Apple recently demonstrated iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 at the WWDC Developer Conference in the early morning. In addition to the important system-level updates and optimizations and the newly added App functions, the most impressive thing is that iPadOS 14 adds game support for the keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. From then on we can use the mouse and keyboard on the iPad to play games.
In the developer meeting scheduled for June 25, Apple will show developers how to adapt existing games based on these new features to facilitate porting games from other platforms or developing entirely new games.
Bring keyboard and mouse gaming to iPad – Level up your iPad games and add in the keyboard, mouse, and trackpad controls. Discover how to use the Game Controller framework to augment your existing titles, bring over games from other platforms, or dream up entirely new interaction experiences. Learn how to integrate keyboard and “delta” mouse coordinate events for player motion, and disable pointer system gestures like the Dock or Control Center to take full advantage of full-screen gameplay. For further information on adding support for console game controllers like the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and Xbox Adaptive Controller, watch “Advancements in Game Controllers.” And learn more about using UlKit to manage indirect input by checking out “Handle trackpad and mouse input”.
There is currently no game that supports mouse and keyboard control on iPadOS, so we may still need a long time to experience this keyboard and mouse operation mode on the iPad. However, with the gradual support of Mac for ARM chips, I believe there will be many games that can support keyboard and mouse operations.
