Side project / iOS port

Burnout 3: Takedown for iOS

An experimental iOS port of Burnout 3: Takedown.

Burnout 3: Takedown gameplay on iPhone with the actual native analog sticks, D-pad, face buttons and shoulder controls visible — Full-screen iPhone 15 Pro Max capture · 19 October 2026 · recorded race replay with the native touch controls visible.

I wanted this game in my pocket. Starting with the existing burnout3-pc project, I worked on the Apple port, the touch experience and the performance tradeoffs that make it usable on a phone.

Explore the source

My contribution: Apple port + touch interaction
Test device: iPhone 15 Pro Max · 2026
Experience: Native iOS build · experimental

Booting was the start.
Touch came next.

A game made for a controller needs more than buttons drawn on a screen.

Actual iPhone gameplay capture with the native two-stick controller and translucent buttons — Actual controller during a race replay · captured on iPhone, 19 October 2026.

Keep steering immediate.
Proportional analog input, a small center dead zone and simultaneous accelerator input. Releasing the stick clears game input immediately; its visual spring settles separately.
Get the setup out of the way.
Import a supported ISO once through Files. Later launches go straight into the game, with a local memory card that survives app restarts and updates.
Give the screen back to the race.
The landscape controls fade to 24% opacity at rest and brighten while held. Device audio and direct Metal presentation complete the native shell.

A faster race.
A visible tradeoff.

Explore two historical rendering experiments. These renderer-only captures omit the app controls and show different replay moments.

Build 45 · captured race output · faster preset. iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Keep the road. Simplify the reflections.

Original meshes, textures, LOD and camera distances stay. Live reflection cameras and overlays are omitted, and post effects are reduced. Paint and glass look flatter.

Recorded main-scene submissions / second
Minimum	Median
47.0	59.9

42 two-second intervals per run · Serious thermal state. Scene submissions measure new world rendering, separately from simulation ticks or screen refreshes.

Read the recorded evidence

Where it stands: the current proof of concept prioritizes the faster preset and original camera distances. A later short test recorded 42.9 minimum / 51.85 median scene submissions per second. Stable 50–60 FPS remains work in progress.

An existing foundation.
An Apple-shaped challenge.

The technical term is ahead-of-time recompilation: this port uses the PlayStation 2 version of the game, translating its instructions and compiling them for ARM64 before the app runs.

PS2 version + upstream
The player’s disc and burnout3-pc supply the game and recompilation foundation.
Apple ARM64 host
Translated C++, runtime adapters and compiled VU programs, with interpreter fallback.
iPhone experience
UIKit touch controls, AVAudioEngine, local saves and Vulkan through MoltenVK / Metal.

Measure the change.

Seven Mac regression groups and device GPU/math checks are recorded. One graphics optimization preserved the captured race image and all 4 MiB of graphics memory byte for byte.

Keep the scope honest.

A personal porting experiment built on upstream work. Recorded races run on a physical phone; full-game compatibility, sustained performance and audio still need broader validation.

Verification, limitations and credits

Recorded verification

Committed reports document seven Mac regression groups and physical iPhone 15 Pro Max GPU/math checks on iOS 27.0.1.
The build-45 and build-46 race replays each reached blank 12000 without a reported host failure. Their two-second main-scene samples are shown in this case.
Exact zero-area triangle rejection preserved the recorded race images and all 4 MiB of GS memory byte for byte.
9,366 of 9,368 analyzed functions translate; that count is not behavioral verification of the whole game.

Still experimental

Only the PS2 NTSC-U SLUS_210.50 / SLUS-21050 disc is supported. Users supply their own ISO; game data and generated game code are not distributed.
Full-game correctness, every track, crash mode, save/profile round trips and sustained audio quality need broader validation.
A stable 50–60 FPS rate is unproven. Build 51 recorded 42.9 minimum / 51.85 median main-scene submissions per second in its short test. Build 53's race comparison is pending in the committed evidence.
Backgrounding or an audio interruption ends the run; close and reopen to restart. Physical-controller support remains future work.
This portfolio presents recorded project evidence. It does not run the game, distribute an app, or claim these device checks were rerun for this page.

Built on burnout3-pc and its PS2 recompilation engine. Burnout 3: Takedown is the Criterion Games / Electronic Arts title. Game imagery here is captured project evidence; no game binaries, ISO or app download are offered. Content baseline: committed source b27cd98.

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