Could GZDoom be on iOS

[ALilGrayBoi]

Because of the new App Store policy changes, emulators are now allowed onto the App Store. Could a port of GZDoom or any other source port be on iOS now?

[Kinsie]

Last I checked, source ports are not emulators.

[Edward850]

I believe at present the limitation with most source ports is GPLv3, the Tivo clause is incompatible with the iOS store.

(The other limitation is how many source port authors here even have MacOS to be able to make iOS apps?)

[Graf Zahl]

The main question would be: Does Apple allow sideloading of apps? Once that is the case the Tivo clause won't be a problem anymore.

Aside from the legal issues this is something better asked to the D-Touch object. Making the code work on another platform is one thing, having suitable controls is something entirely different and GZDoom proper has no touch controls at all.

 

 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

GZDoom's graphics options are too bloated for high-performance low-powered mobile devices. It would require rewriting the graphics code to get it optimized on iOS to begin with. As we learned from Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" open letter, you have to have to decode the codec (Audio, Video or Image formats) be run through hardware, as software decoding uses too much power, and you have to use both native iOS programming languages and HTML5 if you want to support Apple's devices.

 

Also, Apple deprecated OpenGL in both iOS and macOS in 2018 in favor of Metal, and doesn't even support Vulkan, as they supposedly abandoned their membership with the Khronos Group.

[Graf Zahl]

So much uninformed nonsense...

The stuff you are talking about is at least 10 years out of date.

 

Have you even seen what games can do on mobile these days? GZDoom is nothing compared to that. Regarding Metal, we use MoltenVK which also exists on iOS so that part should work with no problems.

Video playback is absolutely secondary for Doom and could be disabled if push came to shove.

No, you won't need HTML5 and 'native iOS languages' (whatever this is you are thinking about) to support the platform. It is well capable of setting up a window you can render into from C++ code.

D-Touch works just fine on Android, so why shouldn't something similar work on iOS where you can take a lot more CPU power for granted than on Android where devices are all over the place.

 

 

[Kinsie]

4 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

GZDoom's graphics options are too bloated for high-performance low-powered mobile devices.

Delta Touch has existed on Android devices for at least six years now.

 

4 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Also, Apple deprecated OpenGL in both iOS and macOS in 2018 in favor of Metal, and doesn't even support Vulkan, as they supposedly abandoned their membership with the Khronos Group.

GZDoom has supported Metal via MoltenVK for at least four years now.

 

I say this pretty much every time you post, I'm going to say it again, and you're going to ignore it again: Stop spouting off about stuff you don't know anything about.

[Redneckerz]

6 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

GZDoom's graphics options are too bloated for high-performance low-powered mobile devices.

....are you even aware of what you are saying?

[kevansevans]

16 hours ago, Edward850 said:

I believe at present the limitation with most source ports is GPLv3, the Tivo clause is incompatible with the iOS store.

(The other limitation is how many source port authors here even have MacOS to be able to make iOS apps?)

 

I'm likely wrong here because interpreting the GPL is a fuck, but I don't think the Tivo clause would apply here? That was added to GPLv3 to prevent people from using software on devices that are so tightly locked down you can't be arsed to even bother modifying the source code. While, I'll conceit, Apple doesn't go out of their way to make it friendly to install your own software on their phones, it's not impossible if you're willing to pay the $99 yearly fee and buy the Macbook/Macintosh to go along with it. So I think the only roadblock (I say with sarcasm) would just be someone with enough time and deep enough pockets to afford to develop an iOS app.

 

Then again, with how the European Union is pressuring Apple to start allowing sideloading in the EU, that might cascade into sideloading regardless of where you are on the planet, so we might see GZDoom on iOS soon (TM).

[ALilGrayBoi]

22 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

GZDoom proper has no touch controls at all.

 

 

The mobile controls for the unity port of doom are pretty solid, at least for me. Maybe there could be bindable buttons or controller support for mods that use other keys

[Major Arlene]

15 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

GZDoom's graphics options are too bloated for high-performance low-powered mobile devices.

Lol

[Graf Zahl]

1 hour ago, ALilGrayBoi said:

The mobile controls for the unity port of doom are pretty solid, at least for me. Maybe there could be bindable buttons or controller support for mods that use other keys

 

They won't help because no source exists. Also, we already got Delta-Touch as a base to derive from.

 

9 hours ago, kevansevans said:

 

I'm likely wrong here because interpreting the GPL is a fuck, but I don't think the Tivo clause would apply here? That was added to GPLv3 to prevent people from using software on devices that are so tightly locked down you can't be arsed to even bother modifying the source code. While, I'll conceit, Apple doesn't go out of their way to make it friendly to install your own software on their phones, it's not impossible if you're willing to pay the $99 yearly fee and buy the Macbook/Macintosh to go along with it. So I think the only roadblock (I say with sarcasm) would just be someone with enough time and deep enough pockets to afford to develop an iOS app. 

 

 

Who knows? The main problem with the GPL is that it is entirely written in excessive legalese to make sure even the smallest loophole is covered.

The result of this is that people tend to be careful because no normal person will be able to decipher this cryptic text and even lawyers depend on interpretation that may or may not hold up in court. At all the places I worked at over the last 20 years or so there always was a strict 'no GPL source' mentality, i.e. the general attitude was that even reading GPL code on work related things was considered dangerous. Although I doubt this case will ever be contested in a court of law, the same attitude towards the GPL still stands with many developers.

 

[Shepardus]

1 hour ago, Major Arlene said:

Lol

I knew what this was going to be before I clicked on it, but I was still shocked by the "13 years ago" under the video. Where did all that time go???

[Kinsie]

1 hour ago, Major Arlene said:

Lol

lmao, even

[Helton342]

18 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Delta Touch has existed on Android devices for at least six years now.

 

There is that, and there's also DosBox and PrBoom For RetroArch.

[harakari]

Hi everyone, just thought I'd resurrect this thread and share that the answer to this question is yes!

 

GenZD, my port of GZDoom for iOS, has been approved and is now available on the App Store:

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/genzd/id6503916449

 

Here's a YouTube video of it on how to use it:

 

The touch virtual controls leave a little to be desired and I'm working on improving them for the next update. I was really focused on getting this approved so I held off on making a lot of improvements until I got the approval from Apple (which took a long time!).

 

[Kinsie]

48 minutes ago, harakari said:

Hi everyone, just thought I'd resurrect this thread and share that the answer to this question is yes!

 

GenZD, my port of GZDoom for iOS, has been approved and is now available on the App Store:

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/genzd/id6503916449

 

Here's a YouTube video of it on how to use it:

 

The touch virtual controls leave a little to be desired and I'm working on improving them for the next update. I was really focused on getting this approved so I held off on making a lot of improvements until I got the approval from Apple (which took a long time!).

 

Impressive stuff! I'll be sure to check it out.

 

(Did some searching around and yes, the source code does seem to be released. Wasn't visibly obvious from the Youtube and store page, so I'll just link it here to head off any angry interrogations.)

[Shepardus]

I was so ready to barge into this thread and reply "no" to the title that I wasn't expecting the bump to be from someone who actually did it. Very nice, this fills a major void in the source port landscape!

[harakari]

2 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Impressive stuff! I'll be sure to check it out.

 

(Did some searching around and yes, the source code does seem to be released. Wasn't visibly obvious from the Youtube and store page, so I'll just link it here to head off any angry interrogations.)

 

Thank you! Yes, that is my fork and the current source, but I will need to make the link to the source code more prominent as well as push up some additional files as my build process to generate the Xcode project is rather convoluted.

[Geniraul]

3 hours ago, harakari said:

Hi everyone, just thought I'd resurrect this thread and share that the answer to this question is yes!

 

GenZD, my port of GZDoom for iOS, has been approved and is now available on the App Store:

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/genzd/id6503916449

 

This sounds amazing and almost certainly deserves a separate thread!

[ALilGrayBoi]

On 7/24/2024 at 10:05 AM, harakari said:

GenZD, my port of GZDoom for iOS, has been approved and is now available on the App Store

Finally. I can sleep peacefully tonight 

[stinkfist]

Never thought I’d actually see the day. Thank you for creating this. Just tested it out. The on screen controls are a tad bit clunky, but not unplayable by any means. I really can’t believe this is on the App Store. Can’t wait to stress test some wads! 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Now this is amazing

 

I remember having a similar app on my galaxy tablet in 2015 (iirc) and i loaded a lot of wads in it.

 

It was a shame that something happened and they removed it, and the author made a new one but i had to pay extra. Then I moved to iOS so I will give this a try

[harakari]

15 hours ago, stinkfist said:

Never thought I’d actually see the day. Thank you for creating this. Just tested it out. The on screen controls are a tad bit clunky, but not unplayable by any means. I really can’t believe this is on the App Store. Can’t wait to stress test some wads! 

 

Thanks for trying it out! I'm working on improving the touch controls right now.

 

The App Review team had some questions for me about the app, and then it went into a long review period where I didn't hear anything for a month and then it got approved 😄

[ALilGrayBoi]

On 7/24/2024 at 10:05 AM, harakari said:

GenZD, my port of GZDoom for iOS, has been approved and is now available on the App Store:

I know it’s been months but i need to say. I owe you my life