I am building a MacOS desktop app (https://anukari.com) that is using Metal compute to do real-time audio/DSP processing, as I have a problem that is highly parallelizable and too computationally expensive for the CPU. However it seems that the way in which I am using the GPU, even when my app is fully compute-limited, the OS never increases the power/performance state. Because this is a real-time audio synthesis application, it's a huge problem to not be able to take advantage of the full clock speeds that the GPU is capable of, because the app can't keep up with real-time. I discovered this issue while profiling the app using Instrument's Metal tracing (and Game tracing) modes. In the profiling configuration under "Metal Application" there is a drop-down to select the "Performance State." If I run the application under Instruments with Performance State set to Maximum, it runs amazingly well, and all my problems go away. For comparison, when I run the app on its own, outside of Instruments, the expensive GPU computation it's doing takes around 2x as long to complete, meaning that the app performs half as well. I've done a ton of work to micro-optimize my Metal compute code, based on every scrap of information from the WWDC videos, etc. A problem I'm running into is that I think that the more efficient I make my code, the less it signals to the OS that I want high GPU clock speeds! I think part of why the OS is confused is that in most use cases, my computation can be done using only a small number of Metal threadgroups. I'm guessing that the OS heuristics see that only a small fraction of the GPU is saturated and fail to scale up the power/clock state. I'm not sure what to do here; I'm in a bit of a bind. One possibility is that I intentionally schedule busy work -- spin threadgroups just to waste energy and signal to the OS that I need higher clock speeds. This is obviously a really bad idea, but it might work. Is there any other (better) way for my app to signal to the OS that it is doing real-time latency-sensitive computation on the GPU and needs the clock speeds to be scaled up? Note that game mode is not really an option, as my app also runs as an AU plugin inside hosts like Garageband, so it can't be made fullscreen, etc.

In my SceneKit game I'm able to connect two players with GKMatchmakerViewController. Now I want to support the scenario where one of them disconnects and wants to reconnect. I tried to do this with this code: nonisolated public func match(_ match: GKMatch, player: GKPlayer, didChange state: GKPlayerConnectionState) { Task { @MainActor in switch state { case .connected: break case .disconnected, .unknown: let matchRequest = GKMatchRequest() matchRequest.recipients = [player] do { try await GKMatchmaker.shared().addPlayers(to: match, matchRequest: matchRequest) } catch { } @unknown default: break } } } nonisolated public func player(_ player: GKPlayer, didAccept invite: GKInvite) { guard let viewController = GKMatchmakerViewController(invite: invite) else { return } viewController.matchmakerDelegate = self present(viewController) } But after presenting the view controller with GKMatchmakerViewController(invite:), nothing else happens. I would expect matchmakerViewController(_:didFind:) to be called, or how would I get an instance of GKMatch? Here is the code I use to reproduce the issue, and below the reproduction steps. Code Run the attached project on an iPad and a Mac simultaneously. On both devices, tap the ship to connect to GameCenter. Create an automatched match by tapping the rightmost icon on both devices. When the two devices are matched, on iPad close the dialog and tap on the ship to disconnect from GameCenter. Wait some time until the Mac detects the disconnect and automatically sends an invitation to join again. When the notification arrives on the iPad, tap it, then tap the ship to connect to GameCenter again. The iPad receives the call player(_:didAccept:), but nothing else, so there’s no way to get a GKMatch instance again.

Hi, wanted to test if possible to use Mesa3D OGLon12+D3DMetal 2b3 to get GL>4.1 support on windows apps via D3D12Metal.. using simple wglgears.c app (similar glxgears) and running like: GALLIUM_DRIVER=d3d12 wine64 wglgears64 -info with overridden opengl32.dll using contents from: https://github.com/pal1000/mesa-dist-win/releases/download/24.3.0-rc1/mesa3d-24.3.0-rc1-release-msvc.7z I get: [D3DMetal:LOG:5E53] Unsupported API: CreateCommandQueue1 caused by: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/commit/c022c9603d500b59ff5e6f93c8a214d1785ab20a API: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/d3d12/nf-d3d12-id3d12device9-createcommandqueue1 note setup is correct as using: GALLIUM_DRIVER=llvmpipe wine64 wglgears64 -info I get: GL_RENDERER = llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.3, 128 bits) GL_VERSION = 4.5 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 24.3.0-rc1 (git-85ba713d76) GL_VENDOR = Mesa GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_ARB_multisample GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract r GL_EXT_texture.. etc..

I am trying to load some PNG data with MTKTextureLoader newTextureWithData，but the result shows wrong at the alpha area. Here is the code. I have an image URL, after it downloads successfully, I try to use the data or UIImagePNGRepresentation (image), they all show wrong. UIImage *tempImg = [UIImage imageWithData:data]; CGImageRef cgRef = tempImg.CGImage; MTKTextureLoader *loader = [[MTKTextureLoader alloc] initWithDevice:device]; id<MTLTexture> temp1 = [loader newTextureWithData:data options:@{MTKTextureLoaderOptionSRGB: @(NO), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureUsage: @(MTLTextureUsageShaderRead), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureCPUCacheMode: @(MTLCPUCacheModeWriteCombined)} error:nil]; NSData *tempData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(tempImg); id<MTLTexture> temp2 = [loader newTextureWithData:tempData options:@{MTKTextureLoaderOptionSRGB: @(NO), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureUsage: @(MTLTextureUsageShaderRead), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureCPUCacheMode: @(MTLCPUCacheModeWriteCombined)} error:nil]; id<MTLTexture> temp3 = [loader newTextureWithCGImage:cgRef options:@{MTKTextureLoaderOptionSRGB: @(NO), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureUsage: @(MTLTextureUsageShaderRead), MTKTextureLoaderOptionTextureCPUCacheMode: @(MTLCPUCacheModeWriteCombined)} error:nil]; }] resume];

Starting with iOS 18.0 beta 1, I've noticed that RealityKit frequently crashes in the simulator when an app launches and presents an ARView. I was able to create a small sample app with repro steps that demonstrates the issue, and I've submitted feedback: FB16144085 I've included a crash log with the feedback. If possible, I'd appreciate it if an Apple engineer could investigate and suggest a workaround. It's awkward to be restricted to the iOS 17 simulator, which does not exhibit this behavior. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Thank you.

We are trying to implement saving and fetching data to and from iCloud, but it have some problems. MacOS: 15.3 Here is what I do: Enable Game Center and iCloud capbility in Signing & Capabilities, pick iCloud Documents, create and select a Container. Sample code: void SaveDataToCloud( const void* buffer, unsigned int datasize, const char* name ) { if(!GKLocalPlayer.localPlayer.authenticated) return; NSData* data = [ NSData dataWithBytes:databuffer length:datasize]; NSString* filename = [ NSString stringWithUTF8String:name ]; [[GKLocalPlayer localPlayer] saveGameData:data withName:filename completionHandler:^(GKSavedGame * _Nullable savedGame, NSError * _Nullable){ if (error != nil) { NSLog( @"SaveDataToCloud error:%@", [ error localizedDescription ] ); } }]; } void FetchCloudSavedGameData() { if ( !GKLocalPlayer.localPlayer.authenticated ) return; [ [ GKLocalPlayer localPlayer ] fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray<GKSavedGame *> * _Nullable savedGames, NSError * _Nullable error) { if ( error == nil ) { for ( GKSavedGame *item in savedGames ) { [ item loadDataWithCompletionHandler:^(NSData * _Nullable data, NSError * _Nullable error) { if ( error == nil ) { //handle data } else { NSLog( @"FetchCloudSavedGameData failed to load iCloud file: %@, error:%@", item.name, [ error localizedDescription ] ); } } ]; } } else { NSLog( @"FetchCloudSavedGameData error:%@", [ error localizedDescription ] ); } } ]; } Both saveGameData and fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler are not reporting any error, when debugging, saveGameData completionHandler got a nil error, and can get a valid "savedGame", but when try to rebot the game and use "fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler" to fetch data, we got nothing, no error reported, and the savedGames got a 0 length. From this page https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/718541?answerId=825596022#825596022 we try to wait 30sec after authenticated , then try fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler, still got the same error. Checked: Game Center and iCloud are enabled and login with the same account. iCloud have enough space to save. So what's wrong with it.

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))") } } }

So I've been trying out GPTK with Elite Dangerous Horizons game and it looks like from what I can tell. The VRAM keeps going up until it goes over the limit where it drops the FPS to 1-3 FPS and then crashes the game. From the Performance HUD I can see that it looks like when using GPTK, the VRAM usage just keeps climbing and I never saw it drop down at all. I did some limited testing, and from that I think I can conclude that it is probably not a VRAM leak, but it might be caching it. The reason for this is because I noticed that if I went back to the area that I've been before. It won't increase the VRAM usage. So either there is something wrong with the freeing VRAM memory part, or it could be that GPTK might not be reporting the right amount of VRAM available to use? So maybe that's why it keeps allocating VRAM until it went out of memory and crashed the game. Just to test, I did try running the game with DXVK+MoltenVK combo, and I can see that it works just fine. VRAM is being freed up when it's no longer used. Is this a known issue in some games?

Question: I'm encountering an issue with in-app purchases (IAP) in Unity, specifically for a non-consumable product in the iOS sandbox environment. Below are the details: Environment: Unity Version: 2022.3.55f1 Unity In-App Purchasing Version: v4.12.2 Device: iPhone (15, iOS 18.1.1) Connection: Wi-Fi iOS Settings: In-App Purchases set to “Allowed” initially Problem Behavior: I attempted to purchase a non-consumable item for the first time. The payment is successfully completed by entering the password. I then background the game app and navigate to the iOS Settings to set In-App Purchases to "Don't Allow." After returning to the game and either closing or killing the app, I try to purchase the same non-consumable item again. I checked canMakePayments() through the Apple configuration, and the app correctly detected that I could not make purchases due to the restriction. I then navigate back to Settings and set In-App Purchases to "Allow." Upon returning to the game, I try purchasing the non-consumable item again. A pop-up appears, saying, "You’ve already purchased this. Would you like to get it again for free?" The issue is: Will it deduct money for the second time, and why is the system allowing the user to purchase the same non-consumable item multiple times after purchasing it once? Is this the expected behavior for Unity In-App Purchasing, or is there something I might be missing in handling non-consumable purchases in this scenario? Additional Information: I’ve confirmed that the "In-App Purchases" are set to “Allowed” before attempting the purchase again. I understand that non-consumable products should not be purchased more than once, so I’m unsure why the system is offering to let the user purchase it again. I appreciate any insights into whether this is expected behavior or if I need to adjust how I handle the purchase flow.

I'm trying to use MTLBinaryArchive. I collected a BinaryArchive from one device and used metal-tt to translate it for all supported iPhone devices, ranging from iPhone 7 Plus to iPhone 16. However, this BinaryArchive is quite large, around 1.5GB uncompressed, and about 500MB compressed in the IPA. I'm wondering how to address the size issue. I watched the WWDC 2022 video, which mentioned that the operating system or app installation process would handle compatibility. Does this compatibility support different GPU chips? I tried installing an IPA with a BinaryArchive collected only from an iPhone 12 on an iPhone 13, but the BinaryArchive didn't take effect. I also saw that Apple supports App Thinning. However, it seems that resources in the Asset Catalog cannot be accessed via URL, and creating an MTLBinaryArchive requires a URL. Is it possible for MTLBinaryArchive to be distributed through App Thinning? The WWDC 2022 video also mentioned using the -Os optimization flag to reduce size. Can this give an estimate of how much compression it would achieve? Are there any methods to solve the BinaryArchive size issue without impacting performance?

I have this drawing app that I have been working on for the past few years when I have free time. I recently rebuilt the app in Metal to build out other brushes and improve performance, need to render 10000s of lines in realtime. I’m running into this issue trying to create a uniform opacity per path. I have a solution but do not love it - as this is a realtime app and the solution could have some bottlenecks. If I just generate a triangle strip from touch points and do my best to smooth, resample, and handle miters I will always get some overlaps. See: To create a uniform opacity I render to an offscreen texture with blending disabled. I then pre-multiply the color and draw that texture to a composite texture with blending on (I do this per path). This works but gets tricky when you introduce a textured brush, the edges of the texture in the frag shader cut out the line. Pasted Graphic 1.png Solution: I discard below a threshold fragment float4 fragment_line(VertexOut in [[stage_in]], texture2d<float> texture [[ texture(0) ]]) { constexpr sampler s(coord::normalized, address::mirrored_repeat, filter::linear); float2 texCoord = in.texCoord; float4 texColor = texture.sample(s, texCoord); if (texColor.a < 0.01) discard_fragment(); // may be slow (from what I read) return in.color * texColor; } Better but still not perfect. Question: I'm looking for better ways to create a uniform opacity per path. I tried .max blending but that will cause no blending of other paths. Any tips, ideas, much appreciated. If this is too detailed of a question just achieve.

Create the QRCode CIFilter<CIBlendWithMask> *f = CIFilter.QRCodeGenerator; f.message = [@"Message" dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding]; f.correctionLevel = @"Q"; // increase level CIImage *qrcode = f.outputImage; Overlay the icon CIImage *icon = [CIImage imageWithURL:url]; CGAffineTransform *t = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation( (qrcode.extent.width-icon.extent.width)/2.0, (qrcode.extent.height-icon.extent.height)/2.0); icon = [icon imageByApplyingTransform:t]; qrcode = [icon imageByCompositingOver:qrcode]; Round off the corners static dispatch_once_t onceToken; static CIWarpKernel *k; dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^ { k = [CIWarpKernel kernelWithFunctionName:name fromMetalLibraryData:metalLibData() error:nil]; }); CGRect iExtent = image.extent; qrcode = [k applyWithExtent:qrcode.extent roiCallback:^CGRect(int i, CGRect r) { return CGRectInset(r, -radius, -radius); } inputImage:qrcode arguments:@[[CIVector vectorWithCGRect:qrcode.extent], @(radius)]]; …and this code for the kernel should go in a separate .ci.metal source file: float2 bend_corners (float4 extent, float s, destination dest) { float2 p, dc = dest.coord(); float ratio = 1.0; // Round lower left corner p = float2(extent.x+s,extent.y+s); if (dc.x < p.x && dc.y < p.y) { float2 d = abs(dc - p); ratio = min(d.x,d.y)/max(d.x,d.y); ratio = sqrt(1.0 + ratio*ratio); return (dc - p)*ratio + p; } // Round lower right corner p = float2(extent.x+extent.z-s, extent.y+s); if (dc.x > p.x && dc.y < p.y) { float2 d = abs(dc - p); ratio = min(d.x,d.y)/max(d.x,d.y); ratio = sqrt(1.0 + ratio*ratio); return (dc - p)*ratio + p; } // Round upper left corner p = float2(extent.x+s,extent.y+extent.w-s); if (dc.x < p.x && dc.y > p.y) { float2 d = abs(dc - p); ratio = min(d.x,d.y)/max(d.x,d.y); ratio = sqrt(1.0 + ratio*ratio); return (dc - p)*ratio + p; } // Round upper right corner p = float2(extent.x+extent.z-s, extent.y+extent.w-s); if (dc.x > p.x && dc.y > p.y) { float2 d = abs(dc - p); ratio = min(d.x,d.y)/max(d.x,d.y); ratio = sqrt(1.0 + ratio*ratio); return (dc - p)*ratio + p; } return dc; }

Hello! I have a question about how thread groups work with tile shading. When running "traditional" compute, I get to choose both thread group size and the grid size. However, when using tile shading kernel I only have dispatchThreadsPerTile method - this controls how many threads will be ran in each tile. So far so good, but what about thread groups? The examples in video "Tile Shading on A11" seem to suggest that there will be only one thread group per tile. In the video, [[thread_index_in_threadgroup]] is called "local_id" and it is used to access the image block. I assume this is the default configuration. So when one does the following: Creates MTLRenderPassDescriptor with tileWidth set to W and tileHeight set to H Fires up the tile shading kernel using dispatchThreadsPerTile with MTLSize size = { W, H, 1 } I understand that the result is 1-to-1 mapping between the tile "pixels" and kernel threads. Now, what I would like to do is to have more than one thread group there. I want this for performance reasons: I have a certain compute kernel which I know executes very well with small thread group size. In fact, { 32, 1, 1 } seems to be the fastest. My understanding is that even if I set tile size to 16x16, and so I am executing 256 threads there, there will only be one SIMD group active in a thread group. Meaning that this SIMD group has to execute 8 times over the tile. Is it possible somehow? Or perhaps the limitations of the API are pointing at the limitations of hardware itself, and if I want to execute with SIMD group sized thread groups I have to use "traditional" compute encoder? Will be grateful for help. Michał

Anyone else unable to download the "Rendering a Scene with Deferred Lighting in C++" (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/rendering-a-scene-with-deferred-lighting-in-c++?language=objc)? I just an error page: Is there another place to download this sample?

I have a UIView that displays lines, and I zoom in (scale by 2 on the scroll view zoomScale variable containing the UIView). As I zoom in, on the Mac version (Designed for IPad) I loose the graphic after a certain number of zooms (the scrollView maximumZoomScale is set at 10). To ensure that lines are correctly represented, I modify the contentScaleFactor variable on the UIView; otherwise, the line's display is pixelated. On the IPad (simulator and real) I do not loose the graphic when zooming. So the Mac port of the UIView drawing is not working as the IPad version. Everything else of the application works fine except this important details. I already submitted a feedback request (#FB16829106) with the images showing the problem. I need a solution to this problem. Thanks.

I didn't find a suggestion box on Swift's website so I'll post it here. SwiftCharts are great but limited. I need more data on a single chart. Candlestick and OHLC type charts would be an excellent addition. Hopefully, influencers from Apple can make that happen. Thanks.

Hi, I am working with a large project. We are compiling each material to its own .metallib. They all include many common files full of inline functions. Finally we link it all together at the end with a single big pathtrace kernel. Everything works as expected, however the compile times have gotten completely out of hand and it takes multiple minutes to compile at runtime (to native code). I have gathered that I can do this offline by using metal-tt however if I am wondering if there is a way to reduce the compile times in such a scenario, and how to investigate what the root cause of the problem is. I suspect it could have to do with the fact that every materials metallib contains duplications of all the inline functions. Any ideas on how to profile and debug this? Thanks, Rasmus

Hello If you add a ModelEntity to a world inside a portal, the drawing of the model will be occluded properly to the portal bounds. However the invisible shape of the InputTargetComponent and CollisionComponent are not occluded. They are able to cross the portal, and if you have gestures on your ModelEntity you can trigger them in areas outside the portal bounds. This happens even if the ModelEntity has no PortalCrossingComponent.

I've been working on Swift game which is not yet launched or available for preview. The game works in such a way that it has idle CPU while the user is thinking and sustained max CPU and GPU on as many cores as possible when he makes a move. Rarely, due to OS activity or something else outside of my control (for example when dropping the OS curtain even if for just a bit then remove it), the game or some of its threads are moved to efficiency cores which results in major stuttering which persists precisely until the game is idle again at which point the game is moved back on performance cores - but if the player keeps making moves the stuttering simply won't go away and so I guess compuptation is locked onto efficiency cores. The issue does not reproduce on MacCatalyst on Intel. How do I tell Swift to avoid efficiency cores? BTW Swift and SceneKIT have AMAZING performance especially when compared to others.

Hello, Could someone post code that shows how to implement GCVirtualController to move a box around the screen? I've been poking around with GCVirtualController and gotten as far as having the D-pad and A B buttons appear on the display. But how do I make it do anything?