Metal Alternatives
Metal
Metal provides near-direct access to the graphics processing unit (GPU), enabling you to maximize the graphics and compute potential of your apps on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. Building on an approachable, low-overhead architecture with precompiled GPU shaders, fine-grained resource control, and multithreading support, Metal further evolves support for GPU-driven command creation, simplifies working with the array of Metal-capable GPUs, and lets you tap into Pro power of Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
Best Free Metal Alternatives
Looking for other Metal-like programs? We've rounded up our favorites Metal alternatives. Try any one of these fan favorites to see if they'll support your system and meet your specific needs.
OpenGL
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxAndroidiPhoneBSDHaikuOpenGL is the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications. Since its introduction in 1992, OpenGL has become the...
Features:
- Cross-platform
- Simulation
Vulkan
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxAndroidChrome OSTizen OSSteamOSVulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and...
Microsoft DirectX
FreeWindowsMicrosoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on...
SDL
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxWindows MobileiPhoneS60BSDiPadHaikuSimple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D...
Features:
- Drawing 2D
- Extensible window manager
- Gaming
- Library
WebGL
FreeOpen SourceWebWebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object...
Features:
- 3D Motion Graphics
- OPENGL
Allegro
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxiPhoneAllegro 4 and Allegro 5 are cross-platform, libraries mainly aimed at video game and multimedia programming. They handle common, low-level tasks such as creating...
PyOpenGL
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxPython bindings for OpenGL API.
Features:
- Api
- Cross-platform
- Gaming
- Library
- OPENGL
- Python
CrossBrowdy
FreeOpen SourceWebMultimedia JavaScript framework to create real cross-platform and hybrid game engines, games, emulators, multimedia libraries and apps.
Features:
- Cross-platform
- Gaming
- Progressive Web App
ModernGL
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxOpenGL is a great environment for developing portable, platform independent, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications. The API implementation in Python is cumbersome...
Features:
- OPENGL
- Portable
- Python
Crystal Space
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxCrystal Space is a mature, full-featured Software Development Kit (SDK) providing real-time 3D graphics for applications such as games and virtual reality. It is free...
Features:
- Gaming
- Games library
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