Reference / Types

Public Types

The Raster types for images, graphs, GPU programs, output, and framework bridges.

This page maps the public Raster types by the part of the pipeline they belong to. Most applications work with a short list of these types. Each row names the type and the role it plays, and the related framework pages cover the behavior in more detail than the generated interface.

Core graph

Type	What it does
`MTIImage`	Immutable image recipe, plus dimensions, alpha type, sampler, and cache policy.
`MTIImagePromise`	Declares dependencies and knows how to resolve them into a texture.
`MTIFilter`	Mutable configuration that produces an output image.
`MTIUnaryFilter`	Filter with one standard input image.
`FilterGraph`	Typed Swift port connections and graph construction.
`MTIContext`	Thread-safe evaluation context, with caches, queues, pools, and output rendering.

GPU programs

Type	What it does
`MTIFunctionDescriptor`	Metal function name, constants, and library location.
`MTIRenderPipelineKernel`	Reusable vertex/fragment program that creates render promises.
`MTIComputePipelineKernel`	Reusable compute program and dispatch configuration.
`MTIRenderCommand`	One draw call inside a render pass Raster created.
`MTIRenderPassOutputDescriptor`	Output dimensions, format, and attachment actions.
`MTIDataBuffer`	Constant or mutable structured data passed to Metal arguments.
`MTIGeometry`	Custom vertex data and draw-call encoding.

Composition and effects

Type	What it does
`MTIBlendFilter`	Two-image blend with intensity, alpha output, and HDR headroom.
`MultilayerCompositingFilter`	Swift layer-stack API over the Objective-C compositor.
`MTILayer`	Objective-C layer representation used by the core compositor.
`MTIMask`	Mask image, component, and interpretation.
`MTIBlendMode` / `MTIBlendModes`	Extensible blend-mode identity and registry.

I/O and presentation

Type	What it does
`MTICGImageLoadingOptions`	Color matching, orientation behavior, and texture storage for image loading.
`MTICVPixelBufferRenderingOptions`	Core Video bridge and pixel-buffer input policy.
`MTIDrawableRenderingRequest`	Image, drawable, resize mode, and destination behavior for display.
`MTIImageView` / `MTIThreadSafeImageView`	Platform views that render an image through a context.
`MTIRenderTask`	In-flight render completion and command-buffer lifetime.

Framework bridges

Type	What it does
`MTICoreImageKernel`	Core Image closure or CIFilter evaluation inside a Raster promise.
`MTICoreImageUnaryFilter`	Mutable unary wrapper around a CIFilter.
`MTIVideoComposition`	AVFoundation composition backed by Raster rendering.
`MTISCNSceneRenderer`	SceneKit output as an image promise.
`MTISKSceneRenderer`	SpriteKit output as an image promise.

The built-in filter inventory is on Built-in Filters. Implementation locations for these types are on Repository Map.