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junebug1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 24, 2007
245
76
NE Ohio
With the upgrade to Series X Servers I am now pretty sure that the input lag is solely from using an Xbox controller over Bluetooth. I can't seem to find any way to successfully connect a wired Xbox controller to my 12.9" M1 iPad Pro. Does anyone out there know if this is possible and if not any recommendations for a USB-C wired controller that works with the iPad?
 
Hmm it should just work - the DualShock 4 works wired - USB-C to micro USB cable (even works over my Thunderbolt dock)
 
Dear Junebug1,

I’ve been facing the exact same problem for a couple of days now. I’m using an IPad Pro 12,9 2018 with Xcloud and I guess that the only latency occurring is because of the bluetooth controller. I tried Dualshock4 wired and wirelessly and the input lag is still present. I bought an Xbox Series controller today to give a try on the IPad which doesn’t recognize it while wired. Same occurs with the Stadia controller which also use USB-C.

It’s really frustrating because when using this xbox series controller on a old Samsung Tablet or on my Google Pixel 3 phone, there’s absolutely no input lag. I wonder if the PS5 controller over USB-C would do the trick ?.. Btw IPad OS 14.7 Public Beta 4 came out today as well as IPad Os 15 for non developper. I’ll download both version and see what happen but I don’t expect much from that.

Regards,
 
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@Jauged

Yeah it's really odd that you can't wire the Xbox Series controllers directly into the iPad Pro - but I also thought maybe its cause I was on the 14.7 beta so I upgraded to the 15 Beta 2 last night and still no luck with direct wired USB-C. The only thing holding this XCloud back from being incredible for me is the input lag as all the games load and run really well...
 
Dear Junebug1,

I’ve been facing the exact same problem for a couple of days now. I’m using an IPad Pro 12,9 2018 with Xcloud and I guess that the only latency occurring is because of the bluetooth controller. I tried Dualshock4 wired and wirelessly and the input lag is still present. I bought an Xbox Series controller today to give a try on the IPad which doesn’t recognize it while wired. Same occurs with the Stadia controller which also use USB-C.

It’s really frustrating because when using this xbox series controller on a old Samsung Tablet or on my Google Pixel 3 phone, there’s absolutely no input lag. I wonder if the PS5 controller over USB-C would do the trick ?.. Btw IPad OS 14.7 Public Beta 4 came out today as well as IPad Os 15 for non developper. I’ll download both version and see what happen but I don’t expect much from that.

Regards,
Perhaps the lag has nothing to do with wired vs wireless if it is happening in both modes? I can play wired verified by turning off BT. This is also not an issue when playing with PS4 Remote Play for me.
 
Perhaps the lag has nothing to do with wired vs wireless if it is happening in both modes? I can play wired verified by turning off BT. This is also not an issue when playing with PS4 Remote Play for me.
Hi musicpenguy,

when you say that you’re able to play wired, do you mean with a DualShock 4 controller or with a Xbox controller ? On an Ipad pro within USB-C ? On Xcloud ?

I’m having significantly more lag using Bluetooth than a wired DualShock 4 controller in xcloud on my I-ad pro, even when Bluetooth is turned off.
 
Hi musicpenguy,

when you say that you’re able to play wired, do you mean with a DualShock 4 controller or with a Xbox controller ? On an Ipad pro within USB-C ? On Xcloud ?

I’m having significantly more lag using Bluetooth than a wired DualShock 4 controller in xcloud on my I-ad pro, even when Bluetooth is turned off.
I’m confused how would you play with Bluetooth with Bluetooth turned off? I’ll play with the DualShock 4 plugged into the USB-C port of the iPad or with a Thunderbolt dock using a USB-Micro to USB-C cable - mostly do that now because of the iPadOS 15 beta being wonky with Bluetooth, but with 14 had no issues with Bluetooth gaming performance - mostly with the PS4 Streaming app, but did try it out with Stadia with no lag issues.
 
We were talking about Xcloud and Xbox controller.

Yes I tried with many other streaming app, the problem comes from Xcloud
 
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My Xbox (series S) controller only seems to work with XCloud on M1 Air when connected via bluetooth. Both the controller and Macbook have USB-C, so it's a bit strange that wired connections don't work. It was a pain to get the controller paired too. It took very many attempts before it worked. Bluetooth can be weird sometimes.
 
I’m pretty sure the controller has nothing to do with the lag when you press a button to jump and it takes nearly a second for it to happen on the display. xCloud is garbage.
 
With the upgrade to Series X Servers I am now pretty sure that the input lag is solely from using an Xbox controller over Bluetooth. I can't seem to find any way to successfully connect a wired Xbox controller to my 12.9" M1 iPad Pro. Does anyone out there know if this is possible and if not any recommendations for a USB-C wired controller that works with the iPad?

That is non-sense. Because if you use the Xbox controller with the Xbox Series X (via bluetooth), there is no lag. So the lag is not coming from using bluetooth.

The problem is the cloud itself.

Microsoft simply needs to fix their infrastructure.
 
That is non-sense. Because if you use the Xbox controller with the Xbox Series X (via bluetooth), there is no lag. So the lag is not coming from using bluetooth.

The problem is the cloud itself.

Microsoft simply needs to fix their infrastructure.
For reference the Series X absolutely 100% does NOT use Bluetooth to communicate with any Xbox controller. It uses what MS calls Xbox Wireless because a BT signal is not strong enough to meet MS specs for latency.

Not blaming the issues solely on BT as MS can certainly continue to work out and upgrade their infrastructure - but calling my post “non-sense” backed by your completely incorrect statement is actual nonsense.
 
The input latency with XBox Cloud is entirely an iOS issue. It’s because Apple insists on making stuff difficult for developers to bring the full experience to gamers, so MS is forced to use the Safari browser for game streaming, which is what the issue is. I have very fast internet and all of my iOS devices have at least 500ms or more input latency using an XBox controller, which means games are rendered unplayable. On my Android devices, the experience is stellar, with no perceptible lag. It’s so good that I’m always amazed every time I use it. But Android uses a proper XBox Cloud app, not the browser. The Safari browser wont work for this and I hope Apple allows MS to update the iOS XBox app to allow cloud gaming.
 
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