Delve into the world of graphics and game development. Discuss creating stunning visuals, optimizing game mechanics, and share resources for game developers.

All subtopics
Posts under Graphics & Games topic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Is Using Metal Compute Shaders for Efficient Resource Copying to RealityKit the Best Approach for Streaming Data in Real-Time Rendering?
Hi Apple, In VisionOS, for real-time streaming of large 3D scenes, I plan to create Metal buffers and textures in multiple threads and then use a compute shader on the main thread to copy the Metal resources into RealityKit, minimizing main thread usage. Given that most of RealityKit's default APIs require execution on the main actor (main thread), it is not ideal for streaming data. Is this approach the best way to handle streaming data and real-time rendering? Thank you very much.
0
0
118
Apr ’25
'__abort_with_payload' from CompositorNonUI on visionOS 26.2 (device + simulator, Omniverse streaming)
I am developing a custom app for Apple Vision Pro using Compositor Services to stream content from NVIDIA Omniverse. The app is based on: https://github.com/NVIDIA-Omniverse/apple-configurator-sample Environment: Device: Apple Vision Pro OS Version: visionOS 26.2 Xcode Version: 26.2 The Issue: The application crashes hard (__abort_with_payload) in "libsystem_kernel.dylib" on Task 6 immediately after initialization. This appears to be a deliberate abort triggered by the compositor, not a typical crash. The issue occurs on both physical device and simulator. Important detail: The console output shows a specific CLIENT BUG assertion. By checking the metadata of the warning, I found that it is related to "Library: CompositorNonUI". Relevant console output before abort: Missed 'FrameLimiter' target of 90.0 Hz running compositor services to get IPD, FOV, etc fence tx observer 14f27 timed out after 0.600000 fence tx observer bc1b timed out after 0.600000 BUG IN CLIENT: For mixed reality experiences please use cp_drawable_compute_projection API
0
0
85
3w
How can I assign priorities to my app’s GPU workloads?
My app has a number of heterogeneous GPU workloads that all run concurrently. Some of these should be executed with the highest priority because the app’s responsiveness depends on them, while others are triggered by file imports and the like which should have a low priority. If this was running on the CPU I’d assign the former User Interactive QoS and the latter Utility QoS. Is there an equivalent to this for GPU work?
1
0
898
Jan ’26
SpriteKit Offline Rendering with SKRenderer
Hi! I'd like to share a technical sample app, SKRenderer Demo. This app demonstrates: Setting up SKRenderer Recording SpriteKit scenes to image sequences Recording SpriteKit scenes to video using IOSurface and AVFoundation Applying Core Image filters Exploring SpriteKit's simulation timing and physics determinism Use Case Record SpriteKit simulations as video or images for sharing and creating content. I explored several approaches, including the excellent view.texture(from:crop:) for live recording from SKView. The SKRenderer approach assumes recording happens asynchronously: you capture user interactions as commands during live interaction, then replay those commands through an offline render pass to generate the final output. I hope this helps others working on replay systems, simulation capture, or SpriteKit projects in general!
0
0
130
3w
2 high scores vanished
In my game 854159268 (com.1791entertainment.qugame), in my quMostRecent3 leaderboard, the top 2 entries have 'vanished'. They were there yesterday. I know these players have played today, as I see their scores on other leaderboards. Any ideas how to get these back? These 2 players (me and my tester) are both TestFlight ing - not sure if that changes things.
1
0
418
Jan ’26
Hover effects w/ Compositor Services w/ PSVR2 controllers
Hi, I would like clarification on whether the new hover effects feature introduced in vision os 26 supported pinch gestures through the psvr 2 controllers. In your sample application, I was not able to confirm that this was working. Only pinch clicking with my hands worked. Pulling the trigger on the controller whilst looking at a 3d object did not activate the hover effect spatial event in the sample application. (The object is showing the highlight though) This is inconsistent with hover effect behavior with psvr2 controllers on swift ui views, where the trigger press does count as a button click. The sample I used was this one: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/compositorservices/rendering_hover_effects_in_metal_immersive_apps
0
0
417
Jan ’26
Why does game mode not get triggered for my App?
I think I really have tried everything and I did all according to official documentation to support game mode on iOS or iPadOS but it doesn't matter what I do it just doesn't get triggered. Funny enough it works during development when I install it via Xcode but as soon as it is live on the store and when I install it from there game mode doesn't get triggered anymore. What I have atm I have added (even though it is deprecated) <key>GCSupportsGameMode</key> <true/> I have set the (but it seems only supported for macOS) <key>LSApplicationCategoryType</key> <string>public.app-category.games</string> I have added <key>LSSupportsGameMode</key> <true/> It just doesn't work. Is there anything else what needs to be done? Should the flag LSSupportsGameMode not be enough normally? The reason why this is so annoying is that my app is a real time streaming app and I want to profit from minimised background activities for smoother gameplay and more consistent frame rates like mentioned in the documentation.
1
0
586
Nov ’25
RealityKit - Full 3D experience
I have a question I guess more for the Apple team. But why are there no totally 3D experiences for the Vision Pro lineup? I know they have given us tools to implement unity 3D games into iPhone and I guess you can also build it in RealityKit. But why at this moment are 3D games limited to just iPad and iPhone and can't you bring that into Vision Pro? Just to explain. When I say a totally 3D game, I mean games like Gorn. I mean the Vision Pro is definitely powerful enough, but it just feels limited to tabletop games and AR games. Is this something Apple is thinking about implementing?
0
0
543
Oct ’25
RealityKit - How to change camera target in response of a touch event?
Hello, I’m porting my UIKit/SceneKit app to SwiftUI/RealityKit and I’m wondering how to change the camera target programmatically. I created a simple scene in Reality Composer Pro with two spheres. My goal is straightforward: when the user taps a sphere, the camera should look at it as the main target. Following Apple’s videos, I implemented the .gesture modifier and it is printing the tapped sphere correctly, but updating my targetEntity state doesn’t change anything, so the camera won't update its target. Is there a way to access the scene content at that level? Or what else should I do? Here’s my current code implementation: Thanks!
1
0
270
Sep ’25
Metal 4 & Acceleration Structures
I have really enjoyed looking through the code and videos related to Metal 4. Currently, my interest is to update a ReSTIR Project and take advantage of more robust ways to refit acceleration Structures and more powerful ways to access resources. I am working in Swift and have encountered a couple of puzzles: What is the 'accepted' way to create a MTL4BufferRange to store indices and vertices? How do I properly rewrite Swift code to build and compact an Acceleration Structure? I do realize that this is all in Beta and will happily look through Code Samples this Fall. If other guidance is available earlier, that would be fabulous! Thank you
4
0
661
Sep ’25
How to add and remove child entities to a rigged entity in RealityKit?
I am currently using RealityKit (perspective camera) to render a character in my swiftUI app. The character has customization such as clothing items and hair and all objects are properly weighted to the rig. The way the model is setup in Blender is like so: Groups of objects that will be swapped (ex: Shoes -> Shoes objects) and an armature. I then export it to usdc with all objects active. This is the resulting hierarchy: Before exporting for the animation (armature modifier applied), I simply had to store the Model entities and swap them in but now when I export with the Armature Modifier applied, so that animations get exported, the ModelComponent gets flattened to the armature and swapping entities and applying new materials to them is no longer as simple. Here's a demo blend file and usdc export with a setup like mine, having an animated bone to swing a cube and sphere, to be swapped so that only one is visible https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/be2q6qcztc83z7c4gj1w0/AMapxWc_ip2KZ8oTOYDUMv8?rlkey=rcdaggcxq06dyen09mw5mqmem&st=bnc0d7j0&dl=0 This is how I'm loading the entity and removing a part, with the demo files import SwiftUI import RealityKit struct SwapDemoView: View { var body: some View { RealityView { content in let camera = PerspectiveCamera() camera.transform.translation = SIMD3(x: 0, y: 0.1, z: 3) guard let root = try? await Entity(named: "simpleSwapDemo") else { fatalError("simpleSwapDemo.usdc is not present") } print(root) // Get initial hierarchy guard let cube = root.findEntity(named: "Cube") else { fatalError("Entity cube doesn't exist") } cube.removeFromParent() // <-- Cube is still visible after removal print(root) // Get hierarchy to confirm removal of cube let resource = root.availableAnimations[0] root.playAnimation(resource.repeat()) content.add(root) content.add(camera) } .background(.white) } } And this is what the entity hierarchy looks like in RealityKit before cube removal ▿ 'root' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ AnimationLibraryComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Armature' : ModelEntity, children: 2 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ ModelComponent ⟐ SkeletalPosesComponent ⟐ AnimationLibraryComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Armature' : Entity ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Primitives' : Entity, children: 2 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Sphere' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Sphere' : Entity ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Cube' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Cube' : Entity ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform And here's the hierarchy after removal ▿ 'root' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ AnimationLibraryComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Armature' : ModelEntity, children: 2 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ ModelComponent ⟐ SkeletalPosesComponent ⟐ AnimationLibraryComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Armature' : Entity ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Primitives' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Sphere' : Entity, children: 1 ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform ▿ 'Sphere' : Entity ⟐ SynchronizationComponent ⟐ Transform And this is the result: What's the best practice here? Should animation be exported separately and then applied to the skeleton? If so, how is that achieved? I'm not really sure how to proceed here.
1
0
140
May ’25
Will metal-cpp-extensions headers for Appkit and MetalKit be maintained?
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.
2
0
2.1k
Feb ’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?
1
0
587
Feb ’25
Metal calls hanging/stuck if app is started quickly after login
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! :)
2
0
476
Feb ’25
SceneKit SCNMorpher Supports SCNGeometry with Some SCNLevelOfDetail
In my project, I have several nodes (SCNNode) with some levels of detail (SCNLevelOfDetail) and everything works correctly, but when I add animation using morphing (SCNMorpher), the animation works correctly but without the levels of detail. Note: the entire scene is created in Autodesk 3D Studio Max and then exported in (.ASE) format. The goal is to make animations using morphing that have some levels of detail. Does anyone know if SCNMorpher supports geometry with some levels of detail? I appreciate any information about this case. Thanks everyone!!! Part of the code I use to load geometries (SCNGeometry) with some levels of detail (SCNLevelOfDetail) using morphing (SCNMorpher). node.morpher = [SCNMorpher new]; SCNGeometry *geometry = [self geometryWithMesh:mesh]; NSMutableArray <SCNLevelOfDetail*> *mutLevelOfDetail = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:self.mutLevelsOfDetail.count]; for (int i = 0; i < self.mutLevelsOfDetail.count; i++) { ASCGeomObject *geomObject = self.mutLevelsOfDetail[i]; SCNGeometry *geometry = [self geometryWithMesh:geomObject.mesh.mutMeshAnimation[i]]; [mutLevelOfDetail addObject:[SCNLevelOfDetail levelOfDetailWithGeometry:geometry worldSpaceDistance:geomObject.worldSpaceDistance]]; } geometry.levelsOfDetail = mutLevelOfDetail; node.morpher.targets = [node.morpher.targets arrayByAddingObject:geometry];
2
0
274
Mar ’25
How can I get pixel coordinates in the fragment tile function?
In this video, tile fragment shading is recommended for image processing. In this example, the unpack function takes two arguments, one of which is RasterizerData. As I understand it, this is the data passed to us from the previous stage (Vertex) of the graphics pipeline. However, the properties of MTLTileRenderPipelineDescriptor do not include an option for specifying a Vertex function. Therefore, in this render pass, a mix of commands is used: first, a draw command is executed to obtain UV coordinates, and then threads are dispatched. My question is: without using a draw command, only dispatch, how can I get pixel coordinates in the fragment tile function? For the kernel tile function, everything is clear. typedef struct { float4 OPTexture [[ color(0) ]]; float4 IntermediateTex [[ color(1) ]]; } FragmentIO; fragment FragmentIO Unpack(RasterizerData in [[ stage_in ]], texture2d<float, access::sample> srcImageTexture [[texture(0)]]) { FragmentIO out; //... // Run necessary per-pixel operations out.OPTexture = // assign computed value; out.IntermediateTex = // assign computed value; return out; }
1
0
181
Mar ’25
Trouble with MDLMesh.newBox()
I'm trying to build an MDLMesh then add normals let mdlMesh = MDLMesh.newBox(withDimensions: SIMD3<Float>(1, 1, 1), segments: SIMD3<UInt32>(2, 2, 2), geometryType: MDLGeometryType.triangles, inwardNormals:false, allocator: allocator) mdlMesh.addNormals(withAttributeNamed: MDLVertexAttributeNormal, creaseThreshold: 0) When I render the mesh, some normals are (0,0,0). I don't know if the problem is in the mesh, or in the conversion to MTKMesh. Is there a way to examine an MDLMesh with the geometry viewer? When I look at the variable values for my mdlMesh I get this: Not too useful. I don't know how to track down the normals. What's the best way to find out where the normals getting broken?
1
0
150
May ’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!
2
0
599
Feb ’25