SpriteKit - safe area layout Iphone X

Question

So, Currently I have a game that i’ve made in sprite kit and have used this way of fitting everything to the screen size:

buyButton = SKSpriteNode(texture: SKTexture(imageNamed: "BuyButton"), color: .clear, size: CGSize(width: frame.maxX / 2.9, height: frame.maxY / 10))
buyButton.position = CGPoint(x:-frame.maxX + frame.midX*2, y: -frame.maxY + frame.midY*1.655)
addChild(buyButton)

as you can see it uses the frame to calculate the width and height along with the position of the node on the scene, this works with all screen sizes that I have been using from the 6s to the 8 Plus. but when it comes to the iPhone X there is a problem with it. it seems to stretch everything because of the screen size being bigger and oddly shaped as you can see below compared to the iPhone 8 Plus

I’ve been looking for solutions to this problem but none have really helped or just even make it worse and I couldn’t understand how to programmatically use the safe area layout in my sprite kit project like in this solution here

My Question is

How do I go about getting everything to fit in the iPhone X’s screen so that it fits and isn’t cutting off the score labels and stuff I have in the top right corners?

EDIT 2:

itemDescriptionLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: frame.maxX - 150, y: frame.maxY - 130 , width: frame.maxX / 0.7, height: frame.maxY / 3.5))
itemDescriptionLabel.font = UIFont(name: "SFCompactRounded-Light", size: 17)
itemDescriptionLabel.text = "This purchase stops all the popup ads that happen after a certain amount of time playing the game from showing up."
itemDescriptionLabel.numberOfLines = 4
itemDescriptionLabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true
self.scene?.view?.addSubview(itemDescriptionLabel)

EDIT 3

EDIT 4

let safeAreaInsets = yourSpriteKitView.safeAreaInsets;
buyButton.position = CGPoint(x:safeAreaInsets.left - frame.maxX + frame.midX*2, y: safeAreaInsets.top - frame.maxY + frame.midY*1.655)

EDIT 5

screenWidth = self.view!.bounds.width
screenHeight = self.view!.bounds.height

coinScoreLabel = Score(num: 0,color: UIColor(red:1.0, green: 1.0, blue: 0.0, alpha: 1), size: 50, useFont: "SFCompactRounded-Heavy" )  // UIColor(red:1.00, green:0.81, blue:0.07, alpha:1.0)
coinScoreLabel.name = "coinScoreLabel"
coinScoreLabel.horizontalAlignmentMode = .right
//coinScoreLabel.verticalAlignmentMode = .top
coinScoreLabel.position = CGPoint(x: screenWidth / 2.02, y: inset.top - screenHeight / 2.02)
coinScoreLabel.zPosition = 750
addChild(coinScoreLabel)

I tried it on another SpriteNode that I have such as this one below, which it worked for I have no idea why the yellow label is doing this.

 playButton = SKSpriteNode(texture: SKTexture(imageNamed: "GameOverMenuPlayButton"), color: .clear, size: CGSize(width: 120, height: 65))
 playButton.position = CGPoint(x: inset.right - frame.midX, y: inset.bottom + frame.minY + playButton.size.height / 1.7)
 playButton.zPosition = 1000
 deathMenuNode.addChild(playButton) 

It came out like this which is perfect:

Answer 1

Interesting question. The problem borns when we try to "transform" our view to SKView to create our game scene. Essentially, we could intercept that moment (using viewWillLayoutSubviews instead of viewDidLoad) and transform the view frame accordling with the safeAreaLayoutGuide layout frame property.

Some code as example:

GameViewController:

class GameViewController: UIViewController {
    override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()
        if #available(iOS 11.0, *), let view = self.view {
           view.frame = self.view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.layoutFrame
        }  
        guard let view = self.view as! SKView? else { return }
        view.ignoresSiblingOrder = true
        view.showsFPS = true
        view.showsNodeCount = true
        view.showsPhysics = true
        view.showsDrawCount = true
        let scene = GameScene(size:view.bounds.size)
        scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
        view.presentScene(scene)
    }
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        print("---")
        print("∙ \(type(of: self))")
        print("---")
    }
}

GameScene:

class GameScene: SKScene {
    override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
        print("---")
        print("∙ \(type(of: self))")
        print("---")
        let labLeftTop = SKLabelNode.init(text: "LEFTTOP")
        labLeftTop.horizontalAlignmentMode = .left
        labLeftTop.verticalAlignmentMode = .top
        let labRightTop = SKLabelNode.init(text: "RIGHTTOP")
        labRightTop.horizontalAlignmentMode = .right
        labRightTop.verticalAlignmentMode = .top
        let labLeftBottom = SKLabelNode.init(text: "LEFTBTM")
        labLeftBottom.horizontalAlignmentMode = .left
        labLeftBottom.verticalAlignmentMode = .bottom
        let labRightBottom = SKLabelNode.init(text: "RIGHTBTM")
        labRightBottom.horizontalAlignmentMode = .right
        labRightBottom.verticalAlignmentMode = .bottom
        self.addChild(labLeftTop)
        self.addChild(labRightTop)
        self.addChild(labLeftBottom)
        self.addChild(labRightBottom)
        labLeftTop.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:self.frame.height)
        labRightTop.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:self.frame.height)
        labLeftBottom.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:0)
        labRightBottom.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:0)
    }
}

Other way to do:

Another way to obtain just only the differences between the safe area layout frame and the current view frame without passing through viewWillLayoutSubviews for launching our scene, could be using protocols.

P.S.: Down below, I've report a reference image where you can see the different sizes between:

• the main screen height (our view height)
• safe area
• status bar height (on the top, 44 px for the iPhone X)

GameViewController:

protocol LayoutSubviewDelegate: class {
    func safeAreaUpdated()
}
class GameViewController: UIViewController {
    weak var layoutSubviewDelegate:LayoutSubviewDelegate?
    override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()
        if let _ = self.view {
           layoutSubviewDelegate?.safeAreaUpdated()
        }
    }
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        print("---")
        print("∙ \(type(of: self))")
        print("---")
        guard let view = self.view as! SKView? else { return }
        view.ignoresSiblingOrder = true
        view.showsFPS = true
        view.showsNodeCount = true
        view.showsPhysics = true
        view.showsDrawCount = true
        let scene = GameScene(size:view.bounds.size)
        scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
        view.presentScene(scene)
    }
}

GameScene:

class GameScene: SKScene,LayoutSubviewDelegate {
    var labLeftTop:SKLabelNode!
    var labRightTop:SKLabelNode!
    var labLeftBottom:SKLabelNode!
    var labRightBottom:SKLabelNode!
    func safeAreaUpdated() {
        if let view = self.view {
            let top = view.bounds.height-(view.bounds.height-view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.layoutFrame.height)+UIApplication.shared.statusBarFrame.height
            let bottom = view.bounds.height - view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.layoutFrame.height-UIApplication.shared.statusBarFrame.height
            refreshPositions(top: top, bottom: bottom)
        }
    }
    override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
        print("---")
        print("∙ \(type(of: self))")
        print("---")
        if let view = self.view, let controller = view.next, controller is GameViewController {
            (controller as! GameViewController).layoutSubviewDelegate = self
        }
        labLeftTop = SKLabelNode.init(text: "LEFTTOP")
        labLeftTop.horizontalAlignmentMode = .left
        labLeftTop.verticalAlignmentMode = .top
        labRightTop = SKLabelNode.init(text: "RIGHTTOP")
        labRightTop.horizontalAlignmentMode = .right
        labRightTop.verticalAlignmentMode = .top
        labLeftBottom = SKLabelNode.init(text: "LEFTBTM")
        labLeftBottom.horizontalAlignmentMode = .left
        labLeftBottom.verticalAlignmentMode = .bottom
        labRightBottom = SKLabelNode.init(text: "RIGHTBTM")
        labRightBottom.horizontalAlignmentMode = .right
        labRightBottom.verticalAlignmentMode = .bottom
        self.addChild(labLeftTop)
        self.addChild(labRightTop)
        self.addChild(labLeftBottom)
        self.addChild(labRightBottom)
        labLeftTop.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:self.frame.height)
        labRightTop.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:self.frame.height)
        labLeftBottom.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:0)
        labRightBottom.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:0)
    }
    func refreshPositions(top:CGFloat,bottom:CGFloat){
        labLeftTop.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:top)
        labRightTop.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:top)
        labLeftBottom.position = CGPoint(x:0,y:bottom)
        labRightBottom.position = CGPoint(x:self.frame.width,y:bottom)
    }
}

Output:

Subclassing methods:

Another way to get the correct safe area dimensions without touch your current classes code, could be made using some subclass, so for our GameViewController we set it as GameController and for GameScene we can set it as GenericScene like this example:

GameViewController:

class GameViewController: GameController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        guard let view = self.view as! SKView? else { return }
        view.ignoresSiblingOrder = true
        let scene = GameScene(size:view.bounds.size)
        scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
        view.presentScene(scene)
    }
}
protocol LayoutSubviewDelegate: class {
    func safeAreaUpdated()
}
class GameController:UIViewController {
    weak var layoutSubviewDelegate:LayoutSubviewDelegate?
    override func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()
        if let _ = self.view {
            layoutSubviewDelegate?.safeAreaUpdated()
        }
    }
}

GameScene:

class GameScene: GenericScene {
    override func safeAreaUpdated() {
        super.safeAreaUpdated()
        if let view = self.view {
            let insets = view.safeAreaInsets
            // launch your code to update positions here
        }
    }
    override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
        super.didMove(to: view)
        // your stuff
    }
}
class GenericScene: SKScene, LayoutSubviewDelegate {
    func safeAreaUpdated(){}
    override func didMove(to view: SKView) {
        if let view = self.view, let controller = view.next, controller is GameViewController {
            (controller as! GameViewController).layoutSubviewDelegate = self
        }
    }
}

References:

Answer 2

You can get margins through your view's safeAreaInsets. The insets will be zero on most devices, but non-zero on the iPhone X.

For example replace your line with this:

let safeAreaInsets = yourSpriteKitView.safeAreaInsets;
buyButton.position = CGPoint(x:safeAreaInsets.left - frame.maxX + frame.midX*2, y: safeAreaInsets.top - frame.maxY + frame.midY*1.655)