Creating endless number of objects in JPanel and draw them through PaintComponent in Java

Question

I have one dilemma , how to realize application. I have JPanel with width 288 and height 512, then I created two objects ( images ) and drew them through paintComponent usin

Answer 1

Conceptually the idea is simple enough, the problem is, Swing is signal thread and NOT thread safe.

See Concurrency in Swing for more details.

This means you can run a long running or blocking operation (like a never ending loop) inside the Event Dispatching Thread, but also, you shouldn't update the UI (or properties the UI depends on) from outside the context of the EDT.

While there are a number of possible solutions to the problem, the simplest is probably to use a Swing Timer, which provides a means to schedule a delay safely (that won't block the EDT) and which will trigger it's updates within the context of the EDT, allowing you to update the UI from within it.

See How to Use Swing Timers for more details.

Now, because you're in a OO language, you should leverage the power it provides, to me, this means encapsulation.

You have a image, you want drawn at a specific location, but whose location change be changed based on some rules, this just screams Plain Old Java Old (POJO)

Normally, I'd start with a interface to describe the basic properties and operations, but for brevity, I've jumped straight for a class...

public class Drawable {

    private int x, y;
    private Color color;

    public Drawable(int x, int y, Color color) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
        this.color = color;
    }

    public int getX() {
        return x;
    }

    public int getY() {
        return y;
    }

    public Color getColor() {
        return color;
    }

    public void update() {
        x--;
        if (x <= 144) {
            reset();
        }
    }

    protected void reset() {
        x = 288;
        y = (int) (Math.random() * (512 - 20));
    }

    public void paint(Graphics2D g2d) {
        Graphics2D copy = (Graphics2D) g2d.create();
        copy.translate(getX(), getY());
        copy.setColor(getColor());
        copy.drawOval(0, 0, 20, 20);
        copy.dispose();
    }
}

But wait, you say, it's using Color instead of image!? Yes, I didn't have any small images at hand, besides, I need to leave you something to do ;)

Now, the animation is a sequence of updating and painting repeatedly until a desired state is reached.

In this case, you don't care about the end state so much, so you can just keep it running.

The "update" cycle is handled by a Swing Timer, which loops over a List of Drawable objects, calls their update methods and then schedules a repaint, which triggers the JPanels paintComponent where by the Drawable objects are painted, simple