Individual skill

setting-up-macos-window

Setting up the macOS window layer when porting a Windows game to Metal. Covers AppDelegate + NSWindow programmatic setup, a CAMetalLayer-backed GameView with CAMetalDisplayLink, GameViewController lifecycle, AppKit notifications routed into the engine via `Engine*` callbacks, keyboard/mouse input replacing WndProc, fullscreen transitions, cursor visibility and mouse-look confinement, sleep prevention, and per-frame screen state for sizes and EDR. Use whenever the question touches porting a Windows game window to macOS — AppDelegate / GameView / GameViewController setup, replacing WndProc, fullscreen, cursor handling, window resize, or AppKit notification routing.

game-porting-skills/skills/setting-up-macos-window/SKILL.md

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Last checked: Nov 5, 2026

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Repository stars (not skill ratings): 220
Repository last updated: Jun 8, 2026
License: Apache-2.0

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engineering Derived category

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SKILL.mdcore · 12,609 bytes
references/engine-and-messages.mddoc · 10,167 bytes
references/keyboard-events.mddoc · 2,023 bytes
references/mouse-and-cursor.mddoc · 8,329 bytes
references/presentation-and-sleep.mddoc · 2,760 bytes
references/window-implementation.mddoc · 4,783 bytes
references/window-notifications.mddoc · 6,750 bytes

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# Game Window Port

A guided workflow for wiring up the macOS window layer when porting a Windows game to Metal.

## Scope and Companion Skills

This skill covers windowing concerns: the AppKit surface, the view that owns the `CAMetalLayer` and the render-tick source, lifecycle, notifications, and input.
The boundary with the engine is the `Engine*` callback API described in Phase 6.
Past that boundary, presentation and rendering live in companion skills:

| Question is about | Skill |
|---|---|
| Drawable acquisition, presentation flow (`waitForDrawable`, `signalDrawable`, `present`), layer property semantics (`pixelFormat`, `colorspace`, `drawableSize`, `maximumDrawableCount`, `displaySyncEnabled`, EDR opt-in), Metal 3 vs Metal 4 | `presenting-metal-drawables` |
| D3D12/Vulkan API mapping to Metal 4 (device, queue, command buffer, encoder, PSO, shader compile, swap chain) | `translating-to-metal4-api` |