How to add particle effects to an iOS App that is not a game using iOS 7 SpriteKit Particle?

Question

I need to add a rain particle effect to my app, I have been having a tough time finding ways to actually execute this idea.

I tried following this CALayer approach

Answer 1

You can add SKView as a subview within your UIKit hierarchy. A function like the following would work, allowing you to create a UIImageView with the effect as a subview, and then you can add this to your main view. Be sure to link against SpriteKit.

UIImageView *NewEffectUIImageViewWithFrame(CGRect frame)
{
    UIImageView *tempView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];

    SKView *skView = [[SKView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, frame.size.width, frame.size.height)];
    [tempView addSubview:skView];

    SKScene *skScene = [SKScene sceneWithSize:skView.frame.size];
    skScene.scaleMode = SKSceneScaleModeAspectFill;
    skScene.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

    SKEmitterNode *emitter =  [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"SparkParticle" ofType:@"sks"]];
    emitter.position = CGPointMake(frame.size.width*0.5,0.0);

    [skScene addChild:emitter];
    [skView presentScene:skScene];

    return tempView;
}

In the end, if all you need is an emitter, it may be easier to create a CAEmitterLayer and add that as a sublayer to your UIView instead. Of course, that means you have to programmatically create the CAEmitterLayer and can't use the cool Xcode particle editor...