Fortnite is giving iOS players more control and iPad Pro users more frames

By Mark Knapp Published January 15, 2020

Fortnite has dominated the gaming sphere by blending the line between traditional and mobile gaming. The latest update for Fortnite on iOS continues to do that with more support for now-standard controller inputs and a higher framerate cap, as spotted by 9to5Mac.

While Fortnite already supported Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers on iOS, it hadn’t supported the inputs for thumbstick button presses. That changes with version 11.40 per Fortnite‘s change log. It will give players on iPhones and iPads more control parity with consoles, and let them more easily switch between playing on the different platforms.

That’s just a simple quality-of-life upgrade compared to what Epic Games has unlocked for iPad Pro owners. This new update will let the iPad Pro (2018) take advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate on their ProMotion displays, as Fortnite will allow gameplay to go up to 120 fps (frames per second).

A competitive option

That’s all great news for Fortnite players on iPhones and iPads. Fortnite is still one of the most popular apps according to Apple, and the new features will let iPhone and iPad users enjoy the game more fully.

But the iPad Pro upgrade highlights a different approach to enjoyment. It may be asking a lot of an iPad Pro’s graphics processor to run Fortnite on its high-resolution display at a whopping 120 FPS. At the highest graphical settings, it seems downright unlikely (though we won’t say impossible until we try it).

Now, with the option to lower graphics settings for Fortnite, the new 120 FPS cap may provide gamers on the iPad Pro an option generally relegated to PC gamers: The choice between maximum quality and maximum smoothness.

It’s one thing to enjoy how a game looks, and there’s nothing wrong with taking a hit to framerate in order to boost a games visuals. But a high fps rate can also improve the experience by smoothing out every action and reducing response time. For competitive gaming, the jump from 60 fps to 120 fps can offer a distinct advantage. Now, iPad Pro owners can feel a little more like a pro compared to all the other iOS gamers they play against.

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Gaming

iOS 16 lets you pair Nintendo Switch controllers to your iPhone

Two players play Nintendo Switch.

Apple forgot to mention one important detail about iOS 16 at its annual WWDC conference yesterday: iPhone users will be able to play games with their Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers.

iOS 16 won't be released to everyone's iPhones until fall, but it is currently out as a developer preview, giving devs ample opportunities to test out and discover some of the new operating system's quirks and exploits. Riley Testut, the developer behind the Delta emulator and AltStore, shared his discovery of iOS 16 natively supporting the Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con controllers, although they show up as a single device. He reported that "they work perfectly with Delta," which emulates games from SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance.

Computing

WWDC 2022 announcements: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, WatchOS 9, MacOS Ventura, MacBook Air M2, and more

Apple has finally kicked off the 2022 edition of its Worldwide Developers Conference. The main keynote of the conference, known as WWDC for short, will be streaming online, along with various breakout sessions, throughout the week.

The focus of the event was on the latest versions of Apple's operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, and WatchOS, and tvOS. A new MacBook Air powered by an M2 processor also made an appearance.
Watch a replay of the WWDC keynote
WWDC 2022 - June 6 | Apple

Gaming

Core brings its creator-driven metaverse to iOS this summer

Deadmau5's Core game Oberhasli works on mobile.

Core is coming to iOS and Mac later this year. This game creation tool turned burgeoning metaverse was previously only available on Windows, but starting today, creators can begin developing their games for those new platforms ahead of Core's summer 2022 launch there.
Core is Coming to iOS and MacOS
This announcement comes ahead of the first anniversary of Core's early access launch. Developer Manticore Games plans to give the iOS port of Core fully compatible with the PC and Mac versions. If a creator on Core goes through the effort to optimize their game for mobile, it will be fully monetizable and can support crossplay with all versions of Core. The game's development tools will even allow its creators to make their games mobile-first or mobile exclusive and include features like touch controls. Manticore Games definitely seems adamant about becoming one of the first large-scale metaverse games on mobile.
"Metaverse" is a fairly nebulous term, but Manticore Games CEO Frederic Descamps has a specific idea of its meaning in the context of Core. Speaking to Digital Trends, he said Core's metaverse is "a social environment where you can experiment, explore, and not just play games but do all sorts of things," as well as a "new place for self-expression and creativity." Manticore Games is leaning into those metaverse elements with a new experience called Party Portals, where players can create and host game nights with various minigames like Texas Hold'em or Bowling.
Core is one of the more coherent and popular metaverse projects out there, so it will be interesting to see how its community adapts to mobile. While development tools for mobile are available today, Core won't launch for iOS and Mac until the end of July 2022 according to Descamps.