Question

I have a custom, abstract class ‘Panel’ which extends JPanel. There aren’t many differences with the two when painting. I have a Panel and I’m simulating an animation by updating the x value of an image. I have two animations right now, one that properly repaints and another than does not. This is for the one that does not. The one that works will be labelled A, the one that doesn’t will be B.

A and B follow the same format. Update some variable on the Panel, calls update (a method in Panel which calls PaintComponent) and then calls repaint. It calls repaint after because this issue was with A before and was solved that way.

A: Updates an image variable.
B: Updates the x variable of an image.

The Problem: The repaint doesn’t clear the old image location and so it’s a choppy mess across the screen.

What I’ve tried:

• I’ve seen the super.PaintComponent(g) mentioned a lot, but this
  hasn’t solved the problem.
• I’ve tried changing the order for when the repaint/update methods are
  called.
• Repaint does not update the Panel at all. (Probably because the
  painting is done in PaintComponent)

Any help would be appreciated.

Code:

Panel:

public Panel (boolean visible){
    super();
    this.setLayout(new BorderLayout(640, 416));//sets the Layout type of the panel
    this.setOpaque(false);//Makes it so that the panel underneath can be seen where images aren't drawn
    this.setVisible(visible);
    ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
    gs = ge.getDefaultScreenDevice();
    gc = gs.getDefaultConfiguration();
}

public void paintComponent (Graphics g){
    setUp();
    drawOff();
    setDown(g);
}

private void setUp(){
    off_screen = gc.createCompatibleImage(getSize().width, getSize().height, Transparency.TRANSLUCENT);
    buffer = off_screen.createGraphics();
}

protected abstract void drawOff();

private void setDown(Graphics g){
    g.drawImage(off_screen,0,0,this);
    off_screen.flush(); 
}

public void update(){
    paintComponent(this.getGraphics());
}

Animation Methods (mg is the panel in question):

private void battleStart(User user) {
    for (int i = 0; i < user.battle.length; i++) {
        mg.battleStart(user.battleStart(i));
        mg.update();
        try {
            Thread.sleep(150);
        } catch (Exception e) {

        }
        mg.repaint();
    }
}

private void animateStart(User user){
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
        mg.x = mg.x + 10;
        mg.update();
        try {
            Thread.sleep(100);
        } catch (Exception e) {

        }
        mg.repaint();
    }
}

Answer 1

I think your design is way off and that is why things are not working. I’m not quite sure how your non-abstract JPanels work, but consider making your parent JPanel something more along these lines:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import javax.swing.*;

public class MyPanel extends JPanel {
   private GraphicsEnvironment ge;
   private GraphicsDevice gs;
   private GraphicsConfiguration gc;
   private BufferedImage offScreen;

   public MyPanel(boolean visible) {
      super();
      this.setLayout(new BorderLayout(640, 416)); // strange constants for this layout.
      this.setOpaque(false);
      this.setVisible(visible);
      ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
      gs = ge.getDefaultScreenDevice();
      gc = gs.getDefaultConfiguration();

      addComponentListener(new ComponentAdapter() {
         @Override
         public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
            setUp();
         }
      });
   }

   @Override
   // don't make this public. Keep it protected like the super's
   // just draw in this method. Don't call other methods that create buffers
   // or draw to buffers.
   protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
      super.paintComponent(g);
      if (offScreen != null) {
         g.drawImage(offScreen, 0, 0, null);
      }
   }

   private void setUp() {
      offScreen = gc.createCompatibleImage(getSize().width, getSize().height,
            Transparency.TRANSLUCENT);
   }

   // draw to the buffer outside of the paintComponent
   // and then call repaint() when done
   public void upDateOffScreen() {
      // ?? offScreen.flush(); // I've never used this before, 
                  // so am not sure if you need this here
      Graphics2D osGraphics = offScreen.createGraphics();
      // TODO: do drawing with osGraphics object here
      osGraphics.dispose();
      repaint();
   }
}

Also and again,

• Do all long processing methods off of the EDT (Event Dispatch Thread).
• Never call Thread.sleep(…) on the EDT.
• Consider using Swing Timers instead of using Thread.sleep for the animations.
• It’s OK to call repaint on your JPanel off of the EDT, but for the most part that’s about it.
• All other Swing methods should be called on the EDT.
• Read, re-read, and study the 2D and Swing graphics tutorials.