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Most efficient way to render a dynamic image

I want to show an image (in a JPanel) that must update quickly (about 30 fps). I also want to keep my CPU usage as low as possible.
Each image update will consist of either:
Moving a block of pixels to a new location
Replacing a block of pixels with a new block
The first solution that came to mind was something like this:
private BufferedImage screen;
public void runBlockUpdate(int x, int y, int pieceWidth, int pieceHeight byte[] piece){
ImageIcon imgPiece = new ImageIcon(piece);
Graphics2D g = screen.createGraphics();
g.drawImage(imgPiece.getImage(), x, y, pieceWidth, pieceHeight, null);
repaint();
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
g.drawImage(screen, 0, 0, (int) (screenRect.width * screenScale), (int) (screenRect.height * screenScale), this);
}
My main performance concern regards the paint() method. I want to know if there are any more efficient ways of doing this before I fully implement this technique.

You can try to use a swing timer an call the refresh method(JFrame.repaint()) every 30millisec

Good practice for drawing and zooming image?

I have a JScrollPane with a JPanel where I can draw by mouse and code.
I need the possibility to zoom on details in my drawing.
But soon I get a outOfMemoryError. I think because I make my drawing to big while zooming.
This is my code:
private BufferedImage _bufferedImage;
private int _panelWidth = 2000, _panelHeight = 1500;
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
super.paintComponent(g);
if(_bufferedImage != null){
g.drawImage(_bufferedImage, 0, 0, this);
}
}
public void draw(float zoomFactor){
try {
int width = (int)(_panelWidth * zoomFactor);
int height = (int)(_panelHeight * zoomFactor);
_bufferedImage = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Graphics2D g2 = _bufferedImage.createGraphics();
g2.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
g2.setPaint(Color.BLACK);
g2.scale(zoomFactor, zoomFactor);
drawHouse(g2); ...
g2.dispose();
}
catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
repaint();
}
There must be better practice then what I did.
I can just draw the area of the scrollpane, but then I can't use the scrollbars,
then I have to use buttons with arrow up, right, left, down to scroll in my drawing.
Anyone who can me give a hint?

but then I can't use the scrollbars
Scrollbars work when the preferred size of the component is greater than the size of the scrollpane. If you are zooming the image in the paintComponent() method then you would also need to override the getPreferredSize() method to return the appropriate size of the image that takes into account the zooming factor.
So in your case the preferred size would be the size of your image.

If you want to zoom in, I am assuming you are no trying to make "bigger pixels", but to draw the same figures at a higher scale. In that case, you should not be using a BufferedImage at all -- instead, you should draw to a suitably scaled JPanel or similar. You can always take a snapshot of whatever you are rendering whenever you need it; but rendering to a BufferedImage without need is wasteful (of time and memory).
See this answer for details.

How to fade in graphics.fill call

I'm doing the following to a Canvas object.
graphics.setColor(BLUE);
graphics.fill(new Rectangle2D.Double(x, y, width, height));
I'd like to fade in the fill colour to create a smooth transition from the canvas background colour to the new colour (and possibly fade out whatever colour was originally there).
I've played with this kind of thing (setting the graphics object's composite to an AlphaComposite which a Timer updating the alpha value every n milliseconds) but I get flickering.
I'm wondering what general concept I'm missing.
Thanks for any pointers.

First of all, how could you be using the AWT? It is quite outdated. I reccomend you switch to swing, mainly because swing has double buffering, which would remove your flicker.

Your application does exactly what you tell it to do. If you want to make a fade-in effect, you have to determine what kind of color changes you want to make, create a function which does it, and implement the fade itself.
I'd approach it like that:
class FadeEffect{
int totalDurationMs;
int elapsedDurationMs;
Color initialColor;
Color finalColor;
Color getColor(int durationDelta) {
elapsedDurationMs += durationDelta;
if (elapsedDurationMs > totalDurationMs) {
return finalColor;
}
double progress = 1.0d*elapsedDurationMs/totalDurationMs;
return new Color( (int)(finalColor.getRed()-initialColor.getRed())*progress,
(int)(finalColor.getGreen()-initialColor.getGreen())*progress,
(int)(finalColor.getBlue()-initialColor.getBlue())*progress);
}
//getters, setters, etc
}
As for the flickering issue: make sure you are using double buffering - either in your component, or by manually drawing on a off-screen buffer (image) and only posting the image to the screen when the drawing is complete.
Here is a sample code from my Graphic2D app doing the double buffering:
private VolatileImage vImg;
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
if (gc==null) gc = this.getGraphicsConfiguration();
do {
boolean sizeChanged = false;
sizeChanged = (vImg!=null&&(vImg.getWidth()!=getWidth()|| vImg.getHeight()!=getHeight()));
if (vImg == null || vImg.validate(gc) == VolatileImage.IMAGE_INCOMPATIBLE
|| sizeChanged) {
vImg = gc.createCompatibleVolatileImage(getWidth(), getHeight());
vImg.setAccelerationPriority(1);
}
final Graphics gimg = vImg.getGraphics();
if (gimg instanceof Graphics2D) {
renderContents((Graphics2D) gimg);
gimg.dispose();
g.drawImage(vImg, 0, 0, null);
} else {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Rendering impossible, graphics are not of Graphics2D class");
}
} while (vImg.contentsLost());
updateAnimationNo();
}

Seeing pixels of a SVG file when scaling in Java

I am handling a SVG file in Java using Batik library. The problem occurs when i scale it. I can see pixels of lines. Off course this should not happen, i should be able to zoom at least about 4000% and maintain the smoothness.
SVG file is read from an extended class, and it is painted from an override paint method. First i set new scale to AffineTransform variable, apply this to graphics of the method and paint using super.paint().
I am really stuck and can't figure out the problem. SVG files I am using are ok, I opened them in Inkscape and could zoom without the pixels showing. Please help.
code:
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
try {
rad = (int)(radInit*zoom);
updateTransform();
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.setTransform(transform);
super.paint(g);
paintElements(g2d);
} catch(NullPointerException nulle) {
// System.out.println("SVG not loaded yet");
}
}
private void updateTransform(){
transform = new AffineTransform();
transform.translate((-1)*zoom*centarX, (-1)*zoom*centarY);
transform.scale(zoom, zoom);
}

What was needed was
this.setRenderingTransform(transform, true);
This way no pixels can be seen or rather, everything is painted as it should be.

How can I repaint efficiently when using big custom component in Swing?

I have made a custom component (derived from JComponent) which represents
a draggable Bezier-curve.
(looks like a hanging cable, someone might know it
from Bender or Cubase)
My problem is: The curve may become really long,
let's say from top left to bottom right corners of the desktop.
This makes Swing's repaint functionality inefficient:
The area of the curve is perhaps few hundred pixels, but the area of
the component (being mostly 'transparent') is millions of pixels big.
My subjection impression is:
The longer the curve, the more flicker I get when dragging it.
I hope I made myself clear about the problem.
Perhaps it would help when I somehow could choose by myself, which regions
of the component needs repainting at all.
EDIT:
Such a mess! I'm profiling the application using Netbeans, which helps to
find inefficient code normally, but this Swing framework is making hundreds
of nested calls! I just can't figure out, what is slow and why.
By the way, disabling super.paint(...) or super.paintComponent(...) doesn't help.

Check out Filthy Rich Clients by Chet Haase and Romain Guy. They address these very optimizations among others along the way to producing responsive and graphically impressive UI.

Doing all of your bezier mathematics on the paint thread everytime the component is refreshed is (as you've gathered) a bad idea. Does your curve change often? If not then why not paint it to a BufferedImage as and when it changes, and change your paint() code to simply draw the buffered image to the component instead.
class CurveComponent extends JComponent {
private BufferedImage image;
#Override
public void paintComponent( Graphics g ) {
if ( image == null ) {
return;
}
g.drawImage( image, 0, 0, this );
}
private void updateCurve() {
image = new BufferedImage( getWidth(), getHeight(), BufferedImage.ARGB );
Graphics g = image.getGraphics();
// draw the curve onto image using g.
g.dispose();
}
}
Only call updateCurve() when you need to and all that expensive mathematics won't be needlessly repeated. Painting should be pretty responsive, even for a fullscreen window. drawImage() will be doing a straightforward memory copy and should be lightning fast.

Try writing a tiny test app, which consists of nothing except what you need to reproduce this problem. This will make profiling easier. Then post that app here, so we can take a look at possible solutions.
I found your question interesting so I wrote a test app myself. This draws a Bezier curve which is continually resized as you drag. I created a gradient background to ensure this works well with a nasty background. I get good performance and low flicker, although I use top-notch machine.
It pays to read "Filthy Rich Clients" to learn all the tricks of writing custom Swing components that perform really well.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.geom.CubicCurve2D;
import java.awt.geom.Point2D;
public class CustomComponent extends JComponent {
private Point2D start = new Point2D.Double(0, 0);
private Point2D end = new Point2D.Double(300, 200);
private CustomComponent() {
this.setOpaque(true);
final MouseAdapter mouseAdapter = new MouseAdapter() {
#Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
setEnd(e.getPoint());
}
};
this.addMouseListener(mouseAdapter);
this.addMouseMotionListener(mouseAdapter);
}
public void setStart(Point2D start) {
this.start = start;
repaint();
}
public void setEnd(Point2D end) {
this.end = end;
repaint();
}
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
final Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
// draw gradient background
final int width = getWidth();
final int height = getHeight();
g2.setPaint(new GradientPaint(0, 0, Color.WHITE, width, height, Color.YELLOW));
g2.fillRect(0, 0, width, height);
// draw Bezier curve
final Shape shape = new CubicCurve2D.Double(start.getX(), start.getY(), start.getX(), end.getY(), end.getX(), start.getY(), end.getX(), end.getY());
g2.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g2.draw(shape);
g2.drawString("Click and drag to test for flickering", 100, 20);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
final CustomComponent component = new CustomComponent();
final Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
final Dimension size = new Dimension(screenSize.width - 20, screenSize.height - 100);
component.setPreferredSize(size);
final JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(component);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
Some things to note:
only overwrite paintComponent(Graphics g), not the other paintXXX() methods
set custom component to opaque if possible
only use repaint() to request repainting. Never directly order a repaint directly in your code. This lets Swing handle it well.

There is no efficient way to create lots of small clip rectangles for a diagonal structure which leaves you with two strategies to avoid flickering:
Double buffering. This needs an enormous amount of memory but the memory copy is very fast (it usually happens in the time the "electron beam" goes back from lower right to upper left ... if there was still a beam in your LCD).
Don't call super.paint() (which draws or "erases" the background) and draw the curve a second time with the background color to erase it.
For more details, see this document.
[EDIT] If fillRect() wasn't abstract, you could set a break point :) Set a break point in paint(), check who calls it and whether the background got cleared at that time. It should be since rendering would be completely wrong. Then set break points further up in the call chain.

You can redraw a smaller portion of the screen using repaint(Rectangle r)
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/javax/swing/JComponent.html#repaint(java.awt.Rectangle)
Then you mention flicker. Since you are using swing, which uses double buffering your flickering must be coming from something else. Are you clearing the screen in paintComponent(...)? I.e. call to fillRect(...)? Don't do that, it's not needed (IIRC).

Which method do yo use to paint your curve? paint or paintComponent?

My solution was a partial re-design:
Now I don't represent each "cable"-element by a component.
Now, cables are just dummy objects (with no involved JComponent).
The repaint takes place "globally", on the content pane of the parent JFrame.
Now it's efficient, and flickers less.

just use getVisibleRect(); inside paintComponent(Graphics g) to get the area you actually need to redraw