skshapenode adding two nodes? - ios

Question

I'm not sure whether there's an issue with the implementation or the way I'm using it.
However, it's presenting over 2,400 nodes when it should be ~ 1,250
-(void)drawWeb {
//get distance of 50 across
int distanceMargin = _background.frame.size.width/50;
NSLog(#"%i", distanceMargin);
__block int xCounter = distanceMargin;
__block int yCounter = 0;
NSArray *alphabet = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:#"A",#"B",#"C",#"D",#"E",#"F",#"G",#"H",#"I",#"J",#"K",#"L",#"M",#"N",#"O",#"P",#"Q",#"R",#"S",#"T",#"U",#"V",#"W",#"X",#"Y",#"Z", nil];
for (int i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < 50; j++) {
webPoint *shape = [webPoint shapeNodeWithCircleOfRadius:1];
shape.position = CGPointMake(xCounter, _background.frame.size.height - yCounter);
shape.fillColor = [UIColor blackColor];
shape.alpha = 1;
shape.webPoint = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#%i", alphabet[i], j];
shape.positionX = xCounter;
shape.positionY = yCounter;
shape.name = #"webPoint";
[_background addChild:shape];
xCounter = xCounter + distanceMargin;
}
xCounter = distanceMargin;
yCounter = yCounter + distanceMargin;
}
}

Answer 1

By default when creating SKShapeNode, strokeColor is already set and it requires 1 node + 1 draw call. In your example you are setting fillColor too, which requires additional node and additional draw pass.
SKShapeNode is not performant solution in many cases (it should be used sparingly), and in your case, if you enable debugging labels you will probably see that there are a lot of draw calls required for scene rendering. Debugging labels can be enabled in view controller (showsDrawCount = YES)
Draw calls are directly affecting on performance in SpriteKit applications and you should try to keep that number as low as possible. One way would be using SKSpriteNode and texture atlases.