Simple Metal Sample Project

I am an amateur coder and write programs for fun. I have recently set myself the task of learning Metal. In this endeavor I found the gap between Apple's "Hello Triangle" sample code and the "Deferred Lighting" sample code to be rather large. I found it a challenge to get a simple 3D model up and visible on the display. Finally I produced a simple program which defines vertex data for the five platonic solids and displays them in a MTKView. I was thinking others might be interest in seeing how I approached this problem. I have uploaded the XCode project to github where it is available for download. I hope others in the same boat as I was a week ago might benefit from this. Also, I would be receptive to any criticism. If I am doing something dumb I would like to know about it.


https://github.com/BDMackenzie/Metal_Sample_Code



Next I plan to tackle lighting and applying textures to the model.

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Bruce D M
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I am no graphics expert but have used OpenGL, DirectX 11 and Vulkan to varying extents and I find Metal to be simplest API of them all.


I found Warren Moore's Metal By Example useful too.


Good luck to you!

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trojanfoe
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You're supposed to add the source code to github, not a zip of the project 🙂 Then we can take a look at the code without having to mess about. (It'll also mean you can track changes you make to the code, roll things back if necessary etc.)

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chris@interealtime
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I pefer to keep to keep the project repository private and upload snapshots of the project to the sample code repository.

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Bruce D M
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Hey, thanks for the link. Picking is something on my list and he has a how to on that. I think I'll find the site very useful.

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Bruce D M
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I have added texturing and a lighting model to my sample code project. The new version, Play_Tonic 2.zip may be downloaded at the link cited in the original post. I found creating textures from image files to be quite straightforward. For the lighting model I ported Example 7.4: Point-Light Source Lighting from the book OpenGL Programming Guide, Ninth Edition.

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Bruce D M
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