As part of its ongoing mission to improve the way iPad and iPhone applications work on M1 Macs, Apple has added the game controller emulation to MacOS Big Sur’s current 11.3 beta. Basically Apple is trying to make its M1 Macs more like game computers.
According to MacRumors, if you are running an iPad or iPhone app on an M1 Mac, add a new Game Control option when you open the in-app preferences. When enabled, the new option maps the buttons on your controller on the keyboard and mouse so you can play games with the peripherals instead of with the controller.
The left thumb stick of the controller is linked to the WASD keys and the right thumb stick to the mouse. (Logically.) The A button becomes the space bar, the X button becomes the Q key, Y button the E key and the B button the F key. Finally, L1 is bound to Tab, L2 to Shift, R1 to R, and R2 to mouse.
But instead of having dedicated keychains for specific actions in the game, it looks like whatthe A or L2 buttons will always be mapped to specific keys on a Mac keyboard without being tied back. This can change from game to game, depending on how the developers linked in-game actions to the controls. From a computer game perspective, it can make playing certain games via the keyboard and mouse on the Mac uncomfortable and cumbersome – and confusing from one game to the next.
Set by the Tab key, your character can bend in one game, but open your inventory in another game. And maybe you let the A button jump in some games, but use it to pick up items in other games. There are certain key bindings that have become tradition in various genres in computer games (such as artpass bar to jump and csquat) which Apple does not take into account here. Stardew valleyfor example, has its own keyboard controls for macOS, so let someone not use them instead of assigning the control buttons of the iOS version of the game to different keys.
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It also seems like things can get a little confusing if you map a PlayStation controller on the keyboard and mouse instead of an Xbox controller. Would the Q key be the PlayStation X button or the PlayStation Square button, since it’s in the same position on the controller as the Xbox X button? Seems rather annoying (and confusing) to have to remember which keyboard tests are for which game control button and which keys do in each game. It would be better with Apple to let users tie their own keys to the games they play, instead of forcing them to use one specific layout for each game.
M1 Macs support PS and Xbox controllers, not to mention the Big Sur beta, adds PS5 and Xbox One X control support. So why Apple chooses to handle computer games this way instead of giving the app developers the best keychains for their games is not clear. Now immediately it isThis is the best way to go here to stick with a controller to play iPad or iPhone games on the M1.