I've noticed a major third-party app has the following flag set to 1/true in its Info.plist: CAMetalLayerWantsCompositingDependencies Does anyone know if it’s recognized by Core Animation / Metal, and what it’s supposed to do? It might obviously have zero relationship to the OS, defined by that app and for that app... but since it looks very much like an unofficial/undocumented environment setting, it might be great to know what problem it solves. I happen to have issues related to compositing other CALayers over a CAMetalLayer in my app... so this definitely stood out as interesting. Thank you!

I have multiple CAMetalLayers that I render content to and noticed that the graphics overview HUD does not function properly when I have more than one CAMetalLayer. The values reported will be very strange. For example, FPS may report 999 or some large negative value. It the HUD simply not designed to work with multiple CAMetalLayers or MTKViews? When I disable all but one of my CAMetalLayers, the HUD works as expected.

Hello, We are experimenting with Metal to accelerate some peculiar numerical computation. Our workloads are relatively small, so the ability to avoid moving data to and from the GPU's memory is very appealing. However, we are observing higher overhead compared to CUDA, which negates the benefits of avoiding data transfer. In our tests using an empty kernel, CUDA completes in 0.001 ms (Intel i7 10700K, RTX 3080), while Metal's waitUntilCompleted takes 0.12 ms (M2 Max). As we do not have prior experience with Metal, we are wondering if we are using the APIs just fine and this timing is expected, or if there is a way to reduce it. Thank you in advance for any comment! test-metal.cpp

Hi! How to define and call an inline function in Metal? Or simple function that will return some value. Case: inline uint index4D(constant _4D& shape, constant uint& n, constant uint& c, constant uint& h, constant uint& w) { return n * shape.C * shape.H * shape.W + c * shape.H * shape.W + h * shape.W + w; } When I call it in my kernel function I get No matching function for call error. Thx in advance.

I'm experiencing a strange issue where I'm seeing black in a metal drawable where it should be a different color. When I capture the frame and inspect the returned value from the fragment function, it's correct, but the drawable isn't. This screenshot hopefully illustrates the issue. I've not found any references to similar issues. I saw something about some out of bounds or NaN values being dropped to 0 (which would be black), but the debugger doesn't indicate this is happening.

When generating large arrays of random numbers, NaNs show up. They also show up at the same indices when using the same seed, leading me to believe that this is a bug with MPSMatrixRandom's normally distributed Float32 random number distribution. Happens with both Philox and MTGP32. Is this intentional and how do I work around this? See the original post for a MWE in Swift and Julia: https://github.com/JuliaGPU/Metal.jl/issues/474

Hi, A user sent us a crash report that indicates an error occurring just after loading the default Metal library of our app. Application Specific Information: Crashing on exception: *** -[__NSArrayM objectAtIndex:]: index 0 beyond bounds for empty array The report pointed me to these (simplified) lines of codes in the library setup: _vertexFunctions = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; _fragmentFunctions = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; id<MTLLibrary> library = [device newDefaultLibrary]; 2 vertex shaders and 5 fragment shaders are then loaded and stored in these two arrays using this method: -(BOOL) addShaderNamed:(NSString *)name library:(id<MTLLibrary>)library isFragment:(BOOL)isFragment { id shader = [library newFunctionWithName:name]; if (!shader) { ALOG(@"Error : Unable to find the shader named : “%@”", name); return NO; } [(isFragment ? _fragmentFunctions : _vertexFunctions) addObject:shader]; return YES; } As you can see, the arrays are not filled if the method fails... however, a few lines later, they are used without checking if they are really filled, and that causes the crash... But this coding error doesn't explain why no shader of a certain type (or both types) have been added to the array, meaning: why -newFunctionWithName: returned nil for all given names (since the implied array appears completely empty)? Clue This error has only be detected once by a user running the app on macOS 10.13 with a NVIDIA Web Driver instead of the default macOS graphic driver. Moreover, it wasn't possible to reproduce the problem on the same OS using the native macOS driver. So my question is: is it some known conflicts between NVIDIA drivers and the use of Metal libraries? Or does this case would require some specific options in the Metal implementation? Any help appreciated, thanks!

I am looking to implement CAMetalDisplayLink on a separate thread on a macOS application. I am basing my implementation on the following example project: Achieving Smooth Frame Rates with Metal Display Link This project allows you to configure whether a separate thread is used for rendering by setting RENDER_ON_MAIN_THREAD in GameConfig to 0. However, when I set it to use a separate thread nothing is rendered. Stepping through the code shows that a separate thread is created, but a CAMetalDisplayLinkUpdate is never received. Does anyone know why this does not work?

Hi everyone, I encountered a very strange shader bug that seems related to Metal only (not OpenGL). You can find the full description of the issue on the Babylon.js forums here: https://forum.babylonjs.com/t/strange-shader-related-issue-on-macos-with-safari-and-chrome-not-firefox/54289 (sorry, I couldn't post a clickable link here as this seems to be blocked here). I have a workaround to fix the issue (as described in the link above), but this really looks like an issue in Metal itself. Let me know if you need more details or explanations.

First I get this ar_world_tracking_provider_query_device_anchor_at_timestamp <0x302b9c0a0>: The device_anchor can only be queried when the world tracking provider is running. This seemed to all break with the auto-update to 2.0.1. Simulator runs the code fine. I seem to see an infinite stall here frameLayer.endUpdate() // Pace frames by waiting for the optimal prediction time. try await LayerRenderer.Clock().sleep(until: timing.optimalInputTime, tolerance: nil) // Start submitting the updated frame. frameLayer.startSubmission() <-

I've been working with ARKit and Metal on the Vision Pro, but I've encountered a slight flickering issue with the mesh rendered using Metal. The flickering tends to occur around the edges of objects or on pixels with high color contrast, and it becomes more noticeable as the distance increases. Is there any way to resolve this issue?

Is there anywhere that the format of error/warning/other? messages that are generated by the Metal compiler are documented?

Hey guys, is it possible to implement mirror like reflections like in this project: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/metal_sample_code_library/rendering_reflections_in_real_time_using_ray_tracing for visionOS? Or is the hardware not prepared for Metal Raytracing? Thanks in advance

Given I do not understand much at all about how to write shaders I do not understand the math associated with page-curl effects I am trying to: implement a page-curl shader for use on SwiftUI views. I've lifted a shader from HIROKI IKEUCHI that I believe they lifted from a non-metal shader resource online, and I'm trying to digest it. One thing I want to do is to paint the "underside" of the view with a given color and maintain the transparency of rounded corners when they are flipped over. So, if an underside pixel is "clear" then I want to sample the pixel at that position on the original layer instead of the "curl effect" pixel. There are two comments in the shader below where I check the alpha, and underside flags, and paint the color red as a debug test. The shader gives this result: The outside of those rounded corners is appropriately red and the white border pixels are detected as "not-clear". But the "inner" portion of the border is... mistakingly red? I don't get it. Any help would be appreciated. I feel tapped out and I don't have any IRL resources I can ask. // // PageCurl.metal // ShaderDemo3 // // Created by HIROKI IKEUCHI on 2023/10/17. // #include <metal_stdlib> #include <SwiftUI/SwiftUI_Metal.h> using namespace metal; #define pi float(3.14159265359) #define blue half4(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0) #define red half4(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0) #define radius float(0.4) // そのピクセルの色を返す [[ stitchable ]] half4 pageCurl ( float2 _position, SwiftUI::Layer layer, float4 bounds, float2 _clickedPoint, float2 _mouseCursor ) { half4 undersideColor = half4(0.5, 0.5, 1.0, 1.0); float2 originalPosition = _position; // y座標の補正 float2 position = float2(_position.x, bounds.w - _position.y); float2 clickedPoint = float2(_clickedPoint.x, bounds.w - _clickedPoint.y); float2 mouseCursor = float2(_mouseCursor.x, bounds.w - _mouseCursor.y); float aspect = bounds.z / bounds.w; float2 uv = position * float2(aspect, 1.) / bounds.zw; float2 mouse = mouseCursor.xy * float2(aspect, 1.) / bounds.zw; float2 mouseDir = normalize(abs(clickedPoint.xy) - mouseCursor.xy); float2 origin = clamp(mouse - mouseDir * mouse.x / mouseDir.x, 0., 1.); float mouseDist = clamp(length(mouse - origin) + (aspect - (abs(clickedPoint.x) / bounds.z) * aspect) / mouseDir.x, 0., aspect / mouseDir.x); if (mouseDir.x < 0.) { mouseDist = distance(mouse, origin); } float proj = dot(uv - origin, mouseDir); float dist = proj - mouseDist; float2 linePoint = uv - dist * mouseDir; half4 pixel = layer.sample(position); if (dist > radius) { pixel = half4(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0); // background behind curling layer (note: 0.0 opacity) pixel.rgb *= pow(clamp(dist - radius, 0., 1.) * 1.5, .2); } else if (dist >= 0.0) { // THIS PORTION HANDLES THE CURL SHADED PORTION OF THE RESULT // map to cylinder point float theta = asin(dist / radius); float2 p2 = linePoint + mouseDir * (pi - theta) * radius; float2 p1 = linePoint + mouseDir * theta * radius; bool underside = (p2.x <= aspect && p2.y <= 1. && p2.x > 0. && p2.y > 0.); uv = underside ? p2 : p1; uv = float2(uv.x, 1.0 - uv.y); // invert y pixel = layer.sample(uv * float2(1. / aspect, 1.) * float2(bounds[2], bounds[3])); // ME<---- if (underside && pixel.a == 0.0) { //<---- PIXEL.A IS 0.0 WHYYYYY pixel = red; } // Commented out while debugging alpha issues // if (underside && pixel.a == 0.0) { // pixel = layer.sample(originalPosition); // } else if (underside) { // pixel = undersideColor; // underside // } // Shadow the pixel being returned pixel.rgb *= pow(clamp((radius - dist) / radius, 0., 1.), .2); } else { // THIS PORTION HANDLES THE NON-CURL-SHADED PORTION OF THE SAMPLING. float2 p = linePoint + mouseDir * (abs(dist) + pi * radius); bool underside = (p.x <= aspect && p.y <= 1. && p.x > 0. && p.y > 0.); uv = underside ? p : uv; uv = float2(uv.x, 1.0 - uv.y); // invert y pixel = layer.sample(uv * float2(1. / aspect, 1.) * float2(bounds[2], bounds[3])); // ME if (underside && pixel.a == 0.0) { //<---- PIXEL.A IS 0.0 WHYYYYY pixel = red; } // Commented out while debugging alpha issues // if (underside && pixel.a == 0.0) { // // If the new underside pixel is clear, we should sample the original image's pixel. // pixel = layer.sample(originalPosition); // } else if (underside) { // pixel = undersideColor; // } } return pixel; }

Hi, I can capture a frame on the Apple TV, but when I try to profile the capture for GPU timing information, I got "Abort Trap 6" error and with following error in the report: Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Triggered by Thread: 7 Application Specific Information: abort() called Last Exception Backtrace: 0 CoreFoundation 0x18c0a99d0 __exceptionPreprocess + 160 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x18b596d24 objc_exception_throw + 71 2 CoreFoundation 0x18bfa7308 -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:] + 1239 3 MTLReplayController 0x101f5d148 DYMTLReplayFrameProfiler_loadAnalysis + 1140 4 MTLReplayController 0x101e97f90 GTMTLReplayClient_collectGPUShaderTimelineData + 224 5 MTLReplayController 0x101e81794 __30-[GTMTLReplayService profile:]_block_invoke_4 + 288 6 Foundation 0x18eb6072c __NSOPERATION_IS_INVOKING_MAIN__ + 11 7 Foundation 0x18eb5cc1c -[NSOperation start] + 623 8 Foundation 0x18eb60edc __NSOPERATIONQUEUE_IS_STARTING_AN_OPERATION__ + 11 9 Foundation 0x18eb60bc4 __NSOQSchedule_f + 167 10 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8d6a84 _dispatch_block_async_invoke2 + 103 11 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8c9420 _dispatch_client_callout + 15 12 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8cc5d0 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 531 13 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8cbcd4 _dispatch_async_redirect_invoke + 635 14 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8d9224 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 335 15 libdispatch.dylib 0x18b8d9a08 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 163 16 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x18b6e652c _pthread_wqthread + 223 17 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x18b6ed8d0 start_wqthread + 7 It's Xcode 16.0 + Apply TV 4K (4th Gen) tvOS 18, does anyone know what's the cause of this error and is there any solution for it? Thank you very much, Kai

Hello Everyone, within the renderEncoder?.drawIndexedPrimitives(type: .line…. function, I can't render all the lines of the object. I can see approx. 80%. Do you know what could be causing this? Other game engines, like those in C++, handle this just fine. import MetalKit class Renderer: NSObject, MTKViewDelegate { var parent: ContentView var metalDevice: MTLDevice! var metalCommandQueue: MTLCommandQueue! let allocator: MTKMeshBufferAllocator let pipelineState: MTLRenderPipelineState var scene: RenderScene let mesh: ObjMesh init(_ parent: ContentView) { self.parent = parent if let metalDevice = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice() { self.metalDevice = metalDevice } self.metalCommandQueue = metalDevice.makeCommandQueue() self.allocator = MTKMeshBufferAllocator(device: metalDevice) mesh = ObjMesh(device: metalDevice, allocator: allocator, filename: "cube") let pipelineDescriptor = MTLRenderPipelineDescriptor() let library = metalDevice.makeDefaultLibrary() pipelineDescriptor.vertexFunction = library?.makeFunction(name: "vertexShader") pipelineDescriptor.fragmentFunction = library?.makeFunction(name: "fragmentShader") pipelineDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].pixelFormat = .bgra8Unorm pipelineDescriptor.vertexDescriptor = MTKMetalVertexDescriptorFromModelIO(mesh.metalMesh.vertexDescriptor) do { try pipelineState = metalDevice.makeRenderPipelineState(descriptor: pipelineDescriptor) } catch { fatalError() } scene = RenderScene() super.init() } func mtkView(_ view: MTKView, drawableSizeWillChange size: CGSize) { } func draw(in view: MTKView) { //update scene.update() guard let drawable = view.currentDrawable else { return } let commandBuffer = metalCommandQueue.makeCommandBuffer() let renderPassDescriptor = view.currentRenderPassDescriptor renderPassDescriptor?.colorAttachments[0].clearColor = MTLClearColorMake(0, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0) renderPassDescriptor?.colorAttachments[0].loadAction = .clear renderPassDescriptor?.colorAttachments[0].storeAction = .store let renderEncoder = commandBuffer?.makeRenderCommandEncoder(descriptor: renderPassDescriptor!) renderEncoder?.setRenderPipelineState(pipelineState) var cameraData: CameraParameters = CameraParameters() cameraData.view = Matrix44.create_lookat( eye: scene.player.position, target: scene.player.position + scene.player.forwards, up: scene.player.up ) cameraData.projection = Matrix44.create_perspective_projection( fovy: 45, aspect: 800/600, near: 0.1, far: 10 ) renderEncoder?.setVertexBytes(&cameraData, length: MemoryLayout<CameraParameters>.stride, index: 2) renderEncoder?.setVertexBuffer(mesh.metalMesh.vertexBuffers[0].buffer, offset: 0, index: 0) for cube in scene.cubes { var model: matrix_float4x4 = Matrix44.create_from_rotation(eulers: cube.eulers) model = Matrix44.create_from_translation(translation: cube.position) * model renderEncoder?.setVertexBytes(&model, length: MemoryLayout<matrix_float4x4>.stride, index: 1) for submesh in mesh.metalMesh.submeshes { renderEncoder?.drawIndexedPrimitives( type: .line, indexCount: submesh.indexCount, indexType: submesh.indexType, indexBuffer: submesh.indexBuffer.buffer, indexBufferOffset: submesh.indexBuffer.offset ) } } renderEncoder?.endEncoding() commandBuffer?.present(drawable) commandBuffer?.commit() } } ==================== import MetalKit class ObjMesh { let modelIOMesh: MDLMesh let metalMesh: MTKMesh init(device: MTLDevice, allocator: MTKMeshBufferAllocator, filename: String) { guard let meshURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: filename, withExtension: "obj") else { fatalError() } let vertexDescriptor = MTLVertexDescriptor() var offset: Int = 0 //position vertexDescriptor.attributes[0].format = .float3 vertexDescriptor.attributes[0].offset = offset vertexDescriptor.attributes[0].bufferIndex = 0 offset += MemoryLayout<SIMD3<Float>>.stride vertexDescriptor.layouts[0].stride = offset let meshDescriptor = MTKModelIOVertexDescriptorFromMetal(vertexDescriptor) (meshDescriptor.attributes[0] as! MDLVertexAttribute).name = MDLVertexAttributePosition let asset = MDLAsset(url: meshURL, vertexDescriptor: meshDescriptor, bufferAllocator: allocator) self.modelIOMesh = asset.childObjects(of: MDLMesh.self).first as! MDLMesh do { metalMesh = try MTKMesh(mesh: self.modelIOMesh, device: device) } catch { fatalError("couldn't load mesh") } } } =============== cube.obj Blender v2.91.0 OBJ File: '' www_blender_org mtllib piece.mtl o Cube_Cube.001 v -1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000 v -1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 v 1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000 v 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000 v -1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000 v -1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000 v 1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000 v 1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000 vt 0.375000 0.000000 vt 0.625000 0.000000 vt 0.625000 0.250000 vt 0.375000 0.250000 vt 0.625000 0.500000 vt 0.375000 0.500000 vt 0.625000 0.750000 vt 0.375000 0.750000 vt 0.625000 1.000000 vt 0.375000 1.000000 vt 0.125000 0.500000 vt 0.125000 0.750000 vt 0.875000 0.500000 vt 0.875000 0.750000 vn 0.0000 1.0000 0.0000 vn 1.0000 0.0000 0.0000 vn 0.0000 -1.0000 0.0000 vn -1.0000 0.0000 0.0000 vn 0.0000 0.0000 -1.0000 vn 0.0000 0.0000 1.0000 usemtl None s off f 1/1/1 2/2/1 4/3/1 3/4/1 f 3/4/2 4/3/2 8/5/2 7/6/2 f 7/6/3 8/5/3 6/7/3 5/8/3 f 5/8/4 6/7/4 2/9/4 1/10/4 f 3/11/5 7/6/5 5/8/5 1/12/5 f 8/5/6 4/13/6 2/14/6 6/7/6

Hi, when I run my app, in console say: NSBundle file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MetalTools.framework/ principal class is nil because all fallbacks have failed

I created an empty binary archive and try to save it on disk, but it returned false without giving any error message. The code is from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/shader_libraries/metal_binary_archives/creating_binary_archives_from_device-built_pipeline_state_objects?language=objc

Hi folks, I'm working on a Tile based Deferred renderer, similar to this Apple example. I'm wondering how to add MSAA to the renderer, and I see two choices: Copy the single-sampled texture at the end of the GBuffer/Lighting render pass to a multi-sampled texture and resolve from that Make all render targets (GBuffer) multi-sampled and deal with sampling/resolving all intermediate textures as well as the final, combined texture. Which is the proper approach, and are there any examples of how to implement it? Thanks!

There is a sample project from Apple here. It has a scene of a city at night and you can move in it. It basically has 2 parts: application code written in what looks like Objective-C (I am more familiar with C++), which inherits from things like NSObject, MTKView, NSViewController and so on - it processes input and all app-related and window-related stuff. rendering code that also looks like Objective-C. Btw both parts are mostly in .mm files (Obj-C++ AFAIK). The application part directly uses only one class from the rendering part - AAPLRenderer. I want to move the rendering part to C++ using metal-cpp. For that I need to link metal-cpp to the project. I did it successfully with blank projects several times before using this tutorial. But with this sample project Xcode can't find Foundation/Foundation.hpp (and other metal-cpp headers). The error says this: Did not find header 'Foundation.hpp' in framework 'Foundation' (loaded from '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks') Pls help