First iPhone run: which title, how to build and install it¶

Measured 2026-10-27 on the iOS Simulator (iPhone 17 Simulator, Apple-silicon Mac under heavy load from other sessions), branch claude/ios-candidate-2026-10-27. Audio off (NAPPLE_AUDIO_OFF=1). Data: Testing Material, keys 22.1.0, firmware 22.1.0. Nothing here has run on a physical iPhone yet.

Recommendation: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (LAS, 01006BB00C6F0000, base v0). It is the only title that boots, renders correctly and plays on the Simulator. A signed device IPA is already built (see below).

Ranked table¶

Footprint = phys_footprint of the app process (what iOS jetsam judges). The Simulator keeps Metal textures outside the process, so on a phone add the GPU share (unmeasured, memlog: prints it on a device).

#	Title	Footprint peak / steady	Simulator fps	Visual quality	Input	Verdict
1	LAS	640 MB peak in the intro movie, 790 MB peak in play; steady 550-620 MB (title / menus), 780 MB in play (Marin's room)	57-60 in play and in the 1080p intro movie (`NAPPLE_PERF_LOG`), `gpu_ms_max` about 1-2 ms	Correct: intro movie, title, file select, difficulty, name entry, the opening cutscene and Marin's house all render with the tilt-shift look, no visible glitches	Scripted keys (`NAPPLE_INPUT_SCRIPT`) drive it from boot to gameplay; the on-screen pad draws correctly	Go. Needs the title's L+R at the title screen, name entry through the system keyboard applet
2	SMO	743 MB steady, 861 MB peak at the menu (35 s after launch)	menu only	Start / Assist Mode menu renders correctly	A on the menu starts "Compiling shaders" and the process sits at 0 % CPU (Simulator GPU: 32-byte colour attachment budget, device A11+ has 64; known from the earlier run, which aborted with the 48-byte assertion)	Not testable on the Simulator past the menu. Second choice for a phone only if LAS fails; a 5 GB game and 1 GB+ footprint once in the world are likely
3	ACNH 3.0.3 + DLC	none: aborts in 3 s	-	no frame	-	Blocked on the Simulator: `Texture Cube Array is not supported on this device` (`mtl_tex_get`). A-series devices support cube arrays, so a phone may pass; unverified. 11 GB of data
4	MK8D (latest update, AArch64)	none: aborts in 4 s	-	no frame	-	Blocked on the Simulator: `source texture pixelFormat RGBA8Unorm not compatible with texture view pixelFormat RGBA32Uint` (a texture-view usage flag missing in `mtl_tex.m`, gfx owner). 11 GB of data. Not a first-run candidate

Screenshots (docs/screenshots/ios-candidate/): las-intro, las-title, las-file-select, las-device-layout-difficulty, las-marin-room-1, las-marin-room-2, smo-menu, smo-after-A-compiling-shaders-hang.

Memory against the iPhone limit¶

LAS in play: 782 MB footprint (guest-mapped 3.28 GB of virtual size, almost all untouched), 60 fps. Far under the 1.8 GB target. No pool or budget change was needed for LAS; the footprint is dominated by the guest's own touched pages and the 5-6 GB of address space is free (only touched pages count).
The device layout was exercised on the Simulator: NAPPLE_HEAP_CAP_MB=3328 NAPPLE_ALIAS_GIB=1 reproduces the 6 GiB device window (3.25 GiB heap cap, 1 GiB alias). LAS boots, plays the intro movie, reaches the title and the new-game flow with it (the old note that LAS aborts in its movie library with the 3.25 GiB cap did not reproduce). Footprint 551-622 MB.
The paired phone is an iPhone 16 Pro Max (8 GB); the profiles on this Mac belong to a free account (no increased-memory-limit), so the default limit applies. A 790 MB peak plus the GPU share leaves a very large margin.
New: a memory log (runtime/src/memlog.m): every 20 s on iOS (NAPPLE_MEMLOG=1 elsewhere, NAPPLE_MEMLOG_SECS) one memlog: line with footprint, footprint peak, guest-mapped bytes, MTLDevice.currentAllocatedSize (0 on the Simulator) and, on iOS, os_proc_available_memory(). It is the first thing to read after the first phone run (Files > Napple > logs, or devicectl device process launch --console).
New cheap optimisation: iPhone / iPad default to handheld mode (720p), via the input binding default (input/src/bindings.c); a docked 1080p render target costs GPU memory and heat a phone does not need. Verified on the Simulator (operation mode: handheld (720p)). A saved input.json or NAPPLE_OP_MODE=docked overrides it.

Input¶

On the Simulator the Mac cannot deliver touches to the app (simctl / tool taps never reach it, same as the earlier notes), so the touch pad is exercised only visually here. Use a physical controller (the pad hides when one is connected) or the touch pad on the phone itself.
Scripted keys work and were used for all runs. LAS: NAPPLE_INPUT_SCRIPT="100:L+R,112:A,119:A,126:A,133:DOWN,138:A,..." with NAPPLE_SWKBD_ANSWER=Link reaches the game; on a phone press L+R (the touch L and R buttons together) at the title, A through the menus, A on the name field (keyboard applet) then down to OK.

Build and install the LAS IPA (free account, this Mac)¶

Already built here (signed with Apple Development: er.talevi@duocuc.cl (7HV79NKWDA), profile iOS Team Provisioning Profile: com.napple.las, team P2CG46TQ57, device 00008140-001421A2219B001C = the paired iPhone 16 Pro Max; codesign --verify --deep --strict passes; profile expires 2026-11-02):

~/Desktop/NappleIOS/LAS-com.napple.las.ipa (4.0 GB). Not installed on the phone by this session.

Install it (phone unlocked, Developer Mode on, trusted):

xcrun devicectl device install app --device 00008140-001421A2219B001C ~/Desktop/NappleIOS/LAS-com.napple.las.ipa
xcrun devicectl device process launch --console --device 00008140-001421A2219B001C com.napple.las

First launch of a free-account app: Settings > General > VPN & Device Management > trust the developer certificate. Studio route: iPhone & iPad pane, drop the LAS NSP, Target iPhone, pick identity 6C04BD3C... and profile com.napple.las, Build + Install.

Rebuild from scratch (needed after 2026-11-02 or a code change; 10 GB of scratch disk, about 4 minutes):

cd Napple
VPX=1 tools/build_ios_deps.sh && tools/build_ios.sh                   # libopus + libvpx, runtime/build-ios/napple-runtime
TM="<Testing Material>"
target/release/napple build "$TM/The Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening [01006BB00C6F0000][v0].nsp" \
  -k "$TM/Keys 22.1.0/prod.keys" --firmware "$TM/Firmware.22.1.0.zip" --target ios \
  --runtime runtime/build-ios/napple-runtime --signing-identity 6C04BD3CC87D879A77B9C36B557ABB477557D69F \
  --provisioning-profile "$HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Provisioning Profiles/3c8c76a4-0b33-402a-bc38-95996824b97f.mobileprovision" \
  --bundle-id com.napple.las --ipa -o out/las

napple build --list-signing shows the identities and profiles. Two other profiles exist (com.napple.smo, com.napple.mk8d) for the other titles. Identity 4 (E2817BD6...) is a different certificate that those profiles may or may not carry; 6C04BD3C... is the one in the LAS profile.

What to check on the phone, in order¶

The app opens and reaches the intro movie (a cannot load ... dlerror line means dyld refused a hand-built dylib; see docs/architecture/ios.md "Risks").
memlog: lines: footprint should stay under 1.5 GB; metal ... MB is the GPU share; system still allows should stay above 1 GB.
Title (L+R), file select, new game, Link wakes up in Marin's house, walk.
Thermals after 10 minutes; 60 fps at 720p is the expectation.

Not covered / open¶

Everything physical: exec-page rules, dyld on a phone, jetsam, thermals. LAS's memlog numbers on the device replace the estimates above.
The Simulator-only GPU limits that block SMO, ACNH and MK8D are gfx work (colour attachment 48 -> 32 bytes, cube arrays, texture-view usage), left to the gfx owners; not touched here.
memlog GPU figure is 0 on the Simulator.