I'm trying to create a full-screen pixelation effect on SKScene. I've learned that there should be two options to do this:
- Using a custom
SKShader
using GLES 2.0.
- Using Core Image filters.
I've tried to add a custom SKShader that should modify the whole screen by pixelating it. I'm not sure that if it's possible, but documentation from SKScene
(which is a subclass of SKEffectNode
) suggests it:
An SKEffectNode object renders its children into a buffer and
optionally applies a Core Image filter to this rendered output.
It's possible to assign a SKShader to the SKScene, as in GameScene : SKScene
:
override func didMoveToView(view: SKView) {
let shader = SKShader(fileNamed: "pixelation.fsh")
self.shader = shader
self.shouldEnableEffects = true
}
... but it seems that the rendered buffer is not passed as the u_texture to the GLES:
void main()
{
vec2 coord = v_tex_coord;
coord.x = floor(coord.x * 10.0) / 10.0;
coord.y = floor(coord.y * 10.0) / 10.0;
vec4 texture = texture2D(u_texture, coord);
gl_FragColor = texture;
}
... so the previous shader doesn't work.
If I assign that shader to a texture-based SKSpriteNode
, it works.
So is it possible to modify the whole frame buffer (and for example pixelate it) as a post-processing measure after all the nodes have been rendered?
Edit: I found a way to do the pixelation using Core Image filters in OS X (How do you add a CIPixellate Core Image Filter to a Sprite Kit scene?), but copying that implementation doesn't yield any results on iOS. According to the documents CIPixellate
should be Available in OS X v10.4 and later and in iOS 6.0 and later.
.
In order to get your .shader
running on SKScene
, you need to set shouldEnableEffects
to true on the scene (same thing goes for SKEffectNode
).
While technically, that "works" (the shader is applied), there's a bug in the rendering of the scene afterwards that gets slightly resized.
So using CoreImage
filters is, so far, the best way to go.
I managed to make it work using Core Image filter CIPixellate
. I used is as a filter to SKEffectNode
to produce the pixelation effect. Couple of things to note:
SKScene
is a subclass of SKEffectNode
, but applying the filter to SKScene
doesn't work. It'll mess up the background and doesn't do any pixellation.
- You need to create a
SKEffectNode
and add the nodes to be pixelated under that.
Here's the solution based on the code generated when you choose a Game
type project with Swift
:
import SpriteKit
class GameScene: SKScene {
var effectNode : SKEffectNode = SKEffectNode.node()
override func didMoveToView(view: SKView) {
let filter = CIFilter(name: "CIPixellate")
filter.setDefaults()
filter.setValue(5.0, forKey: "inputScale")
self.effectNode.filter = filter
self.effectNode.shouldEnableEffects = true
self.addChild(effectNode)
}
override func touchesBegan(touches: NSSet, withEvent event: UIEvent) {
for touch: AnyObject in touches {
let location = touch.locationInNode(self)
let sprite = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed:"Spaceship")
sprite.xScale = 0.5
sprite.yScale = 0.5
sprite.position = location
let action = SKAction.rotateByAngle(CGFloat(M_PI), duration:1)
sprite.runAction(SKAction.repeatActionForever(action))
self.effectNode.addChild(sprite)
}
}
override func update(currentTime: CFTimeInterval) {
/* Called before each frame is rendered */
}
}
I actually had to do the exact same thing for a recent project as a way to transition between levels, and ended up doing a work around for it. Basically, I took a screenshot of the screen in the code then when I loaded the next level, I called a previously saved screenshot of how the level should look when it was loaded. I added the previous level screenshot as an SKSpriteNode and then ran the shader a number of times until it was incredibly pixelated. Then I did the same to the screenshot for that level and replaced the two and then I un-pixelated the second screenshot so it looked like as soon as the level was beaten everything pixelated itself then un-pixelated itself to reveal a new level.
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.size, false, 0);
self.view!.drawViewHierarchyInRect(view!.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)
let image:UIImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
//UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
protoImage = SKSpriteNode(texture: SKTexture(CGImage: image.CGImage!))
protoImage.size = CGSizeMake(self.frame.size.width, self.frame.size.height)
node.position = CGPointMake(self.frame.size.width/2, self.frame.size.height/2)
protoImage.zPosition = 9000
Second Scene
let shader: SKShader = SKShader(fileNamed: "RWTGradient2.fsh")
let ratioX: Float = divisor/Float(protoImage.frame.size.width)
let ratioY: Float = divisor/Float(protoImage.frame.size.height)
shader.uniforms = [
SKUniform(name: "ratioX", float: ratioX),
SKUniform(name: "ratioY", float: ratioY),
]
protoImage.shader = shader;