Metal by Tutorials

Build your own low-level game engine in Metal!

Metal is a unified application programming interface (API) for the graphics processing unit, or GPU. It’s unified because it applies to both 3D graphics and data-parallel computation paradigms. Metal is a low-level API because it provides programmers near-direct access to the GPU. Finally, Metal is a low-overhead API because it reduces the central processing unit (CPU) cost by multi-threading and pre-compiling of resources.

But beyond the technical definition, Metal is the most appropriate way to use the GPU’s parallel processing power to visualize data or solve numerical challenges. It’s also tailored to be used for machine learning, image/video processing or, as this book describes, graphics rendering.

This book will introduce you to low-level graphics programming in Metal — Apple’s framework for programming on the graphics processing unit (GPU). As you progress through this book, you’ll learn many of the fundamentals that go into making a game engine and gradually put together your own engine. Once your game engine is complete, you’ll be able to put together 3D scenes and program your own simple 3D games. Because you’ll have built your 3D game engine from scratch, you’ll be able to customize every aspect of what you see on your screen.

This book is for intermediate Swift developers interested in learning 3D graphics or gaining a deeper understanding of how game engines work.

Apple Augmented Reality by Tutorials

Learn Augmented Reality for the Apple Platform!

This book is the easiest and fastest way to get hands-on experience using Apple frameworks and technologies like Reality Composer, RealityKit, and ARKit — all the available rendering technologies Apple has to offer, as well as a collection of fun projects for creating various real-world AR experiences.

After reading this book, you’ll have a deep understanding of the technologies and frameworks used to create powerful, immersive AR experiences for the Apple platform.

Take a deep dive into:

AR Quick Look: Discover how to integrate AR Quick Look into your apps to give them some cool AR superpowers. Reality Composer & Reality Files: Find out how to leverage the power of Reality Composer to create interactive AR-based experiences. Reality Converter & PBR Materials: Discover how PBR materials can add a level of realism to your AR objects, and how you can use Reality Converter to convert, view and customize USDZ content. RealityKit: Find out how to set up and use RealityKit to build a face-based augmented reality app. Facial Blend Shapes: Build a fully interactive augmented reality face mask that reacts to your facial expressions using blend shapes. ARKit: Get a complete introduction to ARKit, Apple’s framework for creating fully interactive augmented reality, and learn about the different types of rendering options available with ARKit. Raycasting & Physics: Learn about raycasting, 2D hit-testing and the SpriteKit physics engine as you add more features and functionality to your game. ECS & Collaborative Experiences: Build a collaborative AR experience and learn how to create and manage a multipeer connection.

Auto Layout by Tutorials

This book will be your guide as you explore and master the many capabilities of Auto Layout.

This book is for iOS developers of all skill levels, from those just getting started building user interfaces to the experienced hands who want to get more from Auto Layout.

Take a deep dive into:

Interface Builder: Learn to use Interface Builder to construct and maintain your user interfaces. Stack Views and Scroll Views: Learn how these special view types interact with Auto Layout and how best to utilize them in your apps. Self-Sizing Views: Discover how to make your user interface dynamically adapt to its content. Animating Constraints: See how to animate your Auto Layout constraints to provide feedback, focus user attention and improve navigation. Adaptive Layout: Learn to use Auto Layout to make adjustments for screen size, orientation, Dynamic Type size and more. Resolving Common Issues: Discover how to investigate when things go awry and learn how to resolve Auto Layout conflicts.

After completing this book, you’ll be prepared to harness the full power of Auto Layout in all of your apps.

Advanced Android App Architecture

In Advanced Android App Architectures, you’ll find a diverse and hands-on approach to architecting your apps on Android. Android development can be fun; however, scaling an app can have its fair share of problems.

In this book, you’ll learn why a conversation on architecture is the first important step to taking your app to the next level!

This book will introduce you to a number of architectures, including Model View Controller, Model View Presenter, Model View Intent, Model-View-ViewModel and VIPER. You’ll learn theory, explore samples that you will refactor and learn the fundamentals of testing.