Java Hardware Acceleration not working with Intel Integrated Graphics

Question

Hi everyone I hope someone can help me solve this problem. I'm having trouble getting hardware acceleration to work on a laptop with Intel Integrated Graphics.

The Problem:

Hardware Acceleration using Java 7 update 11 doesn't appear to be working with Intel Integrated Graphics on a Windows 7 and 8 machine using a BufferStrategy with a JFrame.

---

Details

Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
JRE: Java 7 Update 11
OS: Windows 7, Windows 8

---

Expected Results

---

Actual Results

---

Resources

If you want to verify the problem you can download the app I created for testing at: http://ndcubed.com/downloads/GraphicsTest.zip

If you don't feel comfortable downloading a compiled JAR file you can compile the app yourself using the following source code:

package graphicstest;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferStrategy;

public class GraphicsTest extends JFrame {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new GraphicsTest();
            }
        });
    }

    GraphicsConfiguration gc = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice().getDefaultConfiguration();
    BufferCapabilities bufferCapabilities;
    BufferStrategy bufferStrategy;

    int y = 0;
    int delta = 1;

    public GraphicsTest() {

        setTitle("Hardware Acceleration Test");
        setSize(500, 300);
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        setVisible(true);

        createBufferStrategy(2);
        bufferStrategy = getBufferStrategy();

        bufferCapabilities = gc.getBufferCapabilities();

        new AnimationThread().start();
    }

    class AnimationThread extends Thread {
        @Override
        public void run() {

            while(true) {
                Graphics2D g2 = null;
                try {
                    g2 = (Graphics2D) bufferStrategy.getDrawGraphics();
                    draw(g2);
                } finally {
                    if(g2 != null) g2.dispose();
                }
                bufferStrategy.show();

                try {
                    Thread.sleep(16);
                } catch(Exception err) {
                    err.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public void draw(Graphics2D g2) {
        if(!bufferCapabilities.isPageFlipping() || bufferCapabilities.isFullScreenRequired()) {
            g2.setColor(Color.black);
            g2.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
            g2.setColor(Color.red);
            g2.drawString("Hardware Acceleration is not supported...", 100, 100);
            g2.setColor(Color.white);
            g2.drawString("Page Flipping: " + (bufferCapabilities.isPageFlipping() ? "Available" : "Not Supported"), 100, 130);
            g2.drawString("Full Screen Required: " + (bufferCapabilities.isFullScreenRequired() ? "Required" : "Not Required"), 100, 160);
            g2.drawString("Multiple Buffer Capable: " + (bufferCapabilities.isMultiBufferAvailable() ? "Yes" : "No"), 100, 190);
        } else {
            g2.setColor(Color.black);
            g2.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
            g2.setColor(Color.white);
            g2.drawString("Hardware Acceleration is Working...", 100, 100);
            g2.drawString("Page Flipping: " + (bufferCapabilities.isPageFlipping() ? "Available" : "Not Supported"), 100, 130);
            g2.drawString("Full Screen Required: " + (bufferCapabilities.isFullScreenRequired() ? "Required" : "Not Required"), 100, 160);
            g2.drawString("Multiple Buffer Capable: " + (bufferCapabilities.isMultiBufferAvailable() ? "Yes" : "No"), 100, 190);
        }

        y += delta;
        if((y + 50) > getHeight() || y < 0) {
            delta *= -1;
        }

        g2.setColor(Color.blue);
        g2.fillRect(getWidth()-50, y, 50, 50);
    }
}

Conclusions

Without hardware acceleration a lot of apps that I've created that require it run slowly on the machine with Integrated Graphics. Its really baffling to me why its not working specifically with this type of graphics card. Anyway thank you for reading all this hopefully we can get to the bottom of this :)!

Answer 1

I just figured it out for anyone who is having this same issue. It was the type of JRE installed. I had the 32bit JRE environment installed on a 64bit machine and for some reason it wasn't utilizing the integrated Intel graphics chip. However after installing the appropriate 64bit JRE, page flipping and hardware acceleration work with the Intel integrated chip.

You can download other versions of the JRE at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre7-downloads-1880261.html

Really strange can't believe I stumbled upon the answer. Hope this helps someone in the future :)