Question

Question 1: How should I structure my project so the sound and images files can be loaded most easily? Right now, I have the folder:

C:\java\pacman 

with the sub-directory

C:\java\pacman\src 

containing all the code, and

C:\java\pacman\assets 

containing the images and .wav files. Is this the best structure or should I put the assets somewhere else?

Question 2:

What’s the best way to refer to the images/sounds without using the full path e.g C:\java\pacman\assets\something.png to them? If I use the getCodeBase() function it seems to refer to the C:\java\pacman\bin instead of C:\java\pacman\.

I want to use such a function/class which would work automatically when i compile the applet in a jar as well as right now when I test the applet through eclipse.

Question 3: How should I load the images/sounds? This is what I’m using now:

1) For general images:

import java.awt.Image;  public Image getImg(String file) {           //imgDir in this case is a hardcoded string containing           //'C:\\java\\pacman\\assets\\'     file=imgDir + file;     return new ImageIcon(file).getImage(); } 

The images returned from this function are used in the drawImage method of the Graphics class in the paint method of the applet.

2) For a buffered image, which is used to get subImages and load sprites from a sprite sheet:

public BufferedImage getSheet() throws IOException {     return ImageIO.read(new File(img.getPath('pacman-sprites.png')));  } 

Later:

public void loadSprites() {     BufferedImage sheet;     try     {         sheet=getSheet();          redGhost.setNormalImg(sheet.getSubimage(0, 60, 20, 20));         redGhost.setUpImg(sheet.getSubimage(0, 60, 20, 20));         redGhost.setDownImg(sheet.getSubimage(30, 60, 20, 20));         redGhost.setLeftImg(sheet.getSubimage(30, 60, 20, 20));         redGhost.setRightImg(sheet.getSubimage(60, 60, 20, 20));         }     catch (IOException e)     {         System.out.println('Couldnt open file!');         System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());     }    } 

3) For sound files:

import sun.audio.*; import java.io.*; public synchronized void play() {     try {             InputStream in = new FileInputStream(filename);             AudioStream as = new AudioStream(in);             AudioPlayer.player.start(as);       } catch (IOException e) {             e.printStackTrace();     }  } 

Answer 1

Place them on your classpath (place them with your .class files) and load them using the ClassLoader.

Java:

package mypackage;  public class MyClass {     public static void main(String[] args) {         java.net.URL url = MyClass.class.getResource('/mypackage/image.gif');         System.out.println(url);     } } 

Console output:

C:\resource>dir /b /s C:\resource\bin C:\resource\src C:\resource\bin\mypackage C:\resource\bin\mypackage\image.gif C:\resource\bin\mypackage\MyClass.class C:\resource\src\mypackage C:\resource\src\mypackage\MyClass.java  C:\resource>java -cp bin mypackage.MyClass file:/C:/resource/bin/mypackage/image.gif