) Since all nodes (few or many) are constructed and implemented by the same functions etc. I'm baffled. When I print the node hierarchy all nodes are present whether few or many. SceneView() has [.rendersContinually] option selected. Every node created (few or many) has .opacity = 1.0, .isHidden = false I haven't tried setting-back the compiler version as that is not a long term solution, and I know the same code worked fine then.