SpriteKit Particle Emitter Multi Image

Question

I'm trying to use SKSprite Particle Emitter with Swift.

But I want use a number of different textures in my emitter.

Is it possible to: have many images, and, have the emitter use the images randomly, instead of using only one image?

Thanks

Answer 1

Suppose you designed your emitter with one texture and saved it as "original.sks", and you have an array with the textures called textures:

var emitters:[SKEmitterNode] = []
for t in textures {
    let emitter = SKEmitterNode(fileNamed: "original.sks")!
    emitter.particleTexture = t
    emitter.numParticlesToEmit /= CGFloat(emitters.count)
    emitter.particleBirthRate /= CGFloat(emitters.count)
    emitters.append(emitter)
}

Now you have an array of emitters instead of a single one. Whatever you'd do with your emitter, just do it with the array:

// What you'd do with a single emitter:
addChild(someNormalEmitter)
someNormalEmitter.run(someAction)
...
    

// How to do the same with the array:
emitters.forEach {
    self.addChild($0)
    $0.run(someAction)
...
}

Of course, you can also subclass SKEmitterNode so that it contains other SKEmitterNode children and propagates all the usual emitter methods and actions and properties to the children… depending on your needs.