Add glowing effect to an SKSpriteNode

Question

I have a moving black image on a dark screen, to make it easier to see I would like to add in a white glow to the image. This is my code for the moving image:

Answer 1

I created this extension to add a glow effect to an SKSpriteNode

Just add this to your project

extension SKSpriteNode {

    func addGlow(radius: Float = 30) {
        let effectNode = SKEffectNode()
        effectNode.shouldRasterize = true
        addChild(effectNode)
        effectNode.addChild(SKSpriteNode(texture: texture))
        effectNode.filter = CIFilter(name: "CIGaussianBlur", withInputParameters: ["inputRadius":radius])
    }
}

Now given an SKSpriteNode

let sun = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "sun")

all you have to do it

sun.addGlow()

Answer 2

Just to add to this, you can perform this on any type of SKNode by first rendering its contents using the texture(from:SKNode) method available on an SKView instance.

Example:

extension SKNode
{
    func addGlow(radius:CGFloat=30)
    {
        let view = SKView()
        let effectNode = SKEffectNode()
        let texture = view.texture(from: self)
        effectNode.shouldRasterize = true
        effectNode.filter = CIFilter(name: "CIGaussianBlur",withInputParameters: ["inputRadius":radius])
        addChild(effectNode)
        effectNode.addChild(SKSpriteNode(texture: texture))
    }
}