An unofficial iOS port of OpenGothic — the open-source re-implementation of Gothic II: Night of the Raven. This fork adds the plumbing to build, sideload, and play OpenGothic on iPhone/iPad with a Bluetooth controller or a full on-screen virtual gamepad.
Important
This repository contains an older, less up-to-date iOS build and is retained for historical reference. For the current version, updates and releases, use tryk016/OpenGothic.
The information below describes this legacy build. Its core loop — gameplay, the on-screen virtual gamepad, save/load with slot previews, haptics and the iOS performance profile — was tested and confirmed on a device. The hard 30 fps cap was lifted (ProMotion), with optional Off/30/60 FPS pacing. Physical-controller movement response and jump landing were also device-confirmed, but this build may contain bugs and no longer reflects the latest development.
The entire engine is the work of Try and the OpenGothic contributors. OpenGothic and its rendering engine Tempest are what make this possible — this fork only finishes and wires up the iOS path. Please support the upstream project: ⭐ Try/OpenGothic · 💬 Discord. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the original authors; distributed under the same license.
Controller glyphs are Xelu's Free Controller & Keyboard Prompts by Nicolae "Xelu" Berbece (CC0).
Gothic II: Night of the Raven is required — OpenGothic ships no game assets or scripts. You must legally own the game and supply its data yourself.
Target: iPhone/iPad on iOS 15+, arm64. Best on modern GPUs (A-series / M-series). Locked to landscape.
No fork, no compiling — two prebuilt unsigned .ipa variants are maintained. Detailed guide:
ios/README-ios.md.
- Install MetalFX Temporal (recommended). In SideStore: Sources → +, paste
https://github.com/tryk016/opengothic-ios/releases/download/metalfx-temporal/apps.json, then install OpenGothic MetalFX Temporal. It uses Apple's temporal upscaler for the best reconstruction quality available in this port and automatically falls back to MetalFX Spatial and then Lanczos if required. - Use the Lanczos compatibility build only if Temporal causes a crash or graphics problem. Add
https://github.com/tryk016/opengothic-ios/releases/download/latest/apps.json, or download the IPA from the Lanczos compatibility release. - Add your game data. Copy the
Data/,_work/, andsystem/folders from your own Gothic II install into the app's Documents folder (Files app on iOS). This is needed only for the first install; normal SideStore updates preserve Documents, saves and settings. Launch and play.
Both variants use the same bundle identifier. Updates and installs over the existing app preserve its Documents container, but do not uninstall the app when switching variants: uninstalling removes the copied game data and saves unless they are backed up. See the detailed guide if SideStore does not offer the lower-version Lanczos build as an automatic update.
Maintainers: trigger the MetalFX Temporal
or Lanczos compatibility workflow, or use
ios/build-ios.sh + Xcode on a Mac — see the guide.
Two input modes; the on-screen overlay hides automatically when a controller is connected.
Bluetooth controller (contextual Gothic scheme — Xbox / PlayStation buttons):
Text alternative: complete button mapping
| Function | Xbox | PlayStation |
|---|---|---|
| Interact / use / confirm | A | ✕ |
| Melee special / Back | B | ○ |
| Jump / climb | X | □ |
| Draw / sheathe weapon | Y | △ |
| Move / turn | Left stick | Left stick |
| Camera | Right stick | Right stick |
| Draw bow / aim; melee block | LT | L2 |
| Draw melee; attack / shoot / cast | RT | R2 |
| Walk; melee left attack; previous Journal/Statistics page | LB | L1 |
| Look back; melee right attack; next Journal/Statistics page | RB | R1 |
| Sneak | L3 | L3 |
| Target lock | R3 | R3 |
| Edit Items ring (inventory) | R3 | R3 |
| Items ring | D-pad ↑ | D-pad ↑ |
| Weapons / Magic ring | D-pad ↓ | D-pad ↓ |
| Quest log / previous combat target | D-pad ← | D-pad ← |
| Map / next combat target | D-pad → | D-pad → |
| Inventory | View | Share / Create |
| Game menu | Menu | Options |
| Unstuck teleport | hold L3 + R3 ~2 s | hold L3 + R3 ~2 s |
- Two separate quick-rings: D-pad ↑ opens the Items ring (4 inner + 9 outer slots); D-pad ↓ opens the Weapons / Magic ring (equipped melee and ranged weapons inside, 8 spell-book slots outside). These are two panels, not one combined wheel; D-pad ↑/↓ also switches between them while open. Aim by the right-stick angle and distance, press A or RT to use the selected slot, or B to cancel. Tiles show real 3D item icons.
- Automatic or assigned Items ring: until its first edit, the Items ring fills its 9 outer slots first, then its 4 inner slots, using potions, food and torches from the live inventory. To customize it, highlight any non-gold item in the normal player inventory, press R3, point at a sector with the right stick, then press RT to assign it or LT to clear that sector; B closes the editor without another change. The manual layout is stored per save. A consumed or missing item leaves its binding empty and reappears there when acquired again. A lit torch is included synthetically so it can still be stowed. The Weapons / Magic ring remains automatic and uses equipped gear plus all active spell-book slots 3–10.
- Contextual combat: LT blocks in melee and aims a bow; RT attacks, shoots or casts. LB/RB become left/right melee attacks and otherwise provide walk/look-back. Outside target lock, D-pad ← opens the quest journal and D-pad → opens the map; while target lock is active they select the previous/next target.
- Journal and Statistics: D-pad ← opens the Journal. On its category screen, D-pad selects a category, A enters it and B closes the page. In a quest list, D-pad ↑/↓ selects a quest, A opens its text and B returns one level. LB/RB switches directly between the Journal and Statistics pages.
- Inventory: LB/RB jumps to the previous/next sorted item category; R3 opens Items-ring assignment for the highlighted player item; the sticks and D-pad retain normal grid navigation.
- System buttons: View opens the inventory and Menu opens the game menu. Quick save/load remains available to the engine through its keyboard commands, but is not assigned to the controller.
- Left-stick response: the vertical axis keeps Gothic's animation-driven movement with press/release hysteresis; the horizontal axis turns proportionally to the deflection. A sloped axial guard rejects accidental movement while the stick is held mostly sideways (and accidental turning while held mostly forward/back). Returning to neutral, opening a ring/UI, disconnecting or resuming the app releases controller-owned actions before input can re-arm.
- Config lives in
Documents/Gothic.iniunder[GAMEPAD]—analogDeadZone,analogEngageZone,deadZone,releaseZone,crossAxisGuard,lookSensitivity,invertY,triggerThresholdandnoStuckProtect.
On-screen virtual gamepad (no controller): a full pad is drawn during play — move pad + camera area, A/B/X/Y, shoulders/triggers, sticks, D-pad, View/Menu — using the Xelu glyphs. It mirrors the physical pad's contextual mapping and two D-pad quick-rings. Menus and dialogues get on-screen D-pad + OK/Back/Skip; the Journal and Statistics pages additionally show LB/RB page controls. While a ring is open, only corner controls remain: D-pad ↑/↓ switches the two panels and B cancels; drag anywhere else and release to use the selected sector.
The copied Documents/system/Gothic.ini is never overwritten. On the first
successful launch after valid game data is installed, OpenGothic creates a
separate Documents/Gothic.ini override if it is absent, with the complete iOS
profile: half-resolution 3D rendering, SSAO off, 1024 px shadow maps, a 30 FPS
default, quick-save support and all stable [GAMEPAD] defaults (including
crossAxisGuard=0.12). Existing explicit FPS choices remain unchanged; the
legacy generated 512 px shadow setting is upgraded once to 1024 px.
The generated profile, upgrade note, override priority, optional FPS cap and diagnostic settings are documented in the iOS configuration reference.
Options → Video → Drawing distance is live on iOS: 100% corresponds to an approximately 1 km world far plane, while 80%/60%/40% correspond to roughly 800/600/400 m. Options → Game → FPS limit provides Off, 30 and 60 FPS; 30 FPS is the iOS default.
- Legacy build — the core game loop is device-tested, but this repository is older and less up-to-date. Use tryk016/OpenGothic for current development.
- Mesh shaders are disabled on iOS for GPU compatibility.
- On-screen virtual-pad button layout is a first pass and still needs on-device tuning.
- Build/distribution: cloud build of an unsigned
.ipa(.github/workflows/ios.yml);ios/build script, sideload/data guide, and submodule patches (ios/patches/apply-patches.sh). - Controller: event-driven GameController snapshots (
game/utils/gamepad.*), a release-safe, context-aware dispatcher with left-stick hysteresis and proportional turning that also drives menus/dialogues (game/ui/gamepadinput.*), native target lock-on, two concentric-row radial panels with 3D item icons (game/ui/quickring.*), contextual zGamePad-inspired combat controls, haptics (game/utils/haptics.*), stuck-protection, and a[GAMEPAD]config. - On-screen input: a full virtual gamepad + menu/dialogue/inventory controls with controller glyphs
(
game/ui/touchinput.*,game/ui/padglyph.*,assets/controller/), a complete controller-layout screen and a lock-on reticle. - iOS lifecycle/robustness: graceful "data not found" message instead of a crash
(
game/utils/systemmsg.*), audio-session setup (game/utils/audiosession.*), landscape lock, keep the screen awake, Game Mode keys, fence-safe save-slot previews with immediate save feedback, and dialogue voice-over on ≥4 GB devices. - Performance & display: ProMotion with native Off/30/60 display-link pacing, triple buffering, direct Metal drawable rendering, on-demand SSAO buffers, reduced offscreen/distant NPC pose work, live menu-controlled drawing distance, safe-area-aware HUD, configurable shadow resolution, and the upscale-based render-scale guide. The recommended build adds Apple MetalFX Temporal upscaling with automatic MetalFX Spatial and Lanczos fallbacks; a separate Lanczos-only compatibility build remains available.
For the engine itself — Windows/Linux/macOS builds, features, mods, command-line arguments, graphics options, and the contribution guide — see the upstream project: Try/OpenGothic.