PlayCover: A Swift repository from HowieHye

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PlayCover

Run iOS apps & games on M1 Mac with mouse, keyboard and controller support.

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About the fork & Disclaimer

This fork has been created by the community to support the development of PlayCover, since the original project became non-free and non-open-source.

This fork is not affiliated with the original project, nor the original author.

This fork is not affiliated with the website https://playcover.me.

I am supporting this project in my spare time, so if you have any questions, please ask the community for help first.

The original project is under GNU General Public License v3.0, so there is no legal issue to fork it and redistribute.

Many things are under construction, so please be patient. Any contribution is welcome.

If you want to compile it on your own computer, you may need to make a few changes to the source code:

Linking paths to the correct libraries
Auth0 integration
i18n resources

CI and compilation fixes are coming soon.

If anyone feels like this fork somehow violates the copyright (e.g., the logo), please open an issue.

Some promises:

This fork will always stay open-source and will be maintained by the community.
Even if I don't have time to maintain this fork, I will leave this fork to community to maintain.
Ask for maintainer's role in the community if you would like to help.

About The Project

Welcome to PlayCover! This software is all about allowing you to run apps & games on your M1 device running macOS 12.0 or newer.

It does this by putting the applications through a wrapper which imitates an iPad. This allows the apps to perform very well and run natively because the M1 chip is essentially a glorified mobile chip. Another advantage to the software is that you can insert and manipulate custom controls with your keyboard, which is not possible in alternative sideloading methods such as Sideloadly. These controls include all the essentials, from WASD, Camera movement, Left and Right clicks, and individual keymapping, similar to a popular Android emulator’s keymapping system called Bluestacks.

This software was originally designed to run Genshin Impact on your M1 device, but it can now run a wide range of applications. However, not all games are supported, and there may be bugs in games.

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Getting Started

Following the installation instructions will get Genshin Impact you up and running in no time. The steps can be repeated if you want to try out other games or apps.

Prerequisites

At the moment, PlayCover can only be installed and executed on M1 MacBooks. Devices with the following chips are supported:

M1
M1 Pro
M1 Max
M1 Ultra

Unfortunately it cannot run on any Intel chips, so you are forced to use Bootcamp or other emulators.

Homebrew Cask

We host a Homebrew tap with the PlayCover cask. To install from it:

Tap PlayCover/playcover with brew tap PlayCover/playcover;
Install PlayCover with brew install --cask playcover-community.

To uninstall:

Remove PlayCover using brew uninstall --cask playcover-community;
Untap PlayCover/playcover with brew untap PlayCover/playcover.

Build from Source

You will need:

Carthage
Xcode
An Apple ID

Just clone this project, open it in Xcode.

You have to codesign it with your Apple ID in Xcode, just follow the instructions.

Extra Installation Steps For Genshin Impact

Disable SIP
- This can be done by shutting down your mac, holding down power button
- After this, click on your username/ssd, then keep going until you can see Utilities at the top
- When you see this, click on it and click on Terminal
- After this, you should be in a terminal window
- Type csrutil disable in that terminal window
- Put your password and everything, then restart your mac
Modify nvram boot-args
- When you have SIP disabled, type the following:
  - Command + Space, type Terminal in the search box
- It should open a normal terminal window
- Type the following in this window (or copy paste it)
  - sudo nvram boot-args="amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1"
- If it appears that nothing has happened, this is correct.
- Now restart your mac once again
Login to Genshin
- Open Genshin Impact with PlayCover, and you should be greeted with a Login button
- Login to your account, then wait until the door appears and quit the game with Command + Q. DO NOT CLICK/ENTER THE DOOR.
- Thats all which is required in Genshin for now
Enable SIP
- Shut down your mac again
- Hold down the power button until you get to recovery options
- Click on your username and your storage disk respectively like you did for step 1.
- You should see Utilities at the top
- Click on it, and Click on Terminal
- In terminal, type the following: csrutil enable
  - csrutil clear should also work
- Reboot your mac by going to Apple Logo > Restart
Open Genshin
- You're done! Enjoy playing genshin!

Video Instructions

The above steps are shown in the following video:

How to play Genshin Impact using Playcover on your M1 Mac (2020 or newer)!

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Keymapping

Button Events

Opens a menu to add a button element
- Clicking on the screen
Edit keymapping binding
- Click on a keymap and press the key you want binded
Bind left mouse button
- Clicking on 'LB'
Bind right mouse button
- Clicking on 'RB'
Bind middle mouse button
- Clicking on '🖱️'
Adds a W/A/S/D joystick
- Clicking on the '➕'
Adds a mouse area for mouse control
- Clicking on the '🔁'

Flow Control

Increase the selected buttons size
- Menu Bar > Keymapping > Upsize Selected Element OR Cmd + '↑'
Decrease the selected buttons size
- Menu Bar > Keymapping > Upsize Selected Element OR Cmd + '↓'
Delete the selected keymapping
- CMD + delete (backspace)
Toggle between show/hide cursor
- Press option (⌥)

Importing Keybinds

Download the .playmap file from #📝・keymap-showcase
Open PlayCover and right click the app you wish to import the keybinds to
Click on Import Keymapping
Select the previously downloaded .playmap file
Quit and reopen the app
- This step is required for the newly imported keymapping to work

For additional help, please join the Discord server

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Contributing

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!