Apple Makes New On-Screen Game Controller Available to Developers on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15
During the Platforms State of the Union at WWDC this week, Apple unveiled a new API for iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that enables developers to implement an on-screen virtual game controller in their iPhone and iPad games with just a few lines of code.
While many iPhone and iPad games already offer on-screen controls, Apple's new virtual game controller is available to all developers, easy to add, and can be customized on a per-game basis. Apple said the on-screen controller can be adjusted to a variety of layouts, with up to four buttons and a thumbstick, d-pad, or touchpad available per left and right side.
"These new on-screen controls for iPhone and iPad look amazing, and they're carefully tuned for grip locations across hand sizes and for a great responsiveness and feel," said Nat Brown, an Apple engineer working on Game Technologies.
Apple offers a WWDC session and developer documentation with more details.
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Top Rated Comments
Obviously a heavy gamer should buy a real controller just as a coder or writer should buy a real keyboard. But as light/infrequent gamers are unlikely to invest in one, it’s worth optimizing the on screen interface.
Meteor Blitz (https://toucharcade.com/2009/09/16/meteor-blitz-dual-stick-space-shooting-goodness/) also showed how you can use orientation and visual cues to make up for a lack of buttons. Geometry Wars 3 on iOS was and still is a fantastic port.
Where touchscreen controls do fall down is when devs tried to port over console titles to a phone and have to shoehorn touchscreen controls into games not designed for them. This does not work.
There are exceptions, for example games with a largely static camera like FFVII but this pales in comparison to proper ports like FFIX which have been redesigned with the host platform in mind. See also titles like Horizon Chase and Oceanhorn 1.