Hello, I have noticed a performance drop on SpriteKit-based projects running on iOS 26.3. The issue seems very similar to the issue reported on iOS 26.0, and later solved from iOS 26.2 beta 3: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/800952?answerId=870617022#870617022 With 26.3, it seems a regression occured. Below is the same SpriteKit scene used to test framerate on different devices: import SpriteKit import SwiftUI class BareboneScene: SKScene { override func didMove(to view: SKView) { size = view.bounds.size anchorPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.5) backgroundColor = .darkGray let roundedSquare = SKShapeNode(rectOf: CGSize(width: 150, height: 75), cornerRadius: 12) roundedSquare.fillColor = .systemRed roundedSquare.strokeColor = .black roundedSquare.lineWidth = 3 addChild(roundedSquare) let action = SKAction.rotate(byAngle: .pi, duration: 1) roundedSquare.run(.repeatForever(action)) } } struct BareboneSceneView: View { var body: some View { SpriteView( scene: BareboneScene(), debugOptions: [.showsFPS] ) .ignoresSafeArea() } } #Preview { BareboneSceneView() } Running this very basic spritekit scene on my device and I can not reach an FPS of 60. Instead, it stalls around 40. I see the same in my AppStore published SpriteKit games. As you can see in the discussion of the linked forum topic, the regression has been noticed by others as well. Can you please look into this, and let us know if there is an outstanding action to resolve it already? It's very problematic for published games suddenly dropping to 40FPS on even the most modern iOS devices.

Updated my app to include turn-based matches. Beta testing through FlightTest and all was well between iOS 18.x and 26.2 devices. One beta tester upgraded to 26.2 during beta testing and now when the MatchMaker VC is opened, it does not show existing matches. Worse, he can create new matches and play his turn, but the new match won't even show up in MMVC, even after opponent takes turn. My app has been reviewed and is ready for release, but I'd like to know how to solve this before I release. He has tried re-installing the app, including an updated FlightTest version that is the same as the about-to-be-released reviewed version.

I'm converting my game from SceneKit to RealityKit. It has a SpriteKit overlay that according to Explore advanced rendering with RealityKit 2 I can add with the code below. The code runs fine if the SKScene only contains a SKSpriteNode (see the commented out line), but when I add a SKShapeNode with a fillColor instead, the app crashes with this error: -[MTLDebugRenderCommandEncoder validateCommonDrawErrors:]:5970: failed assertion `Draw Errors Validation MTLDepthStencilDescriptor uses frontFaceStencil but MTLRenderPassDescriptor has a nil stencilAttachment texture MTLDepthStencilDescriptor uses backFaceStencil but MTLRenderPassDescriptor has a nil stencilAttachment texture ' I don't know enough about low-level graphics and stencils yet to figure out a quick solution, so I would appreciate if anyone could share an easy fix or explanation of what's wrong. Thanks! class ViewController: NSViewController { var device: MTLDevice! var renderer: SKRenderer! override func loadView() { let arView = ARView(frame: NSScreen.main!.frame) view = arView arView.renderCallbacks.prepareWithDevice = { [weak self] device in guard let self = self else { return } self.device = device renderer = SKRenderer(device: MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice()!) let scene = SKScene() let shape = SKShapeNode(rectOf: CGSize(width: 10, height: 10)) shape.fillColor = .red scene.addChild(shape) // scene.addChild(SKSpriteNode(color: .red, size: CGSize(width: 10, height: 10))) renderer.scene = scene } arView.renderCallbacks.postProcess = { [weak self] context in guard let self = self else { return } let encoder = context.commandBuffer.makeBlitCommandEncoder() encoder?.copy(from: context.sourceColorTexture, to: context.targetColorTexture) encoder?.endEncoding() renderer.update(atTime: context.time) let descriptor = MTLRenderPassDescriptor() descriptor.colorAttachments[0].loadAction = .load descriptor.colorAttachments[0].storeAction = .store descriptor.colorAttachments[0].texture = context.targetColorTexture renderer.render(withViewport: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: context.targetColorTexture.width, height: context.targetColorTexture.height), commandBuffer: context.commandBuffer, renderPassDescriptor: descriptor) } } }

I'm new to graphics and game design and I just wanted to know if a compute pipeline could be as efficient as a render pipeline for rasterization and an explanation on how and why. Also is it possible to manually perform rasterization with a render pipeline as in manipulate individual pixel data in a metal texture yourself but do it with a render pipeline?

I'm in the process of converting my SceneKit game to RealityKit. In SceneKit I used to be able to mark nodes as selected by setting SCNMaterial.emission with a custom color. I can do the same with PhysicallyBasedMaterial.emissiveColor, but I'd like to keep my entitities unaffected by the scene lights by using UnlitMaterial. In SceneKit I can set a category mask to indicate what light should affect what node, but there doesn't seem to be such a thing in RealityKit. So at the moment it seems like I have to choose between being able to mark an entity as selected, or having entities unaffected by lighting, but not both. Is there some effect or component I can use to mark entities as selected by applying some coloring regardless of the material used?

I want to fade objects in and out, and while setting an entity's OpacityComponent works, animating it doesn't seem to do anything. In the following code the second sphere should fade out, but it keeps its initial opacity. On the other hand, the animation that changes its transform works. What am I doing wrong? class ViewController: NSViewController { override func loadView() { let arView = ARView(frame: NSScreen.main!.frame) let anchor = AnchorEntity(.world(transform: matrix_identity_float4x4)) arView.scene.addAnchor(anchor) let sphere = ModelEntity(mesh: .generateSphere(radius: 0.5)) anchor.addChild(sphere) sphere.components.set(OpacityComponent(opacity: 0.1)) let sphere2 = ModelEntity(mesh: .generateSphere(radius: 0.5)) sphere2.position = .init(x: 0.2, y: 0, z: 0) anchor.addChild(sphere2) sphere2.components.set(OpacityComponent(opacity: 0.1)) sphere.playAnimation(try! AnimationResource.makeActionAnimation(for: FromToByAction(to: 0, timing: .linear), duration: 1, bindTarget: .opacity)) sphere.playAnimation(try! AnimationResource.makeActionAnimation(for: FromToByAction(to: Transform(translation: SIMD3(x: 0.1, y: 0, z: 0)), timing: .linear), duration: 1, bindTarget: .transform)) view = arView } }

I think if your buffer is less than 4k its recommended to use setVertexBytes, the question I have is can I keep hammering on setVertexBytes as the primary method to issue multiple draw calls within a render buffer and rely on Metal to figure out how to orphan and replace the target buffer? A lot of the primitives I am drawing are less than 4k and the process of wiring down larger segments of memory for individual buffers for each draw primitive call seems to be a negative. And it's just simpler to copy, submit and forget about buffer synchronization.

اريد انشاء لعبه في ابل ستور و تكون اول صفحه تكون شروط و الاحكام و خيار بدا اللعبه200 فئات من السعوديه من مسلسل من العب من بنات و بس وقطر و الإمارات وانمي ومسلسلات تركيه و السياحه و الدول وشركات عالميه و شركات كترونيه

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.

Hello, I have noticed a performance drop on SpriteKit-based projects running on iOS 26.0 (23A341). Below is a SpriteKit scene used to test framerate on different devices: import SpriteKit import SwiftUI class BareboneScene: SKScene { override func didMove(to view: SKView) { size = view.bounds.size anchorPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.5) backgroundColor = .darkGray let roundedSquare = SKShapeNode(rectOf: CGSize(width: 150, height: 75), cornerRadius: 12) roundedSquare.fillColor = .systemRed roundedSquare.strokeColor = .black roundedSquare.lineWidth = 3 addChild(roundedSquare) let action = SKAction.rotate(byAngle: .pi, duration: 1) roundedSquare.run(.repeatForever(action)) } } struct BareboneSceneView: View { var body: some View { SpriteView( scene: BareboneScene(), debugOptions: [.showsFPS] ) .ignoresSafeArea() } } #Preview { BareboneSceneView() } The scene is very simple, yet framerate drops to ~40 fps as shown by the Metal HUD. Tested on: iPhone 13, iOS 26.0: framerate drops to 40 fps. Sometimes it runs at near 60fps. But if the screen is touched repeatedly, the framerate drops to 40-50 fps again. iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 26.0: ~40fps. iPad 9th Gen, iOS 18.6.2: 60fps, no issues. See screenshots attached. These numbers were observed by me and members of our beloved SpriteKit Discord server. Thank you for your attention.

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.

I'm currently converting my game from SceneKit to RealityKit. What's the easiest way to run an animation in which every frame I want to run custom code, similar to SCNAction.customAction which accepts a callback that is called repeatedly until the action completes?

I am attempting to load a jpeg image into a vImage_Buffer. I am just trying to get the data in an ARGB format. This code works fine in the Xcode 15 build , but fails with kvImageInvalidParameter error from vImageBuffer_InitWithCGImage in the Xcode 26 build. This code is written in ObjectiveC++. Here is a code fragment: int CDib_ARGB::Load(LPCSTR pFilename) { int rc = 0; if (NULL == m_pRaw_vImage_Buffer) { NSString *pNS_filename = [[NSString alloc]initWithUTF8String:pFilename]; NSImage *pNSImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:pNS_filename]; if (nil == pNSImage) rc = -1; else { int width = pNSImage.size.width; int height = pNSImage.size.height; if (pNSImage.representations) { NSImageRep *imageRep; int jj; width = 0; height = 0; for (jj = 0; jj < pNSImage.representations.count; jj++) { imageRep = pNSImage.representations[jj]; if (imageRep.pixelsWide > width) width = imageRep.pixelsWide; if (imageRep.pixelsHigh > height) height = imageRep.pixelsHigh; } } NSSize imageSize = NSMakeSize(width, height); NSRect imageRect = NSMakeRect(0, 0, width, height); pNSImage.size = imageSize; CGImageRef cgImage = [pNSImage CGImageForProposedRect:&imageRect context:NULL hints:nil]; if (nil == cgImage) rc = -1; else { //Alloc and load vImage_Buffer. vImage_Buffer *pvImage_Buffer = new vImage_Buffer; if (NULL == pvImage_Buffer) rc = -1; else { vImage_CGImageFormat format; format.bitsPerComponent = 8; format.bitsPerPixel = 32; format.colorSpace = nil; format.bitmapInfo = kCGImageAlphaFirst | kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault;//ARGB8888 format.version = 0; format.decode = nil; format.renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault; memset(pvImage_Buffer, 0, sizeof(vImage_Buffer)); long status = vImageBuffer_InitWithCGImage(pvImage_Buffer, &format, nil, cgImage, kvImagePrintDiagnosticsToConsole); if (kvImageNoError != status) { //This is where Xcode 26 sends me. delete pvImage_Buffer; rc = -1; } =========================

We are developing a video processing app that applies CIFilter chains to video frames. To not force the user to keep the app foregrounded, we were happy to see the introduction of BGContinuedProcessingTask to continue processing when backgrounded. With iOS 26, I was excited to see the com.apple.developer.background-tasks.continued-processing.gpu entitlement, which should allow GPU access in the background. Even the article in the documentation provides "exporting video in a film-editing app" or "applying visual filters (HDR, etc) or compressing images for social media posts" as use cases. However, when I check BGTaskScheduler.shared.supportedResources.contains(.gpu) at runtime, it returns false on every iPhone I've tested (including iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro). From forum responses I've seen, it sounds like background GPU access is currently limited to iPad only. If that's the case, I have a few questions: Is this an intentional, permanent limitation — or is iPhone support planned for a future iOS release? What is the recommended approach for GPU-dependent background work on iPhone? My custom CIKernels are written in Metal (as Apple recommends since CIKL is deprecated), but Metal CIKernels cannot fall back to CPU rendering. This creates a situation where Apple's own deprecation guidance (migrate to Metal) conflicts with background processing realities (no GPU on iPhone). Should developers maintain deprecated CIKL kernel versions alongside Metal kernels purely as a CPU fallback for background execution? That feels like it defeats the purpose of the migration. It seems like a gap in the platform: the API exists, the entitlement exists, but the hardware support isn't there for the most common device category. Any clarity on Apple's direction here would be very helpful.

I've been using Metal compute shaders for lattice quantum chromodynamics simulations and wanted to share the experience in case others are doing scientific computing on Metal. The workload involves SU(2) matrix operations on 4D lattice grids — lots of 2x2 and 3x3 complex matrix multiplies, reductions over lattice sites, and nearest-neighbor stencil operations. The implementation bridges a C++ scientific framework (Grid) to Metal via Objective-C++ .mm files, with MSL kernels compiled into .metallib archives during the build. Things that work well: Shared memory on M-series eliminates the CPU↔GPU copy overhead that dominates in CUDA workflows The .metallib compilation integrates cleanly with autotools builds using xcrun Float4 packing for SU(2) matrices maps naturally to MSL vector types Things I'm still figuring out: Optimal threadgroup sizes for stencil operations on 4D grids Whether to use MTLHeap for gauge field storage or stick with individual buffers Best practices for double precision — some measurements need float64 but Metal's double support varies by hardware The application is measuring chromofield flux distributions between static quarks, ultimately targeting multi-quark systems. Production runs are on MacBook Pro M-series and Mac Studio. Code: https://github.com/ThinkOffApp/multiquark-lattice-qcd

I have noticed that the performance drop on SpriteKit-based projects running on iOS 26 is still ongoing With iOS 26 back in Sep 2025 a framerate problem was introduced. My app was always running smoothly with 60fps even on very old devices suddenly started to stutter with 40fps - and lower on a rather normal iPhone 13. This problem continued with BETA 26.1 The problem was fixed in 26.2. But 26.3 brought the problem back and its still ongoing with 26.4 of yesterday This is easily reproducible with a very simple example // // BareboneSpriteKitApp.swift // BareboneSpriteKit // // Created by Bernd Beyreuther on 24.02.26. // import SwiftUI import SpriteKit @main struct BareboneSpriteKitApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { BareboneSceneView() } } } final class BareboneScene: SKScene { override func didMove(to view: SKView) { size = view.bounds.size scaleMode = .resizeFill anchorPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.5) backgroundColor = .darkGray let s = SKSpriteNode(color: .cyan, size: CGSize(width: 64, height: 64)) addChild(s) let action = SKAction.rotate(byAngle: .pi, duration: 2) s.run(.repeatForever(action)) let t = SKLabelNode(text: deviceInfoString()) t.fontSize = 15 t.position.y = -100 addChild(t) } } struct BareboneSceneView: View { var body: some View { SpriteView( scene: BareboneScene(), debugOptions: [.showsFPS] ) .ignoresSafeArea() } } func deviceInfoString() -> String { let os = ProcessInfo.processInfo.operatingSystemVersion let osString = "iOS \(os.majorVersion).\(os.minorVersion).\(os.patchVersion)" let model = UIDevice.current.model // "iPhone", "iPad" let machine = { var sysinfo = utsname() uname(&sysinfo) return withUnsafePointer(to: &sysinfo.machine) { ptr -> String in ptr.withMemoryRebound(to: CChar.self, capacity: 1) { cptr in String(cString: cptr) } } }() // z.B. "iPhone15,2" return "Model Identifier: \(model) (\(machine)), \(osString)" } I file a bugreport via Feedback Assistant FB22038921 The problem is no around for such a long time ! This is deeply concerning, because it questions if it is really feasable to continue to develop using Spritekit ?

Dear colleagues, when will you add the ability to manually adjust the display's color temperature? Everyone is familiar with the color rendering issue on the 17 series. Many complain about the display's yellowish tint. I'm one of those people, with a G9N panel, but I can't get whites right; there's a persistent yellow tint. TrueTone only solves this problem under cool, white lighting conditions. So, the display might work as intended, but how can I make it work consistently? If there were a way to manually adjust TrueTone, many users wouldn't be so upset when buying a new device, fearing the display would be yellow. I'd like users to be able to choose their preferred color, warm or cool, and have a scale to adjust it! This would solve the yellowish tint issue on 17 series displays! Thank you.

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

The sample code just draw a triangle and sample texture. both sample code can draw a correct triangle and sample texture as expected. there are no error message from terminal. Sample code using constexpr Sampler can capture and replay well. Sample code using a argumentTable to bind a MTLSamplerState was crashed when using Metal capture and replay on Xcode. Here are sample codes. Sample Code Test Environment: M1 Pro MacOS 26.3 (25D125) Xcode Version 26.2 (17C52) Feedback ID: FB22031701