Render CATransformLayer to PNG in 3D

Question

I'm trying to render a CATransformLayer that contains several CAShapeLayers to a png file. I know how to set up the basic rendering and that does work.

Though when I call renderInContext on the CATransformLayer, it flattens everything to 2D and completely ignores my transformation matrix (rotation and / or perspective).

What can I do to render my 3d CATransformLayer with all its CAShapeLayers to PNG / UIImage?

Answer 1

Since you're targeting only iOS7 and above, I would suggest you ditch renderInContext: and replace it with -[UIView drawViewHierarchyInRect:afterScreenUpdates:]. Your code will probably look something like this then:

UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(sizeOfYourImage);

[yourViewToRender drawViewHierarchyInRect:(CGRect){0, 0, sizeOfYourImage} afterScreenUpdates:YES];

UIImage *renderedImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

UIGraphicsEndImageContext();