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Utilizing Point Cloud data from `ObjectCaptureSession` in WWDC23
I am currently developing a mobile and server-side application using the new ObjectCaptureSession on iOS and PhotogrammetrySession on MacOS. I have two questions regarding the newly updated APIs. From WWDC23 session: "Meet Object Capture for iOS", I know that the Object Capture API uses Point Cloud data captured from iPhone LiDAR sensor. I want to know how to use the Point Cloud data captured on iPhone ObjectCaptureSession and use it to create 3D models on PhotogrammetrySession on MacOS. From the example code from WWDC21, I know that the PhotogrammetrySession utilizes depth map from captured photo images by embedding it into the HEIC image and use those data to create a 3D asset on PhotogrammetrySession on MacOS. I would like to know if Point Cloud data is also embedded into the image to be used during 3D reconstruction and if not, how else the Point Cloud data is inserted to be used during reconstruction. Another question is, I know that Point Cloud data is returned as a result from request to the PhtogrammetrySession.Request. I would like to know if this PointCloud data is the same set of data captured during ObjectCaptureSession from WWDC23 that is used to create ObjectCapturePointCloudView. Thank you to everyone for the help in advance. It's a real pleasure to be developing with all the updates to RealityKit and the Object Capture API.
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2.3k
Jul ’25
MetalFX upscaler/denoiser and instant changes
Hi, What's the best way to handle drastic changes in scene charateristics with the new MTLFXTemporalDenoisedScaler? Let's say a visible object of the scene radically changes its material properties. I can modify the albedo and roughness textures consequently. But I suspect the history will be corrupted. Blending visual information between the new frame and the previous ones might be a nonsense. I guess the problem should be the same when objects appear or disappear instantly. Is the upsacler manage these events for us (by lowering blending), or should we use the reactive or the denoise strength mask or something like that to handle them?
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184
Jul ’25
RealityKit generates an excessive amount of logging
During regular use, RealityKit generates an excessive amount of internal logging that is not actionable by third party developers. When developing an iOS RealityKit/ARKit app, this makes the Xcode console challenging to use for regular work. (FB19173812) See screenshots below. Xcode does have an option for filtering out logging from specific SDKs, but enabling this feature to suppress the logging of RealityKit and related SDKs like PHASE is something developers have to do dozens of times each day. After a year of developing a RealityKit app, this process becomes frustrating. If SDKs like Foundation, UIKit, and SwiftUI generated as much logging as RealityKit and related SDKs, Xcode's console would be unusable. Is there any way to disable the logging of RealityKit and PHASE permanently? Thank you for any help you provide.
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489
Jul ’25
NSScreen's maximumExtendedDynamicRangeColorComponentValue does not seem to provide the proper value after sleep/wake on third party HDR displays even when there is EDR content on screen in macOS Tahoe
The maximumExtendedDynamicRangeColorComponentValue should provide some value between 1.0 and maximumPotentialExtendedDynamicRangeColorComponentValue depending on the available EDR headroom if there is any content on-screen that uses EDR. This works fine in most scenarios but in macOS 26 Tahoe (including in 26.2) this seemingly breaks down when a third party external display is in HDR mode and the Mac goes to sleep and wakes up. After wake only a value of 1.0 is provided by the third party external display's NSScreen object, no matter what (although when the SDR peak brightness is being changed using the brightness slider, didChangeScreenParametersNotification is firing and the system should provide a proper updated headroom value). This makes dynamic tone-mapping that adapts to actual screen brightness impossible. Everything works fine in Sequoia. In Tahoe the user needs to turn off HDR, then go through a sleep/wake cycle and turn HDR back on to have this fixed, which is obviously not a sustainable workaround.
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Dec ’25
Embedded links not clickable in PDFs for iOS devices
I have a SPFx React application where I am printing the HTML page content using the javascript default window.print() functionality. Once I save the page as pdf from the print preview window and open it using Adobe Acrobat, the links(for eg -> Google) within the content are not clickable and appearing as plain text. I have tried to print random pages post searching with any keywords in Google and saved the files as pdfs, but, unfortunately, the links are still not clickable there as well. To check whether it is an Adobe Acrobat issue, I have performed the same print functionality from Android devices and shared the pdf file across the iOS devices and in that case, when opened using Adobe Acrobat, the links are appearing to be clickable. I am wondering whether it is something related to how the default print functionality works for iPadOS and iOS devices. Any insights on this would be really helpful. Thanks!!! Note: The links are clickable for MacOS as well as for Windows. #ios #ipados #javascript #spfx #react
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May ’25
Metal IR reference
Hello! I'm developing a GPU (shader) language, where I aim to target multiple backends with a common frontend. I wanted to avoid having to round trip through Metal, and go straight to IR just like I have with SPIRV, in order to have a fast and efficient compilation process. I've been looking for a reference page where I can read about Metals IR, and as far as I'm aware, it exists, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Furthermore, if such a reference is available, is there also a toolkit where I can run validation on the output IR, and perhaps even run optimizations, much like spv-tools for SPIRV? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Gustav
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320
Jul ’25
OS choosing performance state poorly for GPU use case
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.
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979
May ’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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310
Jul ’25
JPEG2000 (JP2) Decoding Works on iOS 16 but Fails on iOS 18
I am extracting a JPEG2000 (JP2) facial image from an NFC passport chip (ISO/IEC 19794-5) and attempting to create a UIImage from it. On iOS 16, the following code works fine: import ImageIO import UIKit func getUIImage(from imageData: [UInt8]) -> UIImage? { let data = Data(imageData) guard let imageSource = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(data as CFData, nil), let cgImage = CGImageSourceCreateImageAtIndex(imageSource, 0, nil) else { print("Failed to decode JP2 image!") return nil } return UIImage(cgImage: cgImage) } However, on iOS 18, this fails with errors like: initialize:1415: *** invalid JPEG2000 file *** makeImagePlus:3752: *** ERROR: 'JP2 ' - failed to create image [-50] CGImageSourceCreateImageAtIndex: *** ERROR: failed to create image [-59] Questions: Did Apple remove or modify JPEG2000 support in iOS 18? Is there an official workaround for decoding JPEG2000 on iOS 18? Should I use Vision/Metal/Core Image instead? Is there a recommended way to convert JPEG2000 to JPEG/PNG before creating a UIImage? Are there any Apple-provided APIs that maintain backward compatibility for JPEG2000 decoding? Additional Info: The UInt8 array has a valid JPEG2000 header (0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0C 6A 50 ...). The image works on iOS 16 but fails on iOS 18. Tested on iPhone running iOS 18.0 beta. Any insights on how to handle JPEG2000 decoding in iOS 18 would be greatly appreciated! 🚀
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Mar ’25
GameKit Configuration File - Apple Documentation out of Date
This is the first time I have tried adding achievements to my games. The online documentation says: "Before you can access achievements in your code, you can configure them in Xcode and sync the configuration updates you make with App Store Connect. Begin configuring achievements by creating a GameKit configuration file. In Xcode, choose File > New > File from Template. Select GameKit File, and click Next. In the sheet that appears, enter a name for the configuration and click Create." Sounds easy - except Xcode 16.2 does not have a GameKit File as one of the Templates. Please advise on how to proceed and it would be nice if the documentation were updated.
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May ’25
How to Enable Game Mode
What is Game Mode? Game Mode optimizes your gaming experience by giving your game the highest priority access to your CPU and GPU, lowering usage for background tasks. And it doubles the Bluetooth sampling rate, which reduces input latency and audio latency for wireless accessories like game controllers and AirPods. See Use Game Mode on Mac See Port advanced games to Apple platforms How can I enable Game Mode in my game? Add the Supports Game Mode property (GCSupportsGameMode) to your game’s Info.plist and set to true Correctly identify your game’s Application Category with LSApplicationCategoryType (also Info.plist) Note: Enabling Game Mode makes your game eligible but is not a guarantee; the OS decides if it is ok to enable Game Mode at runtime An app that enables Game Mode but isn’t a game will be rejected by App Review. How can I disable Game Mode? Set GCSupportsGameMode to false. Note: On Mac Game Mode is automatically disabled if the game isn’t running full screen.
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532
Jul ’25
Problem running Unreal 5.6
I am using Unreal Engine 5.6 on a MacBook Pro with an M3 chip and macOS 15.5. I’ve installed Xcode and accepted the license, but Unreal is not detecting the latest Metal Shader Standard (Metal v3.0). The maximum version Unreal sees is Metal v2.4, even though the hardware and OS should support Metal 3.0. I’ve also run sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app and accepted the license via Terminal. Is there anything in Xcode settings, SDK availability, or system permissions that could be preventing access to Metal 3.0 features?"
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Jul ’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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213
Apr ’25
Low Power Mode on MacOS 26 Tahoe + Vsync fullscreen limits application to 30 fps
I'm experiencing a specific issue where when using any of the MacOS 26 Tahoe betas with Low Power Mode enabled and using Vsync in fullscreen, my application framerate gets limited to a hard 30 fps. I have not experienced this on any older OS. For example Low Power Mode on 13.6 Ventura with Vsync fullscreen lets my application run at full 60 fps without issues. Is this a bug or a change in behavior of Low Power Mode on Tahoe? My application is 3D, runs at 60 fps and is sensitive to tearing, so I need Vsync and it is mostly utilized in fullscreen. And Low Power Mode is a default for many Macs, so default experience on Tahoe currently is a halved 30 fps. However there also seems to be inconsistencies of on which machines this happens, but older OSes are always fine.
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362
Aug ’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];
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328
Mar ’25
Xcode compile stucks(stops) when add new source files or add functions to previous files
Hello, we are working on a iOS game project, as progress, the project grows larger and larger. Because we are using other game dependencies and libraries, here larger and larger refers to the whole project, and our source files integrated and compiled by Xcode are not many. Now, it seems we hit a bottleneck, when I add new files or functions to the previous files to implement a new feature, Xcode compile stucks(stops), it's Indexing | Initializing datastore forever, cannot produce a final build. macOS 15.1, Xcode 16.2 Can you provide any solutions to solve this problem? Also submitted Feedback ID #FB18432749
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Aug ’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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196
Apr ’25
Compute kernel fails to compile when calling texture.read()
If I compile a compute kernel with a call to texture.read(), it fails with the following error: "Error Domain=AGXMetalG13X Code=3 "Encountered unlowered function call to air.get_read_sampler" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Encountered unlowered function call to air.get_read_sampler}." This error occurs on both macOS and iOS 26 Beta 5, but not when running on a simulator or in a playground. It does not occur on a macOS Sequoia VM. It occurs whether I use the old metal 3 or new metal 4 compilation method. A workaround would be to use a sampler, but according to the feature tables, all platforms support reading from textures of all formats. Below is a minimal example which produces the error: let device = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice()! let library = device.makeDefaultLibrary()! let computeFunction = library.makeFunction(name: "compute_test")! do { let pipeline = try device.makeComputePipelineState(function: computeFunction) debugPrint(pipeline) } catch { debugPrint("Metal 3 failed with error:\n\(error)") } #import <metal_stdlib> using namespace metal; kernel void compute_test(uint2 gid [[thread_position_in_grid]], texture2d<float, access::read> in [[texture(0)]], texture2d<float, access::write> out [[texture(1)]]) { out.write(in.read(gid), gid); } I filed feedback FB19530049.
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216
Aug ’25
SCNScene.write To USDZ, Node color fades
I use SCNScene.write To file ".usdz", then open the ".usdz" by SCNScene.url , all Nodes color fades. Export and load only once. The fading is not obvious. Return and repeat 4 or 5 times. It is obvious that the color is inconsistent with the original color and has become much lighter.
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290
May ’25