Over the course of the macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta, Apple has refined and improved the way iPad and iPhone apps run on M1 Macs. In the latest beta, Apple added game controller emulation for M1 devices, allowing a keyboard or a combination of keyboard and mouse to function as a game controller.
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The new game controller feature has been discovered by MacRumors employee Steve Moser. If you’re running an iPhone or iPad app, opening the preferences will give you a Touch Alternatives and Game Control interface that can be used to make touch-based iPhone and iPad apps work better with Mac controls.
When Controller Emulation is enabled, commonly used game controller buttons are mapped to keyboard keys and mouse buttons. For example, X is assigned to Q, the direction stick is assigned to WASD, and Y is assigned to E. L1 and L2 can be accessed by pressing Tab and Shift respectively, and the space bar is the A button.
Controller emulation allows iPhone and iPad games with built-in controller support to be precisely controlled with a keyboard and / or mouse when those games are played on a M1 Mac. This feature is for those who don’t have a game controller as those who do can just plug in a controller to play.
The macOS 11.3 Big Sur beta also includes the aforementioned Touch Alternatives panel for mapping touch-based functions such as tap, swipe, drag, and tilt to keyboard keys, and it has a feature to make iPhone and iPad app windows larger to make.
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Controller emulation and touch alternatives work independently and only one of these functions can be enabled at a time.
As for game controller support, many current controllers from Sony and Microsoft are compatible with M1 Macs, and the beta adds support for the latest PlayStation 5 and Xbox One X controllers.