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Metal Tutorial with Swift 3 Part 1: Getting Started

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1

In this Metal tutorial, you will learn how to get started with Apple's 3D graphics API by rendering a simple triangle to the screen.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.raywenderlich.com/736-metal-tutorial-with-swift-3-part-1-getting-started
2

Could not cast value of type ‘UIView’ (0x1ae7b8ed8) to ‘MTKView’ (0x1adbfa1d0). I an working with Mental. It compiles with no problem, but getting Run Time error. I checked Inspector and unable to find (MTKView) such class. import UIKit
import MetalKit

enum Colors {
static let wenderlichGreen = MTLClearColor (red: 0.0, green: 0.4,
blue: 0.21,
alpha: 1.0)}
class ViewController: UIViewController {

var metalView : MTKView{
    return view as! MTKView
}

var device: MTLDevice!
var commandQueue: MTLCommandQueue!
override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    metalView.device = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice()
    device = metalView.device;
    metalView.clearColor = Colors.wenderlichGreen
    commandQueue = device.makeCommandQueue()
    let comandBuffer = commandQueue.makeCommandBuffer()
    let commandEncoder = comandBuffer.makeRenderCommandEncoder(descriptor: metalView.currentRenderPassDescriptor!)
    
    commandEncoder.endEncoding()
    comandBuffer.present(metalView.currentDrawable!)
    comandBuffer.commit()

}

}

3

Just to clarify things about this awesome tutorial, I’m an audio application software engineer and I was wondering to use Metal for this kind of application. Usually I work with matrix / vector of 4 000 000 data each which are processed with a lot of filters. So is it possible to take the advantages of Metal technology while working on audio data? I didn’t find any article talking about GPU processing for audio processing so I guess the answer is no but in this case why?

4

In the video (looking the code) import Metal was not included. After adding this line (import Metal) it worked.

5

I download the provided code, but got an error unable to compile (Swift Compiler Error Group, /Volumes/Backup/Metal/HelloMetal_1_Finished/HelloMetal/ViewController.swift:34:19: Use of undeclared type ‘CAMetalLayer’). I am using iPad pro 12.5 as a device.
This implies I am unable to create CAMetalLayer.

6

Had the same error. I fixed it by selecting ‘Generic iOS Device’ instead of an simulator.

7

Does this tutorial have a macOS variant too?

8

This tutorial is more than six months old so questions are no longer supported at the moment for it. We will update it as soon as possible. Thank you! :]