ios - ARKit: How can I add a UIView to ARKit Scene?

Question

I am working on an AR project using ARKit.

I want to add a UIView to ARKit Scene. When I tap on an object, I want to get information as a "pop-up" next to the object. This information is in a UIView.

Is it possible to add this UIView to ARKit Scene? I set up this UIView as a scene and what can I do then? Can I give it a node and then add it to the ARKit Scene? If so, how it works?

Or is there another way?

Thank you!

EDIT: Code of my SecondViewController

class InformationViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var secondView: UIView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.view = secondView
    }
}

EDIT 2: Code in firstViewController

guard let secondViewController = storyboard?.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "SecondViewController") as? SecondViewController else {
    print ("No secondController")
    return
}

let plane = SCNPlane(width: CGFloat(0.1), height: CGFloat(0.1))       
plane.firstMaterial?.diffuse.contents = secondViewController.view

let node = SCNNode(geometry: plane)

I only get a white screen of a plane, not the view.

Answer 1

The simplest (although undocumented) way to achieve that is to set a UIView backed by a view controller as diffuse contents of a material on a SCNPlane (or any other geometry really, but it works best with planes for obvious reasons).

let plane = SCNPlane()
plane.firstMaterial?.diffuse.contents = someViewController.view
let planeNode = SCNNode(geometry: plane)

You will have to persist the view controller somewhere otherwise it's going to be released and plane will not be visible. Using just a UIView without any UIViewController will throw an error.

The best thing about it is that it keeps all of the gestures and practically works just as a simple view. For example, if you use UITableViewController's view you will be able to scroll it right inside a scene.

I haven't tested it on iOS 10 and lower, but it's been working on iOS 11 so far. Works both in plain SceneKit scenes and with ARKit.