Question

So within a CCLayer I am adding an ImagePicker / Camera to the openGLView and then a UIButton – all good, but now I want to add a CCLabel (and in the future CCSprites) on top of those elements.

    uip = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
    uip.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
    uip.showsCameraControls = NO;
    uip.toolbarHidden = YES;
    uip.navigationBarHidden = YES;
    uip.wantsFullScreenLayout = YES;
    uip.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(uip.cameraViewTransform, CAMERA_TRANSFORM, CAMERA_TRANSFORM);

    [[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView] addSubview:uip.view];

    arrowButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    [arrowButton addTarget:self 
               action:@selector(arrowButtonClicked:)
     forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    UIImage *imgNormal = [UIImage imageNamed:@"btn_next_norm.png"];
    [arrowButton setImage:imgNormal forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    UIImage *imgPressed = [UIImage imageNamed:@"btn_next_pressed.png"];
    [arrowButton setImage:imgPressed forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];

    arrowButton.frame = CGRectMake(screenSize.width - 48.0, screenSize.height - 37.0, 48.0, 37.0);

    [[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView] addSubview:arrowButton];

    CCLabelTTF* label = [CCLabelTTF labelWithString:@"Experience 1" fontName:@"Arial" fontSize:32];
    label.color = ccc3(0, 0, 0);
    CGSize size = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] winSize];
    label.position = CGPointMake(size.width / 2, size.height / 2);
   // [[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView] addSubview:labe]; cant add to openGLView

Answer 1

You need to addSubview UIView components under the openGLView as the following,

[[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView].superview addSubview:arrowButton];

And then, openGLView should be transparent. “Displaying an EAGLView with transparent background on a UIImageView“

EDIT:

moving the Cocos on top of the UIImagePickerController

Ok, how about the following? addSubview the cocos2d view (openGLView) on cameraOverlayView of UIImagePickerController.

[[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView].superview addSubview:uip.view];
[[[[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView] removeFromSuperview];
uip.cameraOverlayView = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] openGLView];

Also, you need Making Cocos2d Transparent.