CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosswiftsprite-kit
Siobahn Devlin
Siobahn Devlin

Reputation: 23

SKEmitterNode does not appear when running on device

I've been learning to use Spritekit in Swift these past few days using the Hacking With Swift Tutorials (Specifically Project 23). I was learning how to use SKEmitterNodes however they don't ever seem to appear. On runtime, the screen is a blank grey color that runs at 1 fps with 1 node on screen (supposedly the SKEmitterNode). I've tried changing the zPosition of the node but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Oddly, SKSpriteNodes and SKLabelNodes appear just fine. I cleaned the project and got rid of the "Hello World" in the GameScene.sks so I know its not anything from the default project. I've googled around extensively for an answer to this question but I've come up blank. Below is the offending code. 

    import SpriteKit
    import GameplayKit

class GameScene: SKScene, SKPhysicsContactDelegate {
         override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
        //backgroundColor = UIColor.black

        if let starfield = SKEmitterNode(fileNamed: "Starfield.sks") {
        starfield.position = CGPoint(x: 1024, y: 384)
        starfield.advanceSimulationTime(10)
        addChild(starfield)
        starfield.zPosition = 0
        }

edit: Alright guys I've solved it. It turns out Xcode doesn't like it when you try and add an SKEmitterNode exclusively programmatically (as opposed to SKSpriteNodes which it seems to handle fine). What I had to go and do was go into the GameScene.sks and manually add in my Starfield.sks file and then rename it to Starfield. Then I had to go inside the GameScene.swift file and hook the SKEmitterNode I had placed in the GameScene.sks editor by using this code inside the didMove function: 

starfield = childNode(withName: "Starfield") as? 
SKEmitterNode

Now the new code looks like this: 

var starfield: SKEmitterNode!

 override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
    backgroundColor = UIColor.black

    starfield = childNode(withName: "Starfield") as? 
    SKEmitterNode
    starfield?.position = CGPoint(x: 1024, y: 384)
    starfield?.advanceSimulationTime(10)
    starfield?.zPosition = -1
    }

I found this solution with the help of this tutorial

Upvotes: 2

Views: 511

Answers (1)

Kode
Kode

Reputation: 620

Looking at the code and trying it inside of Xcode, it seems it might be fine.... It runs fine on mine, but my particle emitter has a wide spread and barely visible...

Try changing the x position to the middle of the screen : 512.

It's a positioning of the emitter to a part of the screen that isn't to visible that's causing the problem.

You could also adjust the spread to make it visible from that position, but you said you are new and the most likely cause is the x position placement.

EDIT:

Ok it seems that you simply forgot to create the particles. Just click File < New < File then click on SpriteKit Particle Emmitter, select a template you want, and finally make sure the name you gave the particle is the same as you named it in the code or vice versa.

Upvotes: 1

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