This is my starter code for Metal graphics programming on MacOSX in the Handmade style, popularised by Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero series and the Handmade Network website.
Released into the public domain under the Unlicense, see LICENSE.txt. No warranty is implied.
The Handmade manifesto: https://handmade.network/manifesto
In this context, I wanted to write Metal rendering code in a much simpler style than all the other samples I found online. The key points are:
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Using a procedural (C-like) style instead of Object-Oriented MVC design. Rather than scattering code across several files/classes (like Apple's official Metal sample code) I just wrote each program in a simple main() function. Having everything happen in a straight linear flow makes it much easier for me to follow when learning a new API.
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Interacting with CoreAnimation/Quartz directly instead of using MetalKit. Apple's documentation recommends using the MetalKit framework and creating a special MTKView to house all your Metal code. This is an ugly design pattern for high-performance realtime rendering applications, and it really doesn't give much of a benefit in code simplicity. My 'Hello Triangle' code is tiny compared to the official Apple sample application.
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Building without Xcode. Xcode adds a lot of bloat that is unnecessary for game programming (Storyboards and Interface Builder files mostly), and I find compiling with a simple build script or Makefile to be much simpler and faster. For debugging I mostly use VSCode, but it is also possible to set up an Xcode project to debug an externally built executable.
If you're bothered by any of these decisions I recommend that you check out the resources I used when writing this code, listed below!
Make sure you have the Xcode Command Line Tools installed by running the following command in your terminal:
xcode-select --install
Then simply run the build.sh file in each folder to compile.
// While in a directory containing 'build.sh'
./build.sh
This will create a build directory containing the output executable, along with any resources that are needed at run-time (shaders, textures).
These are online resources I found helpful when learning the basics of Metal/OSX programming.
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Archived Metal Programming Guide (No longer being updated but has useful tidbits)
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Archived Metal Best Practices Guide (No longer being updated but has useful tidbits)