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I've been teaching myself how to do low-level graphics programming using Apple's Metal API with assistance from ChatGPT. It can rapidly explain concepts, provid
by politician 4y ago
I've been teaching myself how to do low-level graphics programming using Apple's Metal API with assistance from ChatGPT. It can rapidly explain concepts, provide example snippets, explain error messages and suggest corrections, explain concepts, and provide steps.
Apple's Metal API suffers from a weak ecosystem of third-party documentation and examples (unlike OpenGL), and Apple's documentation is barebones, so having a tool like ChatGPT that can interact with that entire space conversationally is a huge boon.
Sometimes it suggests erroneous approaches. When that happens, I can ask it for alternatives. It's not actually too troublesome to vet the information since it has to actually work on the hardware, and honestly, I feel like I'm learning it more deeply by trying the different ways anyway.
- politician 4y agoUpdate on this: I’ve reached the point where I’m comfortable cracking open the 300pg Metal Programming Guide and jumping directly to the section covering what I’m interested in learning about. I’ve switched to using ChatGPT to generate example shaders that use particular techniques. It’s still extremely valuable, but there’s a level of organization or strategic thinking that’s missing in the responses provided.