AWT custom rendering - capture smooth resizes and eliminate resize flicker

Question

I've been looking at this for several months and so far this is the best I have come up with.

The structure (render outside of EDT) is not up for debate, as our application operates this way and will not be rewritten. The application has a layout model and a scripting model which are integrated and drive rendering, so the render must be performed outside of the AWT paint model.

What I am trying to arrive at is the optimal and reliable way to perform custom rendering.

The following SSCCE works fairly well for us. However, during frame resizes, it has 2 drawbacks:

• There is occasional flicker, especially on rapid resizes
• The "smooth resize" hack which is to invoke resize (via checkSize here) from a paint() call only works well for expansions. When reducing the frame it usually does not render until the mouse button is released
• Also, but not so evident here, it does throw occasional IllegalStateExceptions - is it OK to simply catch/ignore these?

Also useful is input on whether this is the optimal approach for a custom render path that takes place outside of the EDT. I have tried most, and done fairly extensive research. This combination (backbuffer image, double buffer strategy) seems to work the best.

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseMotionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferStrategy;

public class SmoothResize extends Frame implements ComponentListener, MouseMotionListener {

    public SmoothResize() {
        addComponentListener(this);
        addMouseMotionListener(this);
    }

    private boolean sizeChanged = false;
    private Dimension old = new Dimension(0, 0);
    private synchronized void checkSize(String source) {
        int width = getWidth();
        int height = getHeight();
        if (old.width == width && old.height == height)
            return;
        sizeChanged = true;
        String type =
            (old.width > width && old.height > height) ? "shrink" :
                (old.width < width && old.height < height) ? "expand" : "resize";
        System.out.println(source + " reports " + type + ": "+getWidth()+", "+getHeight());
        old.setSize(width, height);
    }

    public void componentResized(ComponentEvent arg0) { checkSize("componentResized"); }
    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) { checkSize("mouseMoved"); }
    public void paint(Graphics g) { checkSize("paint"); }
    public void update(Graphics g) { paint(g); }

    public void addNotify() {
        super.addNotify();
        createBufferStrategy(2);
    }

    private synchronized void render() {
        BufferStrategy strategy = getBufferStrategy();
        if (strategy==null || !sizeChanged) return;
        sizeChanged = false;
        // Render single frame
        do {
            // The following loop ensures that the contents of the drawing buffer
            // are consistent in case the underlying surface was recreated
            do {
                System.out.println("render");
                Graphics draw = strategy.getDrawGraphics();
                Insets i = getInsets();
                int w = getWidth()-i.left-i.right;
                int h = getHeight()-i.top-i.bottom;
                draw.setColor(Color.YELLOW);
                draw.fillRect(i.left, i.top+(h/2), w/2, h/2);
                draw.fillRect(i.left+(w/2), i.top, w/2, h/2);
                draw.setColor(Color.BLACK);
                draw.fillRect(i.left, i.top, w/2, h/2);
                draw.fillRect(i.left+(w/2), i.top+(h/2), w/2, h/2);
                draw.dispose();

                // Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer contents 
                // were restored
            } while (strategy.contentsRestored());

            // Display the buffer
            strategy.show();

            // Repeat the rendering if the drawing buffer was lost
        } while (strategy.contentsLost());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().setDynamicLayout(true);
        System.setProperty("sun.awt.noerasebackground", "true");
        SmoothResize srtest = new SmoothResize();
        //srtest.setIgnoreRepaint(true);
        srtest.setSize(100, 100);
        srtest.setVisible(true);
        while (true) {
            srtest.render();
        }
    }

    public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent arg0) { }
    public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent arg0) { }
    public void componentShown(ComponentEvent arg0) { }

    public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) { }
}

Answer 1

Here is code that renders with an outside Thread doing all the work. It does this by being able to render anything that implements the Renderable interface. I have tested this with both Swing and AWT (JFrame and Frame) and it works with no flickering. Note, it does flicker if you implement onto a JRootPane and set that pane as the JFrame's root pane. This has to do with how the component is buffered, and could be fixed if that is how you want to use this.

If this is still not what you were looking for, just say and I'll give it another go. This is actually fun, as it has been awhile since I've done any Java GUI work.

Anyways, here you go:

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class SmoothResize extends Frame implements Renderable {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().setDynamicLayout(true);
        System.setProperty("sun.awt.noerasebackground", "true");
        SmoothResize srtest = new SmoothResize();
        RenderThread renderThread = new RenderThread(srtest);
        renderThread.start();
        srtest.setSize(100, 100);
        srtest.setVisible(true);
    }

    public SmoothResize() {
    }

    public void addNotify() {
        super.addNotify();
        createBufferStrategy(2);
    }

    @Override
    public Dimension getSize() {
        return new Dimension(getWidth(), getHeight());
    }

    @Override
    public Graphics acquireGraphics() {
        return this.getGraphics();
    }
}

class RenderThread extends Thread {

    Renderable target;
    Dimension last_size = new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE);

    public RenderThread(Renderable d) {
        if (d == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException("Drawable target cannot be null.");
        }
        target = d;

    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        while (true) {
            render(false);
        }
    }

    private synchronized void render(boolean force) {
        Dimension size;
        do {
            size = target.getSize();
            if (size == null) {
                return;
            }

            Graphics draw = target.acquireGraphics();
            if (draw == null) {
                return;
            }
            draw.setPaintMode();
            int w = (int) (((double) (size.width)) / 2 + 0.5);
            int h = (int) (((double) (size.height)) / 2 + 0.5);
            draw.setColor(Color.YELLOW);
            draw.fillRect(0, h, w, h);
            draw.fillRect(w, 0, w, h);
            draw.setColor(Color.BLACK);
            draw.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
            draw.fillRect(w, h, w, h);
            draw.dispose();
            // Repeat the rendering if the target changed size
        } while (!size.equals(target.getSize()));
    }
}

interface Renderable {

    public Graphics acquireGraphics();

    public Dimension getSize();
}