Hello everyone, excruciatingly long post ahead so if you're reading this, get comfy:) I searched the forum for keywords like Apple, iPad, MacBook, controller etc and couldn't find the info I wanted so thought I'd share my recent experience.
I started playing again a couple of weeks ago after a six or seven year hiatus, much has changed! New people, new missions… good on you Zup for continuing to develop the game. I probably stopped playing soon after it changed from Dogfight to Dogfight Elite, and amongst other reasons, reckon my internet was too slow to have much fun without being branded a “lagger”. When I played the non-Elite game I made MORAF at some point but glad to be back even if I have to work my way up from entry level planes again.
The reason for this post is I thought I'd mention something about my devices, long time Apple user here (my dad bought one of the first Macintosh ‘puters back in 1986, I've not really used Windows at all, my wife used Apple as well when we met so we're kind of tragic loyalists). I used to play on a tiny iPhone then an iPad, recently bought a bigger iPad Pro to use at work but it's a bit cumbersome for tilt playing.
Playing against CanKid I noticed how he had superior turning even when we were in matched planes, he told me he used a PC and a PS4 controller with full throttle and full rudder. Hmm, what's this "rudder" you speak of? Out of curiosity I tried the game through Steam on my MacBook and discovered that the Z & X keys control the rudder, which isn't available on the iPad/iPhone. Using a keyboard was too tricky for me so went back to the iPad tilt game, then yesterday I splurged some $ and got a bluetooth and/or wired controller (8BitDo Pro 2 which can mask its identity as Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows/Xbox, Android). Couldn't get it to work with the game even though it connected to my devices, went down the rabbit hole trying to figure how to bind the controller to keyboard commands, watching Steam youtube tutorials etc but I'm too old to learn new tricks it seems.
Then I remembered Apple TV have games, never tried playing anything on that before, sure enough DF Elite was available, and the controller works fine... but the game only works in Practice mode, Multiplayer won't run because the Apple TV store hasn't updated the game in years. Was about to give up but wondered if Steam can run it on my laptop, maybe the game is available on the regular App Store? It was only available for phone/tablet and not laptop when I used to play.
Search for it, and there it is… however, it says “Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS” as well as “iPhone, iPad and Apple TV Apps”. Dammit… however, the download button is there, so I hit it and wait. To my delight and surprise, it opens up, the settings screen is wacky/super pixelated but I get past that and voila, the controller works fine! Felt like an idiot for wasting all that time trying to get it work on the iPad and Steam when it waiting in the App Store all along. Zup if you ever see this, you might like to know it seems to run no problems on macOS.
Lining up to shoot tanks or planes head on is still easier and steadier on the iPad for me, but the turning ability in planes, tanks, parachute etc is better with the controller. The right joystick controls the throttle (up/down) and the rudder (left/right), however using the rudder affects the throttle at the same time; the only way I can use it is keeping it pushed forward for full throttle whilst steering, otherwise the throttle drops to zero. Is this the same experience for others, or any tips on how to assign different controls for the rudder?
tl;dr DF Elite works fine on MacBook with controller (no need for Steam)
Cheers all,
Sly
