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10-bit support in iPad Pro
Hi, I’m using the latest iPad Pro (13-inch) and I can see that Metal offers an rgb10a2unorm texture for rendering, but when I render a grey ramp and measure the actual luminance, I get a pattern that I would expect from an 8-bit texture (see below). Before I start ripping apart all my code, is there anything else I need to do to convince iOS to render my texture in 10-bit? I already tried setting the PixelFormat in my CMetalLayer to rgb10a2unorm, but that didn’t change anything.
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442
Sep ’25
Black Screen in GPTK – DX 12.1 / Shader Model 6.5 Issue?
Hey everyone, I’m trying to run Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 using the Game Porting Toolkit, but I’m encountering a black screen when launching the game. From what I know about the game’s requirements, it might be using Shader Model 6.5, which supports advanced features like DirectX Raytracing (DXR) Tier 1.1. This leads me to suspect that the issue could be related to missing support for DirectX 12.1 Features or Shader Model 6.5 in GPTK. Does anyone know if these features are currently supported by GPTK? If not, are there any plans to implement them in future updates? Alternatively, is there any workaround for games that rely on Shader Model 6.5 and ray tracing? Thanks a lot for your help!
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689
Feb ’25
Is Metal usable from Swift 6?
Hello ladies and gentlemen, I'm writing a simple renderer on the main actor using Metal and Swift 6. I am at the stage now where I want to create a render pipeline state using asynchronous API: @MainActor class Renderer { let opaqueMeshRPS: MTLRenderPipelineState init(/*...*/) async throws { let descriptor = MTLRenderPipelineDescriptor() // ... opaqueMeshRPS = try await device.makeRenderPipelineState(descriptor: descriptor) } } I get a compilation error if try to use the asynchronous version of the makeRenderPipelineState method: Non-sendable type 'any MTLRenderPipelineState' returned by implicitly asynchronous call to nonisolated function cannot cross actor boundary Which is understandable, since MTLRenderPipelineState is not Sendable. But it looks like no matter where or how I try to access this method, I just can't do it - you have this API, but you can't use it, you can only use the synchronous versions. Am I missing something or is Metal just not usable with Swift 6 right now?
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636
Mar ’25
GKMatch.chooseBestHostingPlayer(_:) always returns nil player
I'm building a game with a client-server architecture. Using GKMatch.chooseBestHostingPlayer(_:) rarely works. When I started testing it today, it worked once at the very beginning, and since then it always succeeds on one client and returns nil on the other client. I'm testing with a Mac and an iPhone. Sometimes it fails on the Mac, sometimes on the iPhone. On the device that it succeeds on, the provided host can be the device itself or the other one. I created FB9583628 in August 2021, but after the Feedback Assistant team replied that they are not able to reproduce it, the feedback never went forward. import SceneKit import GameKit #if os(macOS) typealias ViewController = NSViewController #else typealias ViewController = UIViewController #endif class GameViewController: ViewController, GKMatchmakerViewControllerDelegate, GKMatchDelegate { var match: GKMatch? var matchStarted = false override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() GKLocalPlayer.local.authenticateHandler = authenticate } private func authenticate(_ viewController: ViewController?, _ error: Error?) { #if os(macOS) if let viewController = viewController { presentAsSheet(viewController) } else if let error = error { print(error) } else { print("authenticated as \(GKLocalPlayer.local.gamePlayerID)") let viewController = GKMatchmakerViewController(matchRequest: defaultMatchRequest())! viewController.matchmakerDelegate = self GKDialogController.shared().present(viewController) } #else if let viewController = viewController { present(viewController, animated: true) } else if let error = error { print(error) } else { print("authenticated as \(GKLocalPlayer.local.gamePlayerID)") let viewController = GKMatchmakerViewController(matchRequest: defaultMatchRequest())! viewController.matchmakerDelegate = self present(viewController, animated: true) } #endif } private func defaultMatchRequest() -> GKMatchRequest { let request = GKMatchRequest() request.minPlayers = 2 request.maxPlayers = 2 request.defaultNumberOfPlayers = 2 request.inviteMessage = "Ciao!" return request } func matchmakerViewControllerWasCancelled(_ viewController: GKMatchmakerViewController) { print("cancelled") } func matchmakerViewController(_ viewController: GKMatchmakerViewController, didFailWithError error: Error) { print(error) } func matchmakerViewController(_ viewController: GKMatchmakerViewController, didFind match: GKMatch) { self.match = match match.delegate = self startMatch() } func match(_ match: GKMatch, player: GKPlayer, didChange state: GKPlayerConnectionState) { print("\(player.gamePlayerID) changed state to \(String(describing: state))") startMatch() } func startMatch() { let match = match! if matchStarted || match.expectedPlayerCount > 0 { return } print("starting match with local player \(GKLocalPlayer.local.gamePlayerID) and remote players \(match.players.map({ $0.gamePlayerID }))") match.chooseBestHostingPlayer { host in print("host is \(String(describing: host?.gamePlayerID))") } } }
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392
Apr ’25
What good is NSBitmapFormatAlphaNonpremultiplied?
If I create a bitmap image and then try to get ready to draw into it, like so: NSBitmapImageRep* newRep = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithBitmapDataPlanes: nullptr pixelsWide: 128 pixelsHigh: 128 bitsPerSample: 8 samplesPerPixel: 4 hasAlpha: YES isPlanar: NO colorSpaceName: NSDeviceRGBColorSpace bitmapFormat: NSBitmapFormatAlphaNonpremultiplied | NSBitmapFormatThirtyTwoBitBigEndian bytesPerRow: 4 * 128 bitsPerPixel: 32]; [NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext: [NSGraphicsContext graphicsContextWithBitmapImageRep: newRep]]; then the log shows this error: CGBitmapContextCreate: unsupported parameter combination: RGB 8 bits/component, integer 512 bytes/row kCGImageAlphaLast kCGImageByteOrderDefault kCGImagePixelFormatPacked Valid parameters for RGB color space model are: 16 bits per pixel, 5 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst 32 bits per pixel, 8 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst 32 bits per pixel, 8 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast 32 bits per pixel, 8 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst 32 bits per pixel, 8 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast 32 bits per pixel, 10 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNone|kCGImagePixelFormatRGBCIF10|kCGImageByteOrder16Little 64 bits per pixel, 16 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast 64 bits per pixel, 16 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast 64 bits per pixel, 16 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast|kCGBitmapFloatComponents|kCGImageByteOrder16Little 64 bits per pixel, 16 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast|kCGBitmapFloatComponents|kCGImageByteOrder16Little 128 bits per pixel, 32 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast|kCGBitmapFloatComponents 128 bits per pixel, 32 bits per component, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast|kCGBitmapFloatComponents See Quartz 2D Programming Guide (available online) for more information. If I don't use NSBitmapFormatAlphaNonpremultiplied as part of the format, I don't get the error message. My question is, why does the constant NSBitmapFormatAlphaNonpremultiplied exist if you can't use it like this? If you're wondering why I wanted to do this: I want to extract the RGBA pixel data from an image, which might have non-premultiplied alpha. And elsewhere online, I saw advice that if you want to look at the pixels of an image, draw it into a bitmap whose format you know and look at those pixels. And I don't want the process of drawing to premultiply my alpha.
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154
Jun ’25
Apple API "CGDisplayCopyAllDisplayModes provides resolution list which does not match with system resolution for the external monitors.
Our application is trying to read all resolutions of an external monitor. We have observed that, for the external monitor there is a mismatch in resolution list in our application and the resolution list in system settings. We are using the apple API "CGDisplayCopyAllDisplayModes" to read the resolutions.
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585
Mar ’25
RealityKit not behaving as expected
This week, I developed a small multiplatform RealityKit project. I also created a demo scene in Reality Composer Pro. Afterward, I imported the local package into the project. Running the project on macOS works perfectly. However, when I tried to run it on my iPhone, I encountered a permission error indicating that it couldn’t read the package. This seems unusual to me because I assumed that the dependency is bundled into the binary file. In an attempt to resolve the issue, I pushed the RCP package to GitHub, hoping it would work. Fortunately, everything compiles successfully now, but the loading time is significantly long, and the animations don’t play on tap gestures. Could someone please help me identify the root cause of this problem?
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341
Jul ’25
Anchor an Reality scene on an image anchor
Developing a prototype Vision Pro app and would like to render a 3D scene made from Reality Composer Pro on an image anchor in a RealityView. But I have no luck so far to make it work and need some guidance to move on. I got the image file stored in the assets like below: And from below is the source codes: import SwiftUI import RealityKit import RealityKitContent struct AnchorView: View { @State var imageEntity: Entity = { let anchorEntity = AnchorEntity(.image(group: "AR Resources", name: "reanchor")) return anchorEntity }() var body: some View { RealityView { content in do { // Add the initial RealityKit content if let scene = try? await Entity(named: "Scene", in: realityKitContentBundle) { imageEntity.addChild(scene) content.add(imageEntity) } } catch { print("Error occurs when adding reality view content: \(error)") } } } }
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1.2k
Sep ’25
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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535
Mar ’25
Xcode Metal geometry inspector uses wrong NDC space?
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?
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586
Feb ’25
Fullscreen detection using Core Graphic
Hi, I am trying to detect if all the screen are in fullscreen mode. The current approach is to get all windows' information from CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo and then compare the frame and coordinate with the frame of NSScreen.screens. However, there is a problem, the y position of the window seems to be relative to the screen. As it is not absolute position, I cannot compare it with the coordinate of the screen. Does anyone know if there are other information that I can use? Or is there a way to retrieve the absolute position or screen ID from the GCWIndow object?
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185
Apr ’25
Why Large-Scale Model Scenes Cause Real Device Crashes
Is there any limitation in Vision Pro when loading scenes with large-scale models? ​Test Case: Asset: Composite USDA file containing ​10 individual models​ (total triangles count: ~4.2M) Simulator: Loads and renders correctly Real Device: Loads asset successfully but ​ failure during rendering phase: Environment abruptly dims System spontaneously reboots How can we resolve this issue? Below are excerpted logs preceding the crash: <<<< FigAudioSession(AV) >>>> audioSessionAVAudioSession_CopyMXSessionProperty signalled err=-19224 (kFigAudioSessionError_UnsupportedOperation) (getMXSessionProperty unsupported) at FigAudioSession_AVAudioSession.m:606 Attempted to add ornament: <MRUIPlatterOrnament: 0x10a658f00; _isInternal: YES; _displaceWindowChrome: NO; _canCaptureUI: NO; _isBeingRemoved: NO; contentAnchorPoint3D: "{0.5, 0.5, 0}"; position: <MRUIPlatterOrnamentRelativePosition: 0x105b68e70; anchorPoint: {0.5, 0.5, 1}>; rotation: "{{0, 0, 0}, 0}"; opacity: 1.000000; canFollowUser: YES; effectiveOffset: "{0, 0, 0}"; presentingViewController: 0x0; billboardingBehavior: 0x0; scalingBehavior: 0x0; relativeToParent: NO; nonHeritableDepthDisplacement: 0.000000; order: 0.000000; _window._determinedSize: {0, 0}; _window: (null)> to nil or non-supporting UIScene: <UIWindowScene: 0x10a8a0000; role: UISceneSessionRoleImmersiveSpaceApplication; persistentIdentifier: test.test:SFBSystemService-BA3A21A3-D1AB-42E2-8AF0-AE0AB83BE528; activationState: UISceneActivationStateUnattached>. No action taken. Failed to set dependencies on asset 2823930584475958382 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id. apply fence tx failed (client=0x98490e18) [0x10000003 (ipc/send) invalid destination port] Failed to commit transaction (client=0xa86516e2) [0x10000003 (ipc/send) invalid destination port]
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231
Jul ’25
my game is very big when I upload my game in the app store
i have a game that i upload it in the app store that my game size is 3 gigaByte but when I download it, it show that the really size is about 100 megaByte, i upload the game in google app is given me the real size, so the problem i think is when it get out the xcode, maybe some one can give me i clue for what is going on. my game was made by unity2020. if that helps.
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151
Apr ’25
Testing Gamecenter Accounts
HI all, I'm in the early stages of testing a game that will have real-time device-to-device communication using GameCenter. I've read something about setting up GameCenter "sandbox" accounts to test prior to the game's release, but I can't find anything reliable about how to do so. I've found lots of web pages which purport to describe how to do this task, but what they describe seems to be outdated, as the steps don't appear to be available in modern versions of iOS. I'm testing on iOS 18 and 26. Document search isn't helping--I mostly find information on how to set up StoreKit sandbox accounts, which I assume are different things altogether--so if you could point me towards an article that allows me to test a new, unreleased GameKit app between devices, I'd appreciate it. People are developing GameCenter apps, so I know it's possible... advTHANKSance
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389
Sep ’25
Photogrammetry requiring lidar-capable phones, curious why
Hello! I'm currently building an app where I feed images into a Photogrammetry session to create a USDZ. Pretty straightforward, works great. We've recently started some testing on older devices, and have discovered that Photogrammetry is requiring devices that have LIDAR (we've seen some console logs referencing LIDAR if we stumble through a photogrammetry process without checking isSupported first) Judging from @swredcam's posting about ReefScan from November 24 (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/769221) it looks like Photogrammetry did work on those non-LIDAR devices. In my own testing on an iPhone 12 mini with iOS 17, PhotogrammetrySession says it's not supported. Since we're only feeding in a sequence of photos that have never had depth data, and they process fine on pro/max devices, we're curious why this would require a LIDAR sensor to work, when it seems like it did work without LIDAR in the past. Or is there some other limitation of non-pro devices that is causing photogrammetry to not be supported (especially on today's really powerful hardware) Thanks! ++md
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638
Mar ’25
CustomMetalView sample uses deprecated functions - update?
The sample code here, has code like: // Create a display link capable of being used with all active displays cvReturn = CVDisplayLinkCreateWithActiveCGDisplays(&_displayLink); But that function's doc says it's deprecated and to use NSView/NSWindow/NSScreen displayLink instead. That returns CADisplayLink, not CVDisplayLink. Also the documentation for that displayLink method is completely empty. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to add it to run loop, or what, after I get it. It would be nice to get an updated version of this sample project and/or have some documentation in NSView.displayLink
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367
Jul ’25
ShaderGraphMaterial.getParameter(handle:) always return nil, is this expected behavior?
I've loaded a ShaderGraphMaterial from a RealityKit content bundle and I'm attempting to access the initial values of its parameters using getParameter(handle:), but this method appears to always return nil: let shaderGraphMaterial = try await ShaderGraphMaterial(named: "MyMaterial", from: "MyFile") let namedParameterValue = shaderGraphMaterial.getParameter(name: "myParameter") // This prints the value of the `myParameter` parameter, as expected. print("namedParameterValue = \(namedParameterValue)") let handle = ShaderGraphMaterial.parameterHandle(name: "myParameter") let handleParameterValue = shaderGraphMaterial.getParameter(handle: handle) // Expected behavior: prints the value of the `myParameter` parameter, as above. // Observed behavior: prints `nil`. print("handleParameterValue = \(handleParameterValue)") Is this expected behavior? Based on the documentation at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/shadergraphmaterial/getparameter(handle:) I'd expect getParameter(handle:) to return the value of the parameter, just as getParameter(name:) does. I've tested this on iOS 18.5 and iOS 26.0 beta 2. Assuming this getParameter(handle:) works as designed, is the following ShaderGraphMaterial extension an appropriate workaround, or can you recommend a better approach? Thank you. public extension ShaderGraphMaterial { /// Reassigns the values of all named material parameters using the handle-based API. /// /// This works around an issue where, at least as of RealityKit 26.0 beta 2 and /// earlier, `getParameter(handle:)` will always return `nil` when used to read the /// initial value of a shader graph material parameter read using /// `ShaderGraphMaterial(named:from:in:)`, whereas `getParameter(name:)` will work /// as expected. private mutating func copyNamedParametersToHandles() { for parameterName in self.parameterNames { if let value = self.getParameter(name: parameterName) { let handle = ShaderGraphMaterial.parameterHandle(name: parameterName) do { try self.setParameter(handle: handle, value: value) } catch { assertionFailure("Cannot set parameter value") } } } } }
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404
Jun ’25
Error this SDK is not supported by the compiler - Xcode version 16.2 (16C5032a) to 16.3(16E140)
In Xcode version 16.2 (16C5032a) I created: One [ScenekitApp] [File/New/Project/iOS/Game/Game Technology: SceneKit]. Three custom Frameworks [File/New/Project/iOS/Framework] [ASCSource.framework, ASCCommon.framework and ASCCoreData.framework]. In the four projects the [Minimum Deployments=iOS 15.0], [Swift version=6.0] and [BUILD_LIBRARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION=Yes]. I directly installed the [Zip.framework] in [ASCSource.framework] without [pod init/pod install] and in the [General tab] [Frameworks, Libraries and Embeded Content] [Zip.framework Embed&Sign]. I installed the three frameworks [ASCSource.framework, ASCCommon.framework and ASCCoreData.framework] in [ScenekitApp] and everything works perfectly in Xcode version 16.2(16C5032a). I updated Xcode version 16.2(16C5032a) to Xcode version 16.3(16E140) and some errors in the SDKs were indicated. [Failed to build module 'ASCSource'; this SDK is not supported by the compiler (the SDK is built with 'Apple Swift version 6.0.3 effective-5.10 (swiftlang-6.0.3.1.10 clang-1600.0.30.1)', while this compiler is 'Apple Swift version 6.1 effective-5.10 (swiftlang-6.1.0.110.21 clang-1700.0.13.3)'). Please select a toolchain which matches the SDK]. [Failed to build module 'Zip'; this SDK is not supported by the compiler (the SDK is built with 'Apple Swift version 6.0.3 effective-5.10 (swiftlang-6.0.3.1.10 clang-1600.0.30.1)', while this compiler is 'Apple Swift version 6.1 effective-5.10 (swiftlang-6.1.0.110.21 clang-1700.0.13.3)'). Please select a toolchain which matches the SDK]. If I recompile all frameworks in Xcode version 16.3 (16E140) it will work, but I don't think it will be a good solution. I found some discussions in links like the following without success. https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk/issues/13727 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70556401/swift-version-conflict-this-sdk-is-not-supported-by-the-compiler-please-select Any help is welcome. Thanks everyone!!!
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426
Apr ’25
Combining render encoders
When I take a frame capture of my application in Xcode, it shows a warning that reads "Your application created separate command encoders which can be combined into a single encoder. By combining these encoders you may reduce your application's load/store bandwidth usage." In the minimal reproduction case I've identified for this warning, I have two render pipeline states: The first writes to the current drawable, the depth buffer, and a secondary color buffer. The second writes only to the current drawable. Because these are writing to a different set of outputs, I was initially creating two separate render command encoders to handle the draws under each of these states. My understanding is that Xcode is telling me I could only create one, however when I try to do that, I get runtime asserts when attempting to apply the second render pipeline state since it doesn't have a matching attachment configured for the second color buffer or for the depth buffer, so I can't just combine the encoders. Is the only solution here to detect and propagate forward the color/depth attachments from the first state into the creation of the second state? Is there any way to suppress this specific warning in Xcode?
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307
Jul ’25