iOS SpriteKit Emitter particle frequency

Question

Is it possible to change how often a particle is emitted. For example, if I have one particle emitting, can I have it emit every 5 or 10 seconds?

I searched the documentation, but could not find anything. Is there a workaround? I would like to do something like this:

   emitter.particleBirthRate = 1
   emitter.particleBirthRateFrequency = 5  // this does not exist

Answer 1

I stay away from timers, there really isn't a need for them in SpriteKit

You have a built in timer function with the update func, or you can Just use actions to control your time.

what you are probably looking for is particle.resetSimulation()

I would do what you need to do like so

you can also put a key on your action and stop it by key name whenever needed

if let spark = self.childNode(withName: "sparkin") as? SKEmitterNode {
    
    self.spark = spark

    //set time here to how long in between restarting the emitter
    let waiter = SKAction.wait(forDuration: 5)
    let resetter = SKAction.run( { self.spark.resetSimulation() } )
    let seq = SKAction.sequence([waiter, resetter])
    let repeater = SKAction.repeatForever(seq)
    run(repeater)
}

Answer 2

I also had the same issue. Now I now its frowned upon to use Timers with spritekit but this is how I got it working.

I created the SKEmitterNode.sks within the XCODE particle editor the way wanted it and got it emitting with a timer.

    var count = 0

    //Create an emitter every 5 seconds
    timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 5 , repeats: true){ t in
        count += 1
        
        let emitter = SKEmitterNode(fileNamed: "emitter")
        emitter?.targetNode = self
        emitter?.position = self.nodeA.position
        emitter?.zPosition = -5
        self.addChild(emitter!)
        
         //Remove the emitter node after 5 seconds
        _ = Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 5, repeats: true){_ in
            emitter?.removeFromParent()
        }
        
        if count == 10 {
            t.invalidate()
        }
    }

Important thing to remember when you present a new scene, is to invalidate your timer or else your old scene will only deinit{} when count is reached.

 timer.invalidate()