Nostr notes by Steve Troughton-Smith

Commiserations/congrats? to the seven people no longer listed on ...

2026-08-23T01:59:22Z

Commiserations/congrats? to the seven people no longer listed on the MacStories staff/contributors page, I guess? I hope you all find success in whatever comes next 💛

https://www.macstories.net/about/

A lot of the public reaction to this MacStories move is I think ...

2026-08-21T18:50:50Z

A lot of the public reaction to this MacStories move is I think what a lot of us privately have felt about everybody else dual-posting or primary-posting on X. If you think you're being cute, or 'getting away with it', don't be surprised if people have been quietly seething about it, or to find you're on somebody's 'do not interact' list. If you have gone as far as to have a blue checkmark, you should be under no illusion as to how people are going to feel about that

New-to-me UIKit API in iOS 27 beta 5: ...

2026-08-12T00:18:25Z

New-to-me UIKit API in iOS 27 beta 5: UISheetPresentationControllerPlacement

It's now trivial to implement a Maps-style resizable side-sheet

There's a new API in iPadOS 27b4 — ...

2026-07-21T10:52:27Z

There's a new API in iPadOS 27b4 — UISceneClosureConfirmation

It allows you to intercept a window-close event and instead prompt with an 'are you sure?' alert.

This is one of those hidden gem kinds of APIs, as it empowers complex and pro-level software to work more like it should on a desktop-class OS, instead of users accidentally throwing away work because they misclicked in the title bar

RE: https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/116813178949743625 Apple ...

2026-06-26T14:05:47Z

RE: https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/116813178949743625

Apple starved the silicon supply chain for years, it was widely discussed back when GPU prices started to skyrocket. Famously, Palm blamed Apple for not being able to source components for its webOS devices

"We told HP we needed better displays [for the Pre 3]. They'd come back and say, ‘Apple bought them all. Our suppliers tell us we need to build them a factory if we want the displays' and they weren't willing to put the billion dollars upfront to do that"

https://archive.ph/20130204111620/http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3062611/palm-webos-hp-inside-story-pre-postmortem#selection-4443.330-4443.587

quoting
note18nt…d96w

Micron exec suggests Apple’s aggressive purchasing tactics helped fuel memory shortage https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/25/micron-exec-suggests-apples-aggressive-purchasing-tactics-helped-fuel-memory-shortage/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

I don't doubt it will get better, but it does feel like the ...

2026-06-12T20:35:36Z

I don't doubt it will get better, but it does feel like the Device Hub (iOS Simulator replacement) in this first seed is a bit of a disaster. If you're relying on the Simulator heavily in what you're working on, I can only recommend to avoid it for the time being

New Finder feature in macOS 27: you can paste things from your ...

2026-06-12T15:24:29Z

New Finder feature in macOS 27: you can paste things from your clipboard into the filesystem. Who else has been asking for this one? 😄

AppKit isn't just getting touch gesture support, but ...

2026-06-09T14:16:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…4426
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AppKit isn't just getting touch gesture support, but NSToolbar now has iOS-style fluid morphing animations when used with a touchscreen too.

Longpresses trigger a right-click, momentum pinch and scroll work great. Very clearly telegraphing upcoming touchscreen Macs

Xcode 27 is devastating for minimum OS deployment targets. A lot ...

2026-06-09T11:38:13Z

Xcode 27 is devastating for minimum OS deployment targets. A lot of third party software is going to be forced into dropping older OSes

The Liquid Glass version of Pages on macOS 27 almost looks like ...

2026-06-09T10:35:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…7r0w
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The Liquid Glass version of Pages on macOS 27 almost looks like it could be running on Mac OS X Tiger. Can't wait to see what this OS looks like after apps refresh their designs to fit in

Seeing nav bars return is wild; they painted themselves into such ...

2026-06-09T10:20:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…8e50
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Seeing nav bars return is wild; they painted themselves into such a corner last year that they had to hit the "break [Liquid] Glass in case of emergency" lever

macOS Golden Gate doesn't look 'refined', it looks ...

2026-06-09T10:14:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…320s
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macOS Golden Gate doesn't look 'refined', it looks retro. It's honestly shocking at first launch. It's like we've slowly moving into a timeline where iOS 7 never happened

The Add Homescreen Widget panel on iPad looks like it’s ...

2026-06-09T09:41:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…3sqh
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The Add Homescreen Widget panel on iPad looks like it’s straight out of iOS 6, with the opaque panels, blue tints, and generous drop shadows

Tell me that's not Aqua ...

2026-06-09T09:25:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…307w
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Tell me that's not Aqua

On the plus side of the design language, look at this and tell me ...

2026-06-09T08:29:37Z

On the plus side of the design language, look at this and tell me we’re not almost back to iOS 6 levels of chrome. Nature is healing…

For all of Apple's nonsense about adding iPhone Mirroring to ...

2026-06-08T23:46:13Z

For all of Apple's nonsense about adding iPhone Mirroring to the EU, the new Device Hub (iOS Simulator) lets you remote-control your physical iOS devices just fine. I don't think the DMA has an opt-out for developer tools 😛

Apps are updated to the new Liquid Glass visual style without a ...

2026-06-08T20:20:09Z

Apps are updated to the new Liquid Glass visual style without a recompile — you will immediately see new opaque bars, full-size sidebars, and the removal of progressive blur, in your existing apps

AppKit is getting new touch gesture support on macOS 27 😏 ...

2026-06-08T19:07:01Z

AppKit is getting new touch gesture support on macOS 27 😏

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3212-adopting-gesture-recognizers-for-sidecar-touch-support

RE: https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/114658018646351487 ...

2026-06-01T17:43:37Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/114658018646351487

It's been a year and I'm still not sure what a 'good Liquid Glass app' looks like. Everything stalled at 'good enough'
nostr:note14vmuyqvnczw8m8h7g0z5rmtyzzgrf2rg9t0hqjpl8wn5d7dhg0qsl0fglr

The idea that we can rewind the clock to when developers cared ...

2026-05-04T18:32:50Z

The idea that we can rewind the clock to when developers cared enough to make high-quality unique iPad apps like Push Pop Press did is a complete fantasy. If you push the reset button on iPad today, developers aren't remotely in the mood to rebuild the kind of unique, bespoke app ecosystem the device had before iOS 7 and the last big reset. If iPad were invented today, it would have a fate much more similar to Vision Pro than anybody wants to think about

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/05/04/macbook-neo-and-how-the-ipad-could-be/

Here's one for the icons-in-menus haters on macOS Tahoe: ...

2026-03-20T16:20:13Z

Here's one for the icons-in-menus haters on macOS Tahoe:

defaults write -g NSMenuEnableActionImages -bool NO

It even preserves the couple of instances you do want icons, like for window zoom/resize

/cc John Gruber (npub1e0x…xqda)

next app 😉

2026-03-12T08:54:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…mx2n
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next app 😉

because I know nothing about it

2026-03-12T08:39:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…yq3l
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because I know nothing about it

✈️ If you've been curious about this 3D modeling tool, ...

2026-03-12T08:31:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…75gq
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✈️ If you've been curious about this 3D modeling tool, and just want to check it out yourself, I have pushed a build to TestFlight for iOS, macOS, and visionOS.

It's not a product, it doesn't have a name, it has many obvious bugs and issues that haven't had a polish pass, and it doesn't save anything to disk. It may never be something I finish; it's just a snapshot in time of the development, to play with

https://testflight.apple.com/join/qZpy4YED

A $499 MacBook Neo with the brains of a couple-year-old iPhone ...

2026-03-10T20:57:17Z

A $499 MacBook Neo with the brains of a couple-year-old iPhone can run Xcode, Photoshop, Blender, Terminal, and pretty much everything else you can think of, yet your $3,200 iPad Pro, with a desktop-class chip, cannot 😑

What are we doing here?

Quick UI pass on buttons and controls, and an undo stack ...

2026-03-09T17:17:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…eh36
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Quick UI pass on buttons and controls, and an undo stack

I still don't know what the end goal is, here. I feel like ...

2026-03-09T15:41:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…jquv
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I still don't know what the end goal is, here. I feel like I'm building foundational tech for something else, but I'm not sure what yet

Nostr event nevent1qqswyjazcup8ced2gx4g8pw2l23clms8nrf9nyd699zsekwl73a0qpszyqx90rv7zdf3w70qnm6chlysgcjr4clqk46ld6yj35cpg022l900vdsl9eh

2026-03-09T15:29:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…lq09
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More scenes from the app ...

2026-03-08T23:29:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…dzg5
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More scenes from the app

This is an iPad ...

2026-03-08T23:07:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…s8w6
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This is an iPad

How it started | How it's going ...

2026-03-08T22:24:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…seu8
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How it started | How it's going

As this renderer progresses, I can work with ...

2026-03-08T20:13:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…lyrr
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As this renderer progresses, I can work with more-and-more-complex scenes, and do longer-and-longer-running successful renders

The Logitech Muse hardware does feel like a piece of junk. ...

2026-03-08T16:26:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…f6uc
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The Logitech Muse hardware does feel like a piece of junk. Connecting it to the headset is really flakey — you pretty much have to unpair it and re-pair it every time you want to use it, before visionOS will recognize it and account for it in passthrough, but I suspect that's Apple's bug. Together, though, it makes it feel pretty lame to use.

Anyway, my stylus-drawing code works on visionOS too

Little bit of Apple Pencil shape-drawing, and support for cutouts ...

2026-03-08T10:54:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…tz4f
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Little bit of Apple Pencil shape-drawing, and support for cutouts

I was expecting a couple-day forced vacation, but it seems like ...

2026-03-08T09:32:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…0rsh
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I was expecting a couple-day forced vacation, but it seems like OpenAI reset everybody's usage limits to apologize for service issues yesterday so I'm back to full 😂

Keeping all three platforms in sync (Mac, iOS, and visionOS) is ...

2026-03-07T23:31:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…rap7
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Keeping all three platforms in sync (Mac, iOS, and visionOS) is important to me. If I ever were to ship something like this, it would be cross-platform from day one

Nostr event nevent1qqsrrx72tvmv7xsqykgrphtqdxd9zm6dkxndvk0y6rf2qzftqm3wx0qzyqx90rv7zdf3w70qnm6chlysgcjr4clqk46ld6yj35cpg022l900vtl296r

2026-03-07T22:42:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…47n4
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Hello

I know how to use Photoshop, and I wish 3D tools were as easy to ...

2026-03-07T22:24:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…red2
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I know how to use Photoshop, and I wish 3D tools were as easy to use as a Photoshop. So I think that's the kind of app I want to create*. Not knowing what I don't know, I'm sure to stumble across features that no self-respecting modeling tool would add, but are great for people like me. That's the beauty of cross-domain knowledge, I guess.

Anyway here's a pen tool.

(*you know, if this ever actually becomes something I would want to ship and put my name to)

I gave it an easy task to start with: a 'Frame ...

2026-03-07T18:44:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…4dtd
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I gave it an easy task to start with: a 'Frame Selection'/'center camera' button. Select an object or a group of objects and reposition the camera to fit

This 3D modeling app and the switch to the more-expensive GPT 5.4 ...

2026-03-07T18:35:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…ql78
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This 3D modeling app and the switch to the more-expensive GPT 5.4 model might finally be the thing that burns through my weekly usage budget. It's now 25K lines of code; the more-complex renderer really ballooned things a bit, but it's worth it.

I finally moved it out of my temp folder and into my projects folder, and handed it off to a fresh GPT 5.4 session with a bunch of documented context about the intricacies of the project. Hopefully that's enough to jump-start it

Slowly improving my glass ...

2026-03-07T15:02:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…kvxp
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Slowly improving my glass

Retro. @npub1tg9…uu4f ...

2026-03-07T13:42:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…hc80
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Retro.

Alex Rosenberg (npub1tg9…uu4f)

The raytracer rewrite bears fruit — it can now make it through ...

2026-03-07T00:31:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…e3cj
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The raytracer rewrite bears fruit — it can now make it through a long-running raytrace on visionOS without bringing the userspace down. It still chokes on more-complex shaders like glass, but it's a big improvement

Working on light and glass ...

2026-03-07T00:01:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…ptl2
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Working on light and glass

I feel like I need a bunch of Apple's glass spheres on my ...

2026-03-06T22:13:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…n6lw
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I feel like I need a bunch of Apple's glass spheres on my desk to try to fine-tune my raytracer 😂

Also I've switched my Codex model to GPT 5.4, OpenAI says it ...

2026-03-06T22:00:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…989x
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Also I've switched my Codex model to GPT 5.4, OpenAI says it outperforms gpt-5.3-codex and it has over double the context window, so I figured a renderer rewrite was the right time to step up a level

I was tired of running into raytracer resource limits, so now it ...

2026-03-06T21:54:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…jhey
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I was tired of running into raytracer resource limits, so now it uses wavefronts and a scheduler with a 4+ Kloc rewrite. Seems a lot better for complex scenes and lots of glass. All that work spent optimizing the previous renderer's performance ramp and failure recovery pays off now that the new renderer is so much more robust

That’s a whole lot of raytracing from a little iPad. Biggest ...

2026-03-06T19:37:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…3wdd
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That’s a whole lot of raytracing from a little iPad. Biggest render to date, at 5120x2880 — took about an hour to get to the final pass.

Crashed right at the end, so I didn’t get to take a picture of the final output 🥲

The raytracer still needs a bunch of work, but it’s more and more capable day by day

Even my iPhone 12 Pro Max can raytrace! Which I guess is not all ...

2026-03-06T19:13:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…gmgj
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Even my iPhone 12 Pro Max can raytrace!

Which I guess is not all that surprising, considering the A14 chip is the same generation as the M1

Complex scenes are kinda fun 😎 ...

2026-03-06T17:55:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…yy36
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Complex scenes are kinda fun 😎

(Maybe I should vibe code Xcode, next.)

2026-03-06T17:31:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…ekya
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(Maybe I should vibe code Xcode, next.)

iPadOS has never been better for rich, complex, desktop-class ...

2026-03-06T17:30:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…3yhd
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iPadOS has never been better for rich, complex, desktop-class apps. Almost all of the old barriers and blockers are gone.

Sadly, Apple waited until most developers had run out of patience with the platform.

If this thing had Xcode, a real Xcode, it would be effectively complete

The raytrace operation will now be dispatched into the background ...

2026-03-06T15:45:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…px5n
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The raytrace operation will now be dispatched into the background on iOS, allowing for long-running background tasks

I never really thought about it before, but multitouch is ...

2026-03-06T11:59:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…6we9
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I never really thought about it before, but multitouch is actually legit for 3D modeling tools, maybe even better than a desktop. On a Mac, you need to hold modifier keys (or buy a multi-button mouse) to do everything you want with the viewport, but on touch you can orbit, pan, zoom, and multi-select very easily. If you special-case the stylus too, like I am, it feels very powerful.

Almost all of this extends to spatial computing, though visionOS struggles a bit with two-hand gestures

I made sure all my interactions work right with the Logitech Muse ...

2026-03-06T11:55:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…lphn
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I made sure all my interactions work right with the Logitech Muse (i.e. stylus won't orbit the viewport, will modally lock to highlighted gizmo axes, etc), so now I can do a bit of vertex editing on the Apple Vision Pro, channeling Gregory Wieber (npub1lmm…p0ts)

Late night modeling on my iPad 🤪 ...

2026-03-06T01:02:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…j8c3
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Late night modeling on my iPad 🤪

Playing a bit of musical chairs with the floating controls in the ...

2026-03-05T23:56:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…kdg0
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Playing a bit of musical chairs with the floating controls in the toolbars now that I'm starting to run out of space for new UI

Boolean operations seem pretty complex, but I made a start at it ...

2026-03-05T23:34:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…p79x
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Boolean operations seem pretty complex, but I made a start at it

The touch gestures all work on visionOS too, but on all platforms ...

2026-03-05T21:50:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…eptr
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The touch gestures all work on visionOS too, but on all platforms it has keyboard and mouse support for all your precise selection and modifier key needs

All of this still works great on iPhone too ...

2026-03-05T21:39:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…ljn4
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All of this still works great on iPhone too

Some more things to show off here on this iPad mini 6! • ...

2026-03-05T21:30:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…62ep
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Some more things to show off here on this iPad mini 6!

• Longpress band gesture
• Multi-select
• Vertex editing
• Subdividing
• My 'generate a Cornell Box' button
• (And the raytracer, of course)

There is a lot of really neat stuff in this app. Still using Codex 5.3 Medium, still haven't touched a line of code myself

I thought it was finally time to add vertex editing and ...

2026-03-05T20:26:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…5j8y
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I thought it was finally time to add vertex editing and subdivision. Now it's a 3D modeling tool and not just a raytracer

This project, which runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro ...

2026-03-05T16:53:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…n8fj
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This project, which runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro (with Immersive Space), is now 16.5K lines of code

The raytracer is, for now, a no-go on visionOS. It's possible ...

2026-03-05T16:47:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…y7xv
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The raytracer is, for now, a no-go on visionOS. It's possible I could throttle it and stay within visionOS' systemwide render budget. But it's probably worth improving the RT performance a bunch on its own first before I come back and try it here. I might run out of steam on this prototype before then.

This entire app project is still in my 'Temp' folder, where throwaway projects live 😅

I figured why not use RealityKit for the material previews, so ...

2026-03-05T16:34:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…8tfj
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I figured why not use RealityKit for the material previews, so now they are actual spheres.

Miraculously, it all still works — the Metal viewport, the Metal immersive scene, and the RealityKit UI elements, but it's very clear the Vision Pro (M2) doesn't have much headroom to build an actual app around this stuff

So now that visionOS 26 lets you spawn immersive scenes from ...

2026-03-05T15:26:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…w4hg
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So now that visionOS 26 lets you spawn immersive scenes from UIKit apps, I had Codex implement me an immersive scene using Metal and CompositorServices that mirrors the in-window viewport and lets you live in your scene 😁

It's real frickin cool.

The raytracer might be off limits for visionOS, but there's a lot of interesting stuff to do in other areas

I love how visionOS, uniquely, explodes when rendering goes ...

2026-03-05T13:48:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…g00m
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I love how visionOS, uniquely, *explodes* when rendering goes wrong.

Hello [MacBook] Neo.

Pretty much everything I've worked on with Codex up to now ...

2026-03-05T13:34:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…fkjq
_________________________

Pretty much everything I've worked on with Codex up to now has been stuff I could have built myself, within my area of expertise (or learnable), it just would have taken weeks or months.

This 3D scene app is something I never would have been able to build myself. I would have needed a team of rendering experts with domain-specific knowledge and human-years of research

What if you could step into your Bryce scenes? ...

2026-03-05T10:48:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…ryld
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What if you could step into your Bryce scenes?

You can see here that the moment I invoke the raytracer, ...

2026-03-05T09:59:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…spk6
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You can see here that the moment I invoke the raytracer, everything goes to shit on visionOS. The userspace went down right at the end of the video, where it cut

Hadn't tried the visionOS build, but it works too. With a ...

2026-03-05T09:54:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…hta3
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Hadn't tried the visionOS build, but it works too.

With a caveat.

visionOS is far more fragile to anything like 3D rendering. Saturating the GPU like this slows the compositor to a slideshow, and even got to a point where Metal was leaking out of the window into the OS and I was seeing squares of corrupted video memory in front of me until I got the equivalent to a SpringBoard crash.

Functionally, this could be a visionOS app.

Practically, no.

Just a normal teapot. ...

2026-03-05T00:14:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…0pnt
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Just a normal teapot.

Ha, cute, you can even fling the raytracer around 🤣 Also I ...

2026-03-04T23:38:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…xcmg
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Ha, cute, you can even fling the raytracer around 🤣

Also I added an expanded progress indicator

The old viewport gizmo was faked in 2D, so I had it rewrite it in ...

2026-03-04T23:35:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…49j6
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The old viewport gizmo was faked in 2D, so I had it rewrite it in Metal and with a different projection, and now it's much better. I also added exponential decay to the orbit gesture so you can fling the camera around

I made my control groups collapsible, with a priority system. ...

2026-03-04T18:22:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…4l25
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I made my control groups collapsible, with a priority system. Honestly they're my favorite part of this prototype

So, like, what do I even do with this app? ...

2026-03-04T16:27:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ywk
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So, like, what do I even do with this app?

Liquid, Glass ...

2026-03-04T15:50:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…492u
_________________________

Liquid, Glass

Of course it runs on iPhone, what do you take me for? ...

2026-03-04T14:31:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…s3k2
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Of course it runs on iPhone, what do you take me for?

Just casually building and raytracing a scene on an iPad mini 6, ...

2026-03-04T13:56:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…pznz
_________________________

Just casually building and raytracing a scene on an iPad mini 6, nbd

While this raytracer may never become a finished app, there are ...

2026-03-04T13:43:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…v07s
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While this raytracer may never become a finished app, there are certainly elements from it I intend to yoink for future projects — like the really neat toolbars that go around all the screen edges, they would fit into a complex pro app very nicely

I was sitting through hour-long renders (!) on my iPad yesterday, ...

2026-03-04T13:35:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…arlp
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I was sitting through hour-long renders (!) on my iPad yesterday, so I did an optimization pass on the hardware acceleration and it's much, much improved for simpler scenes, even on an M1

Trying not to fry my GPU with caustics, but Metal isn't happy ...

2026-03-04T13:20:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…7qnk
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Trying not to fry my GPU with caustics, but Metal isn't happy

Maybe I should have bought a faster Mac before trying to write a ...

2026-03-04T13:11:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…3vfl
_________________________

Maybe I should have bought a faster Mac before trying to write a raytracer…

'Attenuated shadows' A little better ...

2026-03-04T12:48:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…s6xn
_________________________

'Attenuated shadows'

A little better

The thing about material shaders is I don't quite know the ...

2026-03-04T12:34:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…pva9
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The thing about material shaders is I don't quite know the right questions to ask — the unknown unknowns. Am I taking into account the right refraction, internal reflection, attenuated shadows, etc. Why is this too bright, why is this too dark. You can tell from these examples where things are obviously wrong, and it takes quite a bit of iteration

I figured I needed some kind of glass shader ...

2026-03-04T12:15:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…xkc6
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I figured I needed some kind of glass shader

Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer ...

2026-03-04T10:39:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ujk
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Recap: I vibecoded (code unseen, no plan) a 3D editor/renderer that has a scene graph, editing controls, primitives and gizmos, materials, procedural terrain and water, and hardware-accelerated Metal raytracing with soft shadows, clouds and bounce lighting, that runs on Mac and iPad.

Tool: Codex 5.3 Medium
Time: About a day's worth of work has gone into it

Procedural clouds seemed like a good idea ...

2026-03-04T02:09:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…cvs3
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Procedural clouds seemed like a good idea

I thought my water should have some translucency and falloff, so ...

2026-03-04T01:03:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…v7ct
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I thought my water should have some translucency and falloff, so I can put things underneath it

It's real nice having a complex app like this on iPad, ...

2026-03-04T00:25:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…j898
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It's real nice having a complex app like this on iPad, that's for sure. This is by far the most complex and impressive thing I've vibecoded with Codex 5.3. I haven't seen or touched a single line of code, I didn't have a detailed plan to work from — this isn't at all like the structured ports I detailed previously

I spent untold hours in Bryce3D as a kid making silly scenes just ...

2026-03-03T23:13:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…3aek
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I spent untold hours in Bryce3D as a kid making silly scenes just like this. It did this stuff with machines a thousand times less powerful than my Mac mini. Certainly puts things into perspective…

Not me offloading raytracing workloads to my iPad because ...

2026-03-03T22:33:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…qwmv
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Not me offloading raytracing workloads to my iPad because it's so much faster than my Mac…

Procedural water to the horizon, sky, island generation ...

2026-03-03T22:19:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…ra88
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Procedural water to the horizon, sky, island generation

I think I'm just making Bryce now? That's a thing ...

2026-03-03T21:28:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…ut9k
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I think I'm just making Bryce now? That's a thing

We're doing water now. ...

2026-03-03T20:47:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…5k7u
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We're doing water now.

Submeshes and MTL texture loading ...

2026-03-03T18:35:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…d5n0
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Submeshes and MTL texture loading

I can almost render this dragon mesh now before the GPU gives up ...

2026-03-03T17:23:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…w4u3
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I can almost render this dragon mesh now before the GPU gives up 🐉

Mandatory texture option ...

2026-03-03T16:58:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…zyaa
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Mandatory texture option

Turns out the M1 supports enough of the hardware accelerated ...

2026-03-03T16:38:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…uwk5
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Turns out the M1 supports enough of the hardware accelerated raytracing APIs that I get a massive speedup here, too?

Trying to parse Apple's Metal feature support tables is hurting my brain, so I'll just accept it and move on

Added some targeted calls to the hardware raytracing APIs, and a ...

2026-03-03T16:03:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…apfq
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Added some targeted calls to the hardware raytracing APIs, and a toggle switch so I can flip between non-accelerated RT and accelerated RT. There are plenty of bottlenecks in my renderer to stop it taking /full/ advantage of acceleration, but holy heck it’s much faster regardless. This is on the M5 iPad Pro