Minecraft Java Edition on iOS 17

Описание

Semi-fully functional Minecraft Java Edition 1.18.2 on an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.1.1. The game is far more stable on the previous generation iPhone running iOS 16, as seen here when the game crashes after just a couple minutes.

PojavLauncher, a sideloaded iOS app, is the software used to enable this. It works just like any other 3rd party Minecraft launcher, such as MultiMC. It is quite niche, considering that it requires a wired connection to a computer to launch the game every single time to enable JIT, something which takes roughly 65 seconds in my experience.

Since Minecraft by default runs in a Java VM on PC and Mac, all that needs to be done is create such a VM for iOS, which is what Pojav does. Once it is installed via a sideloader such as AltStore, you sign in with a Microsoft account, just like any other Minecraft launcher, enable JIT via Altstore on PC/Mac, and wait about 70 seconds, then run the game. If you haven’t already played before, the launcher downloads the game (using your account credentials) and runs the game. If you’ve heard of Boardwalk, this is essentially the same program, just modernized and brought to Android and iOS.

The game runs marginally at default settings, but by doing basic things such as disabling V-Sync and setting the render distance to about 9, as well as capping the frame rate at 40 FPS, the game becomes quite playable, except for the frequent crashes. It is worth saying, however, that devices running versions older than iOS 17 (the 14 lineup and older), are far more consistent. I was personally able to run it on an iPhone 14 Pro for hours on end, leaving it in the background for up to 15 minutes at a time, away from a computer. That is to say that this is somewhat practical on those devices, but not quite.

PojavLauncher: https://pojavlauncherteam.github.io

AltStore: https://altstore.io