As part of its ongoing mission to improve the performance of iPad and iPhone applications on Macs M1, Apple has added game controller emulation to the current 11.3 beta of macOS Big Sur. Basically, Apple is trying to make their Macs M1 rather as gaming computers.
In accordance with MacRumors, running an iPad or iPhone app on a Mac M1 adds a new game control option when you open Preferences from the app. When enabled, the new option assigns the controller buttons to the keyboard and mouse so you can play with these peripherals instead of the controller.
The left lever on the controller is assigned to the WASD keys and the right lever on the mouse. (Logically.) The A button becomes the space bar, the X button becomes the Q key, the Y button the E key, and the B button the F key. Finally, L1 is tied to Tab, L2 to Shift, R1 to R and R2 in the mouse.
But instead of having dedicated keybindings for game-specific actions, it seems sothe A or L2 buttons will never be mapped to specific keys on a Mac keyboard without a way to reconnect them. This could change from game to game, depending on how the developers assigned the game’s actions to the controller buttons. From a PC gaming standpoint, this could make playing certain games using the keyboard and mouse on the Mac uncomfortable and annoying, and confusing from one game to the next.
Suppose the Tab key causes your character to crouch in one game, but opens your inventory in another game. And maybe the A button allows you to jump in some games, but use it to pick up objects in other games. There are certain key links that have traditionally become in various genres in PC games (such as the spacebar to jump ictrl to crouch) which Apple does not explain here. Stardew Valley, for example, it has its own keyboard controls for macOS, why not allow someone to use them instead of mapping the controller buttons of the iOS version of the game to different keys?
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It also seems like things could get a little confusing if you assign a PlayStation controller to your keyboard and mouse instead of an Xbox controller. Would the Q key be the PlayStation X button or the PlayStation Square button, as it is in the same controller position as the Xbox X button? It seems pretty annoying (and confusing) to have to remember which keyboard keys are for which game controller button and which keys do what in each game. Apple would be better off letting users link their own keys to the games they play rather than forcing them to use a specific design for each game.
The Mac M1 supports PS and Xbox controllers, not to mention the beta version of Big Sur, which includes compatibility with PS5 and Xbox One X controllers. So why does Apple choose to manage PC game controls for this way instead of letting app developers assign the best key combinations for their games, it’s unclear. Right Now sas if you were left with a controller to play iPad or iPhone games on the M1 is the best way to go here.