Add glowing effect to an SKSpriteNode

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)
        let effect = SKSpriteNode(texture: texture)
        effect.color = self.color
        effect.colorBlendFactor = 1
        effectNode.addChild(effect)
        effectNode.filter = CIFilter(name: "CIGaussianBlur", parameters: ["inputRadius":radius])
    }
}

Now given an SKSpriteNode

let sun = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "sun")

all you have to do it

sun.addGlow()

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))
    }
}