KosmicKrisp workarounds

This file documents the relevant issues found in either Metal, the MSL compiler or any other component we have no control over that needed to be worked around to accomplish Vulkan conformance.

All workarounds must be documented here and no code comment info should be provided other than the name KK_WORKAROUND_#.

Once a workaround was removed from the code, the code comment will be removed but the documentation here will be kept.

Template

Use the following template to create documentation for a new workaround:

KK_WORKAROUND_#
---------------
| macOS version:
| Metal ticket:
| Metal ticket status:
| CTS test failure/crash:
| Comments:
| Log:

macOS version needs to have the OS version with which it was found.

Metal ticket needs to be either the Metal ticket number with the GitLab handle of the user that reported the ticket or Unreported.

Metal ticket status needs to be either Fixed in macOS # (Build hash),

Waiting resolution or empty if unreported. If Apple reported that the issue was fixed, but no user has verified the fix, append [Untested]. CTS test failure/crash (remove failure or crash based on test behavior) needs to be the name of the test or test family the issue can be reproduced with.

Comments needs to include as much information on the issue and how the workaround fixes it.

Log needs to have the dates (yyyy-mm-dd, the only correct date format) with info on what was updated.

Workarounds

KK_WORKAROUND_3

macOS version: 15.4.x
Metal ticket: FB20113490 (@aitor)
Metal ticket status: Waiting resolution
CTS test failure: dEQP-VK.subgroups.ballot_other.*.subgroupballotfindlsb
Comments:

simd_is_first does not seem to behave as documented in the MSL specification. The following code snippet misbehaves:

if (simd_is_first())
   temp = 3u;
else
   temp = simd_ballot(true); /* <- This will return all active threads... */

The way to fix this is by changing the conditional to:

if (simd_is_first() && (ulong)simd_ballot(true))
   temp = 3u;
else
   temp = (ulong)simd_ballot(true);
Log:
2025-09-09: Workaround implemented and reported to Apple

KK_WORKAROUND_2

macOS version: 15.4.x
Metal ticket: Not reported
Metal ticket status:
CTS test crash: dEQP-VK.graphicsfuzz.cov-nested-loops-never-change-array-element-one and dEQP-VK.graphicsfuzz.disc-and-add-in-func-in-loop
Comments:

We need to loop to infinite since MSL compiler crashes if we have something like (simplified version):

while (true) {
   if (some_conditional) {
      break_loop = true;
   } else {
      break_loop = false;
   }
   if (break_loop) {
      break;
   }
}

The issue I believe is that some_conditional wouldn’t change the value no matter in which iteration we are (something like fetching the same value from a buffer) and the MSL compiler doesn’t seem to like that much to the point it crashes.

The implemented solution is to change the while(true) loop with for (uint64_t no_crash = 0u; no_crash < UINT64_MAX; ++no_crash), which tricks the MSL compiler into believing we are not doing an infinite loop (wink wink).

Log:
2025-09-08: Workaround implemented

KK_WORKAROUND_1

macOS version: 15.4.x
Metal ticket: FB17604106 (@aitor)
Metal ticket status: [Untested] Fixed in macOS 26 Beta (25A5279m)
CTS test crash: dEQP-VK.glsl.indexing.tmp_array.vec3_dynamic_loop_write_dynamic_loop_read_fragment
Comments:

Uninitialized local scratch variable causes the MSL compiler to crash. Initialize scratch to avoid issue.

Log:
2025-05-14: Workaround implemented and reported to Apple
2025-06-14: Apple reported back saying it is now fixed in macOS 26 Beta (Build 25A5279m)