However, controlling touchscreen software with just a mouse has proven more troublesome than many believed it would. As such, a new ChromeOS overlay is aiming to make Android games on PC better to play.
The new ChromeOS gaming overlay, designed for Chromebook users, is intended to make Android gaming much easier for keyboard and mouse users. With millions of children using Chromebooks to play Android games, this is a much-needed feature.
The gaming overlay, according to The Verge, allows you to map a keyboard button or mouse action to a specific gesture. In some games, you could set W,A,S,D as movement swipes. You could also assign, say, Q to a three-button tap.
Despite being worked on for a long time, the software is still in an alpha state. While it will make Android games more playable on PC, it will not be able to remove some of the jank that has been left behind. However, there are plans in the works to improve things even further.
At the moment, the Chrome OS gaming overlay only works with a limited number of Android games. Pixel Blade R - Revolution, 2048, Hill Climb Racing, Tap Titans 2, and a few others are among them.
Google hopes that as the software evolves, this feature will be available in all games. This will be accomplished through a programmable service that will allow you to associate any possible gesture with a keyboard press or mouse click.
The current state of this software is bound to irritate ChromeBook users. After all, phones have received a slew of overlays to map touch controls to controllers, but it's taken years for this fundamental overlay to make its way to PC.