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Deterministic RNG behaviour across Mac M1 CPU and Metal GPU – BigCrush pass & structural diagnostics
Hello, I am currently working on a research project under ENINCA Consulting, focused on advanced diagnostic tools for pseudorandom number generators (structural metrics, multi-seed stability, cross-architecture reproducibility, and complementary indicators to TestU01). To validate this diagnostic framework, I prototyped a small non-linear 64-bit PRNG (not as a goal in itself, but simply as a vehicle to test the methodology). During these evaluations, I observed something interesting on Apple Silicon (Mac M1): • bit-exact reproducibility between M1 ARM CPU and M1 Metal GPU, • full BigCrush pass on both CPU and Metal backends, • excellent p-values, • stable behaviour across multiple seeds and runs. This was not the intended objective, the goal was mainly to validate the diagnostic concepts, but these results raised some questions about deterministic compute behaviour in Metal. My question: Is there any official guidance on achieving (or expecting) deterministic RNG or compute behaviour across CPU ↔ Metal GPU on Apple Silicon? More specifically: • Are deterministic compute kernels expected or guaranteed on Metal for scientific workloads? • Are there recommended patterns or best practices to ensure reproducibility across GPU generations (M1 → M2 → M3 → M4)? • Are there known Metal features that can introduce non-determinism? I am not sharing the internal recurrence (this work is proprietary), but I can discuss the high-level diagnostic observations if helpful. Thank you for any insight, very interested in how the Metal engineering team views deterministic compute patterns on Apple Silicon. Pascal ENINCA Consulting
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209
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?
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561
Oct ’25
Deterministic RNG behaviour across Mac M1 CPU and Metal GPU – BigCrush pass & structural diagnostics
Hello, I am currently working on a research project under ENINCA Consulting, focused on advanced diagnostic tools for pseudorandom number generators (structural metrics, multi-seed stability, cross-architecture reproducibility, and complementary indicators to TestU01). To validate this diagnostic framework, I prototyped a small non-linear 64-bit PRNG (not as a goal in itself, but simply as a vehicle to test the methodology). During these evaluations, I observed something interesting on Apple Silicon (Mac M1): • bit-exact reproducibility between M1 ARM CPU and M1 Metal GPU, • full BigCrush pass on both CPU and Metal backends, • excellent p-values, • stable behaviour across multiple seeds and runs. This was not the intended objective, the goal was mainly to validate the diagnostic concepts, but these results raised some questions about deterministic compute behaviour in Metal. My question: Is there any official guidance on achieving (or expecting) deterministic RNG or compute behaviour across CPU ↔ Metal GPU on Apple Silicon? More specifically: • Are deterministic compute kernels expected or guaranteed on Metal for scientific workloads? • Are there recommended patterns or best practices to ensure reproducibility across GPU generations (M1 → M2 → M3 → M4)? • Are there known Metal features that can introduce non-determinism? I am not sharing the internal recurrence (this work is proprietary), but I can discuss the high-level diagnostic observations if helpful. Thank you for any insight, very interested in how the Metal engineering team views deterministic compute patterns on Apple Silicon. Pascal ENINCA Consulting
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269
Nov ’25
Metal 4 (validation / debug layer): residency set requirement mismatch for memoryless attachments
Setup: MSAA rendering using a memoryless texture as the color attachment (render_image) and a "normal" texture as the resolve attachment (resolve_image). MTL_DEBUG_LAYER / API validation is enabled for this. When trying to add the memoryless texture to a residency set, I get the following error: -[MTLDebugResidencySet validateResource:], line 114: error 'residency sets do not support memoryless resources. Which is as expected and identical to Metal 3. However, if I don't add it to the residency set, I then get the following error when committing to the command queue: -[MTL4DebugCommandQueue commit:count:options:], line 67: error 'Commit With Options Validation Attachment texture (Label: render_image) used in command buffer (at index 0) is not added to any residency set on the command buffer or command queue. So which way around is actually correct in Metal 4? Either way, this makes the use of memoryless textures/attachments impossible right now when validation is enabled. FWIW: when disabling all validation, either way seems to work just fine. Tested on: M1 Max, macOS 26.3, Xcode 26.2 & 26.4b2
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Unable to select a scene for preview in the SpriteKit actions editor
I am just starting to learn SpriteKit and I'm having trouble selecting a scene to preview an action in the actions editor. I created a new macOS Game project (Language: Swift, Game Technology: SpriteKit). When I open the generated 'Actions.sks' file, I see the message "No Preview Scene Selected" in the editor. I see the 'GameScene.sks' scene listed in the "Select..." control in the lower right, but it is greyed out. I'm not able to figure out how to select a scene to preview the action. I'm running Xcode 26.2 on macOS 15. Thanks very much for the help.
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Portals do not occlude CollisionComponent and InputTargetComponent
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.
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91
Mar ’25
Threadgroup configuration for tile shading
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
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Mar ’25
Metal Shader inside Swift Package not found?
Hello everyone! I am trying to wrap a ViewModifier inside a Swift Package that bundles a metal shader file to be used in the modifier. Everything works as expected in the Preview, in the Simulator and on a real device for iOS. It also works in Preview and in the Simulator for tvOS but not on a real AppleTV. I have tried this on a 4th generation Apple TV running tvOS 26.3 using Xcode 26.2.0. Xcode logs the following: The metallib is processed and exists in the bundle. Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Compiler failed to build request precondition failure: pipeline error: custom_effect-fg2a5cia7fmha4: error: unresolved visible function reference: custom_fn Reason: visible function not loaded Contents of Package.swift: import PackageDescription let package = Package( name: "Test", platforms: [ .iOS(.v17), .tvOS(.v17) ], products: [ .library( name: "Test", targets: [ "Test" ] ) ], targets: [ .target( name: "Test", resources: [ .process("Shaders") ] ), .testTarget( name: "TestTests", dependencies: [ "Test" ] ) ] ) Content of my metal file: #include <metal_stdlib> using namespace metal; [[ stitchable ]] float2 complexWave(float2 position, float time, float2 size, float speed, float strength, float frequency) { float2 normalizedPosition = position / size; float moveAmount = time * speed; position.x += sin((normalizedPosition.x + moveAmount) * frequency) * strength; position.y += cos((normalizedPosition.y + moveAmount) * frequency) * strength; return position; } And my ViewModifier: import MetalKit import SwiftUI extension ShaderFunction { static let complexWave: ShaderFunction = { ShaderFunction( library: .bundle(.module), name: "complexWave" ) }() } extension Shader { static func complexWave(arguments: [Shader.Argument]) -> Shader { Shader(function: .complexWave, arguments: arguments) } } struct WaveModifier: ViewModifier { let start: Date = .now func body(content: Content) -> some View { TimelineView(.animation) { context in let delta = context.date.timeIntervalSince(start) content .visualEffect { view, proxy in view.distortionEffect( .complexWave( arguments: [ .float(delta), .float2(proxy.size), .float(0.5), .float(8), .float(10) ] ), maxSampleOffset: .zero ) } } .onAppear { let paths = Bundle.module.paths(forResourcesOfType: "metallib", inDirectory: nil) print(paths) } } } extension View { public func wave() -> some View { modifier(WaveModifier()) } } #Preview { Image(systemName: "cart") .wave() } Any help is appreciated.
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Export Armatures from Blender to USDC for use in RealityKit
I'm an experienced SceneKit developer and I want to begin work on a new project using RealityKit. So I appreciated as timely, the WWDC 2025 Session, "Bring your SceneKit project to RealityKit". However, now I am finding that: Blender does not properly support exporting armatures in usdc files, and usdc is really the only file format that should be used for creating 3D assets for RealityKit. The option of exporting from Blender to fbx or some other intermediate format, and then converting that to usdc, is a challenge. Apple's Reality Converter App, which supposedly can support importing and converting fbx files to usdc, is no longer available from Apple's website. And an older copy of it I found at the Kodeco website requires Rosetta on Apple Silicon. As well, this older copy does not in fact import fbx or anything else - I find it doesn't work at all. Apple's Reality Composer Pro, at least as far as I can tell, only supports importing usdc - it is not a file conversion tool. Alternatively, I am under the impression that Maya supports producing usdc files with armatures, but Maya costs over $2000 per year and I am skilled with Blender, so I believe strongly that I should be able to continue with Blender. Maya's expense and skillset simply shouldn't be a requirement for building RealityKit applications. What are my options then, if any, to produce assets with armatures and armature based animations using Blender, and then bring them into RealityKit?
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Jun ’25
How do I control a SwiftUI TextField with a game controller?
I've coded a text-adventure game in SwiftUI. (My game has no graphics or sound effects.) My app already supports keyboard navigation; I would like to add support for game controllers on iPhone. I can't figure out how to do it. I especially can't see any way to allow controller users to enter text in a TextField. I've read https://developer.apple.com/documentation/gamecontroller/supporting-game-controllers and it's all about button events. There's no reference to SwiftUI at all in that documentation, or any input-method editing at all. The only mention of "keyboard" is about treating the keyboard itself as if it were a game controller providing button events. How do I implement this?
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- (BOOL) contentsAreFlipped needs to be true for .nib layouts
I have an odd bug, if I use initWithFrame as the init routine for NSView subclass that uses layers I don't see this bug. But if I embedded this view into a storyboard with a .nib file and use initWithCoder, I need to return true on (BOOL) contentsAreFlipped From the NSView subclass If I don't the CALayer actually renders from 0,0 from the view upwards and off the window. The frame sizes for the NSView and the CALayer are good.. when I see them in updateLayer. Obviously I have a fix.. but I would like to understand why.
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269
Jan ’26
iOS Matchmaker ViewController Info Button
I'm updating an existing distributed game to add turn-based matches. When the Matchmaker ViewController Info Button next to a game is pressed, the results vary: iOS 15.x - Button under avatar says "Accept Invite" or "View Game" (depending on if invite has already been accepted) iOS 18.x - Button always says "App Store" - I assume that means it would lead one to the App store to install the game. Both devices (iPad 15.x and iPhone 18.x) have the same version of the game installed. The results are the same when running in the simulator. When the game is released, I assume this button will work properly, no?
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416
Dec ’25
RealityKit game keeps using ~65% CPU even with empty scene
I'm trying to convert my game from SceneKit to RealityKit. I noticed that even when the scene is static (nothing moves), RealityKit keeps using CPU. In SceneKit, CPU goes down to 0% with a static scene. With this simplest of games, RealityKit keeps using about 65% CPU: class ViewController: NSViewController { override func loadView() { view = ARView(frame: NSScreen.main!.frame) } } Is this expected or a bug? I created FB22125047.
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How can I uninstall game-porting-toolkit completely
So, I'm done with GPTK and decided to delete it. The only thing I installed was brew -v install apple/apple/game-porting-toolkit and the external libraries from the ditto command. Now, I tried to remove it, but even after brew remove game-porting-toolkit brew autoremove all of the dependencies installed with brew are still there. The most obvious was game-porting-toolkit-compiler, but even after removing this there are so many libraries that are now orphaned and it's just impossible to manually identify those. Is there a way or is the easiest way to simply uninstall Homebrew completely and reinstall it again?
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276
May ’25
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
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449
Jan ’26
Cannot load .mtlpackage to MTLLibrary
After watching WWDC 2025 session "Combine Metal 4 machine learning and graphics", I have decided to give it a shot to integrate the latest MTL4MachineLearningCommandEncoder to my existing render pipeline. After a lot of trial and errors, I managed to set up the pipeline and have the app compiled. However, I am now stuck on creating a MTLLibrary with .mtlpackage. Here is the code I have to create a MTLLibrary according the WWDC session https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/262/?time=550: let coreMLFilePath = bundle.path(forResource: "my_model", ofType: "mtlpackage")! let coreMLURL = URL(string: coreMLFilePath)! do { metalDevice.makeLibrary(URL: coreMLURL) } catch { print("error: \(error)") } With the above code, I am getting error: Error Domain=MTLLibraryErrorDomain Code=1 "Invalid metal package" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Invalid metal package} What is the correct way to create a MTLLibrary with .mtlpackage? Do I see this error because the .mtlpackage I am using is incorrect? How should I go with debugging this? I'd really appreciate if I could get some help on this as I have been stuck with it for some time now. Thanks in advance!
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250
Nov ’25
Looking for some clarification
Was wondering if anyone from Apple could provide some clarification, The gaming studio "Epic Games" Is wondering if they could distribute the award winning game "Fortnite" back on MacOS without any retaliations. I know Fortnite being back on MacOS would benefit thousands of MacOS Devs. Hoping to get a clarification so Epic could start on bringing Fortnite back.
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736
Dec ’25
Bone deformation
I have been tasked with creating content for the Apple Vision Pro. Just the 3D content and animation, not the programming end of things. I can't seem to get any kind of mesh deformation animation to import into Reality Composer Pro. By that I mean bones/skin, or even point cache. I work on PC, and my main software is 3DS Max, but I'm borrowing an iMac for this job, and was instructed to use RCP on it for testing before handing things off to the programmer. My files open and play fine in other USD programs, like Omniverse, or USD View, just not Reality Composer Pro. I've seen the dinosaur demo in AVP, so I know mesh deformation is possible. If there are other essential tools that might make this possible, I have not been made aware of them. I am experimenting with bouncing things off of Blender, in case that exports better, but not really having luck there either -though my results are different. Thanks.
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130
Sep ’25