Increase region where SKNode can be pressed - ios

Question

I'm wondering if there's an easy way that I could take an SKNode and increase the region in which it is pressed.
For example, I am currently checking if a node is clicked like so:
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
CGPoint positionInScene = [touch locationInNode:self];
SKNode *node = [self nodeAtPoint:positionInScene];
if ([node.name isEqualToString:TARGET_NAME]) {
// do whatever
}
}
}
If the node drawn on the screen is something like 40 pixels by 40 pixels, is there a way that if a user clicks within 10 pixels of the node, it would render as being clicked?
Thanks!

Answer 1

You could add an invisible sprite node as a child to the visible node. Have the child node's size be larger than the visible node's.
For example, on OSX this would work in a scene:
-(id)initWithSize:(CGSize)size {
if (self = [super initWithSize:size]) {
SKSpriteNode *visibleNode = [[SKSpriteNode alloc] initWithColor:[NSColor yellowColor] size:CGSizeMake(100, 100)];
visibleNode.name = #"visible node";
visibleNode.position = CGPointMake(320, 240);
SKSpriteNode *clickableNode = [[SKSpriteNode alloc] init];
clickableNode.size = CGSizeMake(200, 200);
clickableNode.name = #"clickable node";
[visibleNode addChild:clickableNode];
[self addChild:visibleNode];
}
return self;
}
-(void)mouseDown:(NSEvent *)theEvent
{
CGPoint positionInScene = [theEvent locationInNode:self];
SKNode *node = [self nodeAtPoint:positionInScene];
NSLog(#"Clicked node: %#", node.name);
}
The clickable node extends 50px outwards from the edges of the visible node. Clicking within this will output "Clicked node: clickable node".
The node named "visible node" will never be returned by the call to [self nodeAtPoint:positionInScene], because the clickable node overlays it.
The same principle applies on iOS.