v1.5.0 Experimental — Native mobile gameplay

Added

• Experimental native gameplay on Apple Silicon Mac, ARM64 Android and iOS 18+, with stereo audio, standard physical-controller support and mobile touch controls. Native play supports local folders and prepared-server sources without opening a browser.
• Optional Low-end phone preset: low graphics, shadows off, half-resolution rendering, 30 FPS cap and an 8 MiB HTTP prefetch cache. Saved settings change only when applying the preset.
• Gameplay hides the startup bar; a safe-area launcher menu exposes diagnostics and exit. Fatal errors remain visible and release input, audio and vibration.
• Apple Silicon iOS Simulator support and unsigned device IPA packaging with preserved memory entitlement metadata. Device signing must authorize the capabilities; sideloaded native gameplay requires JIT.

Changed

• Stream module hashing, release compilation bytes before instantiation, bound HTTP prefetch and tile CPU texture conversion with at most 4 MiB scratch. Reuse indirect-draw staging storage.
• Respect scaled engine/input dimensions, wait for landscape before creating the mobile surface, and keep its bounds stable when startup chrome disappears.
• Retain the first runtime/GPU failure and provide bounded, opt-in readback diagnostics. Documentation and included evidence are sanitized.

Verification and limits

• Simulator completed a ten-minute GTA V world test with touch input, audio sample delivery and background/resume. Mac rendering/audio integration passed. See the verification report for measurements and acceptance limits.
• Native gameplay remains Experimental. Historical mobile allocator/readback crashes remain under investigation. Physical-device iOS signing/JIT and controller gameplay have not been accepted; the Mac's Bluetooth controller was detected but was not forwarded to the available Simulator preview. Android release compilation passed; further Redmi testing was stopped at the user's request.
• The iOS IPA is unsigned and cannot be installed directly. No game assets are bundled.

The attached ARM64 Android APK and unsigned ARM64 iOS IPA were built and checked locally. Additional platform packages may be added by the release workflow. The iOS IPA requires authorized signing and JIT; it is not directly installable.

v1.4.3

Changed

• Graphics chips without BC textures (iPhones and A-chip iPads, most Android phones) no longer stop at the graphics chip has no BC texture support: the game decodes its textures as they load and starts with the low-memory settings. Decoded textures take 4-8 times the graphics memory, so these devices may still run out of memory.

What's Changed

• Decode BC textures on chips without BC support (1.4.3) by @dev-gyata in #11

Full Changelog: v1.4.2...v1.4.3

v1.4.2

Added

• Engine build in Game options › Advanced: 32-bit or 64-bit (and Automatic on desktop). On phones and tablets 32-bit is selected by default; on Android you can switch to 64-bit, on iPhone/iPad only 32-bit runs.

What's Changed

• Choose the engine build in Game options by @dev-gyata in #10

Full Changelog: v1.4.1...v1.4.2

v1.4.1

Fixed

• iPad: the game now opens in landscape (it stayed in portrait).
• Torrent source: a piece requested while the launcher was still checking its download cache after a restart could wait forever. Such pieces are now read straight from disk.

What's Changed

• Keep the game in landscape on iPad by @dev-gyata in #9

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.4.1

v1.4.0

Added

• iPad and iPhone app (iOS/iPadOS 26+). The game plays inside the app. Game data comes from an HTTP mirror, a folder you pick (remembered across launches), or the app's own game folder, filled with the Files app or Finder. Distributed unsigned; see the README for sideloading.
• Safari support on Mac. Browsers without 64-bit WebAssembly (Safari and every iOS browser) get a 32-bit build of the engine, converted once in the browser and cached. Your game files are not modified.
• Sideloading guides for iOS and Android in the README.

Changed

• Android uses the 32-bit engine build by default. In testing it ran steadier and loaded faster.
• Release builds are much faster with warm caches (Windows about 28 → 10 minutes, macOS 13 → 6). A release can now be published from an earlier verified build without rebuilding.

Fixed

• Safari: shaders that clip geometry failed to compile, and draws with an unused resource group were rejected (a black world).

What's Changed

• Make the release build caches hit by @dev-gyata in #7
• iPad/iPhone app and Safari support by @dev-gyata in #8

Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.4.0

v1.3.0

Added

• Android app: the launcher serves the game on the device and opens it in Chrome, with a "Game server running · Stop" notification while you play. The server stops by itself when the app is closed or the game tab has been gone for 5 minutes.
• On-screen touch controls on phones and tablets (move stick, drag to look, the full button set). They hide while a controller is connected.
• Game options: start mode, new game, graphics profile, shadows, render scale, frame rate cap, FPS counter, controller and touch modes, camera sensitivity, skip the device check.
• Android folder picker with All files access.
• Turn on WebGPU in Chrome helper on Android.
• A device check before loading, naming what a device lacks (64-bit WebAssembly, WebGPU, BC textures) instead of a black screen.
• Android app icon.

Changed

• Start-menu buttons are larger on touch screens.

What's Changed

• Touch controls and Android app by @dev-gyata in #5
• Android folder picker, game options, WebGPU help by @dev-gyata in #6

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.3.0

v1.2.0

Added

• Full controller support through the game's own gamepad layer: analog sticks and triggers, the console button layout (weapon and character wheels), controller button prompts, and vibration.

What's Changed

• Full controller support through the game's gamepad layer (v1.2.0) by @dev-gyata in #4

Full Changelog: v1.1.0...v1.2.0

v1.1.0

Added

• Controller support, mapped to keyboard and mouse.
• An original launcher logo and app icons.

What's Changed

• Controller support and new logo (v1.1.0) by @dev-gyata in #3

Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.1.0

v1.0.0

Added

• First release for Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux.
• Game sources: a local folder, an HTTP mirror, or a magnet link (bundled torrent engine that downloads only the pieces the game asks for, ZIP mirrors supported).
• In-app play on macOS and Windows; browser play on Linux.

What's Changed

• Verify branch protection (empty, will merge) by @dev-gyata in #1
• Fix desktop release dependencies and add platform setup docs by @dev-gyata in #2

New Contributors

• @dev-gyata made their first contribution in #1

Full Changelog: https://github.com/dev-gyata/gta-launcher/commits/v1.0.0