SKSpriteNode with color doesn't show - ios

Question

I created a SKSPriteNode without texture but color
let tileNode = SKSpriteNode(color: SKColor.redColor(), size: CGSize(width: 80.0, height: 120.0))
tileNode.position = CGPointMake(50, 50)
tileNode.name = "rectangle"
addChild(tileNode)
But the node doesn't display on the screen.
However, I can detect it with touch collision
override func touchesEnded(touches: NSSet, withEvent event: UIEvent) {
let location: CGPoint = (touches.anyObject() as UITouch).locationInNode(tilesLayer)
let rect: SKSpriteNode = tilesLayer.childNodeWithName("rectangle") as SKSpriteNode
if rect.containsPoint(location) {
println("TOUCHED") //It works
}
}
EDIT : The SKSpriteNode color is only hidden if there is a background SKSpriteNode texture. Complete code : https://gist.github.com/BabyAzerty/9dca752d9faa7b768bf0

Answer 1

I believe you created your project using the Game project template in Xcode, correct? Your issue is this line in GameViewController.m (roughly line 41).
/* Sprite Kit applies additional optimizations to improve rendering performance */
skView.ignoresSiblingOrder = YES;
If you set that to NO, then it will render as you expect. I build my game projects from empty projects, so I never had that property set. Just search your code for ignoresSiblingOrder
Of course if you want that rendering optimization, then you can always use zPosition.

Answer 2

I noticed that the difference between creating a SKSpriteNode with texture and a SKSpriteNode with color is that the texture version doesn't need to have its z-index modified. It will display over the previous addChild(someNodes) automatically.
They both have a default z-index of 0 but for some reasons SKSpriteNode with color is hidden behind your previous addChild(someNodes).
This line should do the trick :
tileNode.zPosition = 1 //Or higher
However, I decided to create an enum that controls the different z-layers (just like the one in Unity Engine) :
enum ZLayer: CGFloat {
case Undefined = 0
case Background
case Foreground
case GUI
}
And use it like this :
tileNode.zPosition = ZLayer.Background.rawValue
The advantage of this enum is that if you need to add a new layer between background and foreground layers, you don't need to bother with the values at all, just an entry in the enum between the 2 cases.