Two things, the second of which is the reason the first is safe.
A NEW KIND. pickFile("stadium") opens the document picker for a Nintendo 64
cartridge and lands it as picked_stadium.z64. The caller I wrote it for is
the Dramatic Shape voxel mod, which builds Pokemon Stadium battle models out
of the player's own cartridge -- on desktop it opens a dialog for that, and
on iOS it could only print a sandbox path to a screen and ask the player to
put a file somewhere they cannot reach from a phone.
Its own filename, not picked_rom.gb, because that is the name the Game Boy
importer watches: a 32 MB N64 ROM landing there is deleted and then reported
to the player as a broken cartridge.
WHICH IS ALSO WHAT AN UNKNOWN KIND USED TO DO. The switch's default case
treated anything it did not recognise as a Game Boy ROM, so a caller asking
for a kind the build predates lost the player's file -- the worst available
answer to "I have not heard of that one". Unknown kinds are refused now.
That refusal is invisible on its own: pickFile returns false, which is also
what "the picker would not open" returns, and a mod cannot tell them apart.
So the host says what it knows -- love.system.pickFileKinds() returns
"rom,mod,sav,stadium", or nil where there is no bridge. A caller asks first
and keeps whatever fallback it had; the voxel mod shows its folder note
again, which is what it did before any picker existed.
Tested on an iPhone 17 Pro: a Stadium cartridge imports from the picker and
the models build.
UIDocumentPickerViewController reports an interactive dismissal only through
UIAdaptivePresentationControllerDelegate. PickerDelegate implemented
didPickDocumentsAt and documentPickerWasCancelled, so a sheet swiped away
reached neither, onFinish never ran, and the delegate stayed in
liveDelegates -- after which the re-present guard refused every later picker
while still answering true.
Implements the dismissal callback, and self-heals when UIKit is presenting
nothing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Makes the iOS build a first-class citizen: ROM/mod/save import through
the system document picker (the README's missing "UIDocumentPicker
handoff"), Files-app drop-in support, and an opt-in Apple Health
step-sync seam consumed by a new gallery mod (Pokewalker).
Native layer (mobile/ios/native/, wired by mobile/ios/patch_love_src.py
on every build, so the fetched love-src tree stays pristine + re-patchable):
- GRPickerBridge.swift: love.system.pickFile("rom"|"mod"|"sav") and
love.system.createFile on iOS with the same contract as love-android's
SAF picker (picked_rom.gb / picked_mod.zip / picked_save.sav /
export_done.flag in the save dir). Reached from wrap_System.cpp via the
ObjC runtime, so liblove needs no Swift interop.
- GRBootstrap.m: sweeps .gb/.gbc/.zip/.sav dropped in Documents (Files
app / Finder sharing) into the save dir on every activation;
UIFileSharingEnabled + LSSupportsOpeningDocumentsInPlace in the plist
overlay. Drop a ROM, open the app, it imports with zero taps.
- GRHealthBridge.swift: love.system.syncHealthSteps() -> read-only
HealthKit step query anchored to the last sync, delivered as
steps_pending.json (merge-not-overwrite). HealthKit entitlement +
usage description included.
Lua:
- RomImporter: iOS rides the Android mobile flows; a 0.5s poll consumes
picker deliveries (iOS pickers are in-process modals, so the Android
refocus rescan never fires); failed pick copies surface as an
on-screen notice via pick_error.txt.
- main.lua: on iOS, stop forwarding touchpressed to the Importer - LOVE
already synthesizes a mousepressed for the primary touch, and the
resulting same-frame double-present made the document picker
auto-dismiss with zero documents (silent import failure).
- mods/pokewalker: opt-in Pokewalker mod (manifest v2, MECHANIC,
permissions declared, mod.card, CHANGELOG, headless test suite 9/9,
modkit validate --base imported + lint clean). Fused into iOS
game.love only; loads dormant anywhere without the bridge.
Build (scripts/build_ios.sh):
- Fix Xcode 26: the global PRODUCT_NAME override also renamed liblove.a
and broke the app link; the app bundle is renamed after the build
instead.
- Fix nondeterministic pack failures: grep -q + pipefail races SIGPIPE
on the game.love content checks.
- Simulator builds sign ad-hoc so entitlements embed (HealthKit works in
the simulator).
- Device builds: signing team auto-detected from the keychain,
CODE_SIGN_STYLE=Automatic + -allowProvisioningUpdates for CLI-only
provisioning, per-team derived bundle ID (explicit App IDs are
globally unique, so third parties can't sign the project default),
gitignored mobile/ios/bundle_id.local pin, and --install to push to a
connected iPhone.
- docs/ios-install.md: a zero-knowledge walkthrough from bare Mac to
playing on an iPhone.
Backward compatibility: no behavior change on desktop or Android. The
new love.system functions exist only under LOVE_IOS; RomImporter's
mobile flag simply includes iOS alongside Android; the main.lua change
is iOS-gated; the Pokewalker mod is packed only by the iOS build script
and its option defaults off.
Verified on an iPhone 17 Pro simulator and an iPhone 16 Pro device:
scripted ROM import to title screen, Files-drop zero-tap import,
picker-driven mod install and save import/export, HealthKit permission
sheet + step credit (4000 steps -> +200 EXP at the default rate through
the engine growth curve).
Adrian Castro
hernan
Myles Resnick