How to use GLKTextureLoader to load a cubemap from a web url - glkit

Question

Unsure how to use an image loaded from the web as an asset in a GLKit skybox (like the old apple/google maps streetview) There are 2 methods for loading cubemaps with GLKTextureLoader: cubeMapWithContentsOfFile and cubeMapWithContentsOfUrl
If I grab the image locally it works fine:
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"pano" ofType:#"jpg"];
GLKTextureInfo *skyboxCubemap = [GLKTextureLoader cubeMapWithContentsOfFile:imgPath options:options error:&error];
So is there a way to get a path from an image loaded from the web and use it here?

Answer 1

I ended up loading the image from the web like so:
- (void) cacheImage: (NSURL *) ImageURL : (NSString *)imageName
{
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *dir = [paths objectAtIndex: 0];
NSString *file = [docDir stringByAppendingPathComponent: imageName];
if(![[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath: file])
{
NSData *data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: ImageURL];
UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData: data];
[UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 100) writeToFile: docFile atomically: YES];
}
}
caching and returning the file url via :
- (NSString *) getCachedImage : (NSString *)imageName
{
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains
(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString* cachedPath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:imageName];
NSString *path;
if([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath: cachedPath])
{
path = cachedPath;
}
return path;
}
and loading the file via
NSString *cached = [self getCachedImage:#"cacheKey"];
self.skyboxCubemap = [GLKTextureLoader cubeMapWithContentsOfFile:cached options:options error:&error];