Ray POP / GLSL Ray Query Compatibility on macOS

POPs
1

Hi,

I’m developing tools that rely on Ray POP / GLSL ray queries, and I want to check whether this is currently compatible with macOS.

I’m not a Mac user unfortunately, but I want to make sure the tools I’m building will work properly on Mac (Apple Silicon / Metal), or understand any limitations compared to Windows.

Thanks for the clarification.

2

Hello @_mini_uv

Unfortunately, this isn’t supported on macOS at the moment. The hardware is capable, but MoltenVK doesn’t currently provide the necessary support. We’re hoping this will become available in the future.

3

Thanks for the reply. @Guillaume.L

Is there anywhere I can get a list of features that are not compatible on MacOS across all POPs?

4

There isn’t a comprehensive list of unsupported features across all POPs on macOS at the moment. The main limitations I’m aware of are the lack of hardware ray tracing support and the absence of double‑precision attributes. We’ll look into updating the macOS wiki page to make this information easier to find.

5

Hello @_mini_uv
Unsupported POP features on MacOS are now listed on this Wiki page.

6

Thanks a lot! @Guillaume.L

7

Super helpful knowing what the blocker is thanks!

With the aim of getting TouchDesigner support with MoltenVK, do you know (or know someone who will know) a roadmap or steps needed to reach stable support? This could be a Github issue or blog page potentially.

I did have a look at the MoltenVK Github repo but I can’t find anything specific about TouchDesigner.

Any help you can give on this is valuable thanks!

8

Hi @spiltmilk,

Once support for it is added to Molten VK it should require minimal work to make it work in TouchDesigner.

You can see a few open issues related to it on the github repo

Another initiative is KosmicCrisp, a vulkan driver for mac, but that currently also doesn’t have ray tracing support, though it’s on their roadmap (see what’s next here : LunarG at XDC 2025: KosmicKrisp Overview - LunarG )

Best,
Vincent