iOS-Metal: How to clear Depth Buffer ? Similar to glClear(GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT) in OpenGL

The short answer is that to clear the depth buffer you add these two lines before beginning a render pass: mRenderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.loadAction = MTLLoadActionClear; mRenderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.clearDepth = 1.0f; And you cannot do a clear without ending and restarting a render pass.

Long answer:

In Metal, you have to define that you want the colour and depth buffers cleared when you start rendering to a MTLTexture. There is no clear function like in OpenGL.

To do this, in your MTLRenderPassDescriptor, set depthAttachment.loadAction to MTLLoadActionClear and depthAttachment.clearDepth to 1.0f. You may also want to set colorAttachments[0].loadAction to MTLLoadActionClear to clear the colour buffer.

This render pass descriptor is then passed in to your call to MTLCommandBuffer::renderCommandEncoderWithDescriptor.

If you do want to clear a depth or colour buffer midway through rendering you have to call endEncoding on MTLRenderCommandEncoder, and then start encoding again with depthAttachment.loadAction set to MTLLoadActionClear.

To explain the solution more clear with sample codes

Before start rendering:

void prepareRendering(){
    CMDBuffer = [_commandQueue commandBuffer]; // get command Buffer
    drawable = [_metalLayer nextDrawable]; // get drawable from metalLayer
    renderingTexture = drawable.texture; // set that as rendering te
    setupRenderPassDescriptorForTexture(drawable.texture); // set the depth and colour buffer properties
    RenderCMDBuffer = [CMDBuffer renderCommandEncoderWithDescriptor:_renderPassDescriptor];
    RenderCMDBuffer.label = @"MyRenderEncoder";
    setUpDepthState(CompareFunctionLessEqual,true,false); // 
    [RenderCMDBuffer setDepthStencilState:_depthState];
    [RenderCMDBuffer pushDebugGroup:@"DrawCube"];
}

void setupRenderPassDescriptorForTexture(id <MTLTexture> texture)
{
    if (_renderPassDescriptor == nil)
        _renderPassDescriptor = [MTLRenderPassDescriptor renderPassDescriptor];
        // set color buffer properties
        _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].texture = texture;
        _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].loadAction = MTLLoadActionClear;
        _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].clearColor = MTLClearColorMake(1.0f, 1.0f,1.0f, 1.0f);
            _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].storeAction = MTLStoreActionStore;
// set depth buffer properties
            MTLTextureDescriptor* desc = [MTLTextureDescriptor texture2DDescriptorWithPixelFormat: MTLPixelFormatDepth32Float width: texture.width height: texture.height mipmapped: NO];
            _depthTex = [device newTextureWithDescriptor: desc];
            _depthTex.label = @"Depth";
            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.texture = _depthTex;
            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.loadAction = MTLLoadActionClear;
            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.clearDepth = 1.0f;
                _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.storeAction = MTLStoreActionDontCare;
   }

Render Your contents here

Render();

After rendering

similar to ogles2 method [_context presentRenderbuffer:_colorRenderBuffer];

void endDisplay()
{
    [RenderCMDBuffer popDebugGroup];
    [RenderCMDBuffer endEncoding];
    [CMDBuffer presentDrawable:drawable];
    [CMDBuffer commit];
    _currentDrawable = nil;
}

The above methods clears the depth and colour buffers after rendering each frame

To clear the depth buffer in midway

    void clearDepthBuffer(){
    // end encoding the render command buffer  
            [RenderCMDBuffer popDebugGroup];
            [RenderCMDBuffer endEncoding];

            // here MTLLoadActionClear will clear your last drawn depth values
            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.loadAction = MTLLoadActionClear;            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.clearDepth = 1.0f;
            _renderPassDescriptor.depthAttachment.storeAction = MTLStoreActionDontCare;

            // here MTLLoadActionLoad will reuse your last drawn color buffer
            _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].loadAction = MTLLoadActionLoad;
            _renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].storeAction = MTLStoreActionStore;

            RenderCMDBuffer = [CMDBuffer renderCommandEncoderWithDescriptor:_renderPassDescriptor];
            RenderCMDBuffer.label = @"MyRenderEncoder";
            [RenderCMDBuffer pushDebugGroup:@"DrawCube"];
        }