Thanks to peeskillet's excellent references, I've changed the code around a bit by using Swing timers. It's a lot shorter now and forfeits the use of multithreading completely. Also, due to calculating all of the ball positions before actually drawing them (in a single sweeping repaint()
as opposed to many smaller ones), the flickering has stopped.
I'm still a bit curious why it is considered bad form to use getGraphics()
, though. Does it always lead to flickering (which I had imagined could be removed with an additional layer of of double buffering)? And doesn't paintComponent()
become rather bloated in more complex animations if it directs every single act of painting? I'm still fairly new to this, if anybody is wondering.
Here's the new code for those interested:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javax.swing.*;
public class BouncingBalls extends JFrame // main class
{
MyCanvas m_gamefield;
public ArrayList<Ball> balls;
public Timer timer = null;
public BouncingBalls()
{
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
m_gamefield = new MyCanvas();
add("Center",m_gamefield);
balls = new ArrayList<Ball>();
timer = new Timer(30, new ActionListener()
{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
for (Ball b : balls)
{
b.move();
}
repaint();
}
});
m_gamefield.addMouseListener(new MeinMausAdapter());
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
class MeinMausAdapter extends MouseAdapter
{
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e)
{
balls.add(new Ball(m_gamefield,e.getX(),e.getY()));
}
}
class MyCanvas extends JPanel
{
MyCanvas()
{
setBackground(Color.white);
setForeground(Color.black);
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
super.paintComponent(g);
for (Ball b : balls)
{
b.draw(g);
}
}
public Dimension getMinimumSize()
{
return new Dimension(300,300);
}
public Dimension getPreferredSize()
{
return getMinimumSize();
}
}
public void letsgo()
{
balls.add(new Ball(m_gamefield,200,50));
timer.start();
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
BouncingBalls test = new BouncingBalls();
test.setVisible(true);
test.pack();
test.letsgo();
}
}
class Ball
{
JPanel m_display;
int m_xPos,m_yPos;
int m_dx = 2; // Steps into direction x or y
int m_dy = 2;
Ball(JPanel c,int x,int y)
{
m_display = c;
m_xPos = x;
m_yPos = y;
}
void draw(Graphics g)
{
g.fillOval(m_xPos, m_yPos, 20, 20);
}
void move()
{
int xNeu, yNeu;
Dimension m;
m = m_display.getSize();
xNeu = m_xPos + m_dx;
yNeu = m_yPos + m_dy;
// Collision detection with borders, "bouncing off":
if(xNeu < 0)
{
xNeu = 0;
m_dx = -m_dx;
}
if(xNeu + 20 >= m.width)
{
xNeu = m.width - 20;
m_dx = -m_dx;
}
if(yNeu < 0)
{
yNeu = 0;
m_dy = -m_dy;
}
if(yNeu + 20 >= m.height)
{
yNeu = m.height - 20;
m_dy = -m_dy;
}
m_xPos = xNeu;
m_yPos = yNeu;
}
}