Develop Reference

Is there a way to implement floating damage numbers with java.swing?

I'm creating a game using Java Swing, and I'm finding the need for graphical displays of what's going on at this point. The current display uses a grid of JButtons to represent the tiles on a battlefield. Would it be possible to display floating/disappearing damage numbers over the JButtons, using perhaps custom made pixel art GIFs? If so, how would I go about implementing this?

Almost all Swing components can be extended to change its presentation.
Create an own button class extending JButton and override its paintComponent method to display the required damage. This method receives a Graphic (actually an instance of Graphics2D) on which you can draw the damage, if one is active.
Very simple example:
public class DamageButton extends JButton {
private String damage = null;
public DamageButton(String text) {
super(text);
}
public void setDamage(String damage) {
this.damage = damage;
System.out.println(damage);
repaint();
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
if (damage != null) {
Graphics2D gg = (Graphics2D) g.create();
try {
gg.setColor(Color.RED);
gg.drawString(damage, 10, 10);
} finally {
gg.dispose();
}
}
}
}
Creating a new Graphics (gg) so the settings of g are not changed and need not to be restored.
Call setDamage() with some text to have it displayed over the button or with null to cancel the effect.
Animation or other effects can (more or less) easily be added. Just be aware that the given Graphics2D has a clipping area set to the dimension of the button.

Draw and redraw on a canvas in swing

I know there's no direct replacement for java.awt.Canvas in swing, and I know I'm supposed to use a JPanel and override paintComponent, for example like so:
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.drawOval(0, 0, 100, 100);
}
And this would draw a black circle on the JPanel when it is created. The problem I have is that I want a dynamic canvas: I want to be able to draw things in response to user input, and redraw continuously, not just once when the application starts. An example would be having a moving object on a canvas, that would need to be redrawn at a rate of say 60 frames per second. How could I achieve this without using AWT components?
EDIT: what I mean is, in an actual canvas, I'd be able to arbitrarily call, say, drawOval anywhere in my code, and that would draw an oval on the canvas; is this doable with JPanel?

Store the information to be drawn (e.g. a Shape or a group of them) and call repaint() from a Swing Timer. Each time the paintComponent(..) method is called, first call the super(..) method to erase the previous drawings, then iterate the list of shapes, move them if necessary, and draw each one.

Here's one way to do it:
public class Renderer extends JComponent implements ActionListener {
private int x;
public Renderer() {
Timer timer = new Timer(1000/60, this);
timer.start();
x = 0;
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g);
// drawing code
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.drawOval(x, 0, 100, 100);
}
private void update() {
this.x++;
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
update();
repaint();
}
}
Now just add this to your component (JPanel or whatever):
comp.add(new Renderer());

BufferStrategy in windowed mode causes constant intense white screen flicker

I put this code together based on a lot of examples I found around here on stackoverflow. When I run the program the entire screen flickers intensely. I'm sure there is something simple I'm overlooking, but so far have been unable to track down a solution. I've been debugging this for a couple hours mostly with the help of online forum reading, so I figured it was time to ask the audience.
public class Screen extends JComponent {
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize(){
Dimension tempDimension = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
return tempDimension;
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2D = (Graphics2D)bufferStrategy.getDrawGraphics();
g2D.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER)); //sprites overlap instead of overwrite
if(game==null){
drawSplash(g2D);
}else{
drawBoard(g2D);
}
g2D.dispose();
bufferStrategy.show();
}
}
If any additional code is required, I can provide it. Thank you for your help, stackoverflow!

To achieve the results you are getting, you either have another class which extends from Canvas or are using the BufferStrategy from the top level container. In either case, both must be visible on the screen.
Basically, they are fighting each other, as they are two different painting algorithms. Swing, which is a passive painting algorithm, paints updates as they are needed and the BufferStrategy, which uses an active algorithm, requiring your to schedule the updates to the buffer as required.
Both use a double buffering algorithm.
So, you should pick one or the other...
public class Screen extends JComponent {
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(200, 200);
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2D = (Graphics2D) g.create();
g2D.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER)); //sprites overlap instead of overwrite
if (game == null) {
drawSplash(g2D);
} else {
drawBoard(g2D);
}
g2D.dispose();
}
}
or something like...
public void gameEngine(BufferStrategy strategy) {
// Main loop
while (!done) {
// Prepare for rendering the next frame
// ...
// Render single frame
do {
// The following loop ensures that the contents of the drawing buffer
// are consistent in case the underlying surface was recreated
do {
// Get a new graphics context every time through the loop
// to make sure the strategy is validated
Graphics2D g2D = (Graphics2D) strategy.getDrawGraphics();
// Render to graphics
g2D.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER)); //sprites overlap instead of overwrite
if (game == null) {
drawSplash(g2D);
} else {
drawBoard(g2D);
}
// Dispose the graphics
g2D.dispose();
// Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer contents
// were restored
} while (strategy.contentsRestored());
// Display the buffer
strategy.show();
// Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer was lost
} while (strategy.contentsLost());
}
}
Which was pretty much ripped from the JavaDocs for BufferStrategy
BTW, this...
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize(){
Dimension tempDimension = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
return tempDimension;
}
is a really bad design, you are making assumptions about the state of the component which may not meet reality. You should allow the window to decide how large it ultimately wants to be, which can be achieved by using setExtendedState and passing it JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH, which will take into consideration other OS elements, like the task bar or dock

Is this the correct way of using Java 2D Graphics API?

I'm creating a graphical front-end for a JBox2D simulation. The simulation runs incrementally, and in between the updates, the contents of the simulation are supposed to be drawn. Similar to a game except without input.
I only need geometric primitives to draw a JBox2D simulation. This API seemed like the simplest choice, but its design is a bit confusing.
Currently I have one class called Window extending JFrame, that contains as a member another class called Renderer. The Window class only initializes itself and provides an updateDisplay() method (that is called by the main loop), that calls updateDisplay(objects) method on the Renderer. I made these two methods myself and their only purpose is to call repaint() on the Renderer.
Is the JPanel supposed to be used that way? Or am I supposed to use some more sophisticated method for animation (such that involves events and/or time intervals in some back-end thread)?

If you are wanting to schedule the updates at a set interval, javax.swing.Timer provides a Swing-integrated service for it. Timer runs its task on the EDT periodically, without having an explicit loop. (An explicit loop would block the EDT from processing events, which would freeze the UI. I explained this more in-depth here.)
Ultimately doing any kind of painting in Swing you'll still be doing two things:
Overriding paintComponent to do your drawing.
Calling repaint as-needed to request that your drawing be made visible. (Swing normally only repaints when it's needed, for example when some other program's window passes over top of a Swing component.)
If you're doing those two things you're probably doing it right. Swing doesn't really have a high-level API for animation. It's designed primarily with drawing GUI components in mind. It can certainly do some good stuff, but you will have to write a component mostly from scratch, like you're doing.
Painting in AWT and Swing covers some of the 'behind the scenes' stuff if you do not have it bookmarked.
You might look in to JavaFX. I don't know that much about it personally, but it's supposed to be more geared towards animation.
As somewhat of an optimization, one thing that can be done is to paint on a separate image and then paint the image on to the panel in paintComponent. This is especially useful if the painting is long: repaints can be scheduled by the system so this keeps when it happens more under control.
If you aren't drawing to an image, then you'd need to build a model with objects, and paint all of them every time inside paintComponent.
Here's an example of drawing to an image:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
/**
* Holding left-click draws, and
* right-clicking cycles the color.
*/
class PaintAnyTime {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new PaintAnyTime();
}
});
}
Color[] colors = {Color.red, Color.blue, Color.black};
int currentColor = 0;
BufferedImage img = new BufferedImage(256, 256, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Graphics2D imgG2 = img.createGraphics();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Paint Any Time");
JPanel panel = new JPanel() {
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
// Creating a copy of the Graphics
// so any reconfiguration we do on
// it doesn't interfere with what
// Swing is doing.
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g.create();
// Drawing the image.
int w = img.getWidth();
int h = img.getHeight();
g2.drawImage(img, 0, 0, w, h, null);
// Drawing a swatch.
Color color = colors[currentColor];
g2.setColor(color);
g2.fillRect(0, 0, 16, 16);
g2.setColor(Color.black);
g2.drawRect(-1, -1, 17, 17);
// At the end, we dispose the
// Graphics copy we've created
g2.dispose();
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(img.getWidth(), img.getHeight());
}
};
MouseAdapter drawer = new MouseAdapter() {
boolean rButtonDown;
Point prev;
#Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
if (SwingUtilities.isLeftMouseButton(e)) {
prev = e.getPoint();
}
if (SwingUtilities.isRightMouseButton(e) && !rButtonDown) {
// (This just behaves a little better
// than using the mouseClicked event.)
rButtonDown = true;
currentColor = (currentColor + 1) % colors.length;
panel.repaint();
}
}
#Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
if (prev != null) {
Point next = e.getPoint();
Color color = colors[currentColor];
// We can safely paint to the
// image any time we want to.
imgG2.setColor(color);
imgG2.drawLine(prev.x, prev.y, next.x, next.y);
// We just need to repaint the
// panel to make sure the
// changes are visible
// immediately.
panel.repaint();
prev = next;
}
}
#Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
if (SwingUtilities.isLeftMouseButton(e)) {
prev = null;
}
if (SwingUtilities.isRightMouseButton(e)) {
rButtonDown = false;
}
}
};
PaintAnyTime() {
// RenderingHints let you specify
// options such as antialiasing.
imgG2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
imgG2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(3));
//
panel.setBackground(Color.white);
panel.addMouseListener(drawer);
panel.addMouseMotionListener(drawer);
Cursor cursor =
Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(Cursor.CROSSHAIR_CURSOR);
panel.setCursor(cursor);
frame.setContentPane(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setResizable(false);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
If the routine is long-running and repaints could happen concurrently, double buffering can also be used. Drawing is done to an image which is separate from the one being shown. Then, when the drawing routine is done, the image references are swapped so the update is seamless.
You should typically use double buffering for a game, for example. Double buffering prevents the image from being shown in a partial state. This could happen if, for example, you were using a background thread for the game loop (instead of a Timer) and a repaint happened the game was doing the painting. Without double buffering, this kind of situation would result in flickering or tearing.
Swing components are double buffered by default, so if all of your drawing is happening on the EDT you don't need to write double buffering logic yourself. Swing already does it.
Here is a somewhat more complicated example which shows a long-running task and a buffer swap:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
/**
* Left-click to spawn a new background
* painting task.
*/
class DoubleBuffer {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new DoubleBuffer();
}
});
}
final int width = 640;
final int height = 480;
BufferedImage createCompatibleImage() {
GraphicsConfiguration gc =
GraphicsEnvironment
.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment()
.getDefaultScreenDevice()
.getDefaultConfiguration();
// createCompatibleImage creates an image that is
// optimized for the display device.
// See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/awt/GraphicsConfiguration.html#createCompatibleImage-int-int-int-
return gc.createCompatibleImage(width, height, Transparency.TRANSLUCENT);
}
// The front image is the one which is
// displayed in the panel.
BufferedImage front = createCompatibleImage();
// The back image is the one that gets
// painted to.
BufferedImage back = createCompatibleImage();
boolean isPainting = false;
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Double Buffer");
final JPanel panel = new JPanel() {
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
// Scaling the image to fit the panel.
Dimension actualSize = getSize();
int w = actualSize.width;
int h = actualSize.height;
g.drawImage(front, 0, 0, w, h, null);
}
};
final MouseAdapter onClick = new MouseAdapter() {
#Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
if (!isPainting) {
isPainting = true;
new PaintTask(e.getPoint()).execute();
}
}
};
DoubleBuffer() {
panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(width, height));
panel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
panel.addMouseListener(onClick);
frame.setContentPane(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
void swap() {
BufferedImage temp = front;
front = back;
back = temp;
}
class PaintTask extends SwingWorker<Void, Void> {
final Point pt;
PaintTask(Point pt) {
this.pt = pt;
}
#Override
public Void doInBackground() {
Random rand = new Random();
synchronized(DoubleBuffer.this) {
Graphics2D g2 = back.createGraphics();
g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_STROKE_CONTROL,
RenderingHints.VALUE_STROKE_PURE);
g2.setBackground(new Color(0, true));
g2.clearRect(0, 0, width, height);
// (This computes pow(2, rand.nextInt(3) + 7).)
int depth = 1 << ( rand.nextInt(3) + 7 );
float hue = rand.nextInt(depth);
int radius = 1;
int c;
// This loop just draws concentric circles,
// starting from the inside and extending
// outwards until it hits the outside of
// the image.
do {
int rgb = Color.HSBtoRGB(hue / depth, 1, 1);
g2.setColor(new Color(rgb));
int x = pt.x - radius;
int y = pt.y - radius;
int d = radius * 2;
g2.drawOval(x, y, d, d);
++radius;
++hue;
c = (int) (radius * Math.cos(Math.PI / 4));
} while (
(0 <= pt.x - c) || (pt.x + c < width)
|| (0 <= pt.y - c) || (pt.y + c < height)
);
g2.dispose();
back.flush();
return (Void) null;
}
}
#Override
public void done() {
// done() is completed on the EDT,
// so for this small program, this
// is the only place where synchronization
// is necessary.
// paintComponent will see the swap
// happen the next time it is called.
synchronized(DoubleBuffer.this) {
swap();
}
isPainting = false;
panel.repaint();
}
}
}
The painting routine is just intended draw garbage which takes a long time:

For a tightly coupled simulation, javax.swing.Timer is a good choice. Let the timer's listener invoke your implementation of paintComponent(), as shown here and in the example cited here.
For a loosely coupled simulation, let the model evolve in the background thread of a SwingWorker, as shown here. Invoke publish() when apropos to you simulation.
The choice is dictated in part by the nature of the simulation and the duty cycle of the model.

Why not just use stuff from the testbed? It already does everything. Just take the JPanel, controller, and debug draw. It uses Java 2D drawing.
See here for the JPanel that does the buffered rendering:
https://github.com/dmurph/jbox2d/blob/master/jbox2d-testbed/src/main/java/org/jbox2d/testbed/framework/j2d/TestPanelJ2D.java
and here for the debug draw:
https://github.com/dmurph/jbox2d/blob/master/jbox2d-testbed/src/main/java/org/jbox2d/testbed/framework/j2d/DebugDrawJ2D.java
See the TestbedMain.java file to see how the normal testbed is launched, and rip out what you don't need :)
Edits:
Disclaimer: I maintain jbox2d
Here is the package for the testbed framework: https://github.com/dmurph/jbox2d/tree/master/jbox2d-testbed/src/main/java/org/jbox2d/testbed/framework
TestbedMain.java is in the j2d folder, here:
https://github.com/dmurph/jbox2d/tree/master/jbox2d-testbed/src/main/java/org/jbox2d/testbed/framework/j2d

Overriding JButton paintComponent with transparency not showing back panel color

Here is what I am trying to do. I have extended JButton and overwritten the paintComponent method creating my desired effect of a rounded edge button, and a color fading effect when the button is rolled over by a mouse. All that works great. My problem is that the JButton is still painting a white rectangle area as the images show.
I would like 1) the white corners to be gone and 2) the cetner of the button to show the panel behind it. Here is what I have tried:
1- when painting the button use getParent().getBackground() and paint the button first. This works great for opaque panels. However I would love this button to work on a partially or fully transparent panel. With transparent panels it paints the color, but on the white background hiding anything behind the panel (like an image).
2- I have tried many combinations of setOpaque(false) or setContentAreaFilled(false). I have tried this while calling super.paintComponent(g) and not calling it. None of those seem to work.
3- The button looks right when I don't use the method g2.clearRect(0,0,width,height) (clearing the graphics area before painting), but since the graphics object is never covered up the fade effect stops working after one rollover of the button.
4- I use a JLabel for the text and have tried setting it opaque or just not using it and the issue still remains. so I don't think that is the issue.
Since I only want an affect for the JButton and not other swing components I'm really hoping to avoid making my own ButtonUI.
Thanks and I hope this makes sense. Below is the code for my button.
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.Timer;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
/**
* WButton.java
*
* An extension of JButton but with custom graphics
*
*/
public class WButton extends JButton{
private Timer timer;
private float[] background = {.3f,.6f,.8f,0f};
private boolean fadeUp = true;
private boolean fadeDown = false;
private JLabel label;
/**
* Default Constructor
*/
public WButton(){
super();
label = new JLabel();
setupButton();
}
/**
* Text constructor
*/
public WButton(String text){
super(text);
label = new JLabel(text);
setupButton();
}
/**
* common setup functions
*/
private void setupButton(){
timer = new Timer(24,new TimerAction(this));
label.setLabelFor(this);
add(label);
}
/**
* Set the background color
*/
#Override
public void setBackground(Color bg){
background = bg.getRGBComponents(background);
background[3] = 0f;
super.setBackground(new Color(background[0],background[1],
background[2],background[3]));
repaint();
}
/**
* get background
*/
#Override
public Color getBackground(){
if(background!=null)
return new Color(background[0],background[1],background[2],background[3]);
return new Color(.5f,.5f,.5f);
}
/**
* Set the font of the button
*/
#Override
public void setFont(Font font){
super.setFont(font);
if(label!=null)
label.setFont(font);
}
/**
* Override the set text method
*/
#Override
public void setText(String t){
super.setText(t);
if(label!=null)
label.setText(t);
}
/**
* Paint the button
*/
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
super.paintComponent(g);
int width = getWidth();
int height = getHeight();
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
g2.clearRect(0,0,width,height);
g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
//Check Button Model state
if(model.isPressed())
paintPressedButton(g2,width,height);
else{
if(model.isRollover()){
if(fadeUp){
fadeUp = false;
timer.start();
}
}
else{
if(fadeDown){
fadeDown = false;
timer.start();
}
}
g2.setPaint(new Color(background[0],background[1],background[2],background[3]));
g2.fillRoundRect(0,0,width-1,height-1,height,height);
}
}
/**
* Draw a pressed button
*/
private void paintPressedButton(Graphics2D g2,int width,int height){
float[] temp = new float[4];
for(int i=0;i<background.length;i++)
temp[i] = background[i]-.4f < 0f ? 0f : background[i]-.4f;
g2.setPaint(new Color(temp[0],temp[1],temp[2],temp[3]));
g2.fillRoundRect(0,0,width-1,height-1,height,height);
}
/**
* paint the border
*/
public void paintBorder(Graphics g){
int width = getWidth();
int height = getHeight();
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.drawRoundRect(0,0,width-1,height-1,height,height);
}
/**
* Inner action listener class
*/
private class TimerAction implements ActionListener{
private float alphaInc = .2f;
WButton button;
public TimerAction(WButton b){
button = b;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
if(model.isRollover()){
background[3] += alphaInc;
if(background[3] > 1.0f){
timer.stop();
background[3] = 1.0f;
fadeDown = true;
}
}
else{
background[3] -= alphaInc;
if(background[3] < 0f){
timer.stop();
background[3] = 0f;
fadeUp = true;
}
}
button.repaint();
}
}
}
EDIT 1
What aly suggested got me closer, but not quite there. Instead of g2.clearRect() I painted the object with a transparent color as suggested. The white box is gone, but a different color is there. Upon investigation is is the color of the parent panel but with no transparency. Here are pictures for an example (the panel has 70% transparency). The first pictures is when the program starts. The second picture is after 1 mouse rollover.

What you could do is instead of using clearRect(), clear the background with a completely transparent color.
g2.setColor(new Color(0,0,0,0));
g2.drawRect(0,0,width,height);
You still need to setOpaque(false) on the JButton so that it doesn't use the blue rollover color as the background once you hover over it once.
Edit: After seeing what you just posted, I think the problem is that the main frame isn't repainted.
Try:
SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(this).repaint();
in the paint method to repaint the frame, that might fix the problem.

The problem here is, swing uses paintImmediately(x, y, width, height) on JButton to repaint the changed area. If you look inside that method, it iterates through the parent hierarchy (if parent is not opaque) until it finds an opaque component. Then call repaint on it. As you may notice, this approach don't take the alpha component in background color into account because those components are opaque (isOpaque = true).
To address this issue, you can override the paintImmediately() method in JButton as follows:
#Override
public void paintImmediately(int x, int y, int w, int h) {
super.paintImmediately(x, y, w, h);
Component component = this;
boolean repaint = false;
while (!component.isOpaque() || (component.getBackground() != null && component.getBackground().getAlpha() < 255)) {
if (component.getBackground() != null && component.getBackground().getAlpha() < 255) {
repaint = true;
}
if (component.getParent() == null) {
break;
}
component = component.getParent();
if (!(component instanceof JComponent)) {
break;
}
}
// There is no need to repaint if no component with an alpha component in
// background is found and no parent component is found (implied by component != this)
// since super.paintImmediately() should have handled the general case.
if (repaint && component != this) {
component.repaint();
}
}
This method will check for the parent of the topmost component which is either not opaque or has a transparent background and repaints it. Performance point of view, this is much better than the currently accepted answer (which is redrawing the entire window, everytime when a button is hovered/pressed).