SpriteKit Integrations

iOS 14 brings a fresh look to the things you do most often, making them easier than ever. New features help you get what you need in the moment. And the apps you use all the time become even more intelligent, more personal, and more private. You’re able to do more with your iPhone than ever before. So iOS 14 reimagines the most iconic parts of the experience to be even more helpful and personal. Widgets have been totally redesigned to give you more information at a glance — and now you can add them to your Home Screen. Choose from different sizes and arrange however you like. The new App Library automatically organizes all of your apps into one simple, easy‑to‑navigate view. Apps are sorted by category and your most used apps are always just one tap away. Now you can keep watching videos or continue your FaceTime call while you use another app.

To take full advantage of the large canvas iPad offers, core elements of the iPadOS experience have been redesigned and streamlined. So you can get more done, more easily than ever. Today view widgets have been redesigned to show you more information right from the home screen. You can choose among different sizes or add a smart stack of widgets, which uses on-device intelligence to show the right widget at the right time in your day. New enhancements like sidebars and pull-down menus let you quickly and easily access more app functions from a single location, without switching views. A more compact search design lets you stay focused on your main task and open apps or search the web with just a tap. And a new as-you-type experience delivers faster, more relevant results. With Scribble, you don’t have to put Apple Pencil away to do other things. You can write by hand in any text field across iPadOS, and your words automatically convert to text.1 Now available in even more languages.

Introducing Xcode 12. With an all-new design that looks great on macOS Big Sur, Xcode 12 has customizable font sizes for the navigator, streamlined code completion, and new document tabs. Xcode 12 builds Universal apps by default to support Mac with Apple Silicon, often without changing a single line of code. Designed for macOS Big Sur. Xcode 12 looks great on macOS Big Sur, with a navigator sidebar that goes to the top of the window and clear new toolbar buttons. The navigator defaults to a larger font that’s easier to read, while giving you multiple size choices. New document tabs make it easy to create a working set of files within your workspace. Document tabs. The new tab model lets you open a new tab with a double-click, or track the selected file as you click around the navigator. You can re-arrange the document tabs to create a working set of files for your current task, and configure how content is shown within each tab.

Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and Swift includes modern features developers love. Swift code is safe by design and produces software that runs lightning-fast. Swift is the result of the latest research on programming languages, combined with decades of experience building Apple platforms. Named parameters are expressed in a clean syntax that makes APIs in Swift even easier to read and maintain. Even better, you don’t even need to type semi-colons. Inferred types make code cleaner and less prone to mistakes, while modules eliminate headers and provide namespaces. To best support international languages and emoji, Strings are Unicode-correct and use a UTF-8 based encoding to optimize performance for a wide-variety of use cases. You can even write concurrent code with simple, built-in keywords that define asynchronous behavior, making your code more readable and less error-prone.

SceneKit is a high-level 3D graphics framework from Apple that enables developers to create immersive 3D experiences for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS applications. Built atop Metal and OpenGL, SceneKit provides a descriptive API for importing, manipulating, and rendering 3D assets. Developers can construct complex scenes using nodes (SCNNode), each representing elements like geometry, lights, cameras, or other attributes. The framework supports a range of features, including a physics engine (SCNPhysicsBody) for realistic simulations, particle systems for effects like fire or rain, and integration with ARKit to add 3D content to augmented reality experiences. SceneKit also offers tools for organizing scenes, such as the scene graph, which allows for the hierarchical structuring of nodes. Additionally, developers can utilize the SceneKit Scene Editor within Xcode to assemble assets into scenes, streamlining the development process.

GameplayKit is a collection of foundational tools and technologies for building games in iOS, OS X, and tvOS. Building, evolving, and maintaining a sophisticated game requires a well-planned design, GameplayKit provides architectural tools to help you design modular, scalable game architecture with minimal effort. Creating great games also requires deploying complex algorithms to solve the problems underlying common game mechanics, GameplayKit also provides standard implementations of such algorithms, allowing you to spend more time on the features that make your gameplay unique. Because GameplayKit is independent of high-level game engine technologies, you can combine it with any of those technologies to build a complete game, SpriteKit for 2D games, SceneKit for 3D games, or a custom or third-party game engine using Metal or OpenGL ES. For games with less demanding graphics needs, you can even use GameplayKit with UIKit (in iOS or tvOS) or AppKit (in OS X).

Build unparalleled augmented reality experiences for hundreds of millions of users on iOS and iPadOS, the biggest AR platforms in the world. With powerful frameworks like ARKit and RealityKit, and creative tools like Reality Composer and Reality Converter, it’s never been easier to bring your ideas to life in AR. RealityKit 2 gives you more control and customization over the AR experiences you create. With new APIs like Custom Rendering, Metal Shaders, and Post Processing, you have more control over the rendering pipeline and more flexibility to create entirely new worlds in AR. And with the new Object Capture API on macOS Monterey, you can create unique 3D objects that are optimized for AR in minutes using state-of-the-art photogrammetry algorithms. Reality Composer is a powerful tool that makes it easy for you to create interactive augmented reality experiences with no prior 3D experience. Reality Converter quickly converts your existing 3D models to USDZ.

Your tvOS apps can deliver amazing experiences with stunning picture quality through 4K resolution, Dolby Vision, and HDR10 — and immersive sound through Dolby Atmos. And with Picture in Picture, multiuser, and game controller support, you can create even more engaging gaming and interactive experiences. We’ve reimagined the TV experience with tvOS — an innovative TV platform that redefines what can be done in the living room. Apple TV features a built-in App Store, making it more entertaining than ever. Now you can deliver incredible and immersive apps and games on the big screen. Leverage many of the same frameworks, technologies, and concepts that are similar to iOS. Frameworks and technologies, such as Metal, UIKit, CloudKit, and Game Center, let you create rich games and apps that look amazing on Apple TV. TVMLKit templates using XML and JavaScript are available as a framework for tvOS apps and let you use predefined layouts and JavaScript APIs to quickly create beautiful apps.

watchOS 8 helps you stay connected, active, and healthy like never before. Share your favorite memories with the enhanced Photos app. Put more fun into your texts. Find new ways to center yourself and be present. And that’s just the start. watchOS 8 makes staying connected with the people and things you care about easier than ever. See your photos, control your home, start your car, and even access your ID in powerful new ways — all from your wrist. Put your favorite photos of friends and family front and center. Featuring a dynamic, multilayered effect, this new watch face uses Portrait mode photos from your iPhone to give the people you care about a starring role. The photo collection from your Memories is displayed in a unique mosaic grid, giving you a richer view of your library. Photo highlights from your Memories and Featured Photos now automatically sync to your watch, serving up something new every day.