Add Rotation Support for Sidecar iPad Displays

[Christopher-C-Robinson]

Feature Enhancement: Add Rotation Support for Sidecar iPad Displays

Description

BetterDisplay currently supports rotation for most external displays, but this feature does not extend to Sidecar iPad displays. Adding rotation support for Sidecar displays would enhance the app's versatility and appeal, particularly for users who want to utilize their iPad in a portrait orientation.

Use Case

Users who leverage Sidecar iPad displays for coding or other vertical tasks often find the default landscape orientation limiting. By enabling rotation for Sidecar displays, users could rotate their iPad to a portrait orientation, providing a taller workspace suitable for tasks such as editing code or viewing lengthy documents.

Proposed Solution

Implement rotation support for Sidecar iPad displays. This feature would allow users to:

• Access standard rotation options (e.g., 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°) for their iPad when used as a Sidecar display.
• Adjust the display orientation via the existing BetterDisplay menu interface.

Benefits

• Improved user experience for developers and professionals using Sidecar iPads.
• Greater flexibility for users seeking optimized workflows for specific tasks.
• Enhanced parity between Sidecar and traditional external displays in BetterDisplay.

Additional Notes

• This feature may require macOS-level API support for Sidecar display rotation.
• Testing will be needed to ensure compatibility with various macOS versions and iPad models.

References

• BetterDisplay documentation on current display rotation capabilities.
• macOS Sidecar feature overview and limitations.

[waydabber]

Well, the problem is that Sidecar rotation is simply not supported by macOS and the (undocumented) Sidecar API. You can use virtual screen streaming + rotation to achieve a similar effect:

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Rotated-Sidecar