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huge_apple_fangirl

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 1, 2019
769
1,301
So Apple has just released an official C++ wrapper for metal: https://developer.apple.com/metal/cpp/
Developers on Twitter seem to have a positive reaction (see comments):
What does this mean for the Mac? Will this improve game support? Could we finally see Apple GPUs’ full potential? Or is it nothing? I don’t know a whole lot about this stuff so I would appreciate some more informed speculation!
 
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mi7chy

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2014
10,628
11,300
What does this mean for the Mac? Will this improve game support? Or is it nothing? I don’t know a whole lot about this stuff so I would appreciate some more informed speculation!

It's an Objective-C to C++ wrapper so means very little to help the game situation that requires DirectX 12 and better Vulkan to Metal wrapper (there's MoltenVK for MacOS but Vulkan supported games like Doom Eternal don't work).
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
What does this mean for the Mac? Will this improve game support? Could we finally see Apple GPUs’ full potential? Or is it nothing? I don’t know a whole lot about this stuff so I would appreciate some more informed speculation!

This means that developers can now use C++ to use Metal, instead of Objective-C or Swift. This will probably make integration of Metal into third-party games simpler (since they often use C++). But it will have no immediate effect on game support today. Just again reiterates that Apple cares about gaming on Mac and is actively developing the ecosystem and tools to give the devs different options.

What I would like to see next:

- open-sourcing the Metal shading langage frontend, so that the community can add backend generators for PTX/GLSL/SPIR-V/HLSL etc. MSL is an excellent shading language and it would be great if one could use is on all platforms

- adding compatibility primitives to make porting Vulkan/DX12 software easier (now, I have no idea what these primitives might be, but I've been told that there are some things Metal lacks)
 

senttoschool

macrumors 68030
Nov 2, 2017
2,627
5,482
Check again by year 2023-2025 if AAA Mac titles are announced/out. By then 2nm iPhones/iPads/Macs will be out.
 

Adarna

Suspended
Jan 1, 2015
685
429
Thank you for sharing numbers.

With video consoles I wait for the first price cut which coincides the 1st die shrink before buying. Reason is by that time the launch titles would also include must have exclusives that shipped 12-24 months later.

I want to increase utility on day 1 while enjoying the die shrink improvement and price cut.

But to say by 2023 half of all laptops/desktops capable of playable AAA gaming will be Macs would be very optimistic unless one considers that Macbooks start at $999. Top 20% of laptops start at that price point & higher so assuming Apple eats into 50% of all laptops at that price point 3 years from now then the analysis becomes true.

What your analysis fails to factor in is that people generally buy Macs for non-gaming use unlike video consoles where in >99% buy it for gaming. If I were to peg a figure for Mac casual/AAA gaming I'd peg it at <20%. Will current user behavior change? New Mac buyers may bring their past habits to the Mac which includes AAA gaming.
 
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