Metal helps game developers get the most out of iOS hardware

June 3, 2014

Apple has announced Metal, a way to help game developers get the most power out of iPhone hardware in iOS 8. Metal reduces OpenGL overhead and is described by Apple as "near bare-to-the-metal" of the Apple A7 chip.

Metal allows 10x faster draw cell rates, and allows developers to draw computing power from a device's GPU. There is also support for efficient multithreading, up to 1.3 million polygons, depth of field effects, and more. EA promises console-quality effects in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.

Metal was demonstrated by Tim Sweeny from Epic Games, with a demo called Zen Garden, which will be available for free when iOS 8 launches in the fall.

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