Metal
Metal is a low-level, high-performance graphics and compute API developed by Apple for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It provides near-direct access to the GPU, enabling developers to create efficient 3D graphics, image processing, and parallel computing applications with minimal overhead. It is the foundation for graphics frameworks like MetalKit and SceneKit, and is used in games, augmented reality, and machine learning on Apple platforms.
Developers should learn Metal when building high-performance graphics or compute-intensive applications for Apple devices, such as games, AR/VR experiences, or real-time video processing, where maximizing GPU efficiency is critical. It is essential for applications that require fine-grained control over rendering pipelines or need to leverage GPU acceleration for tasks like machine learning inference, as it offers lower latency and better performance than higher-level APIs like OpenGL ES on these platforms.