Develop Reference

JProgressBar update and thread scheduling

Hello stack exchangers,
I have a problem with progress bars in java Swing. I think my confusions arise from my poor understanding of threads and the Swing event queue (I don't know much about java Threads, and exactly what is happening on the AWTEventQueue, although I generally understand what multithreading is about).
The context is that a JButton is pressed to start a long calculation. Before the calculation starts, I make a progress bar in a JFrame, which I thought would be painted, but it isn't. The frame appears, but it is just grey. The button, in this example has "clickMe" written on it.
In the "clickMe" action listener, I first make and display a JFrame in a subtask which is "run" (I'm not clear on when this is scheduled TBH). Then, I call doTask() which is running in the same thread as the action listener (which I think is the AWTEventThread??). The doTask() runs, printing out numbers to the Console. Intermixed with the doTask() output are iteration counts of the progressbar (from when the action listener started makeProgressBar()).
So, from the output, it looks like both the progress bar is running and the AWTEventThread, but the value set in the JProgressBar GUI is never updated.
How can I change my code so that the GUI gets updated? I've tried understanding the JProgressBar tutorial and hunted around the web, but I think my problem is more a conceptual understanding of Java Tasks.
This is my code:
package problemclass;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JProgressBar;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class ProblemClass
{
void progressBarButtonClick()
{
JFrame buttonInAFrame = new JFrame();
JPanel buttonInAFramePanel = new JPanel();
JButton clickMe = new JButton("Click me!");
buttonInAFramePanel.add(clickMe);
clickMe.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
JFrame progBarFrame = makeProgressBar();
doTask();
progBarFrame.dispose();
}
});
buttonInAFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
buttonInAFrame.add(buttonInAFramePanel);
buttonInAFrame.pack();
buttonInAFrame.setVisible(true);
}
private void doTask()
{
for(int i = 0; i < 20000; i++)
{
if (i % 100 == 0)
{
System.out.println("TASK iteration " + i);
try
{
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
}
private JFrame makeProgressBar()
{
JFrame progBarFrame = new JFrame();
JPanel progBarPanel = new JPanel();
JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar();
progBarPanel.add(progressBar);
progressBar.setValue(0);
progressBar.setStringPainted(true);
progressBar.setIndeterminate(true);
new Thread(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
for (int i = 0; i <= 100; i++)
{
final int j = i;
System.out.println("Progress Iteration " + j);
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
progressBar.setValue(j);
}
});
try
{
java.lang.Thread.sleep(100);
}
catch(Exception e) { }
}
}
}).start();
progBarFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
progBarFrame.add(progBarPanel);
progBarFrame.pack();
progBarFrame.setVisible(true);
return progBarFrame;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
EventQueue.invokeLater(() ->
{
new ProblemClass().progressBarButtonClick();
});
}
}

JFrame progBarFrame = makeProgressBar();
doTask();
Not sure exactly what you are trying to do.
The above code has two loops:
In the makePrgressBar() method you start a Thread and invoke SwingUtilities.invokeLater(…), to update the progress bar, which is correct.
but then in doTack() you start another loop. This time you don't start a Thread so the code is invoked on the EDT and since you use Thread.sleep, the EDT will sleep and the GUI will not repaint itself until the entire loop is finished.
I would suggest you get rid of the doTask() method since I don't know why you need two blocks of code that loop. Or if you really need it, then you also need to use a Thread and invokeLater(…).

Just like you, I recently did some work on progress bars and threading and went nuts until I realized that it is just so simple.In a nutshell this is the code I have when my button is clicked:
// Create 2 threads. One handles your GUI. Other does the task
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// code goes here.
//In here I choose to hide the button, display the progress bar
}
});
t1.start();
Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// code goes here.
//In here I get the task done, then hide the progress bar
}
});
t2.start();
Works like a charm every time. Hope it helps!

How to make ImageIcon on JLabel update faster with less latency

I am trying to update an ImageIcon on a JLabel which sits on a JLayeredPane, but there is a lot of latency between when the setting thread sends the proper state to the JLabel object and when the GUI displays the ImageIcon of the proper state. The following code is an example of the issue, look for the difference in time between the print of the button being on/off and when the displayed icon gets lighter/darker.
The setting thread:
new Thread(new Runnable() { // setting thread
#Override
public void run() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
try {
while(true) {
System.out.println("testButton on"); // print that the button is on
testButton.updateState(1); // set button state to on
Thread.sleep(70 + random.nextInt(500)); //sleep between 70 and 570 milliseconds
System.out.println("testButton off");// print that the button is off
testButton.updateState(0); // set button state to off
Thread.sleep(70 + random.nextInt(500)); // sleep between 70 and 570 milliseconds
}
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}).start();
The button object:
class Button extends JLabel {
ImageIcon released;
ImageIcon pressed;
String text;
public Button(int x, int y, String text) {
released = new ImageIcon("src/components/images/button.png");
pressed = new ImageIcon("src/components/images/buttonDown.png");
setBounds(x,y, 100, 100);
this.text = text;
setIcon(released);
}
public void updateState(int data) {
if (data == 1) {
setIcon(pressed);
}
else {
setIcon(released);
}
}
}
The ImageIcons are only 325 bytes, so what might be causing the latency? I looked up about the Event Dispatcher Thread and many people say it should be instantaneous for an image to get painted.
End goal: Have many button objects on screen with the setting thread calling them to update based on randomly occurring actions. The displayed icon for a specific button object should change immediately as it is set in the function. The setting thread will not be constantly looping, instead loop once for every action sent (it is twice here just to show the issue).
Any suggestions or things to try I will test as soon as I can.
Edit: In the end the thread that gets the information will call to a device driver in Linux where it will wait for a response and only when it gets a response will it need to update the window. From what I know timer is used to update something at regular intervals, but I am likely wrong.

As explained in the comments running long processes on the The Event Dispatch Thread blocks it, so it does not respond to changes.
Also you are not suppose to update Swing components from other (not EDT) threads.
You need to use Swing tools like SwingWorker or Timer.
The following mcve demonstrates a simple slide-show using Timer:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingConstants;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class ChangeButtonIcon extends JPanel{
private final URL[] urls = {
new URL("https://findicons.com/files/icons/345/summer/128/cake.png"),
new URL("http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/atyourservice/service-categories/128/Sweets-icon.png"),
new URL("https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_FkBgG3_ux0kCbfG8mcRHvdk1dYbZYsm2SFMS01YvA6B_zfH_kg"),
};
private int iconNumber = 0;
private final JButton button;
private boolean stop = true;
private final Random random;
private static final int MIN_DELAY = 70, DELAY = 500;
private Timer timer;
public ChangeButtonIcon() throws IOException {
random = new Random();
button = new JButton();
button.setIcon(new ImageIcon(urls[iconNumber]));
button.setHorizontalTextPosition(SwingConstants.CENTER);
button.addActionListener(e -> startStopSlideShow());
add(button);
}
private void startStopSlideShow(){
stop = ! stop;
if(stop){
timer.stop();
return;
}
timer = new Timer( MIN_DELAY+ random.nextInt(DELAY), (e)->swapIcon());
timer.start();
}
private void swapIcon() {
iconNumber = iconNumber >= urls.length -1 ? 0 : iconNumber+1;
button.setIcon(new ImageIcon(urls[iconNumber]));
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{
JFrame window = new JFrame();
window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
window.add(new ChangeButtonIcon());
window.add(new JLabel("Click image to start / stop"), BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
window.pack();
window.setVisible(true);
}
}

Java Swing game has poor performance when many sprites are on screen

I'm making a simple tower defense game in Swing and I've run into a performance problem when I try to put many sprites (more than 20) on screen.
The whole game takes place on a JPanel which has setIgnoreRepaint(true).
Here is the paintComponent method (con is the Controller):
public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
super.paintComponent(g);
//Draw grid
g.drawImage(background, 0, 0, null);
if (con != null){
//Draw towers
for (Tower t : con.getTowerList()){
t.paintTower(g);
}
//Draw targets
if (con.getTargets().size() != 0){
for (Target t : con.getTargets()){
t.paintTarget(g);
}
//Draw shots
for (Shot s : con.getShots()){
s.paintShot(g);
}
}
}
}
The Target class simple paints a BufferedImage at its current location. The getImage method doesn't create a new BufferedImage, it simply returns the Controller class's instance of it:
public void paintTarget(Graphics g){
g.drawImage(con.getImage("target"), getPosition().x - 20, getPosition().y - 20, null);
}
Each target runs a Swing Timer to calculate its position. This is the ActionListener it calls:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (!waypointReached()){
x += dx;
y += dy;
con.repaintArea((int)x - 25, (int)y - 25, 50, 50);
}
else{
moving = false;
mover.stop();
}
}
private boolean waypointReached(){
return Math.abs(x - currentWaypoint.x) <= speed && Math.abs(y - currentWaypoint.y) <= speed;
}
Other than that, repaint() is only called when placing a new tower.
How can I improve the performance?

Each target runs a Swing Timer to calculate its position. This is the ActionListener it calls:
This may be your problem - having each target/bullet (I assume?) responsible for keeping track of when to update itself and draw itself sounds like quite a bit of work. The more common approach is to have a loop along the lines of
while (gameIsRunning) {
int timeElapsed = timeSinceLastUpdate();
for (GameEntity e : entities) {
e.update(timeElapsed);
}
render(); // or simply repaint in your case, I guess
Thread.sleep(???); // You don't want to do this on the main Swing (EDT) thread though
}
Essentially, an object further up the chain has the responsibility to keep track of all entities in your game, tell them to update themselves, and render them.

I think what might be at fault here is your whole logic of the games setup (no offense intended), As stated in another answer you have different timers taking care of each entities movement, this is not good. I'd suggest taking a look at some gaming loop examples, and adjusting yours to this, you'll notice a great readability and performance improvement a few nice links:
http://www.java-gaming.org/index.php/topic,24220.0
http://www.cokeandcode.com/info/tut2d.html
http://entropyinteractive.com/2011/02/game-engine-design-the-game-loop/

I was initially wary of the too-many-timer theory. Instances of javax.swing.Timer use "a single, shared thread (created by the first Timer object that executes)." Dozens or even scores are perfectly fine, but hundreds typically start to become sluggish. Depending on period and duty cycle, the EventQueue eventually saturates. I agree with the others that you need to critically examine your design, but you may want to experiment with setCoalesce(). For reference, here's an sscce that you may like to profile.
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.Timer;
/**
* #see http://stackoverflow.com/a/11436660/230513
*/
public class TimerTest extends JPanel {
private static final int N = 25;
public TimerTest() {
super(new GridLayout(N, N));
for (int i = 0; i < N * N; i++) {
this.add(new TimedLabel());
}
}
private static class TimedLabel extends JLabel {
private static final Random r = new Random();
public TimedLabel() {
super("000", JLabel.CENTER);
// period 100 to 1000 ms; frequency 1 to 10 Hz.
Timer timer = new Timer(r.nextInt(900) + 100, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
TimedLabel.this.setText(next());
}
});
timer.setCoalesce(true);
timer.start();
}
private String next() {
return String.valueOf(r.nextInt(900) + 100);
}
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(640, 480);
}
private void display() {
JFrame f = new JFrame("TimerTet");
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.add(new JScrollPane(this));
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new TimerTest().display();
}
});
}
}

for painting in the Swing is better (in all cases >= Java5) use Swing Timer exclusivelly
this painting proccess required only one Swing Timer
example about bunch of Stars and one Swing Timer

Try to use one timer for all the targets.
If you have 20 targets then you will also have 20 timers running simultaneously (think about 1000 targets?). There is some expense and the most important thing is each of them is doing the similar job -- to calculate the position -- You don't need to split them. I guess it is a simple task, which will not take you a blink, even running 20 times.
If I got the point, What you want to do is trying to change the positions of all the targets at the same time. You can achieve this by changing all of them in one single method running in one thread.

How to create a delay in Swing

I made a blackjack game, and I want the AI player to pause between taking cards. I tried simply using Thread.sleep(x), but that makes it freeze until the AI player is done taking all of his cards. I know that Swing is not thread safe, so I looked at Timers, but I could not understand how I could use one for this. Here is my current code:
while (JB.total < 21) {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
System.out.println("Oh noes!");
}
switch (getJBTable(JB.total, JB.aces > 0)) {
case 0:
JB.hit();
break;
case 1:
break done;
case 2:
JB.hit();
JB.bet *= 2;
break done;
}
}
BTW, the hit(); method updates the GUI.

so I looked at Timers, but I could not understand how I could use one for this
The Timer is the solution, since as you say you are updating the GUI which should be done on the EDT.
I'm not sure what your concern is. You deal a card and start the Timer. When the Timer fires you decide to take another card or hold. When you hold your stop the Timer.

Well, the following code shows a JFrame with a JTextArea and a JButton. When the buttons is clicked, the Timer send the event repeatedly (with a second delay between them) to the actionListener related to the button which appends a line with the current time.
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.Calendar;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TimerTest extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
private static final long serialVersionUID = 7416567620110237028L;
JTextArea area;
Timer timer;
int count; // Counts the number of sendings done by the timer
boolean running; // Indicates if the timer is started (true) or stopped (false)
public TimerTest() {
super("Test");
setBounds(30,30,500,500);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLayout(null);
area = new JTextArea();
area.setBounds(0, 0, 500, 400);
add(area);
JButton button = new JButton("Click Me!");
button.addActionListener(this);
button.setBounds(200, 400, 100, 40);
add(button);
// Initialization of the timer. 1 second delay and this class as ActionListener
timer = new Timer(1000, this);
timer.setRepeats(true); // Send events until someone stops it
count = 0; // in the beginning, 0 events sended by timer
running = false;
System.out.println(timer.isRepeats());
setVisible(true); // Shows the frame
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (! running) {
timer.start();
running = true;
}
// Writing the current time and increasing the cont times
area.append(Calendar.getInstance().getTime().toString()+"\n");
count++;
if (count == 10) {
timer.stop();
count = 0;
running = false;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Executing the frame with its Timer
new TimerTest();
}
}
Well, this code is a sample of how to use javax.swig.Timer objects. In relation with the particular case of the question. The if statement to stop the timer must change, and, obviously, the actions of the actionPerformed. The following fragment is a skeleton of the solution actionPerformed:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getComponent() == myDealerComponent()) {
// I do this if statement because the actionPerformed can treat more components
if (! running) {
timer.start();
runnig = true;
}
// Hit a card if it must be hitted
switch (getJBTable(JB.total, JB.aces > 0)) {
case 0:
JB.hit();
break;
case 1:
break done;
case 2:
JB.hit();
JB.bet *= 2;
break done;
}
if (JB.total >= 21) { // In this case we don't need count the number of times, only check the JB.total 21 reached
timer.stop()
running = false;
}
}
}
IMHO this resolves the problem, now #user920769 must think where put the actionListener and the starting/stopping conditions...
#kleopatra: Thanks for show me the existence of this timer class, I don't know nothing about it and it's amazing, make possible a lot of tasked things into a swing application :)

Well, a quick explanation about Timers.
First of all, you need a java.util.Timer variable in your class and another class in your project which extends from java.util.TimerTask (let's call it Tasker).
The initialization of the Timer variable is so easy:
Timer timer = new Timer();
Now the Tasker class:
public class Tasker extends TimerTask {
#Override
public void run() {
actionToDo(); // For example take cards
}
// More functions if they are needed
}
Finally, the installation of the timer with its related Tasker:
long delay = 0L;
long period = pauseTime;
timer.schedule(new Tasker(),delay,period);
The schedule function indicates the following:
Fisrt param: Action to do each period milliseconds (Executes the run function of a TimerTask class or its extension)
Second param: When the timer must start. In this case, it starts when the schedule function is called. The following example indicates a starting 1 second after call the schedule function: timer.schedule(new Tasker(),1000,period);
Third param: milliseconds between one call of Tasker.run() function and the following call.
I hope you understand this microtutorial :). If you have any problem, ask for more detailed information!
Kind regards!

I think that in this tutorial is clear how to use Timers in order to achieve what you want, without having to deal with Threads.

Can anyone tell me why my volume control doesn't work?

Can anyone tell me why my volume control doesn't work...?
import java.io.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.sound.sampled.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
/*<Applet code="kkk" height=400 width=400></Applet>*/
public class kkk extends JComponent
{
static File f1;
int prog;
static JFrame jf;
int al;
JLabel time;
Timer tr;
Button b;
int pos=0;
Clip c;
AudioInputStream a;
JSlider s;
public static void main(String args[])
{
f1=new File("mm.wav");
jf=new JFrame();
jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
kkk kp=new kkk(f1);
jf.getContentPane().add(kp, "Center");
jf.setSize(400,400);
jf.setVisible(true);
}
kkk(File f1)
{
try
{
a=AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(f1);
AudioFormat af=a.getFormat();
DataLine.Info di=new DataLine.Info(Clip.class,af);
c=(Clip)AudioSystem.getLine(di);
c.open(a);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Exception caught ");
}
finally
{
try
{
a.close();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Exception caught ");
}
}
al=(int)(c.getMicrosecondLength()/1000);
s=new JSlider();
Button b=new Button("play");
time=new JLabel();
Box row = Box.createHorizontalBox();
row.add(s);
row.add(b);
row.add(time);
b.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent eee)
{
play();
}});
s.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener(){
public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent ee)
{
//repaint();
prog=s.getValue();
time.setText(prog / 1000 + "." + (prog % 1000) / 100);
//if(prog!=ap)
//skip(prog);
}});
tr = new javax.swing.Timer(100, new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
tick();
}
});
setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
this.add(row);
}
public void play()
{
try
{
FloatControl volume = (FloatControl) c.getControl(FloatControl.Type.MASTER_GAIN);
volume.setValue(-20.63f);
}
catch(Exception e)
{}
c.start();
tr.start();
}
//public void skip(
public void tick()
{
pos = (int) (c.getMicrosecondPosition() / 1000);
s.setValue(pos);
}
}

The volume never changes just because...you're never changing it !
I suppose you want the volume to be modified when the slider state changes, so you just have to set the volume in your stateChanged method. In order to do this, you can use the following instruction: volume.setValue(-20.63f) that you have already used elsewhere in your program. Just replace the parameter by the value you want (e.g. the value of the slider).
Hope this helps.

OK, it seems like you made the "volume" control correctly. Are you saying you put different values in the following line and it always sounded the same volume?
volume.setValue(-20.63f);
I can't imagine what values of 10 or 80 would do, as I think the range is -80 to 6. And most of the bottom end of that is pretty much inaudible. It's supposed to correspond to decibels from -80 to 6 or volts or something more typical to a VU meter. My mixer has a VU meter that ranges from -20 to +5, for example.
In any event, trying test values like 5 or 0 or -10 might have a better chance of sounding like something.
Also, most people expect that one changes the volume during playback, as a dynamic process, and so we are looking for logical places in your code to do this, such as the Timer or the Slider. But I guess you were just trying to get sounds to play at different hard-coded sound levels, and the slider was just for displaying progress. I found the code rather hard to decipher, as well as the description of the problem.