[BUG] macOS - Shader error when drawing normals: "Uniform blocks may not have identifiers in GLSL 140"

[adririquelme]

Hello CloudCompare team,

I am reporting a shader compilation error on macOS (Apple Silicon) when enabling the "Draw normals as lines" feature in the latest beta. This issue makes the normals invisible and triggers a constant error popup.

System Specifications:

• OS: macOS 26.3 (Build 25D125)
  Hardware: MacBook Pro - Apple M1 Pro (16 GB RAM)
  CloudCompare Version: v2.14.beta (Jan 28 2026) - 64-bit

Steps to reproduce:

• Load a point cloud.
  Compute normals for the cloud (Edit > Normals > Compute).
  Select the cloud in the DB Tree.
  In the Properties panel, under "Normals", check the box "Draw".
  An error popup immediately appears and the console logs the following:

Console Output:

Code: Select all

ERROR: 0:8: ';': syntax error: Uniform blocks may not have identifiers in GLSL 140
[getGLDepth] OpenGL error: invalid operation
[Qt WARNING] [] QWidget::repaint: Recursive repaint detected
Technical Note:
The error Uniform blocks may not have identifiers in GLSL 140 suggests that the shader code is using named uniform blocks (e.g., layout(std140) uniform BlockName { ... } instanceName;), which is a syntax rejected by the Apple Silicon OpenGL driver for GLSL 140.

Thank you for your help!

[daniel]

Hum, I like when Apple makes the life of developers harder for no good reason.

I feel this issue should be reported on github instead, so that the persons supporting the macOS version (Paul and Romain) will see it. They don't come often (or at all) on the forum!