fast-rendering array of CALayers vs array of CAShapeLayers in swift - arrays

Question

I'm writing an app in which I need to populate 500 or so layers with previously-defined bezier paths and I'm running into either PERFORMANCE or INTERACTIVITY issues depending on which route I choose. Note that I require no animation features, as the paths i draw are static:
If I use CALayers, drawing the paths to screen takes about 15 seconds (bad), but the resulting interactive experience (i.e moving around the screen) is great.
If I use CAShapeLayers, drawing the paths to screen takes a fraction of a second (good), but the interactivity is terrible.
This is my code with CALayers:
func drawPathToCALayer (myView: UIImageView, pointArray: [CGPoint], bbox: CGRect, color: UIColor) {
// step 1. create path
let path = CGPathCreateMutable()
var pathOffset = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation( (bbox.origin.x * -1), (bbox.origin.y * -1))
CGPathAddLines(path, &pathOffset, pointArray, pointArray.count)
CGPathCloseSubpath(path)
// step 2. draw to context -- this is the part that kills the amount of time that we call this function repeatedly
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bbox.size, false, 0)
CGContextAddPath(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), path)
CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), color.CGColor)
CGContextFillPath(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext())
// step 3. assign context drawing to sublayer
let sublayer = CALayer()
let strokeImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()
sublayer.frame = bbox
sublayer.contents = strokeImage.CGImage
UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
myView.layer.addSublayer(sublayer)
This is the code with CAShapeLayers
func drawPathToCAShapeLayer (myView: UIImageView, pointArray: [CGPoint], bbox: CGRect, color: UIColor) {
// step 1. create path
let path = CGPathCreateMutable()
var pathOffset = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation( (bbox.origin.x * -1), (bbox.origin.y * -1))
CGPathAddLines(path, &pathOffset, pointArray, pointArray.count)
CGPathCloseSubpath(path)
// step 2. assign path to sublayer
let sublayer = CAShapeLayer()
sublayer.path = path
sublayer.fillColor = color
myView.layer.addSublayer(sublayer)
I like the succinctness and speed of the CAShapeLayer approach, but from an interactivity point of view, this route is a no go.
The question is (thanks for hanging in there), is there is a way to do a hybrid approach in which I draw to a CAShapeLayer temporarily, and use it to populate a CALayer like so?
func drawPathToHybrid (myView: UIImageView, pointArray: [CGPoint], bbox: CGRect, color: UIColor) {
// step 1. create path
let path = CGPathCreateMutable()
var pathOffset = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation( (bbox.origin.x * -1), (bbox.origin.y * -1))
CGPathAddLines(path, &pathOffset, pointArray, pointArray.count)
CGPathCloseSubpath(path)
// step 2. assign path to sublayer
let sublayer = CALayer()
let tmplayer = CAShapeLayer()
tmplayer.path = path
tmplayer.fillColor = color
sublayer.contents = tmplayer.contents // ---> i know this doesn't work, but is there something similar I can take advantage of that doesn't rely on defining a context?
myView.layer.addSublayer(sublayer)
Or better yet, is there some other way that I can populate an array of CALayers with bezier paths to get both good INTERACTIVITY and PERFORMANCE?