What options for decent particle effects engines do I have for iOS?

Question

The core question is "what are my options for decent particle effects in an iOS app?"

I wrote an iPad app where I wanted to use a large amount of UIKit objects in the UI and just keep to a native iPad codebase feel. However I wanted nice particle effects, so instead of going with cocos2d and distancing myself from using native objects directly, I wrote my own particle effects engine utilizing quartz. It works, but the performance is very underwhelming.

Do I have to go with an openGL ES solution to get any good performance at all (openGL and uikit view don't play nicely together); Are there any libraries out there that will let me simply add a UIView that contains the particle effects systems layered in my app as I see fit to place it (pretty much what I've tried to do with pretty bad performance)?

(Forgive me if my usage/knowledge of GL is rusty; I've been out of sight for a few months and do not have a strong handle on it.)

Answer 1

I believe they've added particle effects to Core Animation as of iOS 5. Try this video or look up CAEmitterLayer.