Apple has taken the wraps off the new Metal Developer Tools for PCs that run on the Windows 10 operating system. Thanks to a new set of Metal developer tools from Apple, it will be so much easier for game developers to design and develop games for Apple devices using Windows 10 machines.
Metal Developer Tools for Windows 10
Apple allows game developers to compile Metal Shading Language (MSL) on Windows into Metal Library Objects that target Apple platforms, courtesy of The Metal Developer Tools for Windows.
“Accelerating graphics and much more. Metal provides near-direct access to the graphics processing unit (GPU), enabling you to maximize the graphics and compute potential of your apps on iOS, macOS, and tvOS,” Apple said.
These tools will be highly useful as far as compiling shaders are concerned. The move makes sense since many game developers predominantly tend to design and develop content on Windows 10 machines, which is a standard industry procedure. With the introduction of Metal Developer Tools, Apple wants game developers to be able to compile and export the assets for all platforms including Windows 10.
This will also be useful for game developers that are already using metal ready game engines. For example, Unity, Unreal, and so on.
“Building on an approachable, low-overhead architecture with precompiled GPU shaders, fine-grained resource control, and multithreading support, Metal further evolves support for GPU-driven command creation, simplifies working with the array of Metal-capable GPUs, and lets you tap into Pro power of Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR,” the company added.
Following are some of the features of Metal Developer Tools for Windows 10:
- GPU-driven Compute Encoding
- Improve Raytracing Acceleration
- Metal for Pro Apps
- Simpler GPU Families
- Metal Memory Debugger
- Metal-enabled iOS Simulator
According to Apple, Metal in iOS 13 and tvOS 13 operating system enables GPU to construct its own compute commands, courtesy of Indirect Compute Encoding. What’s more, Metal Performance Shaders (MPS) help game developers speed raytracing operations. They also enable optimized de-noising filters in the collection of compute and graphics shaders.
Game developers and content-creation apps can benefit from major improvements in Metal on macOS Catalina. Apple claims to dramatically simplify developing with Metal as far as using GPU families are concerned. Last but not least, Metal-enabled iOS Simulator that can speed up the development of iOS apps.
Via: Mspoweruser.
