Unity Metal seed for OS X 10.11 Preview Build #3 (598684)

Unity Engine
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Unity Metal seed for OS X 10.11 Preview Build #3
This pre-release version of Unity contains information that is proprietary to us and our partners and will continue to evolve as it moves towards final release. We’re excited to get support for Apple’s Metal API, into your hands so you can start testing it with your game titles. However we kindly ask you to report any bugs you find and not writing up reviews of specific technologies and APIs featured in it, including those from our partners, as they are also not yet final products.
Here’s 5.2.0p1 build, with OS X Metal support: http://beta.unity3d.com/download/5d05c244bd40/public_download.html
Things to know

  • Requires OS X El Capitan GM Candidate (15A282b) or later.
  • Metal support is only available in 64-bit builds.
  • Generally you don’t have to do anything to use it. Shaders will be translated behind the scenes, and all Unity rendering features should work.
  • You can select Metal API in Player Settings / Other settings / Graphics API for Mac.
  • On multi-GPU systems the discreet graphics adapter is selected by default. You can override this and force low-power device using command line parameter of the standalone build: -force-low-power-device

Fixes since Preview Build #2

  • Improved lighting precision
  • Various performance and quality fixes

Known issues

  • Currently Metal builds can perform slightly slower than OpenGL variants, but if you see regression please report it via fogbugz.
  • Possible artifacts with GI.
  • Possible flickering/disappearing objects on Intel GPUs.
  • Possible crash on startup with Intel GPUs.

Things we haven’t implemented yet

  • Compute shaders (won’t happen for 5.2).
  • More multi-threaded rendering (won’t happen for 5.2).

Feedback wanted

  • Any issues you run into. Shaders not translated properly, errors at runtime, other errors. File bugs!
1 Like
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Hi, thanks for this, will try out…

Bit of a noob question; how will ones compiled app work on non Metal supporting OSX versions?

Cheers

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It will fallback to GL.

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4

Does this mean the editor itself runs metal or only that we can now build mac metal apps?

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The latter one. Editor running on Metal will come later.

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6

Hey I have a question! I’ve got 5.2.1.p2 (release Oct 1 I think?) installed on my pc and mac, and neither one has the “API For Mac” settings under the player / other list.

Is the build linked in this thread the only one that has metal support, or do the standard patch releases have it as well?

UPDATE: oh so I was apparently still on a version of El Capitan that was one build earlier than the Unity metal build expected. Updated to retail El Capitan and I now see the option! A little sad that it’s only available when building on OSX, since our build machine is a windows box, but I’m sure the feature will mature in time. Thanks for the hard work, guys!

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When is the next update? , can it be based on latest release 5.2.1?

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We are changing our gears and focusing to polish OSX Metal support on Unity 5.3.
It should be part of regular Unity 5.3 betas.

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Is this just for standalone, or are there plans to run the editor with Metal too? (like windows’ Opengl/Directx mode option)

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Currently it’s standalone one. Editor would come some time later.

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cannot wait for compute shaders on OSX… you have no idea how long i’ve been waiting!

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It does not seem OSX Metal made it to 5.3 final?
Can we have a update on the current status, its still under Development in the RoadMap?
Thank you.

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I think it did. It is marked as experimental, so unless you reorder api’s osx player will always pick opengl

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Oh okay thanks for the info, must have not read release notes fully…