Question

Does anybody know how to refresh button Image Icons?

The problem is:

I’m making a checkers game, and creating a GUI. Everything works including the AI, except that I called my AI after I placed a move, resulting the buttons does not appear to have checker on it.

1. Clicked Button
2. Click on a specific button where there is a checker
3. Click on the the next spot where the checker has to go
4. Immediately call the AI to make a move.

My buttons have ImageIcons of checkers pictures, when I click to the next spot where the checker needs to go, the JButton on the JPanel does not refresh at that instant, but waiting until the AI to make the move and finish it’s move, resulting that I don’t see where my checker went.

When 3-4 Calls one after another, I only see the resulting move the AI did, but not mine, because everything refreshes after it exits the implements actionListener.

I tried calling:
repaint();
revalidate();
invalidate();
On the JPanel that contains the buttons.

before step 4 so that the user can see what he/she has placed before the AI making the move.

else
{
     //This is where the code starts
     if ("White".equals(Red_Or_White.getText()))
     {
          //Meaning that it is white's turn, then
          playerPlaysAMove(x, y, goingToGo_x, goingToGo_y);
     }
     if ("AI".equals(AI_Enabled.getText()))
     {
          //AI is enabled
          AIMoves(board, "Red");
          //the AI needs to play the position as if the AI was a red player, 
          //because the player must be white
     }
}

Both the AI plays on the same round, but AI calculations takes about 1 minute, and at that time, the player’s move is not visible until the AI plays, because it updates all of the buttons after going out of actionListener (after else statement).

Board is a array of 8×8 Buttons that is placed on a JPanel

static void playerPlaysAMove(int save_x, int save_y, int moveTo_x, int moveTo_y)
{
    if(save_x - moveTo_x == 1 || save_x - moveTo_x == -1)
    {
        board[moveTo_x][moveTo_y].setIcon(board[save_x][save_y].getIcon());
        board[save_x][save_y].setIcon(null);
    }
    else if (save_x - moveTo_x == 2 && save_y - moveTo_y == 2)
    {
        board[save_x-1][save_y-1].setIcon(null);
        board[moveTo_x][moveTo_y].setIcon(board[save_x][save_y].getIcon());
        board[save_x][save_y].setIcon(null);
    }
    else if (save_x - moveTo_x == 2 && save_y - moveTo_y == -2)
    {
        board[save_x-1][save_y+1].setIcon(null);
        board[moveTo_x][moveTo_y].setIcon(board[save_x][save_y].getIcon());
        board[save_x][save_y].setIcon(null);            
    }
    else if (save_x - moveTo_x == -2 && save_y - moveTo_y == 2)
    {
        board[save_x+1][save_y-1].setIcon(null);
        board[moveTo_x][moveTo_y].setIcon(board[save_x][save_y].getIcon());
        board[save_x][save_y].setIcon(null);            
    }
    else if (save_x - moveTo_x == -2 && save_y - moveTo_y == -2)
    {
        board[save_x+1][save_y+1].setIcon(null);
        board[moveTo_x][moveTo_y].setIcon(board[save_x][save_y].getIcon());
        board[save_x][save_y].setIcon(null);            
    }        
}

Basically is I calculated the X Y coordinate of the user’s select button, and the user’s destination button. There are some checking whether he is playing the correct move or not, but this is the major movement part.

If the X Y coordinate difference is 1, that means the player is moving, not jumping, if the X Y coordinate difference is 2, that means the player is jumping. I also need to set the original X Y coordinate’s button to null, that means the icon disappears, and then place the new imageIcon at the destination X Y coordinate.

If the player is jumping, then I also need to calculate the place where the user eats the piece, and set that imageIcon to be null also.

The AI does the exact same thing, except the AI calculates the X Y coordinate by using recursive functions to calculate the best move.

The Main problem is that the player players, and then AI computes, and plays, then after the process, it will show the result of both together. Is it possible to let it redraw the image icon before the AI computes and plays? So that the player can see what he played, and then what the AI played

Answer 1

Try with board[save_x][save_y].repaint();