How do I create a looping video material in SceneKit for iOS app?

Question

How do I create a material in SceneKit that plays a looping video?

Answer 1

It's possible to achieve this in SceneKit using a SpriteKit scene as the geometry's material.

The following example will create a SpriteKit scene, add a video node to it with a video player, make the video player loop, create a SceneKit scene, add a SceneKit plane, and finally add the SpriteKit scene as the plane's diffuse material.

import UIKit
import SceneKit
import SpriteKit
import AVFoundation

class ViewController: UIViewController, SCNSceneRendererDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var sceneView: SCNView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // A SpriteKit scene to contain the SpriteKit video node
        let spriteKitScene = SKScene(size: CGSize(width: sceneView.frame.width, height: sceneView.frame.height))
        spriteKitScene.scaleMode = .aspectFit

        // Create a video player, which will be responsible for the playback of the video material
        let videoUrl = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "videos/video", withExtension: "mp4")!
        let videoPlayer = AVPlayer(url: videoUrl)

        // To make the video loop
        videoPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = .none
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
            self,
            selector: #selector(ViewController.playerItemDidReachEnd),
            name: NSNotification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime,
            object: videoPlayer.currentItem)

        // Create the SpriteKit video node, containing the video player
        let videoSpriteKitNode = SKVideoNode(avPlayer: videoPlayer)
        videoSpriteKitNode.position = CGPoint(x: spriteKitScene.size.width / 2.0, y: spriteKitScene.size.height / 2.0)
        videoSpriteKitNode.size = spriteKitScene.size
        videoSpriteKitNode.yScale = -1.0
        videoSpriteKitNode.play()
        spriteKitScene.addChild(videoSpriteKitNode)

        // Create the SceneKit scene
        let scene = SCNScene()
        sceneView.scene = scene
        sceneView.delegate = self
        sceneView.isPlaying = true

        // Create a SceneKit plane and add the SpriteKit scene as its material
        let background = SCNPlane(width: CGFloat(100), height: CGFloat(100))
        background.firstMaterial?.diffuse.contents = spriteKitScene
        let backgroundNode = SCNNode(geometry: background)
        scene.rootNode.addChildNode(backgroundNode)

        ...
    }

    // This callback will restart the video when it has reach its end
    func playerItemDidReachEnd(notification: NSNotification) {
        if let playerItem: AVPlayerItem = notification.object as? AVPlayerItem {
            playerItem.seek(to: kCMTimeZero)
        }
    }

    ...
}