SKSpriteNode UserInteractionEnabled Not Working - ios

Question

I've looked everywhere but nothing works. Thought I would just ask the question myself. I'm creating a little game in iOS 9 using SpriteKit. My game is going to have left and right controller buttons to move the player sprite. I add the SKSpriteNodes for the directional pads as follows
At the top of the main scene I put:
private var leftDirectionalPad = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "left")
private var rightDirectionalPad = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "right")
Then I run a method called prepareDirectionalPads
func prepareDirectionalPads() {
// left
self.leftDirectionalPad.position.x = self.size.width * directionalPadLeftXPositionMultiplier
self.leftDirectionalPad.position.y = self.size.height*directionalPadYPosition
self.leftDirectionalPad.size.width = self.leftDirectionalPad.size.width/directionalPadSizeReductionMultiple
self.leftDirectionalPad.size.height = self.leftDirectionalPad.size.height/directionalPadSizeReductionMultiple
self.leftDirectionalPad.name = "leftDirectionalPad"
self.leftDirectionalPad.alpha = directionalPadAlphaValue
self.leftDirectionalPad.zPosition = 1
self.addChild(leftDirectionalPad)
self.leftDirectionalPad.userInteractionEnabled = true
// right
self.rightDirectionalPad.position.x = self.leftDirectionalPad.position.x*directionalPadSpacingMultiple
self.rightDirectionalPad.position.y = self.size.height*directionalPadYPosition
self.rightDirectionalPad.size.width = self.rightDirectionalPad.size.width/directionalPadSizeReductionMultiple
self.rightDirectionalPad.size.height = self.rightDirectionalPad.size.height/directionalPadSizeReductionMultiple
self.rightDirectionalPad.name = "rightDirectionalPad"
self.rightDirectionalPad.alpha = directionalPadAlphaValue
self.rightDirectionalPad.zPosition = 1
self.addChild(rightDirectionalPad)
self.rightDirectionalPad.userInteractionEnabled = true
}
I clearly set userInteractionEnabled for each SKSpriteNode to true. Then, in touches began I wrote...
override func touchesBegan(let touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent?) {
/* Called when a touch begins */
var touch = touches.first! as UITouch
var location = touch.locationInView(self.view)
var node = nodeAtPoint(location)
print("Touched")
}
Note: I have also tried var location = touch.locationInNode(self) but that doesnt work either.
I then run the app (either on my xCode Simulator or iPhone 6). If I touch on the SKNodes, nothing happens. Nothing is printed to the console. However, if I touch anywhere else on the screen, I get "touched" printed to the screen.
What am I doing wrong? I want to detect the touch on the pads so I can move the player sprite accordingly. It might be something really stupid I'm forgetting to do. Thanks for your time and patience. Much appreciated.

Answer 1

Figured it out. So apparently self.leftDirectionalPad.userInteractionEnabled = true does not work. It needs to be self.leftDirectionalPad.userInteractionEnabled = false, which is very counter-intuitive. I don't get it but it works now. touchesBegan responds to when the user touches the SKSpriteNode.
let touch = touches.first! as UITouch
let location = touch.locationInNode(self)
let node = nodeAtPoint(location)
if(node.name == leftDirectionalPad.name)
{
print("left")
}
else if (node.name == rightDirectionalPad.name)
{
print("right")
}