Metal is a powerful and low-level framework for graphics and computer programming on Apple platforms. It allows you to take full advantage of the performance of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) in order to perform complex computations and rendering tasks.

One of the main use cases for Metal is image processing, as it allows you to perform operations on images and videos in real time with high performance and low overhead.

In this blog post, we will dive into the world of Metal by drawing a triangle.

We will cover the basics of Metal programming, including the main concepts and terminology. Plus steps for setting up your development environment.

Blog outline:

• Setting up your environment
• Understanding Metal Shaders usage
  • Brief Intro about Creating and Using Shaders in Metal
  • Understanding Pipelines and State
• Use Metal in a ViewController
  • Setting up the initial view
  • Setting up a Metal view
  • Creating a Metal layer
  • Create a vertex buffer
  • Creating a render pipeline state
  • Rendering the Triangle
• Use Metal in SwiftUI
• Conclusion

By the end of this blog, you should have a solid understanding of how to use Metal to create simple 3D graphics, and be ready to take on more advanced Metal projects. We will end up creating an app that draws this triangle.

For implementation details, check out canopas blog.